The Golden Nugget Library

About a month ago, I came across the Golden Nugget Library, which is a genealogical resource of California databases. I can't recall how I found the link or what I was looking for, but I noticed that there was a small post about needing volunteers to transcribe bios.

Since I've always been fascinated by bios, I figured it would be fun to volunteer and help transcribe. After all, who knows what I'd learn in the process? So, I sent off a note, and within a few days, I was transcribing my first bio. 

The bios I'm working on are for folks living along the northern California coast. It's been interesting to read about these people who started the towns I once lived in. Here's a sample of the original page from one of the bios I'm working on:

Courtesy of Golden Nugget Library

If you click on the image, it will take you to the transcription of the page. As you can see, the subject of the bio, Frank H. Moon was born in 1861. Most of the bios I'm currently helping to transcribe are about folks back in this time period. The book was published in 1904, so it's understandable that these people were history makers in California at the time. 

One interesting thing about working on the transcriptions is trying not to correct some of the mistakes I find, like sentence structure or missing commas. The language of that time is so much more formal, yet there is a familiarity in the writing, as if the writer of the bio is trying to make the person your friend. Nevertheless, it's been fun, and I'm looking forward to continuing the transcriptions in my spare time. I know it's giving me ideas of what I'd like to include if I wrote up a short bio of myself for my All About Me book. 

Enjoy your weekend!

Antique Memories

Most of us have old family photos that we haven't scrapped. Or, maybe you have heritage photos - not necessarily of YOUR family, but photos that you'd still like to scrap! ;)

Pick up the latest release from Crafty Button Designs - Antique Memories! With a variety of frames to use, as well as heritage photos, you can create a heritage page in no time!

Each of the 5 different packs of Antique Memories can be purchased separately at the Crafty Button Designs shop at Oscraps! And, through Sunday, you can get all of them for 20% off!

The Yellow Dresses

I had a chance today to scrap an old photo of my mom and my sister for a scraplift challenge. When it came time to add journaling, I realized that I'd never asked why the photo was taken. So, I guess I'll have to do that sometime soon!

However, here's what the layout looks like now - without the story:

CREDITS

Papers: Amor (Little Butterfly Wings); Raw Color (Micheline Martin); Winter Washed (Amy Wolff)

Elements: Fresh (One Little Bird and Sahlin Studio); My Trim Box (Valorie Wibbens); Grandma’s Dresser, Practically Perfect, A Wonderful Day and Key To My Heart (Sahlin Studio)

Masks: Torn Treasures (Pink Reptile Designs)

Fonts: SNF Miss Molly (title); Traveling Typewriter (journaling)

Oh, and if you're wondering about what the original looked like, you can view it here.

I Wish I Remembered This Little Girl

Today's challenge: a freestyle page. This means no rules whatsoever. I never know how to approach this kind of page except to think of it as an art journaling page. Unfortunately, I didn't have anything I wanted to do in particular, except for some old photos of myself. So, I took a liberal interpretation of freestyle and just created a page with the photos using whatever I wanted. I'll admit it was a bit of a stretch for me, and I had trouble since I don't know how to do shadows very well on dark backgrounds. I still like the end result.

CREDITS

Papers: Black & White: Paper Basics (Michelle Godin Designs)

Embellishments: Text On a Path: Fun (Sahlin Studio); Build Your Own Butterfly (Pink Reptile Designs); Fresh and Worn (One Little Bird & Sahlin Studio); Black & White: Labelled (Michelle Godin Designs)

Brushes: Misty Paint (Lynne-Marie)

Fonts: Lauren Script (title); Myriad Pro (journaling); Traveling Typewriter (date)

What I really loved was being able to do something with these photos that weren't very good to begin with. Using brushes, I was able to just get the good parts of the photos. I also had fun using the text path and throwing some "fabric" trim on the page.

I guess the freestyle for me was being able to use a bunch of different techniques on one page. However one interprets freestyle, the main objective: have fun with creating! 

Mary, Mary

I don't have a lot of old family photos - I mean ones of my mom and her siblings growing up. In fact, I have exactly one photo of my maternal grandfather, who died years before I was even born.

Of the photos I do have, I don't have a lot of background stories behind them. The memories are fuzzy, so I can only guess why/when/where the photos were taken. For example, I have an old photo of my Aunt Mary. I have no idea when it was taken or why. All my mom could tell me was that it was my aunt. Nevertheless, I scrapped it.

CREDITS

Papers & Embellishments: Memories (Blue Flower Art)

Font: Vladimir Script

Don't get me wrong. I like having the stories behind the photos. But I also want all those old photos out on display instead of buried in boxes. The great part about scrapping them digitally is that I can always add the details later, if someone provides them.  :)

Soul Mates - A Heritage Layout

In my quest to continue trying to scrap old family photos, I used one of my favorites in a challenge at Design House Digital - the 4 Play Challenge. I love the colors and elements that were selected for this week's challenge, and I think they compliment this old photo well.




CREDITS:
Papers: Splendid (Sara Schmutz); Family Gatherings (Kate Teague)

Embellishments: Sweet Life (Robyn Meierotto); Splendid (Sara Schmutz); Simply Lifted Polaroid Frames Set 1 (Angie Hinksman); Family Gatherings (Kate Teague)

Fonts: Vivaldi (title); Traveling Typewriter (journaling)

Family Heritage Month at DSP

Yesterday, when I posted the family layouts I was working on, I had no idea Digital Scrapbook Place was celebrating Family History Month on their site. Most of the layouts posted in their gallery feature photos much older than the ones I have, but I'm working on trying to get a few older ones from my grandparents completed on layouts. No matter what, at least I will have some of the family photos documented in some way!

Now, are you looking for some vintage items to add authenticity to your vintage and family heritage layouts? Check out these resources...

Courtesy of F/Stop Spot

World War II Ration Stamps from F/Stop Spot
Great stamps from 1943 scanned carefully. There are a variety of stamps available at this page. Also at F/Stop, there are high-resolution envelope covers to use as background or embellishments.

Courtesy of The Graphics Fairy

The Graphics Fairy
One of my favorite sources for vintage art! You never know what you'll find when you do a search. There are photos, labels, and art for just about anything. It's even fun just to peruse the site.  :)

Courtesy of Fenderskirts Vintage

Fenderskirts Vintage
This site has more "recent" vintage clip art. 

Fuzzimo
Not everything at this site is vintage, but there are some cool freebies, like these old air mail envelope images.






Obviously, this is not a comprehensive list of vintage resources, but just a few I've found recently or peruse on a regular basis. I hope you'll find them helpful!

Family Heritage Layouts

Over the last week, I've become focused on digitally scrapbooking some "old" family pictures. Granted, these photos aren't that old, taken in the1970s and 1980s, but I had to start somewhere!

Christmas 1986 by cyranoscrap

This particular layout showcases some old photos from our family Christmas in 1986. The photos aren't very good, but they still capture a memory that is special to me.

Credits:

Papers: Vintage Christmas (Persnickety Prints)

Embellishments: Vintage Christmas (Persnickety Prints); Scenes from Real Life (One Little Bird); Everyday Life and Serendipity (Gina Cabrera, Digital Design Essentials); The Weekender (Paislee Press)

Title: Bits & Pieces (JM Designs)

Title Numbers: Techno Girl (Pixel Gypsy)

Fonts: Pea Olson

Here's another layout of a family gathering taken at a park...

80th Birthday by cyranoscrap

Credits:

Template: Press Plate No. 19 (Paislee Press)

Papers & Embellishments: Scenes from Real Life (One Little Bird)

Font: Orator

And one photo of my mom and her siblings:

The Villanuevas by cyranoscrap

Credits:

Template: Press Plate No. 2 (Paislee Press)
Paper & Embellishments: The Weekender (Paislee Press)
Fonts: Century Gothic (journaling, date); CK Maternal (title)

These layouts may seem a little plain, but I've been trying to keep them as simple as possible since I want to put them all together in a photo book for family members to purchase. Besides, I don't know of any other family members who have documented any of these events yet. I might even decide to use the photo book as a great Christmas gift for each family. It's never too early to start thinking about holiday ideas!

Family Reunion

On a roll with old photos, I pulled this one from a family reunion which took place 10 years ago and scrapped it. I know there are a lot more photos I could use on a bigger layout, but I wanted to highlight this one. It is the only family photo we have before a lot of changes started happening in our family. 


Supplies Used: 

Papers: Neutral Krafts (Just Jaimee); Annino Solids (Michelle Martin); Scrapflower Solids (Mommyish Graphics); Urban Color (Michelle Coleman); Ooh La La Solids (Nancie Rowe Janitz); Art In the Box (Paula Kesselring); My Life (Lynne-Marie Favreau)
Template: Amy Martin
Embellishments: Readymade Journalers Everyday (Studio Double D); Paint Swatches Vol. 2  (Liv.E Designs); Stenciled Alpha (Tracy Martin); Assorted Messy White Stitches No. 6 (Katie Pertiet); You Bring the Sunshine (Eva Kipler)
Font: Traveling Typewriter

A Special Day

Designer Digitals posted a Heritage Challenge on their blog this week - one I wanted to try. Here is my interpretation on the challenge...

Project Life 2012

Happy 2012!

I have decided to finally take on Project Life for 2012. I'm not doing the entire 365 days of photos, but instead slimmed down the project to something more manageable for me. I'm going to scrapbook a week at a time - that's my starting goal. Hopefully, I'll be able to capture more of everyday life than I have in the last year, especially with the little guy growing and changing so fast. Amy decided to join me in this challenge, although her goal is to scrapbook her life once a month.

To make things easier, I'm using a 3-ring binder album from American Crafts, We R Memory Keepers photo protector pages, and Year-O-Graphy from Simple Stories. I can't wait to use my new products  - so excited to start!

Another thing I'm going to include are 12x12 layouts, as I have time to make them. I haven't decided yet if I'll include layouts of pictures taken previous years, but not scrapped until this year, but if I make any layouts of pictures I did take this year, I'm really going to try to incorporate them within the album.

Here's to keeping my scrapping resolution!

Basically Bare Goes Live!

A terrific new company called Basically Bare is open! They have cool, alterable items to use in scrapbooking or any sort of art creation. I got a chance to try out their products and created this canvas project with a picture of my grandmother:

Princess by cyranoscrap

The dress form and bird are from Basically Bare. I have other products of theirs to try out and can't wait to get scrapping with them - if the little guy will just sleep!  :)

FYI, Basically Bare is also on Facebook, so give them a "Like"!

Where Were You?

Upon perusing an online scrapbooking store site, I found a link to a site called WereYouThere.com.

Since I'm really interested in scrapbooking and genealogy, I clicked the link and discovered a site where anyone can share their memories. The memories can be related to a specific event, such as the Challenger disaster on January 28, 1986, JFK's assassination, or 9/11. Or, some folks relay memories about their first car or first love. The main idea is that everyone has a memory to share, no matter how small.

For instance, when I read through some of the memories for the Challenger disaster, I recalled that I was a freshman in college. I was in the dining hall, eating breakfast, when I saw the launch being televised on every TV set in the dining hall. So, as I ate my cereal, I watched and listened to the live report, knowing that this particular launch included a civilian teacher. Others in the dining hall felt the same shock when we watched the shuttle launch successfully, then explode just seconds later. I remember looking around at everyone else, wondering if they had just witnessed what I did. I don't think any of us immediately comprehended what had happened. When I finally walked away from the set, knowing I had to get to my first class, I was in a fog.

Anyway, WereYouThere.com has lots of accounts of personal history. It's definitely someplace where you can get lost for hours on end, just reading memories.