Saturday, October 17, 2009

Fast, Simple and Effective

I told you I had lots of ideas swimming around in my head!

Recently, Di and I were conversing by email, about scrapping (or not scrapping) those old family photos, as she has just signed up to Ali E's new Yesterday and Tomorrow class.

I have a shoe box full on loan from my mother in law, of my husband's childhood - which is full of stories and adventures of three brothers getting up to all sorts of mischief, plus a few lovely old photographs of his parents (Trevor's father tells a tale about Trevor's mother and a green bikini, back in their courting days!) and of his maternal and paternal grandparents.

The same for me - photos of my childhood, and some rather lovely ones from my grandmother's childhood.

So there are lots, with stories and memories attached.

What to do?  Obviously the task of sorting out them out (taking a cut - I can't use them all!) and scanning is fairly straightforward, if not tedious, but then what?

I've come to a solution - keeping the photos and the stories, simply, fast and effectivley.


I already had a 4x6 two-per-page slip in photo album in which I had slipped some old photos I had printed, for safekeeping. I got to thinking, rather than scrap this in the traditional way, why not utilise this album and get through those old photos quickly?

As you can see above, I quickly scribbled out some notes and ideas, which just tucked inside the album to remind me what my plans are, as and when I get to these photos.  I forsee that it will be done in batches.

My basic plan is to use one pocket on each page for a photo (printed at 4x6) and the pocket below will have a 4x6 journalling card, with the story and or information about the photo. I've made myself a little template, the text will be typed up in Word and printed.  The style of font will remain consitent throughout.  I might use some patterned paper, I might not.  Probably NOT, the focus here is on getting done.

 (as a note, I am not sure if I like this journalling block thingy that I made - font etc, but I can change that later if I get more inspired!)


What about the CONTENT of the journalling, you ask?  Here is the fun part!  My mum is off to visit her sister soon, so the batch of photos that is printed already, and stored in this album, will go with her, with some scraps of writing paper in the pocket below each photo.  Mum and her sister can go through these over smoko, sorry morning tea (for Nicole, who with a slightly horrified tone, asked me recently if I really did stop for "smoko" with my 5 year old! I think she had a different interpreation of the word) write a few notes and memories down, and presto!

The same for Trevor and I, with our childhood photos, and the same for his parents.  The notes will be stored with the photos, and I can simply transpose them and print them out (as much as the handwritten notes would be nice - sometimes its a little hard to read mum's and my aunts handwriting, and that's after 30 odd years of learning to decipher it!  How would the next generation fare?!)


I am thinking that this may become a little bland, but at this stage am not sure what I could do to add that little something extra without straying too far away from my very basic formula. I may turn to the great CZ for some inspiration!

I will probably get an album each for Trevor's & my childhood , and one each for each side of the family (seperating the maternal/paternal etc with title blocks).

So, what do you think?

10 comments:

  1. Hi, Sharon. I'm sorry it took me so long to get back to you on your question. I'm in college right now and things are busy! For my link bar, what I did was create different posts that I wanted to link to, but I dated them way far back to 2005. (Blogger gives you the ability to post on old dates.) This way, they never showed up on my main page. I then went into where I could view my posts, got the link and used that for the link bar. Does that make sense? Hopefully it does. :)

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  2. i should say more...BLOODY BLOODY BRIlliant!

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  3. sorry seriously...
    love the journaling block...maybe to mix it up but keep the same format, you could put the title and date on the bottom, just a thought, i do love it as it is.
    Question...
    Can you be my Photoshop 'persomal trainer? :)
    Now really seriously ...I do think this is a brilliant idea..so simple but super super clever!
    I am on to it asap!!!

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  4. good idea Di, to swap the title from top to bottom! I did also think maybe mix the colour of the title print up from block to block (but set a consistent theme colour from the start) I was originally thinking of just printing the cards on white card...also thought of perhaps adding a graphic or something (like a very clean, graphic butterfly or flower or something - say three different ones,but the same? iykwim?) to one corner every now and then.

    Decisions, decisions! If these are the hardest things I have to think about, life is pretty good, isn't it?! :-)

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  5. PS I use PSE, don't really know much but happy to share!! I've learnt the most just using those two recent tutorials from CZ!!

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  6. ME too, PSE, that is...
    will email for instructions tonight :)

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  7. Great idea Sharon.
    You could use some digital brushes on the journal blocks at a reduced opacity to create something similar to a watermark??
    I LOVE the journal block by the way.

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  8. I LOVE your work! Such a great idea. I have been wanting to do something with photos of my husband and I for ages and I have the perfect album for this. I think you have just taken out all the hard work of deciding for me :) Can't wait to see how it all turns out. Can you you post a page when you have finished?
    I'm with Di, I need a photoshop PT too :) Thanks for getting back to me with the instructions for the boarder on the photo, I will be attempting that too. Soooo much inspiration ! I'm loving it!

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  9. Jo - I will post a page...its just WHEN that might be the problem!! plan on scanning a heap more photos soon, but the slow part will be the gathering of the info - mum is close but her sister is way up at Port Douglas! I guess I could photocopy and post her some to make notes on...anyhow, it will very much be one of those works in progress to enjoy for a long time!
    Can't wait to see your own efforts!

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