Heritage Scrapbooking - Preserving Your Family's History by Jennifer Gormly

Heritage scrapbooking is valuable and rewarding way to create a visual record of your family's history for yourself and your descendants. We all have old photos and memorabilia lying around, but very few of us have detailed records of who people were or why they are important. Creating a heritage scrapbook is your chance yo make sure those memories are never lost.

Heritage scrapbooking requires a little bit of pre-planning. First you need to decide on the scope of your album. How big and extensive will it be? Are you trying to feature your entire family tree or perhaps just one branch? Keep in mind how much time you will have to create your album. The bigger the project, the more time you will need.

Also consider how much of your family tree (and your partner's family tree) do you actually know? Write out everything including birthdays, places of birth, marriages etc. If you find there is a lot of information missing, start asking around various family members. They may be able to fill in a lot of the gaps for you. If not, there are several family heritage websites around that you may like to consult.

Gather together all your information, photos and memorabilia. It is now time to start planning your album pages. Organise everything so that you know what you would like to appear on what page. If you have too many items, set some aside for another heritage scrapbooking project. Similarly, if you do not have enough, ask other family members if they have anything they can contribute.

Now it's shopping time! You will need scrapbooking papers, cardstock and embellishments like stickers, rub-ons and die-cuts to help you finish your album. Typically heritage albums feature a lot of browns and old vintage-style designs, but if this is not your style, choose something that is.

No matter what style you select, make sure EVERYTHING you use in your heritage scrapbooking projects is archival (in other words acid and lignin free). Also consider using copies of your old photos as the originals have probably already started to age and come into contact with unsafe materials. Using copies will enable you to protect them and everything else in your album.

For more free ideas and tips for successful and fun heritage scrapbooking, please visit http://www.stickersnfun.com/heritage-scrapbooking.

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