Looking to The Past

Hi all, and a happy June to you.

I found this wonderful video through one of the scrap groups I belong to. The video shows in a very Andy Rooney sort of way, an old scrapbook this man's grandmother created. Its old and brittle, but just shows how wonderful it is to get the little nuggets of info about our loved ones.



The thing about Jim's video is its exactly what I am going through. as my grandparents passed away I was able to get their old photos and mementos. Unfortunately they are not organized like Jim's grandmother did, but I have a great starting point.

So What Can Modern Day Scrappers Do?

The biggest question I think he raises is what to do with thee old albums and photo collections. I think as digital, hybrid, and even a traditional paper scrapbooker, can breath new life into these old albums and photos. We have a wonderful set of tools that can help use take what our ancestors have done, and bring them back to life. Think about it. With current technology that is accessible to the average consumer, we can easily scan photos, notes, report card, newspapers, even whole pages can be scanned or photographed and turned in to a computer file.

Once the document is digitized we have a variety of solutions to work with our old documents. you can take the scans and print them at home or at your local store and use them as we do our modern day digital photos.

We can keep them digital and you can color correct, and enhancements to bring them back to their former glory. Then using photo book vendors like photobooksetc.com and make new albums using these cherished memories that you can keep yourself, or make duplicates of for many family members.

So you say paper is no longer your thing? Well take those enhanced digital images, and use sites like scrapblog.com , you can take your old images and make high tech layouts complete with music and effects, that can give these old memories a layer of modern style that the original subjects could never have imagined.

So What Does this Mean?

The bottom line is no matter how old your family memories are you can bring them up to date. Granted this is not a quick easy task and depending on the quality of the photos this might take some effort. Depending on your skills with a graphics program, or the tools your computer comes with, you can revive images and documents from brittle decaying paper to fresh crisp clear images that allow you to experience what your relatives did from day to day.

Thanks for your time

Jeff