Scrapbook

For the past 10 months I have been sorting through some old albums that my Dad left here when he died, looking for material to include in a scrapbook for my brother and sister. One of the dilemmas that I ran into was who gets which pictures? And whose memories are the right ones? Most of these pictures were of friends of Dad's and friends of Mom's long before they were married, so they really meant nothing to the family. I sorted through them all many times looking for pieces of history.

As I was gathering these pictures all together, I decided that was what I would make my Brother and Sister for Christmas. We are sposed to give hand made gifts, because some of us are not well off, and cant afford Expensive gifts. Besides the handmade ones are fun and creative. I made each of them an heirloom scrapbook. I bought a flatbed scanner that also scans slides and negatives, and started scanning away.

At first I was printing out all of the pictures in a 5X7 format, but decided that would be too uniform, so I scanned some as 8X 10 some as 3X5 some as wallet prints and some as 4X6. I started working on this project in February of last year, and spent at LEAST 2-3 hours a day making these books. I am not a "busy" scraper, but a clean tidy one. I like the picture and some journaling, and I like the pictures mounted, but I do not do a lot of embellishing. I do use stickers, but hardly any of the raffia, or brads, or rub-ons., YET!


scrapbook

I decided that I would make these albums as a way of preserving our family history, as Dad and Mom were both gone, and I had no idea who came when. I got on line, and with the help of CarolC and Dave I got some websites and started researching. I ran into brick walls everywhere. They all want MONEY to tell you that you did indeed have a grandfather. I did find one site that had a listing of all the people in the family during a census, and that helped close a gap or two. I have a lot more research to do, yet, but that can all be done as I get the money to do so, and then the pages can be made and inserted.

It was fun going back through the years and reliving my parents lives. I tried to journal what I remember them telling me about certain events. And I left a space for Phyllis and Mike to do the same. One thing that Phyllis and I have discovered, is that even though we both lived through the exact same event, we remember it entirely different.

I cut out postings from my blog and pasted them into and around the pictures also. So during the past year when I would go on a trip down memory lane, that is what I was doing. It was so very hard to keep this a secret from Phyllis, because she reads this site and yours too. I emailed a few of you for help and received it. I thank You.

Mikes was the first one, and it was nice, but Phyllis' is nicer. I was able to spend more time on hers as she lived through more time with Mom and Dad than Mike did. I also am going to make one for myself. Of course It will be even NICER! :)
I was not sure how much to include, and when to end it, SO I included more on each one of them in their own respective books. I also decided to end it as we each left home and formed our own lives. It took me most of the year to get these two books compiled, but now I feel like I have made a difference.

This was a labor of Love. For my parents, for my Siblings and for the lives that we each shared. Our lives were by no means easy, we went without things a lot of times, but we were never hungry, cold, or unloved. Hopefully in the years that follow, My children and Mikes son will be able to add to these Scrapbooks, and pass them down through the generations. Just think, in 5 more generations, or 6 or 7, some one will be looking through the books and see the pictures and compare them to themselves and see where the resemblances are. I look Exactly like my Mom, and Grandmother. I would love to have seen a picture of my Great grandmother on Moms side. I wonder if I looked like her?