Class Idea - Opinions Needed

[Meg]

I was looking through my scrapbook pages recently and realized that something was missing. My kids’ artwork and stories! Everything is from my perspective and all the fun things my daughter brings home from school just get filed away. Incorporating the treasures of childhood is a little more difficult in digital than in paper scrapbooking, but it’s so important.

What would you think of a DSU class that would actively involve the children in your life? From using their homework for journaling to actually giving them the camera (or maybe a disposable one and having a disc made;) ) and helping them to design their own pages, I’m picturing a fun way to get our families involved in our hobby.

Please share your opinions on this so DSU staff can see if there’s enough interest to develop a class. Thanks!

[nekobus]

I love this idea! I've only been scrapping for a short while, but I already have it on my list of things to accomplish (someday) to take all the kids projects that I've been saving and make them into an album. (get rid of the actual volcano, and just have pictures of it)

I'd love to introduce my kids to scrapbooking as well. But I think I need to learn more first. You've given me something else to add to my list.

[BethyNixon]

Since I have a HUGE bag of crafts sitting on top of my cabinet stuffed full of crafts from my son's first year at school - - um, YES, I'd be interested to see how I can make them more than just a big bag of stuff!

Especially since my son has SO enjoyed his first year and the crafts are such an important part of it for him. I definitely want to figure out a way to make those part of my pages so they'll last forever!

[d2vasquez]

Great idea Meg! I have already incorporated many of my girls' stuff in my paper layouts. I have just not done so in my digital ones. One of my favorites is a drawing by my oldest she did about the 911 tragedy and the journaling was her view of what happened. Nothing I could have wrote or created would have matched what she did. I have also used many of their handwritten notes/spelling tests/stories or status reports from school in layouts too. But honestly, I am not really sure how they would translate in digital.

However, a suggestion for a class or project is something we did for a class assignment last year in my daughter's school was an ABC book - A would be for whatever a you have in your life (relative, food, etc) and so on. I cut out little journaling strips and my daughter handwrote something about each letter and then picked pictures that corresponded to her page. It was really fun especially trying to figure unique things for each letter. The funniest was the letter X which was our "X-tremely embarassing moments caught by mom" - and we put a few of her pictures she really wished I hadn't taken. I had a blast doing this but was proud to watch how creative she was with colors, papers and ideas. This could be done digitally and you can scan in the handwriting if you want or type their words. HTH.

[shazzt]

Great idea Meg - I love including Callum's art work on my pages - and it takes up less space digitally!! I just did a layout where I included Callum's art work and writing from his first year of school:
Year One (http://www.digitalscrapbookplace.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=76469&cat=500&ppuser=1660)
It is certainly not one of my better layouts design wise (LOL) but I wanted to make sure there was a reasonable coverage of his work. Callum even wrote the title and his name and self portrait with my tablet!

[Timmysmum]

Meg what a great Idea.... I would love to do a combined digital/ paper scrapbook I really love Sharons layout above but the thought of scanning all that stuff to put on a digital page sort of freaks me out.....lol would definately appreciate a class to help me organise and give ideas.

[shazzt]

Instead of scanning them, you could photograph them - that is what I did on the layout above. You could even photograph your child holding their art!

[Timmysmum]

Sharon... durr yes photographing would be quicker....... thanks for the tips......some great ideas....... do you have a class formulating in your brain ????

[shazzt]

Thw only thing formulating in my brain at the moment is whether we should have some wine with dinner tonight (i'm thinking "yes" - LOL).

[debra8898]

LOL.... so well put!

Thw only thing formulating in my brain at the moment is whether we should have some wine with dinner tonight (i'm thinking "yes" - LOL).

[Stacey42]

I like the idea. My boys are still a year & more away from school, but I have a lot of their painted artwork that it would be interesting to do something with. Right now I just take pictures of the finished things & occasionally scrap them. A class on it might help me actually be ahead of the game when the time comes :)

[Lauren]

Ive also used Hannahs artwork in a layout - her very first recognisable painting was made into a layout which is here in my gallery - http://www.digitalscrapbookplace.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=145 - There is even a kit for it in the store -- http://store.digitalscrapbookplace.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=527 and Kim has an even better one -http://store.digitalscrapbookplace.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=2097
I think a kids art work challenge seems like it would be well received

[Debb Cozzi]

This is a wonderful idea Meg. My middle son has asked for a digital camera for his birthday. I am so excited to be sharing my hobby with him and also getting his perspective and take on things. He is going to be making his own scrapbooks but has also assured me I can 'borrow' some of his photos for my scrapbook layouts! :) As far as incorporating their artwork and classwork at the end of each year we pick-out their favorites, take photos and add layouts to the "School-year" books I have made for each of the boys.

[mary5704]

The first message in this thread mentioned getting the children themselves involved in the scrapping. This is doable. I teach enrichment computer classes to children in several afterschool programs. Right now I am actually doing a digital scrapping class with a five year old and two seven year olds. Adding papers, tags, etc. that you would get in a kit is no more difficult than adding clipart. They quickly catch on to inserting the graphic, resizing and repositioning it.

A software program like Printmaster or Printshop can make interesting word art and title text. Those two programs also have the ability to draw shapes as well as straight and freestyle lines (which I have used in a cartooning with shapes class). You can recolor graphics to a certain extent. You can group objects and arrange the layers. There is also a simple, but decent photo editor. Papers and other kit pieces can be "cut" by using the cropping tool in the photo editor. The only real gripe I have about these programs is the drop shadow which is too big. Even the smallest drop shadow makes things float.

Both of these programs are reasonably priced, and if you go back a version, you can get it very cheaply. I just bought Printshop 20 for $10 a few weeks ago.

HTH,
Mary

[Meg]

Mary, that's exactly what I was envisioning. Not just documenting our kids' artwork, but involving them in the scrapbooking process. My (almost) five year old loves to take pictures and draw, and she tells wonderfully imaginative stories. She and I are working on a couple of pages together, and since I know I am always looking for new projects to do with my kids, I thought maybe others would like some help in getting started as well.

I appreciate all the feedback! Keep it coming!

[LauraK]

Meg,

I think you have a great idea there. They teach paper scrapbooking classes for kids now, so why not for digital? They are learning so much about computers at early ages that this would fit right in. I loved keeping a journal when I was little and this would have been a blast for me as a young teen or teenager or want-to-be-a-teen (9,10?).

My 5 year old has my really old digital camera now and he takes lots of interesting pictures of his toys and his parents (yikes!). It would be great for kids to have an outlet to do something with these photos. He made a flag for his room the other day on either PBS Kids or Nick Junior and had a blast getting it printed out to hang up (with help from Mom and Dad of course).

I don't know if all the school year artwork, school photos, team photos somehow fit into that class or if you meant to keep that as a separate subject.

Hope that helps,
Laura

[ArtcTiger]

Let us know you if you decide to do something like that... its a terrific idea. Didn't I see mention of a digital certification class through DSP to teach digital at scrapbooking stores? A guy that used to work for my dh taught PS through the extension office through the university where they have computers for everyone to use. Both of these classes could be taught this way!

[shazzt]

Angie Pedersen wrote an excellent book called "Growing Up Me" - a very worthwhile reference for anyone wanting to scrap with their kids. It is paper scrapping based but the ideas she has are just as applicable to digital - if not more so in this day and age! I highly recommend it!

[Donut]

I think it would be a great idea! My 9 year old already does some paper scrapbooking, and has had a go with digital too - (she did a page on me first thing in the morning - and no, you won't be seeing it in my gallery!! Lol!!!) It is amazing how quickly kids catch on, she used photoshop no problems, I didnt even know she knew how to resize etc, but apparently they use it at school!!
I also always wonder how to preserve all their school work, art work etc, at the moment I just have big boxes for each of them that get crammed fuller every year! I keep thinking of making an album with it all, year by year, but it hasn't happened yet!:o I think the main reason is the daunting thought that with the 3 kids put together I have a total of 26 years worth of stuff!!!!!:eek: Mmmm...no wonder my garage is full!!!

[Judyy]

Super idea, Meg! My 9-yr-old niece came to visit last November and after I sent her dad some of the LOs I'd done with photos of her and her siblings, she was chomping at the bit to learn how to do it. She had some photos from our visit to Disney World, and had a great time fooling around with them. It surprised me, though in retrospect, I guess it shouldn't have, that she's so computer-savvy--I should have realized that kids now have grown up with computers and to them, it's not much more complicated than turning on the TV.

We tried both paper and digital and she really seemed to like the paper scrapping better--the texture and dimensionality, I think, appeal to her. But I have an older niece--15--who's digital all the way. It's a personal preference thing, just like it is for us.

So when you think about what ages to gear your class for, you might want to think about suggesting it for teens as well.

[Meg]

Thanks everybody, for such great feedback!!

Judy, I absolutely had thought of teenagers, too. I was picturing a variety of "assignments" that could be chosen based on the ages of the kids.

All this input is so great, I'm getting some fun ideas! If Team Digital decides that they don't want to do a class like this, I will organize a challenge later in the spring. I've already recruited my preschooler to do some pages!

[Judyy]

I've already recruited my preschooler to do some pages!

Careful about those child labor laws. We don't want to read in the paper about MommyMeg's digi-scrapping sweatshop.;)

[~sarah~]

How ironic i was going to start scrapping my daughter's paintings. I think it is an awesome idea :D

[Carla]

I used my grand daughters Fridge art in a layout for Stacy's February challenge. I think its a wonderful idea, Meg!

http://www.digitalscrapbookplace.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=74566&cat=500&ppuser=38829

[Jennyrae]

I started photographing my kids art and 3-d projects some time ago. With four kids there is never enough room to give all their work proper justice.
I use them as screen savers, kids love to see their work.

Since I upgraded to PSE4.0 my 8 yr old tookover my HPCSA and has started her own pages.

Id love to do LO with my kids!

Jennyrae

[Emma]

I think this would be fun to run as a challenge for a few months so you can get feedback, info, ideas as you're writing. Also, a 2 week class might be suited to this as well. Sounds fun!