A Little Experiment

"Gratitude" 12 x 12 - 1st Digital Scrapbook page

About a year ago, my DH surprised me with a long-awaited copy of Photoshop Elements. 8-10 hours later I knew just enough to make a few collages, nothing very advanced. And then I moved on... still frustrated by the steep learning curve.

A few weeks ago I asked an online friend if she had any links or tutorials to recommend (Kimmie from The Challenge, on NING - website link is over there ->) and this layout was the result!

I've always been fascinated with documenting my ancestry, scanning treasured photos for future generations, preserving their stories and learing MUCH along the way! In my growing collection I have pictures of 7 (out of 8) great-grandparents and now.... 3 of my great-grandparents. Anna Zurn Cook is one of those 7 and Barbara Grupp Zurn, her mother, is one of those 3. They are from my father's branch of the family tree and I have documentation tracing Barbara's immigration to the U.S. in 1837 from Aalen, Germany. Over the next 2 centuries, many of her descendants remained on the East Coast in both PA and NJ, not far from Philadelphia, including myself and my mother's side of the tree.

They lived in an era of extremely difficult times, especially for a woman, and I wanted to honor their sacrifices in my first Digital Scrapbook Page. I am eternally grateful to both my great grandmother and my great-great grandmother and many others that I will be scrapbooking.

This is only the beginning!