Then comes January and it seems like the warmth of December is replaced by a stark, cold, white light as I struggle to get back to a somewhat normal routine.  I’ve discovered that one way to combat this general feeling of ennui is to go through the photos I took over the holidays and begin to organize them for scrapbooking.  I find myself smiling at the picture of my delighted granddaughter as she opens that one gift I found that wasn’t on her letter to Santa but that I just knew she would love.  Or the photo of everyone standing around the piano singing Christmas carols.  And, thanks to a great photo, we’ll always remember the sight of my 18-year-old grandson, who wants to study cooking at the Cordon Bleu school, as he works under the tutelage of his uncle to prepare Christmas Eve dinner to the adulation of their family.

By going through my photos early in the new year, I get to relive some of the best memories and ensure that those memories will be preserved for years to come by documenting them in a scrapbook.  While the feelings of each captured moment  are still fresh in my mind, I journal the photos, describing the funny, poignant things that happened, details that you may not get from just looking at the photo.  Even if I don’t have the time to put them into a scrapbook right then, I write my journaling on a Post-it note on the back of each photo.

So, don’t wait to organize your holiday photos.    In years to come, your written thoughts on the memories of this holiday season will mean much to those who come after you. 

I always feel a certain letdown after the holidays are over.  I admit it – I am a Christmas person.  I love everything about the holidays.  I love the music.  I love the lights.  I love the schmaltzy Christmas movies.  I admit to getting teary-eyed watching some of the television commercials.  I even love the crowds at the mall because there is a feeling of anticipation in the air that you just don’t get any other time of year.  Harried sales clerks still manage a smile and a “Have a good holiday” (although, these days I notice they are a little careful about what they say because of the fear of being politically incorrect).   From Halloween on I am caught up in a flurry of activity: shopping, baking, working on homemade gifts and most important, spending time with family and friends. 

Then comes January and it seems like the warmth of December is replaced by a stark, cold, white light as I struggle to get back to a somewhat normal routine.  I’ve discovered that one way to combat this general feeling of ennui is to go through the photos I took over the holidays and begin to organize them for scrapbooking.  I find myself smiling at the picture of my delighted granddaughter as she opens that one gift I found that wasn’t on her letter to Santa but that I just knew she would love.  Or the photo of everyone standing around the piano singing Christmas carols.  And, thanks to a great photo, we’ll always remember the sight of my 18-year-old grandson, who wants to study cooking at the Cordon Bleu school, as he works under the tutelage of his uncle to prepare Christmas Eve dinner to the adulation of their family.

By going through my photos early in the new year, I get to relive some of the best memories and ensure that those memories will be preserved for years to come by documenting them in a scrapbook.  While the feelings of each captured moment  are still fresh in my mind, I journal the photos, describing the funny, poignant things that happened, details that you may not get from just looking at the photo.  Even if I don’t have the time to put them into a scrapbook right then, I write my journaling on a Post-it note on the back of each photo.

So, don’t wait to organize your holiday photos.    In years to come, your written thoughts on the memories of this holiday season will mean much to those who come after you.

For more scrapbooking ideas or for help in creating a scrapbook of your own holiday memories go to http://treasuredmemoriestogo.com/

Creating a Heritage Album is a wonderful way to combine genealogical research with pictures and memorabilia of family history.   Seeing the old photos and reading the research you’ve done can provide your children and grandchildren with a sense of who they are and where they came from.  It preserves for generations documents that might otherwise be lost or damaged. 

To begin, gather all of your old photos and put them in some time of order.  You can group them by family member or chronologically.  If possible, ask for help from older relatives to label each photo with the subject names, dates and location of each.  Ask them if they have an special recollections of the day or an anecdote about the person in the photo.  Use sticky notes to attach the information to each photo until you’re ready to actually insert them into your album with journaling.

Old photos are often fragile and may be damaged.  They should be handled with care.  I  have found it’s better to scan old photos and use my photo software to repair and correct the photos.  I then upload and send them to my favorite photo finisher to be printed.  Printing photos on your home printer is more convenient, but the professional photo finishers put a film on the photo that keeps it from fading over time. The new, enhanced pictures are the ones I use in my album, safely storing the originals, which sometimes have notes on the back in an ancestor’s own handwriting.  Besides repairing cracks and tears in the photos, my photo software can convert the pictures to sepia so that the photos that go into my album look very much like the original, without the flaws.  Using this process also enables me to crop pictures or cut them into ovals or circles while keeping the original intact.  If you do not have photo software you can enlist the services of a photo restoration company to do it for you.

By combining genealogy research and photos you can create a complete record of your family’s history.  You can even include copies of documents you get through your genealogy research by scanning the document and shrinking it to fit on your page.

Include any memorabilia you have among your old photos.  If the item is too big to fit on your page, consider scanning it and reprinting it in a smaller size to better accommodate the photos that go with it.

Look for background papers and embellishments that have a vintage look.  These will add interest and character to your vintage photos.

You may want to consider doing a digital album of your family history.  The reason for this is it’s easy to print additional copies for each member of the family. 

Whether you create a traditional paper scrapbook or a more modern digital photo book, the result will be a family heirloom that will be treasured for generations to come.

For more information on Heritage Scrapbooks please see my website at : http://treasuredmemoriestogo.com/

It is the beginning of a new year and many people think of this as a good time to organize their life.  One of the things you may want to tackle this year are the shoe boxes full of photographs tucked high on closet shelves or in drawers.  Let this be the year you finally make good on your promise to yourself to get all of those photos organized into albums and labeled so that in years to come your children and grandchildren will look at them and get some insight into who they are and where they came from.  The following is a guide to getting started:

1.      Organize your photos

Craft stores sell plastic containers, either single 12” x 12” or stacked 12” x 12” drawers.  You can use smaller containers, but this size accommodates not only packets of photos but memorabilia, such as menus and programs. 

Separate your  photos and accumulated memorabilia by occasion.  Weddings, graduations, retirement parties, milestone birthday parties, sports activities, all become separate boxes containing everything related to the occasion.  Vacations are another category you may want to separate from the rest of your photos and place in their own box.  Depending on the number, you can keep them all in one vacation box or make a box for each vacation. The rest of your photos, everyday photos that document your life, should be put into labeled photo boxes in chronological order.  While this initial step may be time-consuming, it will make the  job of converting packets of unidentified photos into a keepsake chronicle of your life much easier.  As you’re sorting through the pictures, keep a pad of sticky notes handy to make notes on the pictures as you think of them.  Make sure that whenever possible you date the packets and note the location or event you were photographing.

2.      Select your first project

Now the fun begins.  Decide which box you want to scrapbook first.  You may choose to do the most recent because the memories are fresh in your mind and should be relatively quick and easy to complete.  Or, you may go straight to the oldest group of photos, choosing instead to work from oldest to newest.  Depending on how far behind you are, the job of chronicling events from many years ago may be challenging as you try to identify people in old photos and write about what took place.  You may need to enlist the help of family members for this task, especially for older pictures.  Even if you think you won’t be getting to the scrapbooking phase of your project for some time, asking older relatives to help with identifying people and places will make it much easier when you are ready.

3.      Create your project

Select a few photos that best depict the day.  You don’t need to include every picture but include enough to portray the mood and theme of the day.  If there are a lot of pictures you want, crop some to make it easier to put them into a collage format.  Add journaling that includes who is in each picture and where they were.  Add your thoughts on what the picture shows and why it is important. 

You can print your journaling on a printer, cut or tear it out and add it to the page or you can do your journaling in your own handwriting, which will mean more to those who will read your words in years to come.

Use only archival or acid-free papers and embellishment to ensure that the keepsake you create will be a lasting treasure for your family for years to come.

Every family has its own unique way of celebrating the holidays.  As two people unite and create a new family, they meld traditions from each of their backgrounds that becomes the new family’s own way of celebrating.  But it’s important to remember traditions from generations past.  Who we are and where we came from gives each family it’s own identity and character.  By creating a scrapbook of how your family celebrates, you will ensure that the memories will be passed on through the generations to come. 

This year’s holiday season is fast approaching and before we know it, it will all be a blur of memories.  Keep your camera somewhere where you can grab it to snap that unexpected moment to include in a scrapbook of this holiday season.    Maybe it’s the look on your child’s face when he sees Santa for the first time or the wonder of a grandchild as they look through photo albums of their parent’s childhood Christmases.  Take more pictures than you think you’ll need so that you can select the best to represent the feeling of the moment.  Make sure that your journaling expresses how you felt when the picture was taken.  In years to come, these photos, as well as your words on what the moment meant to you will be a treasured keepsake for your family.  No matter how your family celebrates the holidays, the memories of what the holidays meant to generations past is a wonderful legacy to give to your children and grandchildren.

For more information on scrapbook design, please see my website:  http://treasuredmemoriestogo.com/

Like most people, you probably have boxes full of envelopes of pictures, going back many years.  You may have even inherited some of those boxes from relatives.  And for many of those, you have no clue who those people in the pictures are. 

 If you are really organized, the envelopes may be sorted by date.  Or maybe, if your pictures are mostly digital, you have them stored on a hard drive, hopefully in some kind of order, but probably not.

 Have you ever thought about what will happen to all those pictures in years to come?  Why not turn all those photos into a treasured keepsake that preserves your family memories and can be handed down for generations to come?  It may seem like a daunting project, but, if you break it into smaller pieces, you’ll be surprised at how quickly your scrapbooks come together.

First decide how you want to categorize your scrapbooks.  Some people do them in chronological order, creating books of the oldest family pictures first.  You could start with just one year in the life of your family. 

Others prefer to group their scrapbooks by occasion.  All weddings in one book.  Another book might contain vacation memories.  Still another might record milestone birthdays within the family.  You could have a scrapbook labeled Special Friends to include the activities of that special group of friends you have known and done things with for years.

However you decide to organize your pictures, it’s never too late to start.  Your family will cherish the keepsake that you will be creating and will enjoy reading about the memories associated with each photo.

If you would like help getting started or would like me to custom design a keepsake scrapbook for you, please visit my website at treasuredmemoriestogo.com

Journaling is what makes a plain photo album into a scrapbook.  It tells the story.  When you bring out a packet of photos from your last trip to show friends, you look over their shoulder and give them a description, sharing little anecdotes about the photo, reliving memories associated with each one.  Now imagine that years from now, your descendents are looking through your scrapbook.  If you could be there, what story would you tell them about the photos?  Journaling your scrapbook pages allows you to share your memories with anyone who looks at the book. 

Journaling can be done on the computer, printed on to a journal tag or small piece of paper to attach to your pages.  You can do titles for the page on the computer.  There are many great fonts available for you to choose.  Choose a title font that matches the theme of your page.  But, if you are creating a scrapbook to be handed down in your family, your handwriting, no matter how bad you may think it is, will be a part of what makes it a treasured keepsake.  Think about doing some of the journaling in your own handwriting.

If you would like additional help or would like me to custom design a keepsake album for you, please visit my website at treasuredmemoriestogo.com

Did you ever get back from vacation and a few weeks later all the days have blurred into one?  What day did we visit that monument?  What day did we have lunch in that out of the  way restaurant?  The key to preserving your vacation memories in a scrapbook is to keep a trip diary.  It doesn’t have to be fancy or detailed.  A small spiral notebook will do fine.  Or, if you want to get fancy, go to the book store and buy one of those journals of blank pages.  Then just make a quick note each night on where you went and what you saw.  You will fill in the details later as a part of the journaling in your scrapbook.  For now just make a tickler to remind you what you did and on what day.

If you would like more information or would like me to design a custom keepsake for you, please visit my website at  treasuredmemoriestogo.com

Your photos are too important to risk by using anything but acid-free and lignin-free papers and embellishments.  This includes memorabilia and documents that you are adding to your scrapbook page.  If you are not sure whether or not a document, such as a birth certificate, is photo-safe, you can buy a pH test pen to test it.  There are products on the market, called deacidification spray, that you can use to spray your documents to reduce the acid content.  Or, you can make a copy and put the copy into your scrapbook.  Most standard photocopy paper is acid and lignin free. 

Not all scrapbooking materials are photo-safe.  When shopping for these materials, look for a label that says acid-free or archival quality.  Also, be sure that the pen you use in your journaling has acid-free ink.  

If you would like additional help or would like me to custom design a keepsake album for you, please visit my website at treasuredmemoriestogo.com

Ever wish you could preserve your vacation memories forever?  Here are some tips for creating a keepsake record of your vacation memories.  While traveling, keep everything – ticket stubs, programs, menus (if possible) anything that will remind you of what you saw and experienced while you were on vacation.  These mementos will become embellishments for your pages of pictures.  Not only will they help you with your journaling by reminding you of where you went, but they will decorate your pages in a unique and creative way.  If something is too big for the page, a menu for example, it can be cropped, showing just the restaurant logo.   Purchased post cards, especially those that have a description of a place where you visited,  make ideal backgrounds for journaling on your page.  Just write your impressions of your day and any funny anecdotes directly onto the post card and attach it to your page.

If you would like additional help or would like me to custom design a keepsake album for you, please visit my website at treasuredmemoriestogo.com