Preserving Party Memories
and Scrapbook Ideas

They make you smile, laugh and sometimes cry. They remind you of the good times in life, help tell stories and introduce children to long lost relatives. In fact, they enrich our lives like very few objects do.

Quick Jump Links

Anyone who knows me will tell you that I am a picture freak. I always have a camera at the ready, not only for special occasions, but even for the seemingly boring moments in the lives of my family and friends.

I have been into photography and preserving memories for years. I think the obsession began when my elderly relatives, namely my Aunt Maude and Grandma Honey (shown below with my kids), were approaching the age of 90 years old.

They had a drawer full of pictures that were all curled up and not in very good condition. When I would visit them, we always spent time going through the pictures in the drawer.

They could always tell me exactly who each person was, even though it was clear that the pictures were ancient, BUT there were no names or dates on any of them!

The next time I'd visit, we do it again. I'd ask who was in the picture, they'd recall from memory who the people were.

It was about this time in my life that I started to enjoy visiting antique stores. I would see all of these beautiful, framed pictures on the walls of nameless people and always wondered who these people were. Why were their pictures being sold at an antique store?

It finally occurred to me that these pictures were probably being sold because some relative did not even know who they were. There were probably no names on the pictures and so they were given away like a useless piece of trash.

I vowed that would not happen to my family and began obsessing about getting names and dates on the backs of those pictures in the drawer and eventually got them into scrapbooks. I didn't have much time left with my elderly relatives, I knew.

My Grandma Honey and Aunt Maude have since passed away, but my family knows the names of the people in those pictures and they will not end up on the walls at an antique store.

Taking pictures and preserving the moments of your life is priceless. My hope is that by sharing my experience and recommending the products that I use, you will become a life long advocate yourself and provide your family and friends with precious memories for years to come.

Cameras and Equipment

There are four pieces of camera equipment that I use regularly; my souped-up digital camera (technical term), my compact digital camera, a camera bag and a tripod. Where I'm going and what I'm shooting dictates what equipment I bring along. See my recommendations and product pictures below.

• Souped-Up Camera. I purchased a Nikon D70 digital camera a few years ago. This is the camera that I use for serious shooting, like when I'm taking nature pictures or when we take our annual family photo. It's kind of cumbersome to lug around everywhere (the compact camera is better sometimes), but when you are looking for the highest quality pictures, this is the camera to have with you. The pictures are just beautiful and you don't have to be a photographer by trade to figure out how to use the settings on the camera. There are pre-programmed settings that I always use, like "Automatic" which I use for almost everything, and "Nightime" which I use when a flash is not appropriate. The D70 is no longer available but it's more current version is called the Nikon D80. Check out the reviews on this camera by clicking on the link. They are stellar!
• Compact Camera. There are several situations where you want high quality pictures but you don't want to lug around your Nikon D80. I am fortunate enough to have a second camera that I use for these situations. I have a Nikon Coolpix that fits nicely in my purse so goes with me almost everywhere. It's been to Disneyworld with me, to festivals in Chicago (Blues Fest and Taste of Chicago), multiple parties, my son's basketball games, my daughter's musical shows and on just about every vacation since I've owned it. It's a point and shoot camera. Period. No bells and whistles. Just takes nice, quality pictures. I highly recommend this camera. Get reviews and details at the link below.





• Camera Bags. If you're going to own cameras, you're going to need at least one quality camera bag. I have a few but if I were to choose just one, I'd recommend my medium size bag called the Nova 2 W from Lowepro. I have this exact bag in green. You want to look for a bag that fits the camera and hopefully has enough room for the cords, extra cards, the manual and additional lenses if you have them. The Nova 2 X is big enough for everything and is very well padded for good protection.
• Tripod. The last piece of equipment that I recommend is a good tripod. I use mine mainly with my Nikon D70 when I need to be in the picture, like when we take our family photos. However, there are also times when I don't trust my hand to be completely steady so will use the tripod then as well. When I bought mine, size was really important to me because I wanted it to be easily transportable. I chose one that folds up but is still very sturdy when you set it up. The Sony VCTR640 is very similar to mine in features. This one expands from 21" to 56".

Sharing Your Photos

Now that you have the photos, what are you going to do with them? If you are like most people, you'll view the pictures on your computer or from the envelope that they came in and that will be the end of it. They will be filed away never to be seen again.

That is a shame. I know, because I have boxes and boxes of photos that are rarely seen because it's too difficult to get at them. Conversely, I also have several scrapbooks and unique photo gifts that are just a joy to look at. To me, they are family heirlooms that I can't even put a price on.

There are several different ways to share your photos. Below are a few of my scrapbook ideas and recommendations for digital viewing and personalized photo gift ideas.

8-1/2 x 11 Handmade Scrapbook

Although these take a lot of time to make, they can not be beaten for quality and uniqueness. I have made several of these scrapbooks and the idea came to me after going to an event and afterwards several people asked me for copies of my photos.

It seemed like a hassle to make a bunch of prints and then hand each person an envelope full of random pictures. Plus I wanted to tell the whole story, in pictures and words. Most importantly, I wanted to give them something special to remember the event.

• Mount prints on 8-1/2 x 11 white card stock. In addition to the prints and card stock, I recommend getting a small paper cutter, and a corner rounder.
  
  
  I usually put my photos in chronological order first, crop them to size, round the corners (personal preference) and then mount them with glue sticks. In addition to the photo pages, adding a one page family tree or an itinerary page can really help tell the story. My scrapbooks usually end up being 20-40 pages with 3 to 5 pictures on each page. Most digital scrapbooks can not accommodate as many pictures as a handmade scrapbook.



• Put words to the pictures. After I get all the pictures mounted onto the card stock pages, I bring them to my computer and simply go through each page and type into a blank Word document the captions for each picture.
  
  When I began making these books, I purchased a disk of really cool fonts called The Best of Creative Lettering from Creating Keepsakes Magazine. If you want some great scrapbook ideas, check out this magazine. After I get all the captions that I want into a Word document, I print them, and mount each one by the appropriate picture using glue sticks.



• Embellish the pages. Now that the pictures and captions are mounted, I dress up the pages with memorabilia, such as, golf score cards and ticket stubs, and I add scrapbook stickers. to limit the amount of white space. Do not use metallic stickers as they do not copy well.



• Copy, Laminate and Coil. The cheapest way to make copies of your original pages is to go to a copy place, like Kinkos or Reprographics, and make the color copies yourself (bring your own cardstock). It is more expensive, but they will do it for you if you prefer.
  
  This is the best part of making a handmade scrapbook of this kind. You can make as many copies of the original scrapbook as you like and everybody gets a copy of their own to take home. You can not do that with scrapbooks made in those big, fancy albums.
  
  Another great scrapbook idea is to laminate the front and back covers. It makes them more durable and really adds to the quality of the book.
  
  Lastly, the scrapbooks need to be bound. I like to use the black coil type because they hold up well and in my opinion, look more professional than some of the other binding techniques that I have seen.

To give you an idea of what I'm talking about, below are a couple of the scrapbooks I made. Remember I told you about those curled up pictures in the drawer? Well these books are loaded with them.

	These are the scrapbooks I made in honor of my Grandma Honey and my Mom. The covers were laminated and a black coil was used to bind them.
	A shot of some of the old pictures from the drawer. Now we know who these people are!
	This is the family tree I did for my Mom's book. I know you can't see the detail but you can see that it's very simple and easy to do. My goal was only to show my children where they fit in the family tree, which was accomplished with this one pager that I created in Powerpoint.

See this handmade scrapbook at the bottom of my "Vacation in Kissimmee" webpage.

Digital Viewing

One of the quickest and easiest ways to share your photos is to upload them to an on-line service like Shutterfly (voted #1 online photo service). Shutterfly benefits include:

• Award-winning photo books & gifts
• Free, unlimited picture storage
• Instant online picture sharing
• Pick up prints at Target

Keeping your photos in an on-line gallery allows you to designate who gets to view them and ensures that they will be ready when you want to make slideshows, scrapbooks or custom photo gifts with them.

Join Shutterfly and start uploading your photos now. It's free!

• If you would like your friends and family to be able to view a slideshow of your photos, you simply give them access to your gallery created in Shutterfly. You can email them a link and they can view the photos and buy prints or unique photo gifts if they choose.
  
  
• If you decide to put your digital photos into a scrapbook, Shutterfly offers an easy-to-use interface making the creation of your book a breeze. You can:
  
  
  • Easily create scrapbooks with drag-and-drop picture placement and text control
  • Personalize the hardcovers with your own title and photos, and add details to the spine—title, author, year and more
  • Select from hundreds of easy-to-use backgrounds and scrapbook layouts
  • Preserve your photos on high-quality paper

  Check out Shutterfly and start making your scrapbook today.

• One of the newest ways to share your photos digitally is to create a family website. I found a company called The Family Post.com that specializes in helping you do that. As their website states, "TheFamilyPost.com is a place online where families can share their most precious family moments in a secure, elegant, and personalized way. Powered by the latest Web 2.0 technologies from DigitalPost Interactive, TheFamilyPost.com enables even the most novice Internet users to create their own, professional-looking websites in minutes where they can store and share videos, photos, family stories and more." Check it out.

Custom Photo Gifts

• If you want photo gifts, like mugs or t-shirts, to be made from your uploaded photos, Shutterfly offers a great variety of unique photo gifts to choose from.



• How about putting your photos into a Digital Photo Viewer with Leather Cover like this one from The Sharper Image? It is portable and holds as many as 59 digital snapshots in one slim black leather case.



• Canvas on Demand is a company that takes your photo and puts it on canvas in any size that you choose. The personalized photo gift idea alone is a good one, but after seeing the videos on their website of their appearances on news shows, like "Today," I was sold.
  
  Whether you have one of these made for your own home or you give one away as a unique photo gift, this is definitely a "Wow" product. You can read about Canvas on Demand photo gifts here or view the video below for testimonials.
  
  


• You can also upload your photos into either a Digital Picture Frame or a Digital Picture Key Chain. You can either keep them yourself and show them around or you can give them away as gifts.

Photo Wall Art

If you have great pictures from a party that you want to showcase or you just want an interesting way to display family photos, try making a photo wall collage.

Rather than having a bunch of mismatched frames sitting around, a photo wall collage can bring unity and a very clean look to any room.

We recently became empty nesters so I wanted to showcase the transition my family has undergone over the past 22 years. An idea was born to make this photo collage for the wall with black and white photos and matching frames.

How I made it

• Pick the photos. I chose one of my family when the two kids were very young and one of my family now. Then I found my favorite picture of just the kids when they were little and another one of them now.

• Fix the photos. After selecting the four photos, some had to be scanned into my computer while the more recent ones were taken with my digital camera and were already in my computer. I have Adobe Photoshop which I used to fix the photos. They were all different sizes and colors so the first thing I had to do was make them all uniform.

  I made them all 5 x 7's by using the function "Image-Size" and then the function "Image-Mode-Grayscale" to discard color. I ended up with four, 5 x 7, black and white photos. This is an important step, in my opinion, because you want them all to match.

• Buy the frames. In order to accomplish the uniform look, I also selected four identical frames.

• Hang them. Once the four black and white photos were in the frames, I had to decide how I wanted to hang them. The orientation of the photos (portrait or landscape) will help you decide the configuration (across in a straight line, down in a straight line, in a perfect square...).

  Two of my photos were landscape and 2 were portrait so I decided to put them in a square with an irregular edge to create visual interest. We hung up the photo collage yesterday and my husband helped to ensure that the frames were all perfectly spaced.

I am quite proud of the end result. Not only do we have inexpensive wall art, but we have something to look at that is so very meaningful and will be cherished for years to come.

Whether you choose to share your photos in a handmade scrapbook, slideshow, photo gift, family website or photo wall collage really doesn't matter. What matters is that you take the pictures in the first place and then make them easily accessible so that they don't end up in a drawer or a closet.

Photographs are one of life's little treasures and they should be treated as such. Hopefully some of my scrapbook ideas and other recommendations will get you thinking about what to do to preserve your precious photographs.