Family Matters October 1999

This month, I'm going to try something new. Until recently, there has been a real lack of good heritage idea books. Now, there's a new one by Keeping Memories Alive, Portraits From The Past, and a new one coming from Creating Keepsakes. This month, I'd like to tell you about the one from Keeping Memories Alive.

Portraits From the Past, Memory Page Ideas is created by Laurie Capener and I'll tell you now, I like it.

This book is not geared towards preservation issues. They are mentioned and the supplies they use in the layouts are safe, but primarily, this book is about the designs. While there are comparatively few I would copy myself since I have my own style, there are great ideas for using a variety of embellishments. I felt inspired by many of the ideas.

Each section of the book is focused on one particular technique or type of tool Everything from decorative scissors, to different types of punches to rubber stamping is included. The layouts are clear and easy to see, since there are only, at the most, 4 layouts on each page . In fact, the clarity is one of this book's great selling points.

Some of the techniques are ones more experienced scrappers might be familiar with - like dry embossing or using velveteen paper - but there are fresh ideas, too. Photocopying fabrics takes on a whole new dimension in a heritage album, where it is decorative as well as historical.

Some of these ideas inspired me with new ways to use tools I already had. The ideas using border punches will certainly find a home in my albums - and not just the heritage ones. I like that aspect of this book in particular. I realized I had a lot of potential left in what I already had, rather than feeling that I needed to buy lots of new tools to start.

I also enjoyed the way they used the very easiest of embellishments, like die cuts and stickers, to enhance heritage pages. It seems that a great deal of the more beautiful heritage pages out today intimidate the beginner scrapper. That's ironic, since I know from my classes that many people only get into scrapping to do their heritage pictures; but I think that beginners should be able to look at this book and find a variety of things that they can do.

Overall, I enjoyed this book and recommend it highly to my students and to you. I like the style, the clarity and the imagination behind it. My only criticism is that few of the layouts show more than one picture. That helps demonstrate the ideas more clearly, but may mislead the beginner into thinking it hasd to be that way. But overall, this is an excellent and much needed reference.