Heritage Help Needed

[ReneT]

Hi fellow heritage scrappers! Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!

I need your help. Here's my dilemma:
When my dad was fighting in WWII, he and my mom sent many photos to each other. My dad would send photos of himself, usually in uniform, to my mom, and my mom would send photos of herself and their new baby (my oldest sister) to my dad. On the backs of these photos they would write short messages to each other. I need some ideas on how to scrap these photos and include in the layout the messages that were written on the back. I just don't know how to do these photos and sweet messages justice. Any ideas? There are several photos, so I will probably need to put more than one photo on a layout. Any help you guys could give me would be so appreciated.

Happy New Year everyone! :party::party::party:

[sherryva]

I did some of mine like postcards- the picture layed out, and a postcard back peeking out from behind it (which was really a scan of the back of the photo). It allowed me to use meryls date stamps as the postmark, and I really liked the idea of having their handwriting in my layout.

I also did one like a calendar, with little photos in the boxes with captions underneath
for the months I had lots of info, and/or letters for.

The only other one I can remember, I had scattered photos on the page and a 3" column down the left side of the page with the "back and forth" dialog of the notes from the backs of the photos.

Hope that helps a little.

[webfrau]

Definitely scan the messages - if they're difficult to read you can provided a typed "translation" in the layout. If they're dated you could do it like a diary or conversation in chronological order. It would provide a wonderful peep into their lives.

[LadyCarolyn]

I see that Sherry suggested what I would do in this case. definitely think that for the sake of posterity you want their handwritten messages as part of the layout.

[Meryl]

What wonderful pages these will be - really, true scrapbooking! I love using the original handwriting on the page, I have often defined it as a brush, much easier than trying to extract (mine needed a new background, lots on that old, dark blue scrapbook paper) Good luck with your project, i look forward to seeing the results!

[sherryva]

Meryl-
can you explain what you mean when you say you "define it as a brush"? vs extraction?

[Carla]

I think she meant that you could make the handwritting into a brush instead of trying to extract it from the back of the photo.

I think it awesome that you have these photos and the little messages! I can't wait to see what you come up with!

[ReneT]

Thanks so much for all your great suggestions. I like the idea of the photo with a postcard peeking out from behind it with the scanned image of the back side of the photo and writing on it. Some of the writing is extremely difficult to read, so would definitely have to provide a typed version of what it says. Meryl, I like your idea of making a brush out of the writing too. I've only made brushes once in a DSU class. I may try that too and see if I like that.

Thanks again everyone and let me know if you have any further suggestions. I probably won't start on these layouts immediately, so if you come up with any ideas, send them my way. :love3::love3::love3:

[LadyCarolyn]

Meryl, I am going to leap in here . . . .how do you make a brush out of the handwriting?

[shawsi]

I have pictures that my Grandpa wrote on the back of. I am going to scan them and put the photo and the writing together in the layout. I plan on calling the book, "In His Own Writing."

Love the postcard idea with Meryl's stamps. So clever!

[ReneT]

I have pictures that my Grandpa wrote on the back of. I am going to scan them and put the photo and the writing together in the layout. I plan on calling the book, "In His Own Writing."

Love the postcard idea with Meryl's stamps. So clever!

OOHHHH I love the title of the book!

[sherryva]

I think she meant that you could make the handwritting into a brush instead of trying to extract it from the back of the photo.


Thanks Carla for posting that, I didn't know that could be done, but pulled out my old dsp brush class notes, and figured it out. That is going to be a handy tool for future scrapbooking.
Sherry

[ReneT]

Thanks to everyone who gave me ideas for this layout. The postcard idea worked great. I am pleased with how this turned out. I wanted to share it with you.

http://www.digitalscrapbookplace.com/gallery/data/500/thumbs/CLOSE-AT-HEART.jpg (http://www.digitalscrapbookplace.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=297219&ppuser=127754)
Close At Heart

[Meryl]

Meryl, I am going to leap in here . . . .how do you make a brush out of the handwriting?

In Photoshop
~ open your scan in Photoshop - you will probably need to increase the contrast - your goal is to have as much contrast between the handwriting and the background as you can, without overdoing it - if you do overdo the writing sort of looses character.
~ Now add a layer mask to this layer and using a soft brush and BLACK brush away any background that is still visible, if you make a mistake, change and make WHITE your foreground colour and paint back the parts you accidentally painted away. You don't have to be too picky :) just get rid of as much as you can. This step can be done with an eraser, but if you make a mistake you will have to start again - masks are MUCH easier!
~ Once you are done, Edit> define brush, your new brush will appear at the bottom of whatever brushes you have loaded, select it and you are ready to go!

Here is a page where I used this technique:

http://www.digitalscrapbookplace.com/forum/../gallery/data/847/thumbs/With-Love-Aunt-Grace.jpg (http://www.digitalscrapbookplace.com/forum/../gallery/showphoto.php?photo=261470&ppuser=24)
With Love From Aunt Grace (http://www.digitalscrapbookplace.com/forum/../gallery/showphoto.php?photo=261470&cat=500&ppuser=24)

[Meryl]

Thanks to everyone who gave me ideas for this layout. The postcard idea worked great. I am pleased with how this turned out. I wanted to share it with you.

http://www.digitalscrapbookplace.com/gallery/data/500/thumbs/CLOSE-AT-HEART.jpg (http://www.digitalscrapbookplace.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=297219&ppuser=127754)
Close At Heart

Thanks so much for pointing us to it Rene - its gorgeous! well done, I hope its the first of many Heritage pages!

[sherryva]

Wow- that came out very nicely- having the journaling really adds meaning to the photos-and your colors really add to the old world feel.

Now I am going to try to learn Meryl's stamps idea also- might be useful when I just want one photo as the focus point- she makes it sound so easy, but we'll see....

[ReneT]

Wow- that came out very nicely- having the journaling really adds meaning to the photos-and your colors really add to the old world feel.

Now I am going to try to learn Meryl's stamps idea also- might be useful when I just want one photo as the focus point- she makes it sound so easy, but we'll see....

Let me know how it goes.