Carry a little notepad and pen/pencil in your camera case when travelling. Make a note of pictures that were taken, dates, people and interesting notes about the occasion, along the way. ~ It's a great way for a passenger to pass the time while driving in the car!!
Take an 8 1/2 x 11" or larger manilla envelope on your next vacation or trip. I had a great time stuffing away little mementos of our trip, as well as journalling notes as I sat in the car. The envelope neatly stores all the bits so that notes can be kept together and dated to be scrapbooked later.
Have children keep journals: older children can keep written journals and younger children can draw pictures of their trip and treasured memories. You will be amazed how your children, as well as others, truly appreciate the scrapbook of "family" memories. Use your notes, alongside children's pictures to give the real flavor of the trip!!
WHAT IS ACID FREE?
There are different levels of "acid free", with the highest level being "archival". Products that just specify "acid free" or "photo safe" may indeed be just above the level of being acid free, but become acid over time as they come in contact with other materials (ie other papers, finger print oils, etc ...). "Archival" quality products are not just acid free, but are also alkaline, and resist other acid contacts over time. Again, for every day photos, I may have taken the chance to use the "photo safe" products, but considering the age of the photos, I would take extra precaution to preserve the life of the photos to be able to enjoy them with others down the road!
ADHESIVES
Q. What are the best adhesives to use when sticking my photos into albums?
There are many different types of adhesives, and many different ways to adhere photos. My personal favorite is the tape split. These are small squares of double sided adhesive tape that stick to the back of your photos, and in turn have a peel off tab that sticks to the album page. They are convenient and mess free. Tape Splits come in photo safe, acid free, or archival quality. My personal favorites are Henzo Tape Splits because of their permanence and level of quality.
The Easystick is a roll on applicator for an adhesive that comes out of the dispenser as a double sided tape when it is rolled along the paper surface.
There are also liquid glues and tube glues. The Henzo tube glue that we offer tends to be a more temporary hold adhesive, which is useful for photos that may need to be removed later to be copied or moved around. This specific type of glue resemble the old "rubber cement" that we used to use growing up. Tube glue is also useful for smaller pieces that don't require a full tape split or larger piece of adhesive.
Q: My mother-in-law is trying to rescue her photos. She is coming across a lot of photos that were attached to the wrong types of acid containing paper and cardstock or attached with improper adhesives or sticky tabs and are now damaged. She has since gone to using acid-free and lignin free materials.
She has found some boxes of mounting squares, most likely from many years ago. One box says "Photo Safe." Considering some of these photos have already been damaged, I don't want her to use these old tabs that say nothing about what they contain or whether they might harm her photos more. Do you know how safe these are?
~ S.T., Brazil, IN
I can sympathize with your plight! My advise regarding the mounts is that although they may say "Photo Safe", there are different levels of "safeness". If you were just dealing with every day photos, I would probably take a chance myself and use them. But I am much more picky on the materials that I use for older photos and black and white photos ~ many of which are already beginning to become damaged.
As I mentioned above, there are different levels of "acid free", with the highest level being "archival". Products that just specify "acid free" or "photo safe" may indeed be just above the level of being acid free, but become acid over time as they come in contact with other materials (ie other papers, finger print oils, etc ...). "Archival" quality products are not just acid free, but are also alkaline, and resist other acid contacts over time. Again, for every day photos, I may have taken the chance to use the "photo safe" products, but considering the age of the photos, I would take extra precaution to preserve the life of the photos to be able to enjoy them with others down the road!
CROPPING
Q: How do you crop your photos?
~ Oshawa, On
If you like rounded corners on your photos, try a finger nail clipper ... much cheaper than a corner rounder and just as good!
My favorite type of cropping tool is the line of Fiskar scissors. I am often amazed how a regular photo can look exceptional when the edges are given a little bit of flair and elegance. My favorite Fiskar Scissor is the Colonial or the Majestic ~ classy, and yet not too over done. It can be used for a fancy photo display or a more casual layout.
My next favorite cutter would be the Guilloteen Cutter. These little cutters are a super addition to scrapbooking tools. The size is perfect for 4 x 6 photos, and for cropping mats with a straight edge. They are small and convenient for carrying, and have a clean cut edge.
PAPER COLORS
Q: Do you have any tips on paper color selection?
~ Oshawa, On
Q: How do I know which colors to use on a page, or to frame or mat my photos?
~ Burlington, On
One rule of thumb is, if the photo is dark in nature, use bright or lighter colors around it to draw out the brightness of it. If the photo is primarily lighter in color, faded or has a lot of bright colors, work with a darker color paper to draw out the darker shades.
It is really a matter of trial and error. Pick a color that you would like to enhance in your photos. Have a variety of papers available to lay a photo against. I recommend having a "Sample Pack" of the Heritage Papers on hand ( # of papers, at $ ) or a variety of Photo Cards to see which looks best against a photo. You will usually be able to tell fairly quickly what you like and do not like when you see colors up against your photos.
Q: In the album I bought it has white sheets in it do you put your pictures on that even if you are using a decorative sheet that you can buy individually. I bought a package of decorative paper to stick my pictures on, now am I suppose to take the whole sheet and glue it on the white sheet or do I just stick that sheet in a sheet protector inside the book?
~ L.G., Burlington, On
If the sheets are going into protective pages, you can do it either way! Normally, I would glue the decorative sheet onto the white for extra strength to the page. But, I have done it both ways, and saved the white scrapbooking sheet to make frames for other photos on coloured backgrounds, or for extra paper down the road! Obviously, if they are not in protective pages, then the decorative sheets have to stick to the white sheets in order to be put in the album.
Q: When you have a white sheet in the sheet protector can you decorate both sides with pictures or just one side?
~ Oshawa, On
Definitely, decorate both sides of the page! The only reason why you wouldn't would be if you wanted to rearrange your photos at some point and change the order of the pages ~ then you would have to unstick the photos and put them on another page ... but that is very seldomly the case!
ACID FREE PENS AND MARKERS
Q: Can you only use acid free markers when you are writing information down? Or can you use other markers? Why does it have to be acid free? I'm not writing right on the picture.
~ L.G., Burlington, On
The acid makes the color in the photographs start to fade over a period of time. For black and white photos, it turns the photos yellow and they dry out and become brittle and crack. By using acid free materials only, you preserve your the color and quality of the photos. I have lots of photos that have been ruined because the were with acid papers or marked with acid inks. Even if the ink is not up against the photo, it affects the paper around the photo, or the photo on the next page. ~ Always better to be safe with good photos!
BLACK AND WHITE PHOTOS
Q: My mother-in-law is trying to rescue her old photos, some that have accumulated for 40+ years in boxes. She is coming across a lot of photos that were attached to the wrong types of acid containing paper and cardstock or attached with improper adhesives or sticky tabs and are now damaged. She has since gone to using acid-free and lignin free materials.
She has found some boxes of mounting squares, these are old, most likely from many years ago, possibly 15-20 years old or more. One box says "Photo Safe." Considering some of these photos have already been damaged, I don't want her to use these old tabs that say nothing about what they contain or whether they might harm her photos more. Do you know how safe these are?
~ S.T., Brazil, IN
I have restored and uncovered old photos myself, and I can sympathize with your plight! My advise regarding the mounts is that although they may say "Photo Safe", there are different levels of "safeness". If you were just dealing with every day photos, I would probably take a chance myself and use them. But I am much more picky on the materials that I use for older black and white photos ~ many of which are already beginning to yellow and become brittle.
As I mentioned above, there are different levels of "acid free", with the highest level being "archival". Products that just specify "acid free" or "photo safe" may indeed be just above the level of being acid free, but become acid over time as they come in contact with other materials (ie other papers, finger print oils, etc ...). "Archival" quality products are not just acid free, but are also alkaline, and resist other acid contacts over time. Again, for every day photos, I may have taken the chance to use the "photo safe" products, but considering the age of the photos, I would take extra precaution to preserve the life of the photos to be able to enjoy them with others down the road!
Q: How do you remove older photos from magnetic albums?
~ Oshawa, On
One suggestion is to very carefully slide a piece of dental floss under the edge of the photo and carefully wiggle it under the photo until it is removed.
Another method of removal is to totally submerge the magnetic page and photo in water. Do not allow single drops of water to come in contact with the photo's surface, or the surface will bubble and become raised. Although I have never needed to use this method, I have confirmed with a Professional Photographer that totally submerging the page in water indeed would work. The photographs are completely submerged in water at the time of processing and then laid out to dry. Set submerged photos on a flat surface to dry. I would recommend testing this method on "extra" photos to become confident in your technique before trying your "treasures".
Q: Some papers do not look good with Black and White photos. What kind of papers do you suggest?
~ Oshawa, On
You will find that primary and bright colored papers do not enhance the look of most black & white photos. On the other hand, cream colors, shades of grey and the whole Heritage line of "country" shaded papers are ideal! I would suggest picking 2-3 different colors or shades for a spread (2 pages face to face) and laying photos out on the papers to see which shades compliment each photo. Use fancy scissors to trim around off-white or creamed colored edges of your mat to simulate the look of old fashioned photos with "deckled" or "rippled" edges. Or mat your photos on the Heritage Cardstock ~ your pages will look classic.
CHOICE OF ALBUMS
Q: Can you use any sheet protectors, ones that you would use to cover a document?
~ L.G., Burlington, On
The sheet protectors need to be PVC free. PVC is a gas that is in the plastic, and it (like the acids) deteriorates the chemicals in the photos. ~ That is why the old magnetic album pages were so bad for photos: They had acidic pages, with lots of acidic glues to create the sticky page, and the plastic had PVC gases in it, so your photos were getting a triple whammy!! Also the pages were so sticky, that it is now difficult to remove many of the photos in those pages! (Gently sliding Dental floss under the photos helps to unstick them!).
So that is why it is important to use Acid Free and PVC free materials in albums. The photos are just made up of chemicals, and many chemicals react with those chemicals to damage photos. Some really cheap albums may say Acid Free, but don't go too cheap because there are other elements in the pages that will also be harmful (ie: Lignin ~ a wood product that is also harmful). But if they are everyday photos, you may not be as concerned about being that l. I encourage people that are doing "Heritage" Black and White albums to use the highest level of Acid Free/Lignin Free materials around, because those photos are irreplaceable, and it is essential to preserve them with as much information about them as you know!!
Q: What are the differences between photo albums?
~ Oshawa, On
The type of album that you are looking for will depend on the type of Scrapbook that you want to complete. If you are working on a special Anniversary album, Wedding Album, or special occasion book, you may want to have a more classic, elegant album, such as the Henzo Album. This album is a bookbound, library style, and has glassine interleaves (like onion skin pages) between each page, and holds a set amount of photos. They make lovely completed gifts!
If you are working on an album that will be added to, or an "everyday" or "vacation" album, you may prefer a more casual type of album, such as the DF Album line, or the Artistic Memories albums that allow for refill pages to be added. These albums also have the option of page protectors, which is an invaluable addition if they are to be viewed by "little ones". Also these albums have removable pages which allow for easier access to the page while scrapbooking and allow pages to be moved around in sequence.
Aside from that, it is mostly a matter of preference. Some people prefer the large size working page that the DF Albums and Artistic Memories offer. Each of the album types offered here, including the Henzo line, are produced to allow the pages to lay open flat while Scrapbooking. And of course, all of them offered are Acid Free and Archival Quality to insure the greatest level of preservation.
