magicmaker-scraps: "Roots & Wings" Heritage Kit and a Sampler Freebie

This is a dream kit. I was supposed to give this out in December as I know it will take time to do the pedigrees. But when my grandmother died last week, I was inspired to just work on it. You see, after graduating from college (more than a decade ago), my grandmother drew our family tree. I was once part of a journal/magazine publication when I was in college and she knew I can do a layout of it. She actually wanted to make a heritage book and distribute it to all my relatives. I asked for quotations for the printing but it's so expensive and I don't think we have the money for this project. But she said she would sell one of the family lands just to have this book printed. Anyway, years, passed by and soon she became too weak and sickly to work on this with me. I also became busy with my work and career.

But I did made a layout of our geneology seven years ago ( I made that in Adobe pagemaker) since I needed that for one of my subject when I enrolled for the Master in Family Life and Child Development course.

Last year, when I started doing digital scrapbooking, I made a better layout of it. I intend to complete the layout this December and give it to my grandmother this coming Christmas. My layout looks like a QP now, it has lots of blank slots for photos which I intend to get from my Lola (grandma) this November as I come home for All Saints Day. I'm planning to scan those photos to for my project. Anyway, during my grandma's wake, I asked my uncle if he knows where my grandmother put those pictures. But he said, grandma tear those photographs one day. We didn't know what got into her head that she did that--was it demetia? All those pictures where precious to her; I can't imagine her doing that. She used to show them to me whenever I visited her. In fact, she has already given some of those photos to me. But since I didn't have a scanner during that time, I returned it to her because I know she'll missed looking at them. Now, they're all gone...I hope there are some more left in her things. My uncle and his family will still look into her things now.

Anyway, my uncle said, maybe she felt bad that I returned the photos and she thought I'm no longer interested in making that long time dream project of my grandma. Oh well, I actually have some colored photopies of those pictures which I put in my project (it's cheaper than to pay for scanning during that time). I guess, I will just have to scan those photocopied photos again eventhought the quality will not be as good as the scanned ones.

I know all of you will benefit from this kit, as all of us has a family tree to make/scrap. I guess, it's every scrapper's (whether paper or digital) dream to make a heritage project/book. Since it is easy to print/have a photobook nowadays, it won't cost so much to have a Heritage Book which every family member who would want to have a copy can also have one. So, here's your kit.

I called it "Roots and Wings" from a quotation written by Hodding S: There are only two bequests we can give our children--one is roots, and the other, wings.

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I have included separate nameplates and chrome connectors in the download so that you can make your own pedigree even if you have no available photos of your ancestors. Well, that's my case, I have no available pictures of my great great grandparents. Anyway, here's the preview of some pedigrees. There are ten sets of pedigree with parents and ten individual sets with separate one for parents and siblings which is ideal for blended or step families.

Now, I would like to share with you some pointers that I personally do with my geneology layouts. If you will notice the samples below, the first one on the left does not have drop shadow or outer glow. They do not pop-out. Now, I put outer glow in the middle and a drop shadow on the last set. However, if you will notice there are also drop shadow and outer glow inside the photo frames' rim (Oh! I don't know if I'm making sense in my explation, but I hope you might get something from it, LOL--I'll try my best to explain it well).

Now, look at what I did with my layout (see LO below). I actually made a separate file for the pedigree with the picture of me and my parents (look at my photo when I was a child--I look like a boy, LOL). Then, I copy merged and paste it on the layout page below. Since all the elements, texts and the photos are already merged, when I put drop shadow and outer glow (yes, I put both) in it, it no longer have that untidy shadow/glow on the inside rim.

One more thing, if you looked at my parents photos above, they are both in sepia tone but the lighting (is it the lighting?) are different. I tried converting several photos with different tones to make them uniformed but maybe I wasn't that good in mixing colors, levels, etc. But I discovered something that worked for me. What I did here is that I made an oval shape with brownish tint. Copy merged it, paste and then, I placed one at the back of each photo (send to back). Then, I press "shift +" and the photo blended with the background color. I also did that to my own photo, that's why when you look at my layout below, all three pictures have the same tone now. Sometimes, you just have to play with or adjust the levels.