Vintage Art for Scrapbooks

True Vintage art usually hails from the 1800s or early 1900s. Vintage art can also be created today with special filters on cameras, film, or software.

I am fortunate to have received several digital files of my grandparents photos which include my great grandparents, cousins, homes, farms, etc. I value these, and I would feel a great loss if I didn't have them. It is fun to see how my ancestors lived and how they dressed in days gone by.

You can use vintage art to create invitations, digital scrapbooks and movies. The first thing you need to do is to scan old photos or take a picture of them. There are also several online blogs where you can download vintage art to spruce up your creations for free or for a small charge. Make sure you check if they are copyrighted before you use them.

For my father's 80th birthday, I looked through the vintage photos that I had and chose my favorite. I used Adobe Photoshop to import them, remove any scratches or cracks, and then added the text.

Photoshop is great because it uses different layers, and you can work on the different images before merging them together. You can also use Photoshop Elements or similar software.

If you do not have Photoshop, you also make an invitation by hand, by making copies of the photos, and then putting them together to make a collage, similar to scrapbooking. Then you could either scan it or take a picture of the final product before sending it as a digital file.

Another thing I use a lot in my creations are Photoshop textures and brushes. If you are a graphic art designer, you may want to check out some of these sites:

http://browse.deviantart.com/?qh=&section=&q=high+resolution+vintage+brushes

http://sixrevisions.com/resources/20-beautiful-vintage-photoshop-brush-sets/

http://naldzgraphics.net/freebies/50-free-vintage-photoshop-brush-sets-to-download/

http://www.art-e-zine.co.uk/vintageresources.html

Just copy and paste the address into your browser.

I also made a movie with many of the vintage pictures. We played it for guests who came to my father's birthday celebration. It showed pictures from when he was a baby all the way up to the modern day. We had several comments of a appreciation for the movie. It was made on my Apple computer on iMovie software.

Another thing I use a lot are vintage fonts. They complete the look of the vintage creations, whether it is an invitation, scrapbook, movie or other project. Here are some links where you can find them:

http://www.fontspace.com/category/vintage

http://www.noupe.com/fonts/45-outstanding-free-vintage-fonts.html

http://bluefaqs.com/2010/05/40-free-retro-and-vintage-fonts/

http://www.addictivefonts.com/fancy/retro/vintage-retro-fonts-free/