The Vintage Scrapbook - nine creative
ideas for using vintage images in your scrapbooks
Scrapbooking is a way of life, and a way of preserving treasured
memories for your family and friends. There are many
excellent websites devoted to the craft of scrapbooking, and many more
books, so we
won't attempt a comprehensive instruction on the process. We
have a bias, you should note, for hand-making virtually everything.
Why buy stickers and pre-printed papers when you can
create your own?
Vintage images are
naturals for scrapbooking. They provide instant artwork to enhance your
photos and memorabilia. They capture a moment in time; the
essence
of an occasion or
an
emotion. And they lend perspective; verifying that
the important
things in life don't change over time.
There are many ways to use vintage images in your scrapbooks.
Here
are nine ideas with sample pages, instructions and free image
downloads.
Use
the full image as a centerpiece.
A vintage image captures a moment in time, and a feeling.
A photo, postcard or advertisement can be
incorporated to set the theme of your scrapbook page. Our new car sample page
captures
the day Paul bought his first car. The central
image
is a vintage photo of a young boy, circa 1900, proudly driving his toy
"Tin
Lizzy." We also offer some ideas on incorporating other unusual
memorabilia into your page.
Enlarge
an image to be a background.
Many images lend themselves beautifully as backgrounds.
Choose a snow scene for a winter page. Create a
romantic setting with a Valentine image as the background. Display your
baby's
first Christmas photos on a background of Santa and children.
In
our example we used the timeless symbol of the stork to herald the
birth
of Pamela Louise! Ribbon and button embellishments are the
finishing techniques here.
Cut
out "scraps" and use them as
embellishments.
Cutting out small illustrations and pasting them in books and
on
objects was a major pastime for Victorian women
- the pictures were called "scraps" and that's where we got the name
for scrapbooks. Many vintage postcard
scenes include comical figures, holiday symbols, good-luck
charms, happy
children,
animals, and more. Resize and print them from your
computer
and cut them out with manicure scissors.
Our sample page celebrates Roger's
football
victory using a scrap from a vintage football
postcard by F. Earl
Christy. Our "pigskin" background technique is one you'll
want to try.
Create frames
or borders from
the images for pictures or text.
Many vintage postcards were designed with fanciful decorative
borders. Resize them on your computer, cut
out the center, and you have an ornate vintage frame for your photos or
text. As an example, a week's vacation
on the
Caribbean
island of
Anguilla gets a tropical scrapbook treatment with beautiful shell
design photo frames. This page also has some interesting
texture
and material ideas (yes, that's sandpaper on the beach!).
Use
vintage written sentiments as
an inspiration for your journaling.
Long before Hallmark,
postcard illustrators included sentimental verses and messages with
their pictures. You can use these verses as the start of your
personal journal of events. We found a lovely children's
birthday
greeting to set the mood for our scrapbook page for Ella's 1st birthday
party. Cake was a BIG issue! We also
offer you some
tips on
making a successful photo collage.
Borrow
the colors from an image to set
the palette for your page.
This is perhaps the most useful role of vintage images in scrapbooking.
Choose an image that entrances you with colors, bright or subdued, or
even a strong black and white picture. Use those colors in
your
background, framing, borders and texts to create a harmonized,
coordinated presentation. Our example shows how powerful that
can
be. The Christmas
postcard is illustrated in
bold colors of
red and green, with metallic silver. Just by chance - Tim,
Marc
and Becky were wearing the same colors! Here, we also give
you a
technique for making your own simple rubber stamp!
Alter
vintage images with paint, ink, rubber
stamps or other treatments.
"Altered art" is very hot these days. The concept is simple;
take a basic image and start adding mixed media techniques such
as painting, foiling, cutting, folding, rubber stamping, embellishing
with decorative objects, embossing, burning -whatever pops
into
your head. Altered images often take on a new meaning; comic,
ironic or nostalgic. We chose one of the most basic
altering techniques for our sample scrapbook page; hand-tinting a black
and white illustration. This wedding
page also features some
embellishment tips using paper lace and ribbon.
Let your photos
"interact" with the vintage images.
Okay, this is our favorite page.Three beach scenes
illustrate how Millie and Bea have shared a long friendship and a
love
of the ocean for over 40 years. The two bathing beauties in
the vintage postcard could have been them 100 years ago.
Might even
be. For this scrapbook page, we also show you ways
to make
distinctive backgrounds that reflect your photos.
Create
a collage of vintage images for visual impact. Clustering
"scrap" images can lend color and excitement, or a nostalgic aura, much
like wandering through a cluttered antique store. This page celebrates
Linus' first day of school,
and we love the lineup of Victorian school children across the bottom
of the slate-like page. The blackboard effect is easy with black paper
and a white paint pen!
These pages are designed for 12" X 12" books, but the ideas can be
adapted for any size pages. We recommend scanning or
photocopying your
original photos, both to protect the originals and to allow
easy
cropping and resizing on your computer. Non-acidic papers and adhesives
will give your scrapbook a longer life.
If
you want to learn more about scrapbooking, either as a beginner or a
seasoned "scrapper," I want to recommend a leisurely visit to Everything About Scrapbooking.
Fiona has compiled a wonderful resource, with ideas for layouts and
design, tips and techniques, journaling, video tutorials and quite a
bit about digital scrapbooking. Visit her Contact Us page and let her
know you were there!
