Staff Project: Katie's Heritage Albums

 I recently had the privilege of looking through a HUGE project completed by our very talented staff member, Katie. A couple of years ago, Katie received boxes of old photos from her mom and decided she wanted to make a heritage album. Last week, Katie presented her mom with not one but two beautiful albums detailing her family's history. Katie has created a true family heirloom -- a real treasure!

Katie used the We R Memory Keepers 3-ring binders to house her pages. The binders are very practical and sturdy, and they make it easy to move/add pages. You can read more about the binders in this post.

 This is one of the opening pages of Katie's project, which begins with the Shane family tree. She mainly used Bo Bunny's vintage Double Dot paper and the Simple Stories Documented line for her albums.

 One of the first things I noticed about Katie's albums is how beautifully she combined modern with traditional elements. When we think of making a heritage album, we often assume we need to stick with traditional, old-fashioned elements -- but that is not the case. In the photos below, you can see how Katie mixed contemporary fonts and design elements (such as the banner) with her heritage photos. This gives Katie's heritage album a fresh, stylish look.

 Simple designs and embellishments keep the emphasis on the photos and story.

As Katie created the albums, she was really documenting her family's story. She used a few pre-made papers...

...and created additional family trees using Microsoft Word.

WRMK makes divided page protectors and smaller protectors which fit right into their binders, making it easy to mix pages to match your content. As you can see in these photos, Katie made good use of the divided page protectors in her project. I love how the 4x4 square page protectors work with the small photos.

Katie found some stories in the box of photos she received from her mom. Years ago, her mom took the time to type the details behind a particular set of photos. What a treasure to be able to include this information in the album!  Katie researched and wrote down as many additional details as she could find to fill in the rest of the albums. Journaling truly makes the photos come alive for future generations.

This is Katie's favorite photo of her dear grandma who passed away a few years ago. Now Katie's children will be able to learn about her (and many other ancestors) through the pages of these albums.

Click on the collage to enlarge.

To be sure, the prospect of making a heritage album can be daunting. But you can see from Katie's albums that the finished project is well worth the effort! Tools such as the WRMK binders and divided page protectors, as well as vintage-look paper lines, make this type of project much, much easier to tackle. If you've been thinking about making a heritage album, stop in and let us help you get started. You, too, can create an heirloom which will be cherished by your family for years to come!

Thanks, Katie, for sharing your beautiful work with us. You're inspiring us to get started on our own heritage albums!

Janet