Featured Page - Father

This is another page for my mom's biography book. This page is about her father, Roy Albea. It's very simple, with the title coming from the pattern paper. It's a simple layout, using layered papers and no embellishments. I even created the pattern paper that's directly under the photo. I used a Hero Arts stamp, along with their 'soft pool' ink, to create paper to go with the layout.

Featured Page - School Days

I designed this layout to showcase my mom's report cards. I created copies of her cards and have arranged them in a way that they can be lifted to reveal each card in its entirety. I once again made use of inking, with my favorite chestnut color. I also created the apple, which I used to draw attention to the chipboard letters of the title.

Design Principles

For those just getting started, check out these quick tips for designing your page. ExpertVillage has a lot of great videos for beginner scrapbookers. Check out their videos here.

Featured Page - 3 Albea Generations

The small caption at the bottom reads, "one couple, six children, lots of grandchildren." I used chipboard, paint, button and ribbon on this layout. The letters were cut with a Cricut machine.

Where to Start?

One major question when getting started with scrapbooking your genealogy is: Where to start? There are so many different branches to each family tree and so many different ways to organize your scrapbook. The key is to have a plan in mind before you get started. Here are just a few ideas on how to organize a heritage scrapbook:

• Create a book about your/any immediate family. Only include yourself, your parents, siblings and possibly grandparents (think Family Group Sheet). This would be a great way to get your feet wet.
• Follow one branch per book, organized as either a pedigree or descendent book. With this book you would focus on one couple at a time, following a direct line, and not have to worry about collateral lines.
• Create a descendent book, like a Family History publication. You can include a section on the couple and then create pages for all children. From there, follow your family line, continuing in a pattern.

You might find it helpful to look over what photos, documents and memoribilia you have. You could make brainstorm a rough list of pages that you would like to make before you even get started. This way, you can see which organizational method you prefer, and place the pages in a way that make sense for you.

There's really nothing to hold you back and no wrong way to do things. In some scrapbooks, I've followed a random path up my tree, in others I've followed direct lines. Here are a few things that will help keep your book organized no matter what you decide to do:

• Tree Charts. Any time you feel that the branches are getting hard to follow, put a family tree chart into your book. I'd recommend putting a tree chart into almost every scrapbook, regardless.
• Title Pages. Whenever you change to a different surname, create a title page to mark the change. These pages work much like dividers.
• Use Journaling / List facts. When starting a page on a new person, include a biography that states who this individual's parents were.

Regardless of which strategies you use, organization is key when scraping your family tree. Scrapbooking is just another way of preserving and presenting your family tree, and if it isn't organized properly, it won't do your descendants much good.

Featured Page - Thomas in the Army

For this page I used inking, paint and stamping, as well as an Army medallion from K&Company. There are a wide variety of military products available, which come in handing for scrapping WWI, WWII, etc. pages.

Featured Page - When My Daddy...

In this page, I've used a lot of different products, in a lot of different styles and colors. I helped fit them together by giving the papers and shapes a "distressed" look. I used ColorBox's Chestnut Fluid Chalk ink-pad, inking the edges of the papers and shapes. This ink-pad is one of my must-haves, especially when creating genealogy / heritage pages.

Getting Started with Heritage Scrapbooking

For genealogists who want to start "Heritage Scrapbooking," there are many helpful products available.

Ancestry.com has partnered with K&Company to produce a line of products. These items are available in a number of places online (Ancestry, K&Co, Scrapbook.com, etc), as well as in stores such as Target, JoAnn, and Archivers. For beginners, try this kit, which has just about everything you need to get started.

Other brands, such as Karen Foster, Deja Views, Making Memories, Tim Holtz, etc., produce products specifically for scrapbooking your genealogy. Items include papers, stickers, alphabets, brads, embellishments and more. Try browsing Scrapbook.com's online store for terms such as "family history" and "heritage" to see what else is available.

Before you start shopping, browse around and see what sort of style you like. The genealogy products are often in a neutral and "old fashioned" colors and themes. If this doesn't fit your style, there's still a world of products available outside of the genealogy section. Planning ahead on what sort of pages you want to create will save you from buying a lot of products that you end up never using. Perhaps, go ahead and pick out a few photos that you'd like to start with and buy items specifically for those photos.

Also, if you're brand new to scrapbooking, make sure you've gotten together your beginner's kit!

Getting Started

I've been scrapbooking since High School. As a senior, there was a year long "Senior Scrapbook" project in english class. There were a few essay assignments, but it was really just a fun way for the senior class to collect and preserve memories. My mom helped me and we both became hooked on scrapbooking.

It seemed very intimidating at first, but there's really not much to it. Most folks already have photos, and after that there are only a few basic supplies:

• Paper
• Scissors
• Paper trimmer
• Adhesives
• Pens
• Ruler
• Cutting mat
• Album (not shown)

All of this should come in around $50. Other items that come in handy include:

• Stamps
• Ink & Paint
• Stapler
• Eyelets and Brads
• Water colors
• Stickers
• Rub-ons
• Buttons
• Ribbon
• Flowers
• Punches

Before you get started, I'd recommend looking at what other scrapbookers are doing. It might seem a bit intimidating if you've never considered yourself artistic, but everyone is new to this at some point. I recommend the community at Scrapbook.com and magazines such as Simple Scrapbooks. Resources such as these will help give you an idea as to what's possible.

Also, to protect your photos and ensure a long lasting scrapbook, look for products that are "archival safe" or "acid free."

Welcome to GeneaScraps

Welcome to GeneaScraps! Although I already run another genealogy blog, I decided to create another one. This blog will showcase my genealogy related scrapbooking.

I generally to "traditional scrapbooking," meaning that I use paper, scissors, paint, stamps, embellishments, etc. to create scrapbook pages. I do occasionally create pages digitally, but it's a rare event.

Here's a page I did today:

I made this page on acetate (clear plastic), which the entire book will be made of. It's a challenging material to work with, as you can see straight through to the next page. I used a Hero Arts stamp, Paisley Swirl, and Making Memories paint to create the background.