GRAND Magazine - January 2009 - (Page 36)

together time Virtual scrapbooking By angela nigro new sites offer both privacy and print options and preserve family history in a way the grandkids can access—or participate in—from anywhere. J an WardlaW needed a convenient way to dis- 36 GRAND JANUARY 2009 photos By Jan WardlaW play her digital pictures, which included many of her first grandson, Evan. Wardlaw takes care of Evan once a week and captures their fun in pictures, often sharing them with Evan’s parents to sum up the day. For Wardlaw, Scrapblog, a Web-based digital scrapbooking service (www.scrapblog.com) that allows users to “drag and drop” images and write stories about them, has proven ideal. Wardlaw describes the free site—where users start with a blank or a themed page and add their images with creative elements from Scrapblog’s huge cache—as a snap to use. (When pages are finished, they can be open to the public or shared only with family and friends.) The site also offers a print option for creating hard copies of the pages to make into books, greeting cards and so forth. Wardlaw uses the site to preserve her family history “in a way that my children and grandchildren can appreciate,” she says. Her work included hours of scanning old pictures, newspaper clippings and bits of history. Other families enjoy building a collage of perspectives on a person or event. Famento (www.famento.com), a new Web site founded by Lauren Kwan, facilitates this type of project by gathering often far-flung members of an extended family in a virtual “room”—the webpage where they can share memories, pictures, video- and audio recordings. Kwan says she was inspired to launch Famento (family/ memento) after the death of her grandmother and the loss of her personal stories of the family and its history. The pages on a family’s Famento site are organized to make it easy for family members to browse, view updates and upload their contributions. And, as with Scrapblog, there is a variety of privacy options, including keeping the page family-private, opening it up to a larger circle of friends (with a message-exchange feature) or including the Famento public. Kwan hopes her site prompts people to tell their stories and gather their history. Just bring a few pictures and start talking, she says. “Once you do, the memories flood back.” G http://www.famento.com http://www.scrapblog.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of GRAND Magazine - January 2009

GRAND�Magazine - January 2009 Grand View Contents Isn't it Grand? Grand Central Tips on Teens Grand Gestures Toddler Town Help! My Grandson's Being Raised Vegan! Cover Story: Casualties Leader of the Pack Reunions Together Time Resources Grand Finale

GRAND Magazine - January 2009

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