Ethnic Scrapbooking

U.S. President Scrapbook - Inaugural Activities

On January 20, 2009 we were high on inauguration fever around here.  Here are a few shots from our activities.  We stayed home, it was too cold and too crowded to take the kids downtown to witness the most historic moment in our lives to date.

 

We had this display on our kitchen table.  The kids understood the symbolism behind each element...I was so proud.

Red, White & Blue - American Patriotism

Wine (Sparkling Cider) Glasses - to toast the new President

Cake - celebratory food

Container of Cotton - (straight from a Georgia cotton field) represents the back breaking work of our ancestors

Heritage Photo of our slave ancestor - giving honor to the many who planted the trees in which we now enjoy the shade.

Book - Martin Luther King Jr. biography (Leah read three this past year) In dedication to the one who mobilized America with his DREAM.

Card - Photo card with Joseph  on the front to inspire him to one day be the President of the United States.  (I made these to mail out since I didn't send out Christmas cards...e-cards are so impersonal)

 

This display was in our front hallway...It will stay up until President's Day and we'll had our Presidential biographies to the table.  I got this idea from the displays at my local library.  This reminds us to re-read the good books we already have in our home library.

44th U.S. President Scrapbook - Part 5

The weekend before the inauguration, I spoke to an eager group of scrapbookers at an "Obama Crop". As I wandered the room and looked at everyone's pages (yes 100% of the attendees were working on an Obama scrapbook for their personal libraries), it reminded me to clarify what I am doing in my OBAMA SCRAPBOOK.

My Obama Scrapbook is not a re-creation of his career or life story, it is meant to be a memorable album that documents my family's remembrances of the historical event of the nomination and election of the first African-American President of the United States.

Everyone (regardless of  race, ethnic background or nationality) around the world has some thought or opinion of this momunmental historical event that should be preserved for future generations.  Don't let the 30 second sound bites of just a few media outlets be the only memory for friends and family to read years from now.

Okay, with that said, it's not that I don't care about his rise to the Presidency, I think that other historians and journalists have done a very nice job of mass producing books, magazines & videos of his life story.  I, on the other hand, want to memorialize my family's thoughts and feelings about this whole event. I want to relate some of our personal stories and events to Barack Obama, to the political process and to our life in the Washington, DC metro area.

Here's a idea for a page layout I intend to create:

Title:  Attending the Inauguration of Barack Obama

Photo:  Our close friend, Dr. Avant and his invitation and tickets

 

   

Some possible journaling ideas: 

• Discuss how I should have requested tickets through my father's congressman. 

• Discuss how Dr. Avant did request tickets of his Florida congressman and received them!

• Tell the story of how other friends got to sit behind Oprah at the inauguration. 

• Cut out a newpaper clipping about those who had tickets and still get onto the Capitol grounds. 

• Discuss how sad I was that I couldn't take the kids, but how Aunt Candy was there and couldn't see anything, but could hear the speech and was stuk in the crush of the crowd for hours.

Do you see how I'm making a personal connection to the event?  Please share in the comments how you are making connections to this historical event. 

Preserving the odd stuff

Being an avid scrapbooker, I'm asked about how do I scrapbook the odd stuff.  Stuff like political buttons, magnets, greeting cards, postcards, brochures, programs and such.   Here are a few tips:

The small things that are flat are pretty easy to deal with, you just add them to a scrapbook page.  Some of the larger flat items like greeting cards can be a bit more troublesome.  First, I do not try to save every greeting card that crosses my threshold, unlike my Grandmother who has hundreds if not thousands that she has saved. 

Holiday Cards - I use a square punch and keep just a portion of the card, if it's from an older relative I keep anything handwritten, sometimes I'll keep the front of the card and dispose of the back.

Birthday Cards - I save most of the cards loose in sleeve protectors, including any cash they receive, it's a nice treat for the kids to find later on.

Greeting Cards - I can't fault those who have large collections, this is how scrapbooking really got started before photography became affordable.  Folks kept greeting cards they received. In the ashes of my Grandmother's house fire, I was able to salvage 4 bins of scrapbooks, boxes, photo albums, newsclippings and stamp collections. What I was able to transfer to safety rather quickly were her postcards and loose greeting cards.  Although both are in varying lengths I was able to store them in photo boxes.  That way she can touch them and read what's on the back.

Other Post Card and storage of greeting cards/report cards and etc.  CLICK HERE for a collage of some other storage methods.

Folded Items:  If you can manuever it, place your scrapbook page in a sleeve protector, mark with a photo pencil where you can slit the protector so that the card or folded item can be accessed. Remove the page, insert chipboard, old magazine or cutting surface and use a blade to cut through just one layer of the sheet protector.

   

44th U.S. Presidential Scrapbook - Part 4

I've created wall canvases of my kids and highlighted the character qualities that they have, so I did the same for what I thought should be in a President...but an a smaller level (a 12"x12" scrapbook page). Here's what I came up with:

 

For more close-ups of this page, see the Obama Scrapbook in the sidebar.  Once again, the photo was from the internet, it just screamed "LEADER" to me.

Portuguese Water Dog for the Obama's

The Sanford's have been praying for the Obama's to select a Portuguese Water Dog to take with them to the White House.  We too had allergy issues here, but frankly just couldn't find a breed that was big enough to handle to traffic in and out of our house without getting crushed to death.

Porties or PWD's are an excellent choice for the First Family.  We've had our Sierra Leone for over a year and she is an absolutely beautiful animal, perfect for girls who want to give a dog constant love.  The best thing about this...only the Obama's will appreciate this is that you use Black Hair Care products on them...NO LIE!

They love the water, their hair is silky to the touch, they are big enough that no one will step on them, yet small enough to cuddle at the foot of your bed.  Grandma will grow to love'em too.

Here are some shots of our Portuguese Water Dog, I understand all the shelter talk, but the bottom line is that the animal has to be the right fit for your family and your lifestyle.  Our dog travels everywhere with us.  For more tales of our Portie,CLICK HERE

 

 

Sierra loves to fetch the ball and love to ball of any kind, especially soccer.

 

As her name implies...she's a water dog.

Obama Crop - Scrapbooking Event

Do you want to see my Obama album in person?

I'll be doing a presentation at an Obama Crop this Saturday, January 17, 2009.  Learn about what to do with those Magazines and newspaper clippings you have been saving.  Going to the inauguration, get a list of photo tips to take along with you.

Jan 17-Obama Crop....Have you started your Obama scrapbook yet? This would be the perfect event to get started. Have you started projects or scrapbooks on 2008 and never finished? This would be the perfect event for you. Time: 9am - 5pm
Location: Comfort Suites Laurel Lakes Hotel, 14402 Laurel Place,
Laurel, MD 20707 Fee: $35...What do you get?: breakfast, lunch, a goodie bag, make-n-takes, vendors, classes and door prizes.
To register email Graciela Pinder memoriaspreciosa@yahoo.com

44th U.S. President Scrapbook - Part 3

Maybe this should have been Part 1, but I usually just start scrapbooking and then figure out how to put it all together later.

This is a very special album, one I hope my kids fight over.  Since this will be an on-going album (at least for the next four years, God-willing) I'll share my start-up process with you.

Normally, I don't engrave my albums until they are done, but this is one that will hit the shelf next week.

 

I chose this older Creative Memories album, and engraved it myself (yes, I am hardcore, I have my own machine).  I like the quality, love the "executiveness" of it and pray that I get to meet Obama and put my photo with him on the front cover (hey it might happened, I've already been to one presidential press meeting in the last year).

   

I have a small stack of pages that are either in process or done, I try to always digitize them before putting them in the albums.  I'll be either sliding them into CM portrait sleeves or trimming them down to fit right onto the CM hinged pages (for those of you who wanted to know).

My focus on the pages is how I, we, my family feels about the new President, it's not a biographical depiction of the Obama's, there are enough books out on the market for that.  I want to record our experience, not repeat media sound bites.

 

Here are my stack of newspapers...I sprayed them with Archival Mist by EK Success.  More on this process later.

   

Scrapbook Papers...totally an optional piece, I first thumbed through all of my current stash of papers and then picked up a few sheets in the stores, only if they fit my theme (I am not an enabler).

 

Here is my small collection of photos I've started to print using my brand new Epson Artisan 800 printer.  I've created a folder on my laptop to house the photo collections I'm sent via e-mail and copied my personal photos related to this whole experience to the same folder for easy access.

 

Lastly, is my stack of memorabilia, stuff I collected from the election, stuff I printed out from Obama's website, and my voter's guide check list, that helped me make my decision (way more on this later).

A New Camelot

I wasn't born when the Kennedy's came to Washington (at least to the White House), but the sense of excitement upon their arrival, is probably similar to what's going on in Washington right now.  The kids are excited and full of questions, so we are focusing on American history this week at home.

So today, I took the kids for a ride along the inauguration parade route this evening...it was exciting just to see the miles and miles of port-a-johns everywhere.  There were lots of folks driving around just taking photos like we were.  We even stopped and got our Obama wear from the street vendors early...here's a tip, take cash, plenty of ones...they do take visa, but it's a slow process.

 

I got this playset for the boys this Christmas and I love watching Jonathan just play with it for hours.

NO LIE!! the dog ate my homework

My fabulous loveable middleschooler had two weeks to work on a project and of course waited until 7:45 pm the night before to say she needed supplies from Office Depot AND the grocery store.  Finally, around midnight her compound was complete, made out of popcorn balls and skittles, (there's only about $8,000 of scrabook materials in my studio...but no...she needed every supply from outside the house...I take that back, she did use the Cricut machine).  No biggee...Dad this project is for you.

9:00 am the day the project is due, she runs to print out one last thing for the poster board, returns five minutes later and yes...the (overweight) Portuguese Water Dog that she loves so much ate the popcorn balls off her project.

NO LIE!!! I had to send a note to her teacher that the dog ate her homework. (Yes, Pam as you can see there stil is never a dull moment here)