Chatique with Laura Lou

This article was attributed to the Smithsonian Institute about preserving personal collections of photos and documents.  I thought it just about covers EVERYthing!  The article appeared in The Atlantic.  Many thanks to "Nactstern" for sharing it with The Grannies.
Taking Care of your Personal Archives

Before I get to the second part of my lessons on Extraction, I have to write an add-on to my posts on Sorting Photos.

This week my new little electronic toy was delivered.  It is an affordable film and slide converter.  (mine is by IT. - Innovative Technology and ordered from Kim Komando's Store). 

I have a large plastic tub of negatives from who-knows-when.  I tried holding them up to the light, against a window, even used a light table but I can NOT figure out a picture from a negative.  I tried scanning on my printer-scanner and reversing the black and white but, most of the time, I still can't get a picture I would print.  I don't really want to scan all those negatives and print them or scrap them.  I do want to know where a negative is for a picture I remember and don't have as a print.  Most of all, I want to find my daughters' first prom photos.  They were among the first I took with an SLR camera, but the prints are all long gone.

Fortunately, many of the negatives are in the original envelopes from the printer.  The envelopes are not "safe" but the information is printed on a lot of them.  Some have the date handwritten by me on the envelope.  On some the developer included the date of developing on the envelope.  On some I had chosen to have the date appear on the photo, itself.  I know better now, but it was good back then.

I jumped in taking negatives out of the developers protective sleeves, and put them into photo-safe negative envelopes from Organizedphotos.Com.  In the product area is an area where you can buy JUST the negative envelopes.  I did that and also ordered a few more of the photo-safe plastic boxes that are a perfect fit to the envelopes.  I already have photos sorted and in those boxes (look at the header for this blog).

The negatives were soon, thanks to the viewer, almost all sorted and labeled with date (where i could figure it out) and subject matter.  I also described any picture that was outstanding and that I might want to scrap later and put an * in front of that description.  Right now the envelopes are in chronological order if the date is known.  I just stacked the rest to check more closely later.

Again, like with photos, negatives from a single developer were most likely all from the same time period.  So I labeled the date on those in pencil until I can be sure.

I am waiting for the new storage boxes.  When they come I will insert some photos of the finished project.

Extraction can sometimes be a dreaded word. For those who are detail oriented it may take forever, but be wonderfully satisfying. Extraction techniques vary with each person and from level to level. I can't begin to show or even KNOW them all but I will share what I have learned over the years.
Seven or eight years ago I used to teach extraction in paper scrapping. The sample for the class was a fantasy layout with a little cut-out child, with wings, on a flower. I had copies of appropriate photos if anyone didn't have one of her own. Fantasy supplies were provided by the store.

First I would try to move the scrappers on from scissors to X-acto knife. Even these have changed over the years from the A shaped blade to a tiny, retractable model. Holding the knife so the blade slanted inward from the edge of the figure was one of two keys. The other was touching up the edges of the photo with black, navy, brown or some other dark color. This reduced the visibility of the awkward edge, especially with photopaper copies.

I remember the wild creativity of my scrappers well. One brought a photo of her cat and ended up with a great layout of the cat, WITH wings, perched in the middle of a pretty flower. It was great! I do wonder about the reaction one sweet grandmother got when she placed a photo of her grandson (about 10 years old) with wings in the center of another flower.

I had offered to sort the boxes of photos for a friend, knowing they had spanned several generations.  The initial sort was in my own office near a scanner. Sure enough, there were some treasures.  I had a large, beautiful kit from the Digital Scrapbooking Artisan Guild called Origins.  I had been using it to do my grandmother's Life Book (Legacy) so I grabbed that to scrap a few of the more interesting of the old photos.  More to come!!!

Actually, it was more like 4 boxes including albums, candy boxes full of photos, and just piles of photos stuffed into the boxes.

They aren't mine but I offered to sort them.  His mother is one of two surviving siblings from 8 and these photos come from her mother, her oldest sister, and bachelor brother, all gone, now.  Since she is the oldest survivor, the boxes wound up in her garage.  She didn't even know they had been put there.
Monumental task!  Well, no, it wasn't.  Years ago when I started teaching a few classes for a paper scrapping store in Michigan, and another in Florida, I developed a method of diving into tasks just like this.  Those who signed up for the class were invited to bring in ALL of their unsorted photos.  Most of the time that involved paper bags and shoeboxes of old photos.  Also on the list were a box  of sandwich baggies, those tiny sticky notes and a photo safe pen.

The baggies are NOT photo safe and we only used them for temporary storage.  Now I use photosafe envelopes from Organized Photos .

Ready?  Here is the first step...find a huge table or other BIG work surface and dump all the photos into a big pile and turn every one face down.  Do not look at them!  Once you start looking you will be lost to reminiscing.

Now, pick up a handful, keep the backs toward you, tap them on each side and start sorting by size.  You will have many piles...square format, rectangular, tiny, huge, and many sizes between.  Each gets its own pile.  Keep at this until ALL of those photos are sorted.

Put each pile in a separate baggie.  Be picky...if there is even a LITTLE difference in size, separate into more piles.  Put the baggies in a box or something and bring out one baggie full at a time.  (This may be on another day and spread through a week or so.)

NO...you aren't to start looking at the fronts yet.  Spread this group out, still face down.  Look at the edges and corners.  Separate out the deckle edge photos and make a new pile.  Sort out the rounded-corner ones and make another pile. 

Now check out the printers' marks on the backs.  I put the numbered ones in order by the printed numbers on the back.  Handwritten numbered ones should go together, again, sorted by numbers.  Those must be REALLY old!  You may have only one from one batch number, but you may also have several that are from the same roll.  Grab some more baggies.  Put the ones with matching numbers in order and put into a baggie.  Same with the deckle-edge photos with numbers, and the cropped-corner ones.  Even roller-marks can indicate a batch that belongs together.

Look for dates, or other hand written notes on the back of a photo or two from a particular batch.  That should date the others.  If the photos match in size, shape, type, and printer, they probably are all from the same camera nearly the same time...thus from a particular family.

NOW turn this batch of photos over.  If even ONE was dated you may be able to date the rest.  Names on the back?  The same.  You may find a few where they are all dressed in the same clothes as the dated photo.  Same day, probably so go ahead and date those, too.  If you can identify some of the people, you may now be able to say the photos ALL belong to that family.  They are probably all from the same camera and photo printer (drug store, probably).

Take a sticky note and write the date, family, other information on the BACK of the sticky note and stick it to the INSIDE of the baggie.  If you are using photo-safe envelopes from Organized Photos you will have place to write dates, names, families, other info on the outside of the envelope.

Organize the finished baggies by date and as soon a possible get the photos into a photo-safe environment.  Again...I use envelopes and boxes specifically for this purpose.  You can also order negative envelopes from OrganizedPhotos.com.   I keep my negatives in a totally different place than my prints.  If yours are altogether, you will probably want to organize the negatives at the same time.

Now, get sorting.  Maybe you will find a treasure like I did!!!

The Grunge look has either just been "discovered" or, more likely, come around again.  In any case, with
more tools in the newer Photoshops it becomes new.

Erica Belton, of The Digital Scrapbook Place offered a tutorial on getting started with Grunge to
accompany a challenge. You can find the tutorial here.  It is only 6 steps to get you started, but you will
soon be playing around with settings and backgrounds, masks and overlays.  Here are some of mine.

Since I wrote the previous 3 articles on heritage, I have been working at organizing my photos and other heritage ephemera. Years ago I taught a class on sorting photos. Loved the ladies who came to the class with big paper bags of old photos. Here was my method.

STEP 1. Dump ALL of the photos in one pile. This may be proceeded days or weeks of gathering photos from nooks and crannies if you don't already have them in one place.

STEP 2. Turn all of the photos FACE DOWN. Oh my, I had a time convincing the ladies to do that. If you don't you will get lost looking at the photos. It always happens. All in good time.

STEP 3. Start sorting the photos by size. Some would gather a stack of random photos and tap them on 2 sides and sort them, making piles of each size and then gather up another handful. Whatever works until you have piles of different sizes and have worked your way through the whole big mess of photos. At this point put each stack in separate baggies (NOT for storage...not safe) and put them aside.

STEP 4. Then take one size at a time and sort into new piles according to things like edges (remember the deckle edge on photos from the 50s?), marks on the back, even if the marks are just roller marks. If the photos are numbered on the back so much the better. The numbers will help put photos from a single roll of film together.

STEP 5. Bag them up again with photos that match on the back in one bag. You may use a LOT of baggies!

STEP 6. NOW take out one batch at a time and look at the fronts. In many cases you will have photos all taken at one time. If you can identify one person or the event or the date from one photo you will be able to figure out some of the other photos, events, people. Label the baggie, then, with a Post-It note stuck to the inside of the baggie and, when possible stack them in a box by date as you sort them.

This is where I was when I discovered ORGANIZED PHOTOS. I had been searching the Internet for "glassine" envelopes for storing my old photos safely. This site not only sells great supplies but has a book with a method for sorting ALL of your photos in just 10 days. Where was that when I was sorting?

So, now all of my photos are sorted and in photo safe boxes, inside archival envelopes with the information written on the outside. Next step will be sorting the negatives. Organized Photos has archival envelopes for them, too.

Since the last few articles have been about heritage I wanted to share this announcement.

How Will YOU Approach Your Family History?
Here are parts #1 and #2
Heritage - Part #1 – How to begin
Heritage - Part #2 – Getting the First Photos Scrapped
It would be best to make a few decisions before you actually begin your next album. I am going to assume you have read and maybe followed the first two articles. If you have, they you have already done an album with the first approach which I call:
“Just The Facts”
“Just the Facts” is not why most of us are scrapping heritage. You want to get the stories out there before they have been forgotten. In my case, I wanted my children and grandchildren to feel what I felt for my grandparents. Now I know that the stories my mother and grandmother told me will die with me if I don’t scrap them, as well. So your next approach might be:
“Story Time”
This is journaling at its best. You might need to spend some time with a word processing system or a notebook and pencil just writing. Don’t worry about spelling, punctuation or grammar…at first. Just write. There are wonderful journals out there that have prompts on each page. Check for:
A Mother’s Legacy – Your Life Story in Your Own Words by Gift Books from Hallmark- ISBN 1404101276
Journal by Artworks International - j5354 ISBN #1-57938-535-4
To My Daughter with Love by Donna Green – Vermillion Press ISBN 1-883746-01-9
Grandmother's Memories, A Keepsake Journal, A Belonging Place for Grandmother's Treasured Memories by New Trends - ISBN-13-978-1-59177-568-3
There are others out there. But these are the ones I have used to keep prompts of my own memories. They are great for writing a page a night before bed, writing on long trips or while waiting for an appointment. I have another book put away that I started with my mother but it was far too late. She just didn’t want to put forth the energy to dredge up the memories. Oh, how I wish I had started sooner when she was more able.
This approach is great with the snapshots in your heritage collection. It is a little harder to connect stories to formal portraits but not at all impossible. My grandmother had a collection of obituaries from the little paper in Nobel County, Indiana, all for relatives of ours. What a source for “gossip” those old obituaries were! I wonder if Grandma kept those hoping one-day I would record the family history.
“Historical”
I stumbled onto this approach through a friend who was a member of the email group, Computer Scrapping at Yahoo Groups. They explore historical times like farming, The Industrial Revolution, the different wars, the dawn of the Auto Industry. They look at a different historical age every few weeks. The members who are designers also design elements around those historical times. The elements go well with vintage and heritage kits.
The approach of connecting your family heritage with historical times can revive your heritage scrapping. For example, as I talked about The Industrial Revolution, I realized how that changed the roofing industry and the company my grandfather owned. Instead of the artisans creating the roofing and cornice elements, they bought expensive machines putting the company into debt that couldn’t survive the Great Depression. I had photos that helped illustrate this. Maybe your family has a farming background, or emigrated from a country facing one of the famines. Looking through historical eyes gives an insight you wouldn’t otherwise have.
“Slice of Life”
I have to admit that this is a new approach to me just since the Simple Scrapbook’s special issue “Slice of Life Scrapbooking” arrived in my mailbox this week.
Look at the things, places, and times of everyday living found in your vintage photos. It may be as important as the old family homestead or as small as a great aunt’s hatpins. Tell the story! How did your Great Aunt use those hatpins? Generations to come may not ever know how important big hats were, let alone that those vicious looking weapons anchored the hats to their hair. Take the photos and tell the stories. There are precious few candid snapshots before the 1930s so you may have to improvise by taking a picture of the home as it is today, using photos of family heirlooms in your possession, or even doing a journaling-only page.
"A Step Beyond"
I recently discovered a heritage scrapbooking site online called Heritage Scrap. In the forums you will find several approaches to albums that may pique your interest. I am currently looking at the Life Books approach doing one ancestor per album and following that person's life in steps. The forum and chat schedules explore each step at their weekly chat (Mondays at 6:00PM PST). The steps are here:
Life Book Sections
Week 1: Cover/Getting started
Week 2: Birth
Week 3: Childhood
Week 4: School Days
Week 5: Parents
Week 6: Siblings
Week 7: Family Memories
Week 8: Hometown/Childhood Home
Week 9: Friends
Week 10: Young Adult
Week 11: Dating/Courting
Week 12: Marriage
Week 13: Home
Week 14: Extended Family/Grandparents/InLaws
Week 15: Kids
Week 16: Kids (cont'd)
Week 17: Jobs/Careers
Week 18: Hobbies/Sports
Week 19: Transportation
Week 20: Medical/Health
Week 21: Faith
Week 22: Holiday Memories/Traditions
Week 23: The Golden Years
Week 24: Grandchildren
Week 25: Pedigree Chart
Other forums explore heritage by country, recipes, treasured antiques, and more.

Scrapbooking Your Heritage Part 2 - Getting the First Photos Scrapped

(Scrapbooking Your Heritage Part 1 - How to Begin is here)

Let’s assume that you have scanned all or most of the photos and documents, archived them safely, and returned those you borrowed. Now you want to share the photos and documents with family.

Whether you decide to share the photos exactly as scanned, or restore them first, you want to get this part finished in a timely manner. Because I had two beautiful leather bound photos books, I chose to create 4” x 6” layouts to fit into the pockets of the albums. The albums also had 2 pages at the back of for CDs or DVDs. One held all of the scanned original photos, and the other had all of the layouts on disk. There are many 4” x 6” albums out there from the Dollar Store to folders at the photo counter to high end like I found on sale quite by accident. If you choose to go that way you will also want all of the mini-layouts to coordinate. I found the 4 x 6 Brag Book Templates by Doris Castle (no longer available) fit the bill perfectly. I also chose to stay with elements from just one kit for consistency. I used my favorite kit for heritage, Vintage Love, also by Doris and also not available at this time.When I started to put the albums together I had over 40 pages done, quickly, with the templates. I turned the 4” x 6” designs upside down or flipped for some pages if the design lent itself to turning. I made the two albums identical, one for my family and one for my brother’s.

If you prefer a square format, check for a Quick Album. Each design could be turned 4 ways and flipped to turn 4 more ways. That makes the purchase of a quick album kit economical and those pages go together so quickly. Below I show just 4 of the layouts I made, all from the same pre-made album page.

I have printed and re-printed square format pages in large 12” x 12”, 8” x 8”. 6” x 6”, and even 3” x3” for a keychain album.
I used the French Country Album by Doris Castle at Studio Girls/Scrapbook Graphics(no longer available). Here are four of the pages.

First try and identify why you are going back in time to make layouts about your heritage. Why are you scrapping pages and scrapbooks about your ancestors? There may be one overwhelming reason with a deadline, or just curiosity on your own part. I had several reasons and that helped me focus. The reasons changed as I went along and yours may also. I remember my first reason was that I was the only person left alive who had known my grandfather and I didn’t want him to be forgotten. I also was retiring and I knew a lot of facts and stories that did not interest my children now, but might later.


You need to start with what you KNOW. It may be a family tree, or information in your possession. It may be, as in my case, just 9 little sheets of handwritten notes from my grandmother. A gift of Family Tree Maker from a daughter helped me organize the meager information I had at the start. There are many programs out there and most use a GED file format so information can be transferred between researchers. The prices of commercial programs vary greatly, but some have free trials.
GenPro
Family Tree Maker
Great Family Tree

Others have free resources to download.
Free Genealogy Stuff is a great collection of free resources.


You may need to file, identify and store photos and documents from the far past. If you are lucky enough to have acquired the originals I urge you to contact an expert. Many counties in the US have wonderful Historical Societies. I actually use the one in the neighboring county because it is more active than one in my own county. Someone there is always ready with new information on products that are available. I use a box that is free of all those known chemicals that can harm papers, photos, tintypes, and old glass photos. They also suggested Glassine envelopes and special separators to hold whatever information I have about each image. There are great archival resources online, as well.
Antiques at About.Com
Storing Photos-Scrapbooking 101
Storing Photos- Archives.Gov

You probably want to start with scanning the photographs and documents, once you have them sorted. Instead, you might have some old family photos a relative has temporarily put into your care. The standards have changed since I started scanning my old photos so I find myself re-scanning them every so often. This makes it difficult if you have borrowed the photos. Whether you are storing or borrowing photos and slides, the Internet is a great resource for scanning.
Digital Photos at Geneology About.Com
Scanning by Roger Halsted


You may prefer to take digital photos of the old images. While I scan photos, I have taken digital photos of all of the family heirlooms in my possession. In either case, you want to make sure you have all digital images, scanned or photographed, stored in the safest way possible. I remember back to some pretty outdated methods. I will pass on advice given to me…"at the rate technology advances, do not think any storage method is forever. Re-store every 1-2 years”. My old black floppies went to 3” disks, to ZIP disks, to CDs and now DVDs. You may loose a bit with every transfer. It is best to acquire the technological know-how to store in a “non-lossy” method right from the start.

Once you have some information and resources, you will be ready to scrapbook some photos and documents. Don’t be surprised if you find new information and need to re-scrap some pages.

There is a new one of my articles at the KB and Friends website. It is called, "I Don't DO Heritage"

The KB website has been redesigned and is simply SMASHING! Also Kathryn and Velma have collaborated on a new kit called Offbeat Artistry. You can find it here.

One of the first online places I visited when I looked for scrapbooking on the internet 5 years ago, was The Digital Scrapbook Place (DSP). I joined with the amazing membership number of 891. Amazing then because there were that many members for a site less than a month old, and NOW amazing because the membership has grown to 148,314 as of today, April 1, DSP's 5th birthday.

I have never left DSP and may be one of their longest active members other than the staff of this amazing place. The forums are many and frantically active. The challenges continue to be creative and educational. The tutorial section is filled with help for the beginner to the advanced scrapper. The galleries are filled with breathtaking inspiration from all over the globe. There is a monthly newsletter that continues to give me a thrill of excitement when I see it in my email. Their Club Digital is a bargain monthly assortment of kits, word art, and other scrapping supplies. The friends I have made at DSP are among the best in my life.

The forum known as GT or the Granny Thread, sprang up a couple of years ago growing from a poem posted about grandmothers. It very well may be the largest and most active forum out there. Many of the Grannies are "Grannies in Training" or "Granny Wannabes" and range in age from 16 years old to, oh, near 75 and supportive of each other from homework to health to family issues. Many Grannys have met in real life either meeting for lunch, overnight visits to each other's homes, or attending the same laptop crops in far away cities.

If you have never explored or joined an online community, there is no better place to start.

HAPPY 5th BIRTHDAY, DSP

This is a special welcome to everyone visiting here from SS Reflections.Com. SSR has become an Art-Blog Portal and Chatique is listed there.

If you haven't visited SS Reflections, it is an online magazine (E-Zine) devoted to scrapping and stamping arts. All of the articles over the years are archived at the site, including the ones I wrote for almost a year. Now it has loads of Art Blogs listed by "deck". Mine are on the "Digital Deck" and others are on the Stamping Deck, Chapel, Scrapping Deck, etc, so you can find blogs about your particular interests. The Captain, Dawn, has kept the nautical theme to the good ship SS Reflections making this an especially fun site to visit.

Thanks to Sallie K who looked up the definition in Wikipedia and put this in the forum:

“Retro” can be used to simply mean “old fashioned” or old, functioning much like “timeless” or “classic”. It has also been associated with modernism in the immediate post-war years, encompassing an aesthetic that ranges from tailfins on Cadillacs to ranch houses. Sometimes, it can also suggest an entire outlook on life, for example, social conservatism, home schooling or the embrace of traditional gender roles. “Retro” can also be applied to forms of technological obsolescence, for example, manual typewriters, cash registers, bulky hand-held cell phones, or the resurrection of old computer games. But most commonly, “retro” is used to describe objects and attitudes from the recent past that no longer seem “modern.” It suggests a fundamental shift in the way we relate to the past. Different from more traditional forms of revivalism, “retro” suggests a half ironic, half longing consideration of the recent past. It has been called an “unsentimental nostalgia,” recalling “modern” forms that are no longer current. "Retro" sometimes also refers to the fifties era.
Today it is often used in a positive sense, referring to quirky or attractive products that are no longer available. For example, "Retro fashion" or "Retro Chic" may consist of outdated styles, such as tie-dyed shirts from the 1960s, or poodle skirts from the 1950s. A love of retro objects (things from the past) is called retro-philia.
Retro often reflects a sensibility aligned with camp. Camp is an ironic attitude, an explicit re-introduction of non-dominant forms.”


We can roughly divide design and style by decades: 1900s, 1910s, 1920s, 1930s, and so on. Those of us who lived through some of those early decades immediately picture elements of those years. You can convey that feel with your choices of color, font, and design elements.

I am giving a variety of font sites but most of them have all of the decades. I just KNOW you will wander around each site…most are free, but those that aren’t will give you an idea of style.

If fonts are threatening to take over your computer I urge you to get the FREE program, The Font Thing. http://www.download.com/The-Font-Thi...-10038296.html
(If enough people request it I can do a tutorial on using that program in a Chatique soon.)

When you are checking out the fonts for a particular retro decade, don't forget to look at the "Wingdings" or fonts with designs or little drawings in place of the letters. I have a "florals1" and "florals2" I use a lot ( http://www.flyerstarter.com/free-fonts/f/Florals1.html ), and a "Darrian's Frames" ( http://www.fontspace.com/darrian-lynx/darrians-frames ) that also sees a lot of use. I also use some wingdings at huge resolution to make coloring pages for my granddaughters.

http://www.fontscape.com/explore?7CM has the fonts arranged from Medieval to the computer age, Pop-Art; Op Art.

1910s – World War I, the introduction of the automobile. The Gibson Girl was the ideal, with her long hair done up, high necked blouses with hug sleeves, tiny waist, dress to the floor, high shoes…showing ankle only if being a bit naughty. The colors are muted. I think that is due to all photos we have of that period are black and white or sepia. Fonts to use are the more formal, “Spenserian” fancy like the font, Beautiful. Check these fonts for ideas. http://www.letterheadfonts.com/fonts/billhead.shtml Expensive, but a good overview of the feel of the era.

1920s – Typefaces characteristic of the Art Deco period of the 1920s. Reminiscent of the Jazz Age or Roaring Twenties, the era of Prohibition, flappers, the Charleston, bakelite, and penicillin.
http://www.fontscape.com/explore?7SW
http://www.fontage.com/artdeco.html
http://www.free-fonts.com/font/1920.html


1930s – Type designs typical of the 1930s, the age of the Great Depression, Swing music, Walt Disney cartoons, and frozen foods. The flamboyant American period influenced by the glamour of Hollywood.
http://www.fontage.com/broadway.html
http://www.myfonts.com/browse/keyword/1930s/


1940s - The patriotism and sacrifice of the war years! Red, white, and blue work well.
http://www.fontstock.net/search/0/1940's%20Christmas.html


1950s – MUSIC, teens as a separate group, full skirts, Pink and Charcoal Black, the Atomic symbol and other curved figures, chrome, formica. Type designs typical of the beat culture and jazz era of the later fifties. The atomic age of the 1950s.
http://www.andynortnik.com/free-retro-fonts.htm
http://www.andynortnik.com/clipart_1.htm
http://www.fontscape.com/explore?7EG

1960s – Typefaces reminiscent of the swinging 1960s, the psychedelic era of hippies, bellbottoms, lava lamps, pop music, the Beatles, and free love. Colors I remember are Avacado green and burnt orange. Also, the combination of tourquoise, brown and yellow. Tie-dye, psychedelic flowers and beads. Must not forget the beatnik in the late 60s with the long straight hair, heavy eye makeup, white lips, and ever-present beret hat. Loden-green and black were staple clothing colors then.
http://www.fontscape.com/explore?6MJ

Anyone who hangs out at Meryl Bartho's Heritage Chat on Wednesday nights at The Digital Scrapbook Place knows I rarely miss that chat, for almost 5 years, now. Lately, I haven't been able to do many heritage layouts, but I attend just the same.

Finally yesterday morning I did one for her current challenge, Glamorous. The layout was in my mind and Meryl had the perfect elements for the layout. Within an hour or so it was in the Heritage gallery.

Last night it won the weekly secret vote of those attending the chat. I was, as the Aussies say, Chuffed! Meryl had some nice comments about it but I was doubly surprised when I started getting congratulations. Meryl had nominated the layout for The Hall of Fame at DSP. I was dancing around. That was a first for me.

Then I also heard that a layout of mine was on the list of "100 Most Viewed Layouts". Not one I would have guessed at all. I wonder what lists they will come up with next.

We had only been in Florida for a week when I left for a laptop-crop (meeting of digital scrappers) in Salt Lake City. It was a rare chance to meet a dear cyber-friend from Oman. There were 17 of us at the crop, many who had never met before, but all friends from a digital scrapbooking web site (The Digital Scrapbook Place - DSP).

First off, I am 70 years old. To go off alone on an adventure like this amazed me. I had never seen the rugged mountains of the West except from the air on the way to California twice. I had met, in person, only two of the 17 ladies. As it turned out, every lady was exactly as they present themselves in the forums. No real surprises except how comfortable we were together from the first minute.
Ten of us met Friday night for dinner...a LATE dinner for me since I had skipped 2 time zones. Really late for the member and her children from Oman, by way of Trinidad. Their internal clocks must be really messed up.

For the last year or two I have been writing about digital scrapping for Kathryn Balint's KB and Friends newsletter and blog. Kathryn's focus has shifted to her newer venture at the CropMom site. The KB and Friends site is secondary, now. I will spend some of my time in Florida becoming familiar and comfortable with CropMom and I hope to teach scrapping with that site to some of the senior groups down here and, perhaps, do some other work for Kathryn if I can find a niche in her new venture.

I have also been writing monthly for Stamping and Scrapping Reflections on-line magazine. Alas, that has become the victim of the volatile economy. The staff has decided to stop publication after the March issue. I, myself, had taken a leave of absence for personal issues but I was ready to return. Now, ???

So, I am a retiree once again. I'm taking advantage of the freedom of this situation with a journey from my winter home in Florida to Salt Lake City to meet with about 30 dear friends, most from the Granny Forum at The Digital Scrapbook Place. One of the ladies was to be in the Caribbean for the holidays from her home in Oman. On the way home she is taking a side trip with her children to SLC and the rest of us decided to take this opportunity to meet her face-to-face at a DSP-sponsored Laptop Crop. Yes, I WILL be taking photos and posting here.

Crops, laptop, or paper, are a tradition among scrappers. My first was in 1998 with 25 or so Michigan Scrappers...before digital. The MIscrappers group held crops for 12 hours at a time and the hours just flew by. Our host was usually The Sticker Store and More in Southgate, Michigan. When the store initiated the Great Lakes Mega Meet the MIscrappers were working volunteers. Soon the, now huge, convention outgrew the MIscrappers and the ladies scattered to other places and other ventures. Every year a few get together here and there to renew some very strong bonds.

Digital scrapping and Internet connections with other scrappers, makes getting together a little more difficult, but certainly not impossible. My virtual homes are The Digital Scrapbok Place, with over 143,000 members, and The Digital Scrapbook Artisan Guild. At any given time you will find someone logged on to the forums, galleries, or chat rooms. With members from all over the world this is great when you can't sleep. It reminds me of the song, It's Five O'Clock Somewhere.

I will try to locate some old photos from the old crops and add them to this blog entry.

Well, a few years back, anyway. For a few years the MIscrappers (Michigan Scrappers) was an active, vibrant email forum of scrappers who met once a month or so to scrap the night away. Our "home" was The Sticker Store and More, a scrapbook store local to me. From that group of paper scrappers there have been several businesses started...ones that have done very well in the scrapping business world. Members have scattered all the way down to New Orleans. Some have kept in touch and the threads among scattered members are strong and might actually bring together the whole group if that were ever possible again.

This weekend a few gathered together to make Christmas cards. The little group does this every year, recently in the studio-store of one of the group. Old friends filter in and out. Since one of the group is my sister-in-law, there have been ties that were never severed. This group actually camped together for several years with their families and being with even these few was wonderful.

I packed for days! I had kept all of my Christmas stamps punches, papers, embossing powders, ribbons, etc. in a portable stamp station. Most of the rest of my supplies went to various scrapping relatives when I embraced digital. I just couldn't get rid of my best pieces of equipment so that was packed up, too. Muttering to myself about remembering why I went digital, I headed an hour away to my brother and sister-in-law's house on Friday, and to the "card party" early Saturday morning.

Each of us was to find a card design, make a sample, and bring everything to teach the others to make the card. The variety ranged from cute to gorgeous. Each was unique and, as someone mentioned, we learned something new with each design. Then as we worked on the cards we had intended to make, we, again, learned from each other, and learned how to use new equipment. I discovered there are some REALLY cool tools since I walked away from paper.

Anyway, here are some of the cards I made.
This was the card from which I made kits to share. It was the HouseMouse card for November. Thanks to 2 pennies fastened to the backside of the little mouse, he rolls up and down the hill.

This was the card I intended to finish as our main card going out this year. With all those little ribbons it was a bit labor intensive, but I got about a dozen done. Without this Card Party they would have stayed in my Stamp Station for many more years.

This was Deb's design. We stamped a long holly image on white paper, and embossed it with green glitter embossing powder. Then we cut that into 3 equal squares, mounted it on a red strip and put that on a card. Next we lightly stamped a pre-punched oval with a swirl stamp and stamped the greeting over that. Finally we added the touch of bling in the decorative staple with a Fastenator.

This was designed by Jeanne with a Cri-Cut embosser embossing the paper and the acrylic piece in the window. The snowflakes are brads.

This design was a stamped image, torn and chalked on the edges, placed over a strip of Mulberry paper. A decorative staple was added with a Fastenator.

This was Sue's design. It is 3 pieces of paper, each matted with a black slightly larger. The top piece was stamped and colored with watercolor pencils. The buttons and ribbon were added to finish it.

This was Chris' design, using a decorative Christmas paper to fit the card blank. The greeting was stamped and the holly leaves added. Stickles glitter was added in gold and red berries.
This was one Chris designed for her main card this year. Done on a production-line it worked so well the rest of us lifted the design.

There are definite styles in scrapbooking. A few months ago I was quite taken with the "Free-form Style" in Digital Scrapbooking Magazine, in the article by Renee Pearson. Here are 2 of my attempts at that style. Click on the title under the picture to go to the gallery and the full version.

Here are some notes from the first part of the chat. We intended to talk about organizing both paper photos and digital, but barely scratched the surface of organizing digital photos. We will be doing a Picasa tutorial and Organization of Digital Photos later. If it is wanted we can then talk about organizing Digital Scrapping Elements, but that isn't strictly Vintage/Retro so we will have to discuss it in Chat.

Here are my notes:
If you have been keeping your printed photos in file folders (like I did), or in the original store envelopes, you may want to consider a different solution. File folders are awkward and usually NOT archival. Neither are baggies, which is how I had photos sorted IN the file folders. Strangely enough, the store envelopes are also NOT archival. Shame on them!!!

www.organizedphotos.com – I read through this site and got started with what supplies I had on hand. Then I bought the book, ordered the starter kit of supplies and kept going. Then I ordered MORE envelopes 3 more times and within 6 weeks had finished all of the old paper photos prior to 1999 when I went haywire with cameras. When I get home again I will start organizing and SAFELY storing the negatives. It will be a bigger job, for sure.

Cropper Hopper Storage Boxes http://www.cropperhopper.com/ Since I already had one of the “negative storage” boxes this is what I used for my photos in special “Organized Photos” envelopes while waiting for the back-ordered boxes. I have several of the Cropper Hopper “photo storage” boxes but, filled, they are way too heavy to carry…and bulky to store on a shelf. They come with put-together 4” x 6” boxes about 1” wide, but what a waste of space when you only have 1 or 2 photos of that event.

Highsmith Photo Storage.
http://www.highsmith.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Production/Search.jsp?storeId=10001&catalogId=10001&langId=-1&N=0&Ntk=OverallSearch1&Nty=1&Ntx=mode%2Bmatchall partial&D=&Nu=CategoryId&chkForFilter=Y&s=1&Ntt=ph oto+storage&Nf=&Nr=NOT%28Field4%3A825000%29 These are inexpensive made of un-bleached cardboard and easy to carry. I have several of the “Speed Scrapper” boxes that are now being used to store larger old photos and some other memorabilia and ephemera. They will never last as long as the plastic boxes, though.

Light Impressions http://www.lightimpressionsdirect.co...:190000:191000 These look pretty good, but I have never tried their product.

Archival Methods http://www.archivalmethods.com/categ...m?categoryid=1 These boxes look almost identical to Light Impressions. Again, I have never tried their product.

Metal Edge http://www.metaledgeinc.com/ I like the dividers they include in their product line. Again, I haven’t tried the product.

The Container Store http://www.containerstore.com/expert...lStorage.jhtml If they carry their archival line in the retail store that might be more attractive if you prefer seeing and touching before buying.

Print File Archival Storage http://www.printfile.com/
Gaylord Supplies http://www.gaylordmart.com/lobby_gaylordmart.asp?
B&H Photo Video http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/category/727/Storage_Presentation_Archival_Storage_Materials.ht ml
Demco http://www.demco.com/webprd_demco/pr...UP_ARC_030.htm

----------------------------------------------------------------------

I promised a tutorial on Picasa. I m no expert, but I have been using this program for several years so here goes.

PICASA 2 (NOTE: Picasa 3 has just been released to Beta...some really nice additions!)

I promised to do a mini-tutorial on the free Picasa 2 program. If you don’t have it yet, you can download it from here. http://picasa.google.com/download/

If you haven’t installed it yet, wait a minute. As you begin to install it the program will ask you if you want the program to automatically scan your hard drives for items to add. Answer, “NO”. Otherwise you will be waiting for a long time, depending on how many graphics on your computer.

If you didn't wait and are already drowning in graphics, go to the “TOOLS” line on your toolbar at the top. Your first choice is FOLDER MANAGER. That will bring up your whole computer tree. You can begin changing folders from the “eye” (that means watch, and will add anything that comes into that folder) to the red X which means to remove everything from that folder. I don’t use the green checkmark at all. It is easy to change back and forth from “WATCH” to “REMOVE” any time.

Now YOU have the control to add whatever you want. I do not use this program for anything except my digital photos, scanned photos, and layouts. I use the Bridge program that comes with PSCS2 for organizing scrapbook elements. It is just as valid to do the opposite except for Picasa’s inability to show .png files.

Once you have your photos added they should be in about the same organization you have chosen for your pictures in the folders on your computer.

This is just me, but my folders are named by YEAR-MONTH-Month Name. For instance, 2008-02-Feb. That way the folders stay in order. Sometimes I have folders within that one labeled with holiday or event. Some months I don’t.

Let’s look at the VIEW drop-down in the toolbar.

For now, choose NORMAL THUMBNAILS. For DISPLAY MODE choose AUTOMATIC. In FOLDER VIEW, choose FLAT FOLDER VIEW, SORT BY CREATION DATE, and SIMPLIFIED TREE VIEW. You may want to play with the tree view to find one that suits you in particular. Remember, there is a lot of information imbedded in your digital photos. PICASA can read that and use it to make your life a little easier.

So…what about new photos on your camera? Whether or not you have installed all those programs on the disk that came with your camera, Picasa may be able to transfer photos from your camera using just the cable or card reader. I have a Samsung, a Canon Rebel, and a Fischer Price kiddie camera that all download well. I just plug them in and let it do its thing. It usually brings up Picasa’s Import page. Then you choose whether to import all or just choose some. Then it asks where to put the photos on your hard drive. Then you will choose what to do with the photos on the camera…keep them all, eliminate some, or eliminate all.

Within a few minutes the photos will show up on Picasa and be in the right place on your hard drive. You can unplug the camera, or remove the card from the reader.

Now you are set to look at the photos and work with them.

Click on a photo. You will go to the individual photo view. The tabs on the left are -Basic Fixes, Tuning, and Effects. In BASIC…choose to straighten, first. It brings up a grid and you may see that a photo is not as straight vertically or horizontally as you thought it was. Straighten and apply. You have to do that first. If you crop first there may be a slight problem, but sometimes you WANT to crop first.

Next, I crop. I like to constrain all photos to 4 x 6 at this point. Sometimes I re-crop for layouts, but, since I send my photos to Kodak, Snapfish, or Sutterfly to be printed, I want them a uniform size. Picasa saves a copy of the un-altered photo so each of editing actions can be reversed.

I use the choice, “I’m Feeling Lucky” next. A photo “expert” wrote once that if your photo changes with this choice, then you need to change your camera’s settings. Take that for what it is worth. My photos NEED some changes, especially when photos were taken in different lights. I do feel really good, though, when nothing happens with this choice, or the next two.

The slider at the bottom lets you lighten a photo even further if you want to. Remember, this is reversible.

If you are working with a scan of an old photo, the TUNING tab may be your friend. With these sliders you can lessen the yellow or blue cast to the old photos.

EFFECTS is fun. A top designer who first introduced me to Picasa said she ALWAYS sharpens a photo twice before using it in a layout. I found that to be too much for what I want. Many of the other effects have a second screen of sliders so literally thousands of effects are available in one degree or another. I sharpened a landscape photo today and clouds showed up in the sky that didn’t show before.

When you like the effect, hit Control>S to save. You can still reverse all of these actions at a later time.

NOW…at the bottom of both views are more buttons. You can send a single photo or a selection of more (which you have put in the “tray” in the left lower corner) to an existing Web album of yours, or join a new one. You can send one or more photos to someone in email. I use Firefox so I haven’t done this yet. You can send a photo or a “tray” full to your blog, Yahoo Messenger, or send them to any of several photo printing services. I have done all of these things.

Notes from a Chat:
__________________