Ethnic Scrapbooking: Q&A - 50th Birthday Celebration

In my last newsletter I offered a new column idea, simple really, you ask scrapbooking questions, I answer them in either my blog or newsletter (sign up is to the right).

Marilyn Asks:

My brother turns 50 this Dec..I want to scrapbook his baby pictures with some journaling of course. .Any ideas how to best do this?

I have pictures of him as a musician also, not many. He writes and has his own band --his off time, his first love..

Does one do decades or how best to approach this?

Lisa Responds:

Fabulous question Marilyn, a frequent question asked of me at this time of the year. Glad you are getting started early. I would suggest a "Tribute" Album. The size of the album is determined by the amount of photographs you have. For instance, I prepared such an album for my Dad's 65th Birthday and I used an 8 1/2 by 11 inch album because I had minimal photographs, but a fair amount that represented different phases (or decades) of his life.

Although I did the journaling, I incorporated notes, cards and letters from family and friends. I did this by mailing out small (4x6 inch) sized scrapbook paper and asked folks to jot down a well-wish or memory about my Dad. I asked for copies of photos, because I didn't want the stress of returning originals (although I did in one case). I did this 2 weeks out from the date, any longer folks forget, stress and sense of secrecy and urgency.

Where there are no photographs of a specific event or time period, substitute stickers or embellishments related to that situation. Since it's for his Birthday I would put the album together in chronological order and when finished, scan the pages and create a Power Point presentation if you are going to have a party, I would definitely make copies of the pages to keep one for myself or give extras to his children or your parents.

As for photoshopping (re-touching) the photos, it's up to you. I had a graphic designer "modernize" the photos (on the left) of my dad and it looked great, but I kept the original too and still use it in it's crackled state.

Check out the scanning, printing and restoration services of www.harborscrapbooking.com I saw a variety of their work this weekend and even used some of their equipment and I am very impressed with their products.

As with any project, don't wait until the last minute to get started:)