Although the phrase, “everybody has a story to tell” may sound like a cliche, it’s true.

And after working as a newspaper reporter for nine years, I know that everyone does, indeed, have a story to tell, including your family members.

Think about it.

Do your grandmother and grandfather — mother and father — aunts and uncles — tell stories about the “good old days?”

Do they talk about going to school? The fun they had with friends? Family celebrations and holidays? Picnics on the Fourth of July? Snow that was so deep it covered fences? Pets that were so smart they belonged in the Guinness Book of World Records? Making ice cream? Their parents? Their grandparents?

Have you wanted to write down those stories to share them with other family members and to preserve them for generations to come but don’t how to go about it?

Guess what? You don’t need “literary talent,” special training or special equipment. All you need to preserve those stories is a list of people to interview, a willingness to listen, a set of questions to ask, a tape recorder and a computer (or even a typewriter would work!).

Here are the steps for gathering and writing your family stories:

1. Decide which people you would like to interview and make a list. 
2. Ask for permission to conduct an interview. 
3. Set a formal date and time for the interview. 
4. Provide a list of questions several days or weeks before the interview. 
5. Focus on a single subject or event in each list of questions. 
6. Use the “who, what, where, when, how, and why” strategy when formulating your questions. 
7. Ask open-ended questions and not “yes or no” or “one word answer” questions. 
8. Use a tape recorder to record the interview. 
9. Chat about something else for a while if the person you are interviewing seems nervous at the prospect of being tape-recorded. 
10. Transcribe the tape and write up your notes after you have finished the interview. 
11. Edit the manuscript. 
12. Spread out your interviews. 
13. Print the stories from your computer or publish them in another way.

From the e-book: Preserve Your Family History (A Step-by-Step Guide for Writing Oral Histories) (66 pages; April 2004; $7.95) Click Here To see the table of contents and several sets of sample questions. Preserve Your Family History* includes step-by-step instructions for conducting interviews as well as 30 sets of questions (more than 400 questions in all) on 30 different topics that you can print out to use “as is” or that you can use to generate your own questions.

About The Author
© LeAnn R. Ralph 2004 LeAnn R. Ralph is the author of the book, *Christmas in Dairyland (True Stories from a Wisconsin Farm)* (trade paperback; August 2003). For more information, visit ruralroute2.com.

This week’s tip is to first think about what you want people to know about you and your family…then look for photos or memorabilia to match that story. It’s okay to take photos specifically to tell a certain story. If you think about it, that’s what illustrators do when they illustrate a book. They create pictures of things that help tell the story that is already written. I call it “backwards scrapbooking.” It’s something we should all try and do every once in a while in our albums, because sometimes a photograph can’t tell the whole story about what makes your family and friends unique.

You’re not sure what information is important to remember? Don’t worry! I have a hard time deciding what is “scrapbook worthy” information too! Dates and places are important, but the things you’ll want to remember down the line are things like the common phrases your family uses, what the “time out” corner is all about, the waving ritual your toddler has with the mailman everyday (my little brother really did this!), and the little things that make every day special.

Try a page this week that tells a story that a single photograph may not have told otherwise!

About the Author
Andrea Steed is the author and creator of Scrap Tutor, a web site and CD-ROM that teaches you how to create scrapbooks and how to perform many popular techniques used in scrapbooking. For more information, visit www.scraptutor.com.

In recent years, scrapbooking has become an extremely popular hobby for women (and men) all over the world. While it’s been around for ages, scrapbooking has evolved from a way to show off photographs and movie ticket stubs into a way to express yourself and free the artist within you, all while preserving your memories for generations to come.

Scrapbooking is no longer construction paper and tape or just putting your photos in an album. Now you’ll find that there are scrapbook stores all over the country, thousands of products to choose from, and techniques to learn to make the most of the art of scrapbooking!

Basic Supplies
While many scrapbookers can easily fill an entire room with all of their scrapbooking tools and supplies, there are a few items that are essential. To create pages you will need some or all of the following items:

Paper trimmer – Since many papers come in only 12″ x 12″, you will often need to be able to trim a sheet of paper down from this size. A 12″ paper trimmer is recommended whether you scrapbook in 12″ x 12″ albums or 8 ½” x 11″ albums. Heavy duty desktop paper trimmers are wonderful if you have the space for them, but you can also purchase smaller portable trimmers that are great for going to crops and keeping your supplies manageable.

Scissors – A pair of small, sharp scissors is important in order to cut smaller pieces and to have greater control over your cuts. Hold off on buying decorative scissors until you have a specific layout to use them. While they certainly have their uses and can make wonderful designs and embellishments, most scrapbookers regret cutting their photos with decorative scissors.

Adhesives – Each type of adhesive is appropriate for different needs. You will probably want to have a selection of adhesives to use for your layouts. A liquid glue pen is good for adhering small pieces, a strong liquid glue is good for larger and bulkier embellishments, photo squares work well for adhering photos, and repositionable glue dots adhesives are great when you want to move your elements around.

Acid Free Black Pen -Eventually you’ll want to have a collection of pens and colors, but a black pen is a must right from the beginning! It’s used for outlining, journaling, titles and drawing details.

Album and Page Protectors – Choose an album and corresponding page protectors in the size you wish to use. Albums typically come in the following sizes; 12″ x 12″, 8 ½” x 11″, 8″ x 8″, and 5″ x 7″. Buy page protectors designed for the album you buy to be sure that they will fit correctly.

Other supplies can be purchased as you go, such as papers, templates, stickers, die cuts, and embellishments. To save money, it’s best to buy supplies with specific pages in mind, so that you don’t buy things you won’t use.

This handful of supplies will get you started, and on your way to creating fantastic scrapbook pages.
About the Author
Andrea Steed is the author and creator of Scrap Tutor, a web site and CD-ROM that teaches you how to create scrapbooks and how to perform many popular techniques used in scrapbooking. For more information, visit www.scraptutor.com.

Preserve your memories. First and foremost, the purpose of scrapbooking is of course to preserve your memories, and tell your family’s story through photos and journaling. If you’re like many people, you probably find it frustrating to ask your parents what you were like when you were a baby, how old you were when you took your first step, and what your first word was…and they can’t remember! Scrapbooking provides a way for you to record those important moments and milestones in your child’s life, while incorporating photos of the special moments to show their growth and development over the years.

Display your photos. How often do we take rolls and rolls of photographs only to have them shoved into drawers and boxes and never looked at? By scrapbooking your photos and putting them into albums, it’s a treat for all of your family to look through them and remember different events and moments in their lives. Having the photos and the stories together in one book brings additional meaning and significance to each photo.

Enjoy a creative outlet. Scrapbooking more than putting photos into a photo album. It’s also a wonderful opportunity to bring your personality as an artist into your scrapbook albums. Whether your passion is in photography, journaling, or cutting and pasting decorations for your page, you’re able to bring a piece of yourself into every page. It doesn’t matter what your creative talents are (or aren’t), because the scrapbook represents something more than just a collection of pretty pages with photos on them. Not only is your album a precious record of special memories, but the album itself becomes a family treasure and an extension of you-something your children will treasure, because it was made by you.

It’s a social activity. Scrapbooking has quickly become the “quilting bee” of the 21st century. Women often gather in churches, community classes, scrapbook stores and in homes to scrapbook together. It’s an opportunity to socialize and for everyone to accomplish a common goal of preserving their families’ memories. Some fantastic friendships have been formed through this common hobby!

With a new baby in your family (or on the way), now is a fantastic time to get started with scrapbooking, and beginning to record these once-in-a-lifetime moments so that you can remember them forever.

About the Author
Andrea Steed is the author and creator of Scrap Tutor, a web site and CD-ROM that teaches you how to create scrapbooks and how to perform many popular techniques used in scrapbooking. For more information, visit www.scraptutor.com.