Memories & souvenirs: Scrap them, love them

Picture this.

Your favorite snapshots and negatives stuffed inside shoeboxes or recycled gift boxes. You declare, "It’s just temporary." You happily stuff more pictures making a solemn promise to transfer them into photo albums if and when you find time, when you retire, or whichever comes first.

Your pyramid of shoeboxes has reached an alarming peak and it is obvious that you are not winning this war. In fact, you are sinking in a sea of memorabilia and no one is throwing a line to rescue you.

First, the bad news: No one is going to throw a line and you will continue to "sink." Second, something wicked has been happening to your photos. Acid and decay have battered them. Some would be in such ghastly conditions that they resemble a vampire who disintegrated when he hit right smack into unfiltered, intense and direct sunlight.

For me, it was dismaying. The pictures that I arranged in pre-adhesive albums were stuck together in various shades of yellow, brown and rust. Time has been merciless to my photos and souvenirs.

Luckily, I discovered that there is now a way to arrest the effect of acid and decay. A whole new line of paper products is now photo-secure, acid- and lignin-free and archival safe. There is even a spray mist that can neutralize acid, protecting photos, important documents, news clippings, etc. What’s more, a tandem industry has emerged to make the restoration process fun, absorbing, creative and totally rewarding.

Check the thousands of websites devoted solely to it, captivating many hobbyists/crafters from America, Australia, Canada, and slowly catching up, Asia. (www.scraplink.com, www.making memories.com, etc.)

The mania is called "scrap booking." Nah. Not the scrap booking we knew in our elementary and high school days where we merely cut pictures and glued them on rough paper with a wax sheet separating each page.

Scrap booking today has more style and pizzazz. Photos are not only cropped (cut) but they are treated with TLC. They are matted on colored paperboard that are acid-resistant and photo safe. You personalize it by adding notes called "journaling" that in time will serve to excite your fading memory or when sun spots and large veins have but exposed your true age.

With all the new archival-safe products, your scrapbook is guaranteed to last for a hundred years. Future generations will have a personalized, tangible proof of your existence and all the happy and significant events that enriched and colored your life.

To keep the pages interactive and brimming with spirit, accessorize with stickers, chalks, colored pencils, eyelets, snaps, die cuts, charms, miniature objects and a variety of what my friend, Mary, calls, "ding-a-lings". Apart from the fun derived from embellishing the pages, the creative side of each scrap booker is sure to come out.

Leading photo companies have also jumped into the bandwagon by the introduction of related services. Restoration of badly damaged pictures to its original condition; enhancing photos, removing dark corners, changing the texture of photos to look like canvas painting or preserving newsprints and transferring them to compact discs for safekeeping. In short, technology has just about addressed every picture-taking pitfall that amateur photographers were apt to commit.

But why scrap? A Filipina based in Hawaii replied, "I discovered that I have a tremendous need to let my family and friends know how much I love them. What better way than to document our lives with photos and stories? For example, who we are, what we look like sometimes really up close, who our friends are, places, events and especially the emotions we experience. All this information is such a treasure and considering how quickly life passes us by, I am grateful to have found such a wonderful way to capture all these special moments so dear to our hearts." A 72-year-old grandmother had this to say about preserving her vintage photos. "As I glance at photos from my high school years I think, that seems like yesterday. Then I realize it was more than 60 years ago. To my children, these photos are ancient – just as my mom’s were to me when I was a little girl. I delight at the thought of what my grandchildren would think of them now."

In my case, I discovered scrap booking while on a leisurely walk around Robinsons Galleria in Ortigas. I stopped by a stationery shop called "Memory Box." Before I knew it, I was taking their in-house class on basic scrap booking and happily cutting, matting and journaling my photos away. Of course, what made it truly exciting was the fact that I had this ton of pictures of my grandson that were in urgent need of fixing. Well, I have completed two thick scrapbooks and a third one is in the making.

I scrap mostly at night after the house has gone to sleep. To keep the late night energy up, I listen to Retro music (circa ’50s, ’60s, ’70s with lots of mood music by Ella Fitzgerald, Peggy Lee and Frank Sinatra). In the new millennium, the soundtrack of my craft room is energetic, upbeat, and, "chill man chill."

My goal: Someday I want to learn to write neatly.

For all your scrap booking needs and supplies: Memory Box, Level 4, Robinsons Galleria, (tel. no. 637-4586) with a branch at Glorietta 4 (2nd level, near the Radio City music store).

For individual or group lessons: Adrienne Larocque. This talented lady conducts classes at her house and donates her fee to local charity. You may call her at 0918-3224047.

For photo restoration: Contact Brian Tan at DigiMagic with tel. nos. 637-8662, 0917-533 5283 or e-mail at digimag@info.com.ph with website www.digimagic.com

For free lay out tips and suggestions: Go to the Internet and search under "scrap booking."

Having said that, I urge you to get down to serious fun and scrap. I cannot guarantee that we will live to be a hundred but your scrapbook surely will.