Scan It!

If you think back to origins of the word “scrapbook” you quickly remember back to your mother or your grandmother saving scrips and scraps of paper and other items and adding them to a book.  When I was a child I used to love looking through my mother’s wedding album…looking at all the newspaper clippings, wedding invitations, napkins from the reception. I just loved that the little details of her day were preserved for me to look at.  As I grew older, I was a pack rat and saved everything — every movie theater ticket stub, every note from a boyfriend, every receipt from a fun day.  Seeing this little scraps made the memories come to life.

As digital scrapbookers, we often miss the opportunity to include these pieces of our story.  We are so devoted to our kits and element packs that it is easy forget about the real thing.  Now I don’t know about you, but one of the things I love most about digital scrapbooking is that my pages lay flat. Adding in “real” items to my pages will make everything big and bulky.  And sometimes, I want to keep the original so I can’t just add it to a scrapbooking page (think college diploma!) So, in order not to miss out on the “real” things, I scan them!

Early on in my scrapping days I scanned often. One of my very early pages included the covers to my daughter’s “potty books” — the books we read together while she “waited for the potty to come.”  The books are now old and falling apart (four kids later) so I love that I have them forever saved through scanning. That and the fact that I still have them both memorized! Oh, and please excuse the poor design of this page…I made in over four years ago!

Since we have moved house a lot, I have also gotten good at scanning in kids artwork so that it doesn’t all have to move with me! Again, an older page.

I was so inspired by some of the pages from our team that now I want to scan everything!

This layout, by Ana, includes her daughter’s hospital bracelet from when she was born.

This layout, also by Ana, totally blew me away! She scanned in the hair from her daughter’s first hair cut!  Isn’t it AMAZING?? Ana had this to say, “Although I feel that in this case the real hair would be better (of course I still have it kept in a keepsake box!), I did this layout about the first haircut my daughter had. I scanned the plastic bag in which the hairdresser put her curls. It was a bit hard to do the extraction and recreate the transparency of the plastic, but anyway, I think the result was nice.”

Rachael has also been scanning stuff in for a long time.  This layout, from 2006, includes the ticket stub to a Red Sox game.

Dúnia made this gorgeous layout with a scanned letter from her family.  What a precious keepsake!

Jacki is a scanning queen!  She says she uses her scanner all the time — from ticket stubs to artwork.  Check out these incredible layouts!

Layout by Jacki — daughter’s artwork

Layout by Jacki — letter to the tooth fairy

Layout by Jacki — boy scout badges

Here are some ideas of things that would be great to scan:

• ticket stubs
• birthday invitations
• special cars or letters
• covers of favorite books
• pregnancy tests
• diplomas
• recipes with mother/grandmother’s handwriting
• theater programs
• packaging to favorite foods
• pieces/cards from favorite games

Want some tips on scanning?  See THIS SITE.

Happy scanning!