Instructions for Creating Your Own
“My Family Book”
Written By Vicky Anderson
Edition Revised Friday, February 27, 2009
How to create you’re own “My Family Book”. A Family Book is the perfect place to showcase and protect your precious family photos, heirlooms, and memories, they are a wonderful way to document your family's history and create a lasting gift for future generations. Traditional scrap booking versus digital scrap booking, they are essentially the same except traditionally you must have everything physically there to put together and create your book. Digitally you can collect freebies online, turn your own items or clipart images into digital scrap booking embellishments. The files you create can be used with other programs to create slideshows, use as desktop images, or to print multiple My Family Book scrapbooks to give as gifts. See my instructions for scrapbook freebies. Of course there is no right or wrong way to do this but having a checklist will help. It is a good idea to get other family members involved to split the work and share the joy especially with the family cookbook and memorial pages. Once you get your book the way you want it you just make copies and share with your loved ones. I absolutely love my family book; I use it often for recipes but find myself just browsing through the family pages because I love them so much Gather information: If anyone in your family has done or even started a family tree, scrapbook, or cookbook these are time savers and the perfect place to start. Talk to others in your family to get as many old family recipes, and stories as possible. Start with older relatives first, they will not be around forever, they know more about your parents, aunts, and uncles as children and because they are a wonderful resource of wisdom and knowledge. Some family information you can just copy and some of it you might want to put into the template pages. Family mementos such as birth and marriage certificates, report cards, old letters, family recipes, clothing items, and a lock of hair can also add interest to a family history scrapbook. Smaller items can be incorporated into a family heritage scrapbook by placing them in clear, self-adhesive, acid-free memorabilia pockets. Larger heirlooms such as a pocket watch, wedding dress, or family quilt can also be included by photocopying or scanning them, and using the copies in your family heritage album. Gather Photographs: Find as many as possible, from boxes, attics, old albums, and ask your relatives. Look for great old photos with or without people in them. Pictures of old houses, automobiles, and towns are great for adding interest to a page. You also have the option to have pictures made from slides and old home movies at a relatively low cost at your local photo store you can
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scan small objects like a favorite toy, or personal item and save as an image. Just lay it on the scanner and leave the lid open the background will be black making it easier to cut out with the gimp and save as a png file to use as an embellishment. You could turn a child’s favorite toy or your grandma’s heirloom silver brush into a clipart file to use on scrap book page. Again there is no right or wrong because what makes you feel good inside will more than likely make your family members feel the same way. Decide on the chapters of your book: Create a tentative “Table of Contents” to use as your inspiration and your checklist. Don’t worry about specifics you will probably have to change this as you go to accommodate your project. I basically split mine into two parts the family pages and the cookbooks. These are the chapters I used in my book are Family: Genealogy pages, memorials, words of wisdom. Cookbooks: Idaho 2006, Texas 2005, Texas 2006. This year I plan on adding family stories, memorials, and a page for each of my grandchildren and I will add one every year. Start creating pages: If you are a newcomer to word processing and writing in general you may want to check out the Microsoft help files for the basics of opening and saving files, adding pages, clicking edit and then undo to erase mistakes and that sort of thing. Open your new document and name it for easy saving throughout the process. Save often you will not regret it. Start creating family pages as far back as you have information and add sections for memorials for family members passed, maybe a section specifically for veterans. Special recipes from family members are a wonderful thing to pass down to your children. Get Organized: As you begin to accumulate photos and materials, work to organize and protect them by sorting them in archival safe photo files and boxes. Use labeled file dividers to help you divide the photos into groups - by person, family, time-period, life-stages, or other theme. This will help make it easy to find a specific item as you work, while also protecting the items which don't make it into the scrapbook. As you work, use a photo-safe pen or pencil to write details of each photo on the back, including the people's names, the event, the location and the date the photo was taken. Then, once your photos are organized, store them in a dark, cool, dry location, keeping in mind that it's best to store photos standing upright. Assemble Your Supplies: Gather everything you want to use in your book; personal documents can be scanned and used in a page to share in all your books. There are beautiful papers, and digital elements for scrap booking offered free
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online. You can sign up at one site and follow links to 10 to 15 coordinating mini kits giving you plenty of background papers and buttons, bows, and other assorted extras to put together with your personal documents, pictures, or other items you want to scan and include in your pages. Create Pages: Start putting onto paper the stories, memorials, recipes and other information onto the pages of your word document. Put the information in the order you want the pages to print. Scanning and organizing on the computer in a word document will allow you to create pages and add as you go until you have everything you want in your book and once your pages are perfect you can print your books as you need them all in order and ready to assemble. If you want to print double sided to save paper, print according to printer instructions. Don’t forget to add pictures to make your book even more special, try digital scrap booking to create these pages. I love it. Digital or Traditional Scrap booking Step-by-Step
JUST A THOUGHT: Digital scrap booking is easier and cheaper than traditional scrap booking because everything can be found online free. If you need a picture of a certain item then Google it and click the link at the top of the page for images and you have your choice of whatever items you need just right click and save. Make sure they are large enough to blow up. These can easily be turned into clipart with the photo editing program of your choice; mine is The Gimp and it’s free.
After gathering the photos and memorabilia for your family heritage scrapbook pages, it’s finally time for the fun part - to sit down and create the pages. The basic steps for creating a digital or regular scrapbook page include: The instructions where written for traditional scrap booking but everything you can physically do you can digitally do even better. The idea is the same and the instructions easy to understand. Follow the same steps just do it digitally in The Gimp or your favorite photo editing program. When you are done save them in jpg, bmp or other image word will recognize and make the image the full page in your book document. A scrapbook photo page is perfect with a memorial page or autobiography, or even just a story about a family member. Select Your Photos - Begin your page by choosing a number of photos for your page which relate to a single theme - e.g. Great-grandma's wedding. For a single album page layout, select 3-5 photos. For a two page spread, select between 5-7 photos. When you have the option, use only the best photos for your family heritage album - photos which are clear, focused, and best help to tell the "story." If a photo that you wish to use in your album is torn, scratched, or faded, consider scanning in the photo and using a graphic editing program to repair the cracks and clean up the image. The restored image can then be printed and used for your family heritage album.
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Choose You’re Colors - Select 2 or 3 colors to complement your photos. One of these may serve as a background or base page, and the others for matting photos. A variety of papers, including patterns and textures, are available which can serve as beautiful backgrounds and mats for family heritage scrapbooks. You can create your own background papers by photocopying precious family heirlooms (such as a bit of lace from your grandmother's wedding dress). If using patterned paper or a photocopied image for the background, then it is usually best to matt photos with plain papers to help them stand out from the busy background. Crop Photos – Scan family originals into a photo editing program to crop your photos. I would never physically crop an original. You may want to keep background images in some photos for historical reference, in some crop a specific person or item in others. Cropping templates and cutters are available to help you crop your photos in a variety of shapes. Decorative-edged scissors can also be used to trim printed photos Mat Photos – Digitally this means add one of the cool free frames you found online to accent your photo and theme of your page. For traditional scrap booking matting means to glue a photograph on a piece of paper (the mat) and then trim the paper close to the edges of the photograph. This creates a decorative "frame" around the photo. Different combinations of decorative-edged scissors and straight scissors can help provide interest and help your photos "pop" from the pages. When including original photographs in your scrapbook, it is always a good idea to attach them to your page with photo corners rather than glue or other adhesive options in case you need to remove them or make additional copies. Arrange the Page - Begin by experimenting with possible layouts for your photos and memorabilia. Arrange and rearrange until the layout satisfies you. Be sure to leave room for titles, journaling, and embellishments. When you are happy with the layout attach to the page using acid free adhesive or tape. Alternatively, use photo corners or a corner slot punch. Always assume that memorabilia is acidic, rather than finding out the hard way. Use a deacidification spray to deacidify book pages, newspaper clippings and other papers, and enclose other memorabilia in acid-free sleeves. Add Journaling - Personalize your page by writing down names, date, and place of event, as well as memories or quotes from some of the people involved. Called journaling, this is probably the most important step when creating a family heritage scrapbook. For each photo or set of related photos, you should include who, when, where, why, and what. When journaling, be sure to use a waterproof, fade resistant, permanent, quick drying pen - preferably black as
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research has shown that black ink best stands the test of time. Other colors can be used for adding decoration, or other non-essential information. Add Embellishments - To complete your scrapbook layout and complement your photos or documents, consider adding some stickers, die cuts, punch art, or stamped images. Stickers add interest with very little work on your part, and help give your page a polished look. Die Cuts are pre-cut shapes cut from cardstock, available in many sizes and colors. Solid die-cuts also make great spots for journaling. Be sure to select die-cuts made from acid-free and lignin-free paper. Punch Art, the process of using shaped craft punches to cut various shapes from cardstock and them combining those shapes to create completed works of art, is another easy way to add interest to your family scrapbook pages. I use sheet protectors and a sturdy binder to put together my books. Kids love these books and I wanted my grandchildren to know their family. I also included family recipes and this is also kitchen friendly, I am going to have to split my book into a family book and a family cook book because after this year it will continue to grow. I plan on adding a few pages per family member per year so my children get into the habit and hopefully carry it on for their children. I already have 4 children and 7 grandchildren so I foresee making quite a few pages every year. Get creative and have some fun.
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Helpful Free Programs: PHOTOGRAPHY EDITING PROGRAMS I use these programs to get photos ready to use in print projects and to create digital scrapbook pages which I use as desktop pictures, slideshows, and in emails to loved ones. The Gimp is the best free photo editing program I have found. It is comparable to Photoshop and has all the tools to challenge even advanced users but simple enough that with a few short tutorials you can have a lot of fun editing and layering photos, add some text and an embellishment or two and produce some beautiful digital scrap book pages to use in your family heritage book. There are a few extra files you might want to install including the tutorials and others for animation. You will see the options on the install page. I am reasonably new to this program but have fallen love with it and find new ways to use this program every day. TIPS AND TRICKS FOR THE GIMP 1. GO HERE TO GET THE GIMP FOR WINDOWS: http://www.gimp.org/windows/ 2. Read a few tutorials and learn how to “open as a layer” the images you will use to create your page. I read the first two before starting and go back occasionally to learn new things. There is a lot of helpful information on this page http://www.gimp.org/tutorials/. There is a lot of help on this page. I bookmarked it for quick reference. 3. When starting a new page I usually choose the 1600 x 1200 because it is big enough to use for my desktop and to print 8 x 10 pictures. There is a choice for 8 ½ x 11 pages to print scrapbook pages I like that size because they fit into sheet protectors and a regular binder. 4. Saving your images in the correct way is important, in the right format for the use intended and in easy to find folders. I created a folder to save my unfinished scrapbook pages in, I call it “in the works” and I save these in gimp’s xcf format to be able to edit them whenever, single images I save in png to use as embellishments or layers these are kept in a folder called “scraps” inside that they are sorted into folders using the web site or the artist’s name they came from for easy reference, and finished images in jpg
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format in a folder called “my scrapbook pages” to use on my desktop, in slideshows, to print for family scrapbook pages, or email. To save as a jpg image you must first flatten the image. Click on image at top of page then scroll down to flatten image. Then save in whatever format and location you choose 5. To put text on your page go to filters at the top of the page, then select text at the bottom of the list, then click on the page and a text box will pop up. You will have the choice of any font (style of text) you have in your C:\WINDOWS\Fonts folder. If you haven’t added extra fonts to this folder you might want to go to the sites that offer free fonts and choose some decorative looking fonts for free and unzip them to this folder I keep my free font zip files in a folder that I back up often in case I have to reformat my hard drive I don’t have to find them again. I spent an entire rainy day browsing through and choosing the ones I liked I reap the benefit every time I need some really pretty text for a headline or cover page. 6. To remove the background of a picture. First you need to make the background all the same color. Choose a color that is not in the picture, the lime green of a green screen works well. Use the bucket fill option or by coloring it in with the pencil tool. After all the background is one color click layer then transform then add alpha channel. You won’t notice anything just go to Tools then selection tool then select by color Click on the green background now it will look a little different, go back up to click edit then clear. Your background should disappear. If you have a hard time learning “The Gimp” you might want to try FxFoto. Click below to download a FREE copy of Triscape FxFoto photography software. The free Standard Edition has an impressive array of features, including complete support for importing, organizing, fixing, annotating, e-mailing and printing all of your digital photos, all without charge. This is the complete application, though deluxe collage features must be unlocked with an upgrade and creating movies in the Creative Media Edition upgrade requires a small additional download. I do the advanced stuff with the gimp program for free. I use this free version and it is great. It is the quickest and easiest way to do basic editing of photos like cropping, cloning, and saving your image in the png format. Saving in this format allows you to use your image with “The Gimp” http://www.fxfoto.com/sddownload.htm Picasa2 works just as well as FxFoto for basic cropping and will allow saving of the black and white or sepia filters that FxFoto will not but it does not have the
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filters that allow you to posterize, or turn your photo into a hand drawn looking graphic. Try them both they are free! http://picasa.google.com/ *Here is a great tip! Anything you can view you can on your screen you can make into an image file to use or print as needed. This is helpful if you use a trial version and it won’t let you print some thing (like the filter effects in fxfoto) but it will allow you to view it on screen. You can save it as an image file and print anyway. 1. While you are on that particular page or screen you press ctrl and then print screen you will capture the screen. Move the cursor away from the part you intend to crop for your image because when you capture the screen you capture all of it and will need to crop the part you want to keep such as the image or text in word. 2. Pull up your paint program from windows accessories and click on edit and then paste at the top of the page this will pull the window in as an image name and save it. 3. Open that image up in a photo editing program like fxfoto and crop the image as needed to make it look good and remove the other parts of the screen you captured. Saving in jpg or png format works well for layering in the gimp program. I use windows XP I hope it works for you if you have a different version of windows.
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Go here to get help and start your family cookbook. http://www.desktopcookbook.com/signup-input.asp?sutype=Personal DesktopCookbook enables you to: - Add & modify your recipes - Email recipe recommendations - share with friends and family - Add our featured recipes with just a click - Add a recipe sent you to by another member with just a click - Search recipes based on Keyword, Category, Subcategory, or Equipment - Rate & Review your recipes and featured public recipes - Create, Save, & Email full menus w/ your favorites - Keep your recipes private or feature some publicly - Print your DesktopCookbook including custom cover, spine, and tabs
Ancestral Quest™ is an exciting Windows program that makes it possible for anyone to do genealogy! It is easy-to-learn, fun to use and packed with powerful features. The trial version works fine and does not expire you just cannot do some of the advanced things but I used it to create and print personalized family trees for each member of my family. If you click on a name from the name list it shows the family tree starting from that person this is very cool. http://www.ancestralquestonline.com/updates/getlatest.asp?demo=1
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Free graphics to enhance your pages: I can not give or sell these; you must go to the sites and get your free copy for your own noncommercial use. I recommend you make a new folder in my pictures for the free borders, backgrounds, and graphic embellishments you will find to use in your projects. Most sites give you permission to use for your own projects take advantage and collect lots of graphics you can be more creative if you have lots of fun things to include in your pages. I have fallen in love with digital scrap booking and recommend these pages for finding wonderful freebies to collect and use in your new projects. This is a top rank page meaning they list all the best sites. A good starting page and where I found some of my favorite spots including my top two favorites. Bookmark your favorites because the list changes. http://www.digiscrapboutique.com/topsite/ My favorite digital scrap booking site is http://www.freedigitalscrapbooking.com/ there are wonderful freebies here digital elements, tutorials, and beautiful samples. I have this bookmarked and visit frequently! A+++ Another really good one is Scrappy Pony Design. They have a long list of freebies lower right hand of the page. Really cool stuff. I downloaded most of them and check back often for new stuff. http://horseshirts.blogspot.com/ Scrap Girls has a beautiful newsletter that has tons of wonderful information and a freebie in every issue. See them at http://www.scrapgirls.com/
I find great inspiration at http://backgrounds.picaboo.com/Backgrounds/ I like the way they put patterns together to create the backgrounds.
Regular graphic sites! You can use these graphics in the gimp to make the background transparent. Open the gimp, open the clipart you want to convert, click on the icon that looks like a wand with a light at the end it will read (select continues region) when you
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scroll over it. Use your mouse to draw around the edges of the part you want to keep. Click on edit, copy at the top of the page, open a new page and paste. You will have just the cutout image, save it in the right format and place to use later. When you are saving the image in the options one that is automatically checked off for you is “save background color” click the box to uncheck the “save background color option”. This will give you a transparent background and looks great layered over other pictures. I absolutely love this website for graphics; I use them on my own webpage and for personal printing, they are one of the few sites that ok limited commercial use as long as you give them the credit they so richly deserve. They also have adorable desktop backgrounds I use them all the time. A+++ www.graphicgarden.com Cute country clipart of small children and bears. http://www.cutecolors.com For scrapbook pages or maybe recipe pages. See the food section. http://www.barrysclipart.com/barrysclipart.com/showgallery.php?c at=147&thumb=1 The border I used on my bible inspired family genealogy pages was a free sample from this page: http://www.diyawardcertificates.com/site_examples.asp . The best memorial page frames I found were here, the page did not work but the borders did. I tried to create the page on the website and email them to myself, but it did not work so I copied the borders to my folder and used them my way. The webpage author said items on page where not to be copied for commercial use but my book was definitely personal use just like yours will be. http://www.last-memories.com/index.php?co=notices
HOW TO USE THE FREE GRAPHICS To use these just right click and save them to the folder you made for them or wherever you can find them again. Pull up the document you want to add it to. Place your cursor where you want to insert the graphic on the page or at the top of the page for borders. Click on insert at the top of the screen, from the pop up menu choose picture, then from the next pop up choose from file. Find the border or clipart of choice and click on it to insert. Don’t panic if it doesn’t look like you expect, just right click on the graphic and choose format
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picture. Set the size as desired, layout should be set at behind text and centered this makes it easier to move or resize your picture. If you have any problems or questions email me at Vicky@www.myfamilybooktemplates.com
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Custom Text or Word Art You will find that you may want to create custom text or word art for your projects and I have shared my tip for using Microsoft word and fxfoto to accomplish this so now I want to share a great place to go to find the best fonts for free. Another Good Tip! Just like you did for your pictures and other elements create a folder in your documents for the zip files you will download to get your free fonts. Go through the pages and save whatever you like to this folder I saved a few hundred. Concentrate on the fancy or themed ones because they will look good for large text and you already have easy to read ones in word. After you collect all the ones you like close the browser window and open up the folder you saved the free font zip files in. You should see all the files on the right and on the left side an “extract all files” icon, click it and then click next, you will see “extract the files to” and a place to type. Type in the bar C:\WINDOWS\Fonts and then click next. This should unzip all the files into the correct folder to use in Microsoft Word. I didn’t do this the first time and wasted a lot of time. Plus this is a great folder to back up because if you crash your hard drive and have to reformat this will save you doing this all over again to get them on your next hard drive. Free fonts at http://www.1001freefonts.com/index.html
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Supplies List Sheet protectors (Best deal OfficeMax $11.99 box of 200) Plastic Binders, look for “Slant D” binders they are the best!!! Paper (The cheapest place I know is Wal-Mart $2.97 for 500 sheets.) I live Pocatello Idaho; I hope the supplies are comparably priced at your local stores.
What is a Slant D binder? See picture below.
This type of binder allows pages to stay flat and the cover folds over them.
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