TECHNIQUE: Get your ancestors to sign your layout

[shazzt]

Many of us have examples of our ancestors' handwriting, perhaps on the back of a photo or on an official document that they signed. You might even be lucky enough to have letters or diaries. If you do, adding handwriting is a wonderful way to add a personal touch to your heritage layouts. This is a (VERY old) layout I did of my gg grandfather. I had a copy of his signature on a document and wanted to include it on my layout.
http://www.digitalscrapbookplace.com/gallery/data/8665/passporttogreece.jpg
If your handwriting is dark on a light background (like most documents), you can use the Multiply blend mode to make the light background disappear and keep the dark writing. No fiddly extractions required! If the background isn't light enough to totally disappear (or if your writing isn't dark enough), use Levels to adjust.

[Teresa]

That's a great idea!!

[Elisabeth]

No way - this is SO cool! I shall go searching for documents!

[LauraLou]

Now I am on a search of the file folders of documents to see which have signatures. I am afraid that things like birth and marriage certificates were filled out by other people. It will be an interesting search, though.

My parents' certificate of marriage - 1934 - has their signatures
Great Grandparents - 1874 - handwritten and signed only by minister
Father's birth certificate - 1907 - typed and signed by Dr.
Family Record from bible - 1873 - is handwritten but I don't know by which great-grandparent

What a fun search this is, though.

[shazzt]

I used the same technique on this page, so that I could use the caption on the back of the photo as journalling for the page:
http://www.digitalscrapbookplace.com/gallery/data/8641/oldcar_1_.jpg

[Erica]

Great idea Sharon. On the UK 1911 Censuses the householder signed the bottom of the census form, they didn't before this date, so there's another way to track their signature, it wont be the original census form of course but you can get a copy of these from online sources Like Ancestry.com which is where I do most of my research.

[Lauren]

Thats a great idea Sharon!- I will have to do that myself .
I got a signature off my g g g grandfathers will, and another off my ggg grandmothers will so I can use those

[mshawnee1]

Many of us have examples of our ancestors' handwriting, perhaps on the back of a photo or on an official document that they signed. You might even be lucky enough to have letters or diaries. If you do, adding handwriting is a wonderful way to add a personal touch to your heritage layouts. This is a (VERY old) layout I did of my gg grandfather. I had a copy of his signature on a document and wanted to include it on my layout.
http://www.digitalscrapbookplace.com/gallery/data/8665/passporttogreece.jpg
If your handwriting is dark on a light background (like most documents), you can use the Multiply blend mode to make the light background disappear and keep the dark writing. No fiddly extractions required! If the background isn't light enough to totally disappear (or if your writing isn't dark enough), use Levels to adjust.

I've done this before on layouts, but I never thought to use the Multiply blend mode. I have a filter called eliminate white, which works great if you have a white background. I'll have to try multiply next time

[Limequilla]

Sharon, This LO is stunning...I am in LOVE with it! That signature adds so much personality! It's unbelievable it could make that much difference, but it does.

[PQ]

I love that signature, too!!!!! I must find my Daddy's signature to add to his page....he had such an impressive signature.

[webfrau]

I found a series of photos labelled with the relationship to the relative handwritten on the back. I thought it would be good to do a small album of that series as if it were belonging to the photo owner. It could make a good Christmas gift.
It's slower going than I anticipated because of all the photo restoring on the way.

http://www.digitalscrapbookplace.com/gallery/data/8641/thumbs/webfrau_AliW_web.jpg (http://www.digitalscrapbookplace.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=415534&title=a-family-album&cat=8641)http://www.digitalscrapbookplace.com/gallery/data/8641/thumbs/webfrau_ArtW_web.jpg (http://www.digitalscrapbookplace.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=415535&title=a-family-album&cat=8641)http://www.digitalscrapbookplace.com/gallery/data/8641/thumbs/webfrau_GHW_web.jpg (http://www.digitalscrapbookplace.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=415538&title=a-family-album&cat=8641)
http://www.digitalscrapbookplace.com/gallery/data/8641/thumbs/webfrau_CW_web.jpg (http://www.digitalscrapbookplace.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=415537&title=a-family-album&cat=8641)http://www.digitalscrapbookplace.com/gallery/data/8641/thumbs/webfrau_CWF_web.jpg (http://www.digitalscrapbookplace.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=415536&title=a-family-album&cat=8641)

[Limequilla]

Webfrau, Those are magnificent! And the photos look fantastic, too!

Shazzt, I found a perfect signature to do this with, but his name is sort of glommed into a horizontal line -- from the signature ABOVE. I doubt there is a way to fix this, but it's only the ascendents that are affected, so I thought maybe you might have a trick.

[webfrau]

The back of my photos were like postcards so my writing often had other unwanted bits of print or sometimes other writing. I found the blend mode that looked best and then I just erased the unwanted bits, it meant I was working at quite a bit of magnification with a small brush to get rid of it but it largely worked.

[shazzt]

I have found you can do quite a lot with fiddling with levels - especially good for cleaning up a bad scan. Otherwise it is probably a matter of a bit of painstaking work as Julia described.

[anitab]

I'm new here - just found this thread - what a wonderful idea!!! I've included signatures from the back, added them at the bottom of a photo; but nothing like this - I will be trying this!!! :)

[shazzt]

So glad you found it useful anitab! It is such an easy technique but looks so impressive when you show people (of course - never mention just how easy it was!)