Redoing a scrapbook-assistance and ideas needed

[camsmom]

This is a spinoff from April's thread:
My dad made a sb for my mom 45 years ago, and now I have been tasked to re-do it. It is a book that has black pages that he wrote on in silver pen (looks like a zig painty but who knows what he used )

Anyway-b/c it has a lot of things written/drawn on the pages, we want to save the page itself (which are like 8x12) and all of them are solid black. He wrote on only 1 side of each page (good forethought) but I still am at a loss on how to "present" the pages where he just drew.

Help with ideas, anyone?

[jm_donahoe]

Can you cut what he has written and drawn and mat onto cardstock? It is always nice to have the original handwriting. Also, black is a great heritage color to pair with old olive, more mustard, creamy caramel etc...
If you can't cut the page up, but want to embellish - tags are so easy to antique and look so nice in a heritage book. Or maybe add odd pieces of mesh here and there. You could put the page centered on a 12x12 page and do what ever you want around the extra space...
Hope I gave some good ideas :?
Oh, and make sure you add the original and the revision date inconspicuously somewhere - then it can really be passed down and appreciated.

[Donna Cook]

could you make color copies of the pages or take photos and use those for cutting...and keep the originals in a safe place??? Sounds like a cool project....post some photos!!!!

[kzimbie]

I kind of had the same assignment but with my grandma's sb. My dad and I talked about it for some time, I took a few pages apart and played around with some ideas. My Dad knew I was going to take it apart but when he actually saw the pages taken apart it really bothered him. He decided that he did not want his mother's album taken apart even if it was not acid free and the pictures would be ruined someday. Sooooo he scanned (actually is in the process still) the complete pages at the highest resolution and saved it on a CD for me. This way I can crop and get as many pictures made as I want, in the sizes and finishes I want. The album remains intact for him to enjoy and the photos are preserved even if it is not the original picture. HTH

Karen

[kzimbie]

OK. I actually didn't answer your question. Sorry. If you scan them, you will have a digital copy that you can enlarge or adjust to fit your layout and be able to include them.
HTH more.

Karen

[camsmom]

Thanks for the ideas-the pics I know I am going to scan on a disk for my siblings. I am excited about that. I scanned the 1st page of the book below-it is about 8x12 in real life. I think I may have to use that as a background for the 1st page and then add pics around it-maybe one where they were both kids? (I think I need to use the original since the copy won't be the cool silver)

The pics I am adding are my mom and her brother and my dad and his siblings. Do you think that is a good way to start or should I have pics of my mom and dad together?

[kzimbie]

I love the front page just as it is. A great title page. I may save the pictures for the inside - the front page kind of as a teaser. What a treasure!

Karen

[camsmom]

My dad was a HUUUUGGGEEE romantic-the book is filled with poems he typed out for her and things he saved and drawings of the places they went together.
Oy! If my DH were half as romantic, I would be a woman on cloud nine! LOL

[aslangirl]

I just love old scrapbooks! Thanks for sharing the pics with us! I'd love to get my hands on the old pics of my family.

Unfortunately, I don't have any good ideas for you. :(

[lost-in-texas]

If it's held up this long, it will probably last another 45 years. Have you thought about simply getting it rebound.

Another alternative do a 12x12 album and mount the original pages in it. Then simply transfer any pages on the back side to the other page. I'm thinking CM pages, because you can center it on the page and won't have to do anything else.

Good luck on the project.

I have to say for my part, the sentimentality of the album would be in it's original form. Redoing it would loose something for me. I would do everything I could to keep it as close to original as possible.

[camsmom]

I agree about redoing it-I am only redoing it because it has completely fallen apart. :( If it was in good shape I would not touch it-but the page I scanned has ripped out and has ripped edges (I just cropped it for the pic) and all the pics are loose. The things he had in there (cards, poems etc.) are just loose and I would like to add pockets where they could be kept safe (I think I am going to re-type the poems in a nice font and use that as a bg and then have the originals in a memorobilia pocket).

The book has things like their marriage license receipt (50cents) and the cost of them to get married civilly ($2 in a DC courthouse.) I would also like to add family stories to the pics. For example when my Mom and Dad met, she was engaged to someone else in Mexico. The story goes that she said she would go on a double date with him, but she wanted him to know that in 3 months she was getting married. My Dad's famous line was, "Not to me baby."
3 months later (before she returned to Mexico) they had a civil wedding and then she flew back to tell her father she had married someone else and tell her finace. My Dad flew down to Mexico and they had a huge wedding in the cathedral in Mexico City.

Okay-long story, but it is things like that I want to add to the book since it is mostly momentos and not stories (like about the dog that hated my mom, or the car without a conscience). All great funny stories and there are pics, but no journlaing and I would like to do that for my Mom and the kids.

I think I will do it as a 12x12 and then use the handwritten pages as bg. The other pages are black with photos, nothing else. A lot of the cards and pics are just pushed in now so i worry about them being lost.

[sknitter]

I don't have any advice. I just had to tell you that the whole thing brings tears to my ears. It is a wonderful story.

[Kris McGinn]

Since all the pages are black, what if you used black paper for the pages when you redo them? You could cut out the drawings and journaling and mount on the new black paper. You could remount the photsos in as close the the original design as possible, then use other embellishments to dress it up a little.

The first page (after the title page) could be a narrative about the original book (along with those adorable photos) and how you have redone it to make it last longer but that you tried to preserve the style of the original as closely as possible.

I love the first page just as it is for the title. You could remount that one on black paper as well and maybe add some embellishments around it in a frame sort of style.

I think this is a great project, and agree that the beauty of the book would be keeping it as close to the original style as possible. Good Luck!

[jm_donahoe]

It is beautiful, Britta! Don't touch a thing! I know that creativexpress sells protector pages that have outer pockets. Some with mulitple pockets. You could probably just fit the pages in there and use the outer pockets for the additional "loose" items. Here is a link:
http://www.creativexpress.com/Mercha...line-specialty
Also here: http://www.creativexpress.com/Mercha...qwikit-layouts
That looks like such a fun project! My grandfather threw away all my grandma's scrapbooks when she died and I just wanted to throttle him!!! He said it made him to sad to remember... I wish I had her stuff now.

[camsmom]

Thank you for that link-there are lots of cute things (like the flip pages protector) that would be Perfect!!!

I have the corsage from their wedding day in DC, the license, and the recipt for everything that I think would be perfect in there!
Plus I have crazy napkins from nightclubs in DC he saved along with things like swizzle sticks that I want to inlcude.

I also love the idea of keeping all the bg black that way I can use all the pages as they are with minimal trimming, and I will add my mom's narration of things.

Yeah!

I think I might also add in the wedding pics that are just in a regular sticky album from the 50s/60s. I want to do a layout with the sugar bells from their cake b/c they were used in thier wedding, my sister's, brother's, and mine and we have pics of them on all the cakes.

**edited to add this was my 7,000th post! **

[Vintage Redhead]

Now, these are *really* hard to find nowadays, but...

Have you considered putting all of these pages into a 12 x 15 album? I know that these are *REALLY* hard to come by...I'm not even sure that CM is making them right now. But I'm certain that they're out there. Would that solve the dilemma of having to crop/drop anything?

Clearly the black/silver color scheme *works* and IMNSHO I wouldn't change that. The question is: do you want to vary the black with texture/non-texture, and silvers that you use? Also, do you want your father to *add to* his scrapbook with updated insights and romanticisms from more mature eyes? A 12x15 book would allow you more space to do this...but do you *want* to do that and if so, would it be worth the hassel of trying to track it down?

Wow, what a precious book...and lucky to not have to start from scratch! ~ K

[camsmom]

I would love to have my Dad add but unfortuanetely he died in 92-another reason I feel PRESSURE to do it right.
There is a whole section of pics from him in the Army, but I have no info about where he was stationed, or if he was reservist or what, and it was just before he met my Mom, so I am clueless on that part and she doesn't know. I think I will make my DH dig around on base and see what he can find.

A 12x15 album might be the ticket but I have never seen one. There is a great sb store near me and I will check it out. I just worry about finding pages to fit since I think I will stick with a black bg for pages and then add in some soft subtles b/c a lot of the pics are in b/w or very light color so I think that with silver would be good.

Thanks everyone for the ideas. I want my Mom to LOVE it.

[dorothy erdely]

Quote:

I want my Mom to LOVE it.

trust me, your mom WILL LOVE IT.....and if she doesn't, punch her!!!! :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

no, don't do that!!! seriously, what a wonderful thing to do to honor your wonderful dad! he must have been something!! too bad there's not more caring men around like that. this is going to be a treasure for your family.......after my mom died 4 years ago, i made 7 identical scrapbooks (1 for my dad & 1 for me & each of my 5 siblings) starting with my grandparents on both sides when they were kids & continuing to my parents wedding/honeymoon.....i did them in 8 1/2 x 11" 3-ring binders because i have tons of more pictures that can be added & this seems like the easiest way to add pages without taking apart the whole album(s) each time. someday, when i get time, i plan to do when we were kids, up to the present. it's a lot of work, but it's sooooo worth it! i love to just sit & look at those pictures, over & over & over again....it's something you never get tired of doing!

good luck & be sure to post pics!!!