Your Life and Times

As you create a scrapbook about the events of your life, consider including a snapshot of what the world was like at that same time.  Let your journaling and memorabilia capture the feel and flavor of the then-present society, culture, and world.  Try to think of what you would have found interesting about your great-grandmother’s life in 1900.  

Look at the big AND little pictures.  What was happening in the world right then, AND what did YOU think about it?  What was popular in fashion, but what were YOU actually wearing?  Time Capsule pages are a journaling dream come true – talk about a way to tell the story of your life!  This is a way to create a portrait of your life as you were living it.  But it’s a snapshot with so many more layers than any one picture.  

In creating researching ways to create Time Capsule pages, I read a lot, and studied many different formats for presenting the material.  I found various lists of ideas, and compiled them all together under different headings, while at the same time looking around at my life to see what I wanted to include.  And things started to pop out at me.  More than lists of dry statistical information, I wanted to include information on things that were relevant to my life.  I would want to include information on the price of milk and other groceries because I feel like the grocery store is my second home.  I would want to include information on movie and concession prices because I love to go to the movies.  For a Time Capsule page for my college years, I would include the price of textbooks and a University of Wisconsin sweatshirt.  For a Time Capsule page of my early twenties, I would include information on who was President when my first child was born.  

I started to view my life with the perspective of, “What do I want my great-grandchildren to know and understand about my life?”  And I got so excited, just thinking about all the neat things I could include on Time Capsule pages that would really give an idea of what my life has been like as I was living it.  you could include in this kind of album, and all the cute embellishments you could use.  I kept a file folder for my ideas, newspaper clippings, receipts, and pictures.  You could also use a box or a drawer, just anything to keep in all in one place till you’re ready to put your album together.

I started with a “Who We Are” layout; to give an idea of whose portrait this album paints.  The layout should give an idea of what age everyone is at this point in time, and good clear pictures of each person.  I’m going to include kind of snapshot descriptions of each person, describing interests, favorite color, and other basic facts.  I’m also going to ask my husband and 5-year-old son to describe themselves so I can include that in the journaling.  And for this section, you could either do a 2 page spread to include all family members, or give each person their own page.  

Then I moved on to “Where We Live”, and did a lot of research here.  I’m including a lot of that research information in the handouts, trivia like the population of my suburb, and the greater metro area; the state bird, song, and amphibian, and other various statistics.  How you can make this statistical information your own is to add a photo of your own house, your neighborhood, your favorite parks.  You could journal about why you chose this house, and describe the floor plan.  You can get as detailed as you want with this one – you can include just one photo of the outside, or you could do pictures of every room.  You could also include pictures of relative’s houses, if they live nearby.  I also would include what I like best and least about living in my city.  You could ask your kids for that input too.   

Next I would look at my family’s “Daily Life.”  This layout could be presented in a number of ways.  You could show kind of a “Day in the Life” kind of thing, where you take pictures throughout the day of ordinary things like eating meals, getting ready for school, doing homework, doing the dishes – all to give a taste of what our lives are like right now.  You could also include a copy of a calendar or DayPlanner page, with one picture of each family member doing something ordinary.  Basically you’re just trying to answer the questions: “How do we spend our days, and where do we go?”  

Do you see where this is going?  Basically just look at your life and try to think about what about it might be interesting to your great-grandchildren.  Or even your children in 20 years.  What would you like to know about your grandmother’s life?  Include those things in your Time Capsule.  See the lists that follow for more ideas for things to include. 

When including actual memorabilia in your albums, you need to make sure it’s preserved safely.  Say you want to include a newspaper clipping, or an ad from the automotive section.  There are several ways to do this:  

 

You can make a color copy of the clipping and include that in your layout.  

You can spray the actual clipping with a deacidification spray like Archival Mist and include that in your layout.  

You could include the clipping in a pocket page, and cover it with a page protector, to prevent acid migration.   

You can also mount the clipping on buffered paper. If you choose the third or fourth choice, be sure to not let the clipping touch any of your photos, to prevent acid migration.  

Once you have all your photos and memorabilia gathered, you’ll want to think about how to maintain a consistent look throughout the album.  There are several ways to do this. 

You can choose one or two pieces of paper to use for borders through out the book.  The borders can be different from page to page, but there is still a consistent look because the paper is the same.  

You could choose a family of papers, like Keeping Memories Alive papers all coordinate with each other.  Then use those papers for the matting, for borders, for diecuts, for journal boxes, for titles.  It really gives the book a consistent look.  

You could do all your layout titles the same way – like all at the top left using the Frances Meyer Fat Caps lettering template.  Or all lettering stickers.  Or alternate top left with right bottom, or down one side then the other.  All these things will be things that people will know to look for throughout the album.  

To embellish your layouts, consider pocket pages.  These are great to include bulky memorabilia that you may want to pull out and look at later.  You could do a Groceries Pocket Page and include a grocery receipt, your grocery-shopping list, and an ad from the store.  There are a wide variety of food stickers you could use to decorate the pocket.  Or make food punchart!  You could also make a pocket page with travel-themed or map paper and include brochures from vacations, or a driver’s license, copy of a car title, and a speeding ticket!  

There is an entire world of ideas for what to include in your Time Capsule Album.  Just look around at your life, and consider what you want to capture in a snapshot to present to your children and their children.  And know that you and your lifetime will be remembered.