[.ca] The Complete Guide to Creating Heritage Scrapbooks (ISBN 1892127229)

Encouraging intro to family heritage scrapbooking:
Memory Makers has once again produced an attractive, helpful guide for those of us wishing to expand our scrapbooking collectionl of page ideas. In The Complete Guide to Creating Heritage Scrapbooks, we are encouraged to tackle that most intimidating of scrapping tasks, the Family Heritage Album. The CGTCHS launches with an explanation of the importance of preserving our family's historical photos, stories, and memorabilia in an archival safe environment (aka, the scrapbook album). A short introduction to basic scrapbooking tools and techniques takes up a few pages. The main body of the book which follows is divided into six sections: Daily Life (documenting/preserving those "slice of life" moments in time); Celebrations (weddings, graduations, holidays, religious events, etc.); Wartime; Across the Generations (comparing people then and now); and Portraits and Family Trees. Each section is a collection of examples of pages dealing with these themes, and instructions on the process to recreate the page ideas presented. I found them to be very appealing, tasteful and well done overall. To help supplement one's journaling, there are nice year-by-year historical trivia timelines printed on the marginal sidebars thoughout the sections, dating from 1850 to 1975. Several of these ideas will end up in my own albums. However, a "complete" guide it is not. CGTCHS provides minimal information regarding researching family geneology, organizing one's search for information and a bare two page spread dedicated to the primary task of duplicating and restoring ancient photographs. I would expect these to be the first steps in researching a family history, but commentary on these subjects is scattered randomly. Also, to my way of thinking it was illogical to put "Portraits and Family Trees" last, as a family tree would be useful for keeping one's information correct as one completes other parts of the album. Readers who intend to put a serious effort into this aspect of their scrapbooking project will need to look elsewhere. Other things I would have found helpful would have been a guide to era-appropriate color schemes and decorating themes, and more on interviewing relatives regarding their own personal histories. Despite these drawbacks, CGTCHS was a great resource for ideas and inspiration. I finished the book with fresh encouragement to start on my own family heritage album. -Andrea, aka Merribelle.