New Here, with New Project

[Teacher617]

I've been a PSE subscriber for many months, reading so much from this forum and the newsletter. I'm enrolled in the Layers course, practicing diligantly. I'm impressed not only with the quality of the advice offered in all these venues, but the friendliness shown to all. I'm glad to be here!

What has really sparked my enthusiasm is a new project I've decided to put together. My mom will celebrate her 80th birthday next February. I began collecting her old (1920's-1960's) and more recent photos from her attic last time I visited her and began scanning them into my computer. My plan is to create a digital scrapbook to honor her at her surprise party. I need to fix some photos and create scrapbook pages for them. I love perusing the pages many of you have created for ideas. Such incredible artists here!!

Those of you with more experience ... do you have any advice for me as I begin this project? Things I should remember or do, so I don't regret something later? I'm learning as much as I can. I'm not afraid of anything techie - it's my job. I'm a technology integration coach for a school district.

Thanks ... and see you along the way.

[AngelicKim]

Hi and welcome to the forum. I'm not a scrapbook genius like some others here so I just wanted to say welcome and that I think what you are putting together is great. I am sure the people here will be more than helpful to you and your Mother will be happy with whatever you do for her.

[kayser]

Hi and welcome! Sounds like a really fun project! I'm not one of the experts, but I have advice anyway. If you haven't already, I would recommend getting other things to go with your pictures- newspaper clippings if anyone saved them (or you could make them yourself), pictures of buildings or places, not just people...When my parents celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary two years ago, I had people send cards for them to me, and I included them as part of the album. People had great stories to tell, and it really added to the album. Also, I know some others here have purchased and liked Linda Sattgast's heritage CD; you might check it out: http://www.scrappersguide.com/heritage.html

Good luck with your project, and I hope you'll post some of your pages!

[Wendy]

Hi ...

... and welcome to the forum :)

What a great idea and I am sure that she will love it ...

Wendy

[Teacher617]

Hi and welcome! Sounds like a really fun project! I'm not one of the experts, but I have advice anyway. If you haven't already, I would recommend getting other things to go with your pictures- newspaper clippings if anyone saved them (or you could make them yourself), pictures of buildings or places, not just people...When my parents celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary two years ago, I had people send cards for them to me, and I included them as part of the album. People had great stories to tell, and it really added to the album. Also, I know some others here have purchased and liked Linda Sattgast's heritage CD; you might check it out: http://www.scrappersguide.com/heritage.html

Good luck with your project, and I hope you'll post some of your pages!

Thanks, Kay! I took a look at Linda Sattgast's site and have already put in my order - as a member! I love the idea of newspaper stuff - I don't know if anyone in my family has saved anything, but I'll dig around. Maybe I can find the local newspaper for the date she was born. I bet there are sites out there that do that for major newspapers. I have a Google Earth image of the location where my mom grew up, since the actual house was torn down many years ago. I also want to take photos of the quilts and embroidery work she has made to include.

Tricia

[kayser]

Good idea on the quilts!
My husband's grandmother just turned 90 this year, and I asked several family members to take pictures of the quilts she had made and then I made an 11x14 of the quilts. I couldn't get fancy with the design, since her eyes aren't that great anymore, but she said that we couldn't have given her a nicer gift.

If you want to add quotes to your quilt pages, I found a couple of good ones:

Those who sleep under a quilt, sleep under a blanket of love.

[troush]

My advice, when you scan, and you want to use the same size picture, scan at 300 ppi. If you think you might want to make a picture bigger, scan at 600 ppi. Also, make your scrapbook pages at 300 ppi to get a nice printout.

-Trish

P.S. Always fun to meet someone with the same name. My real name is Tricia, but I go by Trish

[Pauline]

Hello and welcome. My advice to you LAYERS and lots of them. Put everything on a separate layer and then you have the ability to move things around........play with blending modes, opacity, etc. The quilts would make beautiful backgrounds for your pages.

Second peace of advice. Have fun!

[Teacher617]

Kay- Beautiful quotes - I can picture them in strategic locations with my mom's quilts on the pages. It's amazing what a homemade quilt means to a family.

Trish - I've been scanning at 300 ppi, but didn't know about using 600 for a larger final product. I will keep that in mind as I plan my pages. BTW, great name!

Pauline - Oh YES. Layers ... I think I've started to dream in layers. Is that possible? :)

My actual final product is going to be two-fold. I want to use my video editing software (iMovie) to create a movie that includes the scrapbooking pages I create, as well as comments from family members and music. I'll burn it to DVD so Mom can watch on her TV. I also want to create a photo book that includes the scrapbooking pages.

[Pauline]

Oh yes, it's possible to dream in layers. As a matter fact I don't like to work on a project and then go right to bed without reading or something first or I seem to be 'working on it' all night in my dreams and wake up exhausted! :o

[Teacher617]

I'm just finishing up a week in Boston at my mom's home, and I've collected probably 300 photos that I'm taking back to AZ with me to scan and possibly include in my mom's birthday scrapbook project.

I am wondering if anyone can suggest an efficient workflow for me as I scan and save these photos. I need to use them in both PSE 4 and iPhoto 6. The ones I don't end up using in the scrapbook project will still be included on a CD for my sisters to see.

I have already used the PSE ability to scan more than 1 photo at a time, then separate them. When I save the digital files, I'm wondering if there is an efficient way of naming/saving for easy identification and access later on. Is the Bridge software of use here? I have little experience with it.

Thanks for any tips you might be able to offer to help me organize my photos from the start!

Tricia

[Wendy]

Hi Tricia ...

First I scan in as many as I can get on the glass. For this example lets say I had 4:

I open the image in Elements
and then duplicate it 4 times (one for each photo and that gives them all different names)
After that I just crop from each scan and save using save as.

Seeing that the duplicates all have different names it savse me changing the file name each time and I don't have to change the save location either.

(The built in divide doesn't seem to work that well with old photos. ...)

After I have done that I work on each photo and import them into iPhoto once everything is finished :)

Wendy

[Teacher617]

Thanks, Wendy. I'm eager to get home and really get started on this. I can't believe some of the great photos I've found! I really appreciate your help. :)

Tricia

[apasskey]

Before I found digital photography and Elements, I made an enormous heritage album using hundreds of pictures from my grandmother's attic. Some were from the 1880's. I tried to do the pages in chronological order the best I could. The most meaningful thing I did, according to everyone who saw the album, was I included the names of everyone in the photos (that we could figure out) and the approximate year or decade of the picture - oh - and where the picture was taken. It took quite a while and lots of help from family members to accomplish this but it was worth the effort.

Do lots of journaling - stories and descriptions. You can get them from relatives. Most pages had 4 - 6 pictures.

A family tree page is a nice thing to include.
I made smaller copies for immediate family members.Your family will LOVE this. Have fun.

Andie

[msbrad]

Best of luck with your new task. You've received great advice thus far. My only addition is to enjoy what you are undertaking and do not fret. It will be cherished by all.
m

[GaryK]

Tricia

Not knocking PE for scanning.
I have been using Irfanview for batch scanning. Not sure if there is a Mac version.
You can set up a directory, set up the numbering/naming process and just scan away. I also made a template and taped it to the scanner glass that way my photos were always in the same spot and I didn't need to preview them before saving.:)

[Teacher617]

Excellent tips! I was able to fit all of the photos in my suitcase to return to Arizona. I have a few things to finish up (minor stuff like laundry, groceries) and then I will get started.

Gary- Just checked, no version for Mac. Great idea on the template; I will definitely do this!

msbrad - I do feel a bit stressed to make this all come out beautifully ... thanks for the reminder that enjoyment is key!

Andie - I think the stories will come on the day of the party. We will invite those in attendance to share what they love about Mom, funny stories, etc. I hadn't even thought of a family tree - thanks for the suggestion!

Tricia