Heritage Scrapbooking

To those who know me, or are getting to know me :o), it will be no big surprise that my favorite type of scrapbooking is heritage. From the time I was a little girl, I have loved to hear stories about the "olden days" and began researching my family history when I was 14 years old. I felt like Tasha Tudor - that I was born in the wrong century. I don't have any romantic ideas about the "olden days". It was tough and I love my modern conveniences, like this computer I'm pecking away at. But still I longed for a time and place where I would have fit in more. That is probably why I enjoyed all the hours I spent with my two grandmothers.





This layout is a baby picture of my Great Grandma Beatrice Estelle Smith who was born in Carp Lake, Emmett County, Michigan in 1905. As a child I thought it was odd that my great grandmother was only ten months older than my Grandma Hopkins. I had a lot of fun doing this layout, which is the left side of a two page spread. The journaling with further information will be on the right side. I used Verena Karolyi's Tenderness kit, which I loved for the purple and green but also the flower elements. The tag comes from another kit, but I can't recall the name. I learned a lot doing this layout and ended up re-doing some of it after I learned that it is best to keep important elements 1/2" away from the edge for printing purposes.



In high school, many moons ago, I was involved in two journalism classes - newspaper and year book. These classes taught me a lot that has helped me in scrapbooking. When I taught heritage classes, I shared some of this information with my students. Most scrappers and artists tend to be eclectic. Why not? It's fun to experiment and "play" with a lot of different medium! But, when you are preparing a book (or newspaper), there needs to be some type of uniformity. This could be in the page layout, the colors, the design or other elements. Something needs to take your eye through the whole book thinking that it all belongs together as a whole. For me this is often accomplished with color.

For my Smith family, or at least the branch that goes with Grandma Bea, I have chosen to use purple and green and a cottage/shabby chic with a hint of Victorian design style. In addition to Verena's kit, I have chosen A Vintage Dream by Penny Springmann and Champs de Lavande by Teri Hanson at Digizines. You can see how they have similar styles and colors. A nice book can be made with one kit. However, I find that if you mix kits appropriately (i.e. you wouldn't likely use Victorian on one page and modern graphics on the next), this will keep the eye and mind visually stimulated with subtle differences as you move throughout the book without looking monotonous or homogenous.

Since I am new to digital scrapbooking, I wasn't sure what I would find for heritage scrapbooking papers and elements, but I am pleasantly surprised by what is out there. Most of the galleries and forums have a "heritage" section that is filled with amazing art and ideas. Some even have heritage challenges, which I would like to participate in, in the future, when I am a little more oriented with what I am doing. I thought I would list a few options here:




Digizine DigiShop is a great first stop. Teri Hanson and Jean Daugherty are incredible artists. I highly recommend Jean's Heritage Chest kits. Volume one has pages where you can fill in your pedigree and awesome tree "stamps" that make gorgeous patterned papers using blending modes in the layers palette. It's quite easy to do and if you get this kit, I will help you if you need assistance. For me it would have been worth it for the lovely tree, which reminds me of the 500 year old oak trees in northern California. The tree could be used on other papers if you did not like the papers in the kit, but she does include the papers in several color families so you are likely to find something that works.



As I mentioned above, I am using one of Teri's kits for my Smith line, but she has many other beautiful ones as well. I could drip all kinds of adjectives, drooling on my keyboard as I go through their site. They have some great sales going on right now for digital scrapbooking day, but they will not last long! While you are there be sure to check out Teri's and Jean's family heritage blogs. Be sure to check out Teri's links and layouts and Jean is currently highlighting layouts from the Heritage Chest kit I mentioned above. At the moment, each has a free gift to download too.

Heritage Scrap is a bit like the "mall" of heritage scrapbooking resources. You can stroll through the aisles and see heritage appropriate kits in several artistic styles. In addition to shopping they have galleries, forum and blog. This is where I first learned about Jean and Teri and another designer...

Lynn Griffin at Digital-Scrap-Boutique. She and Linda Cumberland have a similar style and I loved almost everything I saw there.

Dusty Bear is a charming little shop I found on the Treasure Hunt this weekend. It's worth a second look!

The Dapper Doxie is another little shop I came across on the Treasure Hunt. How can you resist a cute shop like that? She doesn't have a lot, but what she does have is nice. I have bookmarked her to see what she comes up with in the future.

Scrapper's Guide has many wonderful kits that would be suitable for heritage, including the recent October kit and one earlier this year called English Garden (June I think).

While KB And Friends is not an heritage specific site, I found lots to love there. The Little Jake collection of papers and elements have a lot of potential for heritage layouts and I chose Mother's Kitchen as a starting point for a family history/cookbook project.

Digital Scrapbook Place has a heritage section and also appropriate elements all throughout the shop. They have a lot of smaller kits too. The quality of their kits varies by designer, so look closely.

Designer Digitals has so many lovely kits. On their site you choose to look by designer. Katie Pertiet has some fun vintage childhood designs and her botanicals kits would be marvelous! I have one with her roses that I will use in pictures of Grandma Hopkins who loved anything pink, but especially roses. Several designers there have a 70s retro look - and some people scrapbooking right now - the 70s is their heritage! LOL Kellie Mize has an architectural kit and some nice botanicals that would also work well.

2Peas In A Bucket has extensive galleries. Search for "heritage" and you will have lots of inspiration.

Scrapbooking Heaven and Weeds and Wildflowers are great places to get photo realistic flowers to decorate your pages.

Jen Ulasiewicz also has photo real flowers, but look at her "stamps" ! Aren't they awesome for heritage pages?

Stone Accent Studios has a good heritage selection.

Digital Resource Heaven has some cute vintage clip art looking sets. I like the Thanksgiving one.

Well, I'm sure I've missed something, but it's hours since I posted this and now it's time to sleep! :o) This will get you started.