Finally Finished - Big Sigh and Yeah!

[Serenoa]

Just wanted to share this moment with people who would understand -

I just finished the Family Heritage Book that I have been working on for about 4 months now - and sent it off to be printed. It is a large 11x14 book with leather bound cover and I am having numerous copies printed for my family.

My father passed away 6 years ago and my mother this past May. When she passed, I found 2 very old scrapbooks at her house that I had never seen before and boxes of old photos that I had seen. So I have spent months going through all this and organizing it into a cohesive and chronological story of my parents lives.

It was tough and emotional looking at all this, but also very comforting. I'm kind of sorry that neither of my parents will see the book - I think they would have loved it.

I have agonized over this, as there is a lot of journaling and many scanned items. I have proof read it 2 or 3 times and finally just decided to hit the "order" button and be done with it. Hopefully I didn't mispell anything. I wish these programs had a spell check.

Now that this project is done, I will have more time to work on more contemporary page layouts here at DD. I have wanted to play more with techniques, but just had to get this book done first. Thanks for all the inspiration I have received from the DD community.

[Scrapbird]

Congratulations on finishing such a large and emotional project. Your family will love it, and you'll never regret all the effort you put into it!!!

[deanie]

My first big project at DD was a Heritage book of sorts and I know how much work it is. Congratulations on finishing and I am sure everyone will be touched by your work.

[Jen D]

Congrats! What a rewarding project to complete!!!

[mugsbigsis]

Congratulations! That had to be a very emotional but rewarding ending. I know your books will be wonderful and the recipients will probably shed a tear or two. What an accomplishment. :O)

[maureenreynolds]

Congratulations. Tears are the right emotion for this project, and what an amazing journey it must have been from start to finish.

[anke]

that sounds like an incredible project, very interesting and rewarding and time consuming I'm sure. Good for you!!!

[Adryane]

congratulations on finishing your project!

[digigrandma]

What a good feeling to complete a project of this kind....I know you did a beautiful job because all your gallery posts are beautiful.

[Applechick]

Huge congratulations on completing your book - the members of your family who receive copies of this will be absolutely thrilled, well done!

Fiona

[Kayleigh]

What an amazing book to put together for your family. Congratulations on completing such a huge task!! What a gift!

[marnie]

You've created a family treasure, a book filled with history, love, and hard work! Congrats!

[DonnaNJ]

Congratulations!!! I hope at some point you'll post a link to the album. The pages you've posted on the gallery are so beautiful I'd love to see the whole thing. As someone who is facing a similar task I'd love the inspiration :-)

[readstoomuch]

Barbara ... I know that you are thrilled to have finished your heritage book ... it will be a treasure for your family for many generations to come.

Working on a family history is a satisfying journey and one that (like you say) is filled with joy and tears. Your parents would have indeed loved to see your finished project, but they probably knew that you would be the one to keep the family history alive and were proud of you.

I have enjoyed the history pages that you have posted in the gallery and I am sure that your finished project is a work of art!

[carollee]

Oh Barbara I completely understand, I had those same feelings when I finished our family book. I gave it to my mum the Christmas anniversary of dad's passing, it was such an emotional time. What a treasure for you and your loved ones and what a wonderful tribute to your parents.

[earlofoxford]

Congratulations on finishing what sounds like a truly wonderful book that your family is going to love. I hope it helped you through the grief process after losing you mother.

[ValerieP]

Congratulations-it is such a difficult task to scrap the ones we have loved and lost...

[Serenoa]

Thankyou all for your kind comments. It was a project I felt I really wanted to do, but had it's difficult and emotional moments. Some of the pages need to be printed on water-proof paper.

The book is being published through Ancestry.com and their My Canvas printing service. This is an online program where you create the pages using their backgrounds, elements, etc. and your own uploaded photos. After creating abut 20 pages this way, I wanted to use different papers, etc. and that is when I discovered the world of digital scrapbooking and DD.

I then purchased a copy of Elements7 and various supplies and created the rest of the book on my own computer and uploaded the pages as full page photos and added the journaling using their vector based type.

If I had it to do all over again, I would create it all using Elements on my own computer and have the full layouts available for printing anywhere. As it is, the My Canvas service does not have a facility for downloading the finished pages to my computer, they are all stored online.

Their finished books are top quality and offer different sizing and cover options than Shutterfly and I am very happy with their printing. But any future things I do will be created through Photoshop and Elements so I have flexibility to print myself or use any publisher.