Preserving Memories: Scrapbooking Gift Ideas

Make a list, check it twice …

Need holiday gift ideas for the genealogical scrapbooker on your list? We’ve found these sure winners. If you’re tempted, just circle your favorites and put this magazine in a conspicuous spot.

Classic Collection

The genealogist who swears she’s going to start her heritage scrapbook any day now will appreciate Anna Griffin’s Heritage Designer Scrapbook Ensemble ($60). It’s got a 12×l2-inch post-bound album and storage box, double-sided decorative papers, letter stickers and embellishments. (404) 817-8170, <www.annagriffin.com>

Pretty Papers

Scrapbookers can’t have enough paper! We love Making Memories’ antique-looking Ledger Paper for recording census or other genealogical info. It comes in six designs at 25 cents per 12×l2-inch sheet ($7.99 for a 24-pack), or $5.99 for a 6×6-inch, 48-sheet pad. (801) 294-0430, <www.makingmemories.com>. Paper Adventures’ softly colored Vintage Workshop papers, stickers and mini notes with envelopes evoke quaint calicos and Victorian wallcoverings. (800) 727-0699, <www.paperadventures.com>

Stellar Stamps

Use Making Memories’ Magnetic Stamp Bases ($14.99) with interchangeable Magnet Stamp Alphabets, Expressions or Ornament stamps ($14.99 per set) to create custom captions for greeting cards and heritage scrapbooks. Our favorite is the old-fashioned typewriter-style Rummage alphabet. Complete the ensemble with a foam stamp set — try Corners, Dingbats or Florals ($2.99 to $3.99). (801) 294-0430, <www.makingmemories.com>

Super Scanner

Know someone with a backlog of faded photos that are in dire need of restoration? The Epson Perfection 4870 flatbed color scanner ($400 to $450) is the gift that keeps on giving. Simply scan a photo, negative or slide and click the check boxes for automatic color restoration or dust removal. Full auto, home and professional user modes let you pick your level of control. (800) 873-7766, <www.epson.com>

All Booked Up

Don’t worry about family feuds over who inherits your priceless scrapbooks. Give each kid a copy of your album — without laboriously crafting duplicate layouts. Bound2Remember digitizes your handmade scrapbook pages, prints them on acid-free paper, and gives them a sewn binding and a hard cover. These coffee table-style books are available in linen- or faux suede-finished covers, six colors and a range of sizes from brag book to 12×12 inches. Prices vary; a 20-page (10 pages front and back) 8 ½×11-inch book costs about $80. Get the scanned pages on CD-ROM for another $10. (888) 385-2665, <bound2remember.com>

Recipe for a Heritage Cookbook

You’ve gathered family recipes and researched your kin’s culinary traditions. Now preserve your discoveries in a scrapbook-style heritage cookbook that mixes photos of Grandma and her recipes for beef brisket and clabber cake, with a sprinkling of stories about how she’d deliver homemade bread to her family at Christmas.

First, decide your cookbook’s focus — you might devote it to an individual or family branch, seasonal dishes or a cultural cuisine. If possible, use recipes in the original chef’s handwriting. Protect those originals in photo-safe sleeves mounted with clear plastic photo corners or hinged to the page (so you can flip them to read both sides). You also can use color photocopies and store the originals in a safe place. (Use copies of recipes in the kitchen to avoid spilling Great-grandma Beatrice’s spaghetti sauce on her original instructions for making it.)

Include a photo of each chef. Journal stories about your relative and her recipe — how long it’s been in the family, when it was served and how it’s changed. Other journaling topics: mealtime traditions (a special prayer or toast), table settings (china, utensils, linens) and the stories behind “secret” recipes. Add notes from your research, such as updated ingredients (margarine for oleo) and preparation tips (“Grandma always said the pasta’s ready when you throw a noodle at the wall and it sticks”).

Number your album pages and craft a title page, table of contents and, for lengthier books, section dividers and an index. For more how-to heritage-cookbook instruction, read Meals and Memories: How to Create Keepsake Cookbooks by Kathy Steligo (Carlo Press).

Scrap speak: emphasis

A scrapbook layout should direct viewers to a focal point — the most meaningful photo or journaling — and then to secondary elements. Otherwise, nothing stands out, or everything does. Emphasis creates this visual “pecking order” by establishing relative importance of page elements through size, shape, color and texture. The bigger, brighter and more patterned an item, the more important it is.

From the December 2004 issue of Family Tree Magazine.