Hello Friends,

Welcome to Part 2 of Scrapping Your Family History!

In Part 1, Scrapping Your Family History: No Photo? No Problem!, we looked at how to scrap a family history page when you don’t have a photograph of your ancestor (use maps and documents; take a picture of a family heirloom; focus on locations and occupations; and so on). In today’s post, I’d like to showcase some of the different styles you can use to bring your family history pages to life.

When I first started scrapping my family history, I had a very traditional paper scrap approach indeed. Here’s my first family history layout, created in 2007. Were you looking for some patterned papers? You can find them on this layout, LOL!

I still love a traditional paper scrap look, which is basically my scrappy comfort zone. However, thanks to the influence of the TLP designers, Pollys, and scrappers, and to the inspiration of the TLP challenges, I’ve learned to be a little more restrained in my use of patterned papers! And I’m also — and also thanks to TLP — learning how to incorporate different styles and techniques to make my family history pages more fun and fresh and interesting.

Whatever your style, you can adapt it to make beautiful, visually compelling, and informative family history pages. Let’s take a look at some of our many options…

Pocket Scrapping

While pocket scrapping is most often used for everyday pages about contemporary life, you can also use this style to create a family history page. This approach is a great way to display some small, low-resolution photos (as in my sample above) which aren’t large enough to be the central focus of a 12 by 12 (or 8.5 by 11) page.

Iowan’s gorgeous page includes 6 photos, along with pocket cards, patterned papers, and loads of artsy touches (messy stitches, paints, stamps, and so on). The pocket page design is contemporary, but the feel of the page is vintage, and richly evocative of her family’s past.

Artsy/Mixed Media

And speaking of artsy, I have to say it was very difficult to choose a couple of sample pages for this style: there are so many beautiful and creative family history layouts in the TLP gallery, many of which use mixed media elements to turn photos and journaling into, well, works of art.

For this beautiful page, CharlotteM used the same photo in triplicate, with a large version blended into the page background. The black and white color palette, with little bits of pink and gold, gives the layout a dreamy, ethereal quality. A gorgeous way to feature a treasured family photograph!

cfile’s tribute to her Great Grand Aunt Cora is an absolute stunner.  If you follow the link to her gallery (by clicking on the LO above), you will see the original black-and-white photograph, which cfile carefully recolored to create a painterly portrait that is just so soft and pretty and natural-looking. The blended background, bits of lace, and touches of red all perfectly complement the portrait.

Clean and Simple

Are you a minimalist who favors a clean and simple page design? You can definitely make this style work for a family history page, and especially to highlight a beautiful or intriguing family photograph.

QuiltyMom’s page represents elegant simplicity at its best. The focus is very much on the photo, while the floral cluster at the left draws the eye toward the informative and heartfelt journaling beneath the photograph.

meterr’s page is simple and stunning. I love how that little strip of washi tape picks up on the floral pattern of her subject’s dress. Sometimes less really is more!

Photo Collage

If you’re lucky enough to have multiple photos of an ancestor, or of a branch of your family, a photo collage is a striking way to display them.

Lillyia’s photos are carefully arranged (but carefully arranged to look as though they’ve been casually scattered) along the left side of the page, leaving plenty of room to journal an interview about her grandmother. What a beautiful tribute page!

With multiple layers of photos and ephemera, Pachimac’s page has a lovely vintage vibe. Like Lillyia, she arranged her photos along one side of the page, leaving lots of room for her fun and fascinating story — which includes an encounter with the Canadian Mounties!

Newspaper/Newsletter

If you have a lot of information to convey, and especially if you have a dramatic or scandalous story to tell, a newspaper style can be a lot of fun. Now, I have to admit, these two layouts were an awful lot of work, and not something I would undertake every day! But I had a great time using Lynn Grieveson’s wonderful Family Newsletter Templates to document a “black sheep ancestor” story, and my family were thrilled with the results (I have a family history blog where I document this story at some length, but it’s the journaling on my scrapbook pages that family members actually read and remember!)

There are so many creative and unique ways to document your heritage, using any number of techniques and styles, whether alone or in combination. I hope this post has given you some ideas for scrapping your own family history. And if you’re looking for more ideas, the TLP gallery is your best source of inspiration!