School is back in session and this always makes me feels like I should get organized. It also makes me think that Christmas is just around the corner and it time to get busy and get some gift items started. Over the next few weeks I’d like to show you some of the things I’ve create that might get you into a creative mood.
One of the byproducts of doing genealogy is that you receive family photos from your extended family. Well at least I hope you do. I make it a habit to taken my Flip Pal any time there is a family gathering. Then if a chance presents itself, to scan family photos, I’m always ready.
One of the gifts I’ve created, was a collection of recipes from my mom’s siblings. Recipes that they were “famous” for. Perhaps not “world-famous” but in our family it was a recipe that represented them. Like my Auntie Faye’s Yorkshire Pudding. I called my project; Recipes with Heart.
Creating one of these books take a bit of prep time, as the first step was to ask all of my mom’s living siblings if they would provide a recipe or two that they considered to be one of their personal favorites. For those of my mom’s siblings that were no longer living I ask the same of their children. If I didn’t have enough photos to go with the recipes I asked for a recent photo as well as one from their childhood. Even if you have enough photos, this is a great way to get additional photos that you may not have had. I’ll warn you that it may take some time and encouragement to compile all the material.
I’ve been doing digital scrapbook for many years and the original program I started with is no longer around but lucky for me a company called Forever has taken over and my digital designs are easily used with their product. Their digital scrapbooking program is called Artisan and they also have a great photo program called Historian. The Forever program is easy to use and you can purchase their designs, bring in your own or purchases from other design companies. They even offer courses. With Forever you can take your project from design to print. They also have an amazing Forever Guarantee for your photo storage. Storage for your lifetime plus 100 years… that’s incredible.
If you check on the internet there are other website you can use if you want to get more digital scrapbooking designs. Such as Scrapbook.com where you can not only get the digital pages but you can take on-line courses. If you’re into traditional scrapbooking they have a wide variety of those products as well. They even have free courses. I like free.
You can get lost in these websites, looking at all the designs. Your project doesn’t have to be a recipe book, it could be a photobook of family photos telling your family history or just telling the tale of one ancestor. Or a book about your summer vacation, that you can create for your child as a memory book.
In the case of my recipe book once I choose my design then I typed in each recipes. Unless of course a cousin had done the work for me, then I was able to cut and paste and just change the font. With each recipe I added a photo of my mom’s sibling at an early age and then at a more current age. I’ve shown the cover above and here are a few of the pages I created. You can even see; Auntie Faye’s famous Yorkshire Pudding.
As I mentioned; once you’ve created your book you can follow it through and print with Forever. They make a good quality product and have a quick turnaround for printing. But there are other places you can print your book, such as your local Costco, Walmart or if you’re looking for different formats you could try Blurp. With Blurp you can create a photobook, trade book, magazine or e-book.
I have to tell you that my recipe book was a great hit with my brothers and my cousins. There is something special about a present that you make yourself because it’s created with love and something precious that we often don’t have a lot of… Time.
*If you decide to purchase the Forever.com program and you don’t have a representative you are always welcome to use my name. I’ll be happy to help you.
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