Scrapbooking and Fab Photos

Way, way back in the day (right after I got back off my mission), scrapbooking came to my attention as a new and popular kind of crafting.  When I went to my MTC reunion one of the elders had a scrapbook of his mission (done by his mother, of course), and it inspired me!  I actually attempted to make a scrapbook out of my mission pictures-- though I only made it through about the first three months.  (I have no idea where that half-finished project ended up-- I've gotten married since then and moved about six times.  Maybe my mom has it somewhere?)

Later, I had a little money and a whole lot of nothing exciting to do (living in Sanders) so I decided to make scrapbooks for Terence's parents, who almost never get to see the kids.  The one for Terence's mom I did in a three ring binder, the idea being that I could keep sending her pages as the kids grew and she could add them in.

Seven or eight years later this is still what she gets for Christmas presents.  A couple of years back I gave up on the paper-and-glue version of scrapbooking (I don't really enjoy the process, not being a crafter-- and those supplies are expensive!) and switched to digital scrapbooking.  I'm not very good at the digital version either, but hey, it goes faster!

This year along with my sometimes blurry candid shots of the kids I had some amazing professional photos to work with.  But I learned quickly that my cheap (i.e. free) digital scrapbooking software couldn't handle professionally edited photos without making them look very weird indeed.  So I have been trying to make digital scrapbook pages from scratch using GIMP (a free digital photo editing program).  I've used the program before (I did the cover for Corizen Rising myself) but apparently making a book cover and importing digital scrapbooking embellishments is a whole different enchilada.  I've spent quite a bit of the week debating banging my head on the keyboard in hopes that it would make it work.

However, perseverance pays off.  I finally finished today, hooray!  Grandma's pages will be ordered from the printer tomorrow and should arrive in plenty of time for me to wrap them up and ship them off for Christmas.  Since Terence's mom rarely, if ever, checks out the blog, I figured I'd share a couple of the pages, proof that it is possible for a middle-aged dog to learn new tricks:

The key to snazzy scrapbook pages is definitely to start with some fabulous photos.  Ours were taken by the lovely Sarah Atkinson, of Moments Defined Photography.  Sarah has done our family pictures before and she has an amazing eye and mad editing skills.  Check her out!