Making an archival copy of a scrapbook can be easier than you think. But why do it?! Welllllllll…. family members may want copies, the original may NOT be archival and you want to make one that will last, also disaster planning for the next tornado, hurricane or flood means getting physical archival copies of all the most important items (vintage photos, legal papers, family history etc) and stashing a copy in a safe place (like two states away at your sister’s house!).

A couple of years ago my sister, bless her heart, made a huge, oversized scrapbook of part of my Dad’s life. My Dad is getting along in years. He had his 86th birthday this week. As soon as I saw it, the three reasonsI mentioned above for making a duplicate copy flashed in my brain.One problem though… it is OVERSIZED and doesn’t fit on ANY scanners anywhere! So, how do I make a high resolution copy of the pages? I WAS NOT ABOUT TO TEAR APART THE BOOK, scan all the photos and start over!

So, we began shooting a photograph of each page in high resolution digital photography, adjusting blemishes and colors in photoshop and then printing out the scanned pages onto a high quality acid free paper with the laserwriter. Here’s my helper keeping things organized:

Once the new archival pages are printed on the laserwriter, you will notice in the photo that Michelle is about to put them into page protectors, another archival technique. In the end, our copy will last longer and hold together better than the original… but it won’t be so gargantuan. I’ll be making a video on how to do this process but for now, this will prove that we know what we are teaching cause WE DO IT.

To learn more about what you can do at home to take care of your stuff, download now a copy of Scott’s book, How To Save Your Stuff From A Disaster at 50% off!

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For a news article featuring Scott M. Haskins’s, Click here: http://www.fineartconservationlab.com/media-room/art-restorerconservator-scott-m-haskins-featured-in-life-section-of-newspaper/

For art conservation and painting restoration questions call Scott M. Haskins 805 564 3438 or faclartdoc@gmail.com

For art appraisal questions call Richard Holgate at 805 895 5121 or jrholgate@yahoo.com

See short videos by Scott M. Haskins on art conservation related subjects at YouTube channel “Bestartdoc” http://www.youtube.com/user/bestartdoc?feature=mhee

See short do-it-yourself videos on collection care and emergency preparedness for art collectors, family history items, heirlooms, memorabilia at Youtube Channel “preservationcoach” http://www.youtube.com/user/preservationcoach

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