Iberia Airlines, about 1965

This photo was taken about 1965.  Remember when flying was a big deal, and there was a photographer at the doorway to take your photo?  Remember when everyone flying dressed up in suits, even the little boys? This is my father-in-law and my husband as a little boy.  My father-in-law worked in New York City at the United Nations, and they would fly home to Madrid several times a year on Iberia Airlines.  Later, my mother-in-law became a ticket agent and manager for Iberia, and they were able to continue flying home to visit family several times a year- even after my father-in-law stopped working at the UN and became a professor.

I often wonder if all this intercontinental flying my husband did as a little boy influenced his desire to become an aeronautical-astronautical engineer?

We found this photo in a box of memorabilia in Madrid, and scanned it with my Flip-Pal scanner.

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To cite/link to this blog post:  Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "Iberia Airlines, about 1965", Nutfield Genealogy, posted July 26, 2012, ( https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2012/07/iberia-airlines-about-1965.html: accessed [access date]). 

Simple Gifts Genealogy Blog Hop- Project #4

Simple Gifts Genealogy Blog Hop Post #7
Project #4   Photo Jewelry

Here is another photo gift idea for your Flip-Pal from my creative daughter.  She scanned in family photos and inserted them in to jewelry for Christmas gifts.   The first project she completed was this charm bracelet for my Mom, her grandmother.  What grandmother wouldn’t love this?

a stretchy photo bracelet
from Memory Maker for about $16
("gold" versions are 80% off for November 2011)

The hardest part of this project was shrinking the photos to fit.  My daughter used plain paper in the printer over and over to find the correct size to fit each little locket in the bracelet before doing a final print on photo paper.  Then each little tiny photo had to be cut out, but the manufacturer provided templates for cutting, so the final photos all fit perfectly.  If you buy a locket or charm be sure it has a template!

Some companies will insert the photos or etch the photos right into the jewelry.  You have to scan and upload your selected photos to their website first.

Cost                     ***      (can be expensive, but see below for a Walmart link)

Difficulty             *           (very easy,  scan, print, cut and insert into jewelry)

Wow Factor        *****   (looks great, nice gift idea for anyone on your list! )

Where to buy photo jewelry:

Memory Maker www.memorymakerbracelet.com

Sells jewelry and also has an online tool to shrink your photos to fit into the jewelry, very handy!  They offer deals of the day, too and other discounts coupon codes.  They also have a holiday or event category to help you find jewelry ideas for Mother’s Day, Weddings, Administrative Professionals Day as well as Christmas and the December gift giving holidays.

Photo charms for Pandora Bracelets

http://charming-memories.blogspot.com/2011/02/custom-photo-charms-for-pandora.html

For the budget minded go to photos.walmart.com and click on “Clothing and Jewelry” in the right hand column.   There you will find lots of jewelry choices including sterling silver charms, bracelets, and keychains.  You will need to create an account and download your photos to an online album.

Also, check at Etsy.com for photo jewelry

Best of all choices!  Your local jeweler or craftsperson can easily make a charm to fit an existing bracelet or to wear on a chain as a pendant.   You might know one in town or meet one at a craft show.   Ask your friends for a recommendation, too.

Disclaimer-  I was chosen by Flip-Pal to participate as a blogger in the Simple Gifts Genealogy Blog Hop event, and I received a Flip-Pal scanner to use and evaluate.    I was not compensated by any of the photo jewelry companies listed above.

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Copyright 2011, Heather Wilkinson Rojo

Flip-Pal Simple Gifts Project #3

Simple Gifts Genealogy Blog Hop Post #6
Project #3

This year's calendar
hanging in my kitchen cupboard

Every Thanksgiving weekend my husband spends time putting together our Christmas card and our annual family calendar.  He's been doing this for years, probably ever since we bought our first PC.  He doesn't use any special greeting card software or calendar generator.  You can do this project, too, with a little planning and a scanner.  He usually distributes the calendars at our annual family Three Kings Day Party in January, so he adds a January page to each calendar for the next year.

Materials:
family photographs, documents, tickets, etc. for the project
your Flip-Pal scanner
greeting card printer paper (available at your local office supply)
OR  matte photo paper for the calendar project
lots of extra printer ink!

Holiday Cards

Step 1:   First scan all the photos you plan on using for the card or calendar.

Step 2:   Using MicroSoft Power Point, or Apple's Keynote or similar software,  arrange your photos on two pages  (Cover and inside)   Add a greeting and room for everyone to sign the card

Step 3:   Print out using the greeting card paper.  The hard part is flipping the paper and then reprinting the other side so that the inside message isn't upside down.  Practice this on a few sheets of regular paper until you get it right!

Hint: You can personalize your message and make it bilingual or even trilingual!  You can't buy THAT in any store!

Our 2010 Holiday Card
with our Hawaii vacation on the front!

You can see that we have photos
on the inside of the card, too!
It's your personal card.  Personalize it!

Calendars

Step 1:  Again, start by scanning all the photos and documents you need

Step 2:  Create a file for the calendar pages.  Make a grid for the calendar pages, and then make 12 copies of this page.  Start with page 1 and label it with JANUARY and then label with holidays (use last year's calendar) and family birthdays, anniversaries, reunions, etc.   This is what makes your family calendar personal!  You can save this file and re-use it every year.

Step 3.  Make another file for the top photos.  This will be the 12 large images to display above the calendar pages.  Label them January - December.  It's nice to show photos that go along with the theme for the month (Perhaps there was a June wedding last year? a family photo taken in November for Thanksgiving? etc.)

Step 4:  Print out one file with the matte photo paper.  Use matte paper so folks can write appointments on the calendar (its impossible with glossy photo paper).  Flip the pages over and insert them back into the printer and print out the second file.  Again, you should practice this on regular paper so the calendar comes out with the correct pages on the correct months.  When you are finished you will have 13 pages for your calendar.

Step 5: Stop by at your local office store or stationers and have the calendars bound with plastic comb binding.  Ask them to also punch a hole in each calendar for hanging on the kitchen wall.   This usually costs just a few dollars for each calendar.

After the first year, this project is easier since you have already developed the grid for each month.  Don't forget to re-number your calendar pages for next year, some holiday dates are moveable and next year is a leap year!

Cost               ***      (not too bad, unless your printer eats a lot of ink)
Difficulty        ***      (not hard, unless you have to learn Power Point first!)
Wow Factor   *****  (you'll be a big hit with your family!)

Disclaimer - I was chosen by Flip-Pal to participate as a blogger in the Simple Gifts Genealogy Blog Hop event, and I received a Flip-Pal scanner to use and evaluate.

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Copyright 2011, Heather Wilkinson Rojo

Flip-Pal Project #2 -

Post #5

Project  #2   Photo Books

I’ve tried several photo book companies over the past few years, and I’m going to recommend my favorite two companies at the end of this post.  When using your Flip-Pal scanner for a book, you can create a folder full of photos or documents just for your special book project, and also add images you may have downloaded previously.   Here are some fun examples of photo books I’ve created with scanned images.

Scan and download photos, tickets, etc for vacation books
Here is our trip to California last summer!

Vacation Books:  Scan or download all your photos from a vacation 30 years ago, or one you took last month.  If you shared a vacation with cousins or family, publishing an extra book is simple.  If the vacation 20 years ago included children who are now grown up with their own families, it would be fun to gift one to the whole family to “remember when!”

A Mother’s Book:  This could also be a New Mother’s Book, or perhaps a Grandmother’s Book, or even a Godmother’s Book.  In this case, I scanned images of all my mother’s maternal lineages, and also images of her as a young mother, and then her grandchildren.   This book turned out so nice I made a version for my sister and for my mother-in-law, too.  Someday I’ll make one for me!

Every Father's Day we take a photo by the same tree
This book for my husband contained 22 years of photos scanned together

A Father’s Book:  If you read my blog you know that every Father’s Day I photograph my daughter and husband under a tree that was planted on his first Father’s Day.  It’s become a very popular subject for our family.  Perhaps you have a similar tradition?  Do you have photos of an annual Father’s Day cook out?  Ball game? Trip to a family spot such as the beach or favorite park?  It’s easy to fill 20 pages with images, scanned tickets, game programs and text pages filled with written memories.

Some of my Blog Books
Do you recognize the cover photo?

Blog Book:  Regular readers know that every once and while I put my blog posts into a Blog Book.  This is a popular Christmas item in our family since my blog is full of family stories and photos.  You can publish all your blog posts or perhaps just all those that have to do with a particular branch of the family, or about a town or location for your gift recipient.  If you have a Civil War buff on your gift list, why not put all your Civil War blog posts into a book?   For your gravestone loving friend or family member you could publish all your gravestone photos or blog posts.  This idea can be stretched a million ways.   Blog2Print will automatically "slurp" your blog posts right into a project. 

Genealogy Books:  Most of these companies allow photos or PDF files to be used.  If your genealogy program doesn’t export charts in PDF form, you can use one of the free online conversion websites such as www.zamzar.com or www.doc2pdf.net.    These charts can be imported to books, just like photos, and text can be written or also exported from your genealogy program.  I know that Family Tree Maker exports genealogy reports as text, you can check your favorite program for the same features.

There are many companies on the internet specializing in self published books and photo books.  I’ve found that I prefer www.Blurb.com  and www.Shutterfly.com     Of these two companies, I prefer Blurb because the project is saved on a file at my own hard drive, and I can print whenever I’m ready.  Other companies have you save the project at their own cloud on line, and have deadlines before erasing your project.  I’ve been most happy with the quality of the paper and bindings at Blurb, too.   However, Shutterfly often runs great specials and coupons.  Blurb rarely has discounts.

Step #1 Scan your favorite photos for your project and then
download to your computer.  You can edit the photos (repair spots, turn
them black and white, change ovals to rectangles, etc.) or leave as is.

Step #2 This is the Blurb BookSmart software
You upload your photos to BookSmart and they appear in the left column.
Drag and drop them into the pages on the right.
Add text (or in this case, it downloaded my blog posts)

All the companies have websites or downloadable software that requires you to download the photos chosen for your project.  The blog books require you to enter your blog URL and then select the posts you want included in your book.   Editing then includes moving the photos around in a pleasing way and adding text.  Most of the software is simple to understand, but then again, I’ve only used a few of these companies listed below.

Cost               *****   (very expensive, but some small paperbacks run under $10)
Difficulty        ***       (you need to be somewhat computer savvy)
Wow Factor   *****   (the books look great, especially the larger format size!)

Caution!  Be sure to order early, because printing slows down during holidays and you want your book by Christmas or Chanukah or Three Kings Day!   During slow times your book can go into a queue and be ready in a week.  During holidays such as Christmas or Mother’s Day, the queue can take several weeks from the day you submit your order.   Start your projects soon, and get them into the printing queue!

Special offers:

Blurb is offering 15% off your total order on books ordered by 30 November 2011 with the promo code HOLIDAY at checkout.  www.blurb.com     Books that are text, photo books, cookbooks, etc.

Shutterfly:    check  for coupons at the special offers page http://www.shutterfly.com/special-offers

LifePics :  I learned about this option through the Flip-Pal website.  www.lifepics.com offers printing of your photos and photo books at locations near you.  Choose a location from the website, download your photos and pick up your project later.  I saw that there was a location very near me at my local CVS store, but this location didn’t offer the book option.  There was a second location at Ritz Camera in Derry that does offer books within an hour.  Very cool!

Snapfish:  check for special offers at this link http://www.snapfish.com/snapfish/storepage/storePageId=Store_Offers_Page

My Publisher photo books has special offers at http://www.mypublisher.com/specialOffers

Lulu  photo books, calendars, cookbooks, etc. at www.lulu.com

Blog2Print   specializes in black and white books for blogs that are mainly text, starting at $10.95!  They also produce pricier colored books for blogs with photos, with easy to slurp applications for Blogger, TypePad and Wordpress.   www.blog2print.com

Disclaimer- I was chosen by Flip-Pal to participate as a blogger in the Simple Gifts Genealogy Blog Hop event, and I received a Flip-Pal scanner to use and evaluate.   I was not compensated by any of the book publishing companies listed above.

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Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "Flip Pal Project #2", Nutfield Genealogy, posted November 17, 2011, ( https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2011/11/flip-pal-project-2.html: accessed [access date]).

Flip-Pal Project #1

Post #4
Project #1

I packed up my Flip-Pal scanner and hit the road for my mother's house to try my first holiday gift project.  I didn't want the scanner to get bumped or scratched, so I put it into the neoprene zipped case I use for my laptop.  This was much too big for the little Flip-Pal, so I am seriously considering the case sold on the website at www.flip-pal.com.   This would be good place to store extra batteries and the little SD card/ USB adapter.  I already caught the cat playing with it!

My workspace on Mom's dining room table!

At Mom's house I got right to work scanning some of her photo albums for some old family pictures.  It was easy to set up on her dining room table and get going.  I just took the cover off the scanner, turned it upside down and scanned each page.  Later I stitched together some of the bigger photos, and cropped out the background of the album pages.  I saved these all in folders by family name, and Mom helped identify some of the subjects.

Mom and Dad in Washington DC in the 1950s,
converted it to black and white for the project

This first project was created by my artistic daughter.  She has come up with some clever ideas for using old photos.  These are the items you will need for this project

Photopaper for a computer printer
scissors
compass
rubber cement
old china saucers and dishes, any size

The completed project! 

Step 1:  Have fun selecting some old dishes from yard sales, consignment shops or the attic.

Step 2:  Print out the selected digital scans of your favorite photos on photopaper (regular paper doesn't provide nice results).  Use a compass (the kind you used in 6th grade geometry class) to measure the size of the circle you need.   Draw the circle on your photo and cut it out.

Step 3:  Smear rubber cement on the photo and on the plate.  When the glue is tacky, stick the photo onto the plate. The rubber cement is not permanent, so later you can easily remove the photo without harming the porcelain.

Step 4:  Ta-Dah!  You are finished!  Wasn't that easy?

Rating System (out of a possible five stars)

Cost              *       (one star, very low cost even if you need to buy dishes)
Difficulty      *       (one star, very easy- do this with your kids!)
Wow Factor  ***   (three stars,  the final result looks great, but not fantastic)

Disclaimer-  I was chosen by Flip-Pal to participate as a blogger in the Simple Gifts Genealogy Blog Hop event, and I received a Flip-Pal Scanner to use and evaluate.

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Copyright 2011, Heather Wilkinson Rojo

In which I finally get to play with my Flip Pal scanner

 Post #3

And so, finally, I had a chance to play with my Flip Pal Scanner.  If you read my last post, you will remember that in Spain we looked a box full of family photos.  These photos dated from the 1930s to the 1980s mostly taken in Spain, but some from the 1960s and 70s when my father in law was working at the UN in New York.  They had traveled back and forth across the Atlantic over time. My mother in law graciously offered us the chance to take some of them home, back over the Atlantic again to New Hampshire.  My husband chose about two dozen nice photos of various subjects, and I knew that I would want to scan these first!

In Spain, selecting some old family photos

Learning to use the scanner was easy.  As Marian Pierre-Louis had mentioned in her blog post, read the booklet first!  In fact, there is a more detailed instruction booklet on the 2GB SD card included with the scanner.  I put it into my computer, opened the tool box file and read the directions.  It would have been nice if these directions were included in the small booklet, but it was no problem reading them on screen.  Within five minutes I had scanned about eight of the Spanish photos.

The first photo I chose was this one.  My husband had taken a photo of this photo with his digital camera in Madrid, and had emailed it around to the cousins in the photo while we were still in Spain.  Here is his camera version:

a photo of a photo by camera

And here is the version I scanned.  This was exactly what the scanner produced, which is pretty nice, but a little crooked so I will need to edit it or re-scan it. There are guidelines on the scanner bed to line up photos (live and learn!).   For Christmas 1966 in Brooklyn, New York my husband received a toy wagon from the Bonanza TV series.  It was his favorite toy as a kid, and he looks for a replacement now at yard sales and on e-Bay.

a Flip Pal scan of the same photo!
no color correction or cropping

For my second scan I tried using the stitching software on this photograph of my mother in law.  This photo was scanned in two parts, top and bottom.  The original was a 5"x7" and the scanner can do up to 4"x 6".   To do this I learned how to remove the cover of the scanner and scan by holding it upside down over a large photograph.  This would be handy for large documents or newspapers.  I loved how easy this was, and the scanner is surprisingly light and maneuverable.

My mother in law (front) worked at
Morgan and Morgan publishers
on Fifth Avenue in New York in the 1960s

We have stitching software that came with our digital camera, and my husband uses it all the time.  He loves to take panoramic shots when we are on vacation, or even just around town.  He has to manually wiggle each photo into alignment and then the software takes several minutes to work on the project before showing the results.  It was so much work that I never bothered learning how to use that piece of software.  With the Flip-Pal tool box I chose the two scanned images and this new image popped up immediately.  No work on my end.   It is impossible to tell where the stitching happened, even when I enlarge this photograph.  Hubby was very impressed and was sad to find out that this software only works on images scanned with Flip-Pal.

The third image was a faded color photograph taken at the New York World's Fair in 1964.  My father in law was working for the United Nations in Manhattan, and my mother in law was the daughter of a Spanish Guardia Civil officer.  When they attended the World's Fair, my husband was only three years old.  They all posed with the Guardia Civil staff in the Spanish pavilion for this photograph.  Unfortunately, over the years it faded to look like this:

1964 NY World's Fair image scanned by Flip-Pal

 From the tool box I chose the "Restore Color" button.  I had to select "load" and then the photograph.  Instantly, I had this result:

the same image after using Restore Color
from the Flip-Pal tool box

Of course, there were some manual things I could play with to correct the color, etc. but this result was so nice that I decided to save it as is.  My husband couldn't believe it when he saw it.  We immediately e-mailed the new version back to Madrid to surprise my mother in law.  So this image has crossed the Atlantic in many forms, many times over since 1964.

Within half an hour I had learned to scan, stitch, color correct, save the results to my own folders and delete from the SD card.  Deleting was important because I kept hitting the green scan button on the side of the scanner when I picked it up to move it around on photos.  After the fourth or fifth time I had learned where not to put my hands!  Again, live and learn!

Now I am ready to tackle some real holiday projects for the Simple Gifts Genealogy Blog Hop!

Disclaimer - I was chosen by Flip-Pal to participate as a blogger in the Simple Gifts Genealogy Blog Hop event, and I received a Flip-Pal scanner to use and evaluate.

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Copyright 2011, Heather Wilkinson Rojo

Unwrapping my Flip Pal

Post #2 

My Flip Pal for the Simple Gifts Genealogy Blog Hop arrived at my house while we were on vacation.  It arrived safely, even though my neighborhood was a total disaster from the big Snowtober Nor'Easter storm. Fortunately I didn't have to chase my UPS driver like Sheri Fenley did in her post, since my cat sitter took care of collecting packages and mail for me.  And I remembered to read the guide book first, since I had read Marion Pierre-Louis's advice in her blog post!  This is the good side of being away last week.  I was able to learn from the other genealogy bloggers all about their first experiences before I even opened my Flip Pal package!

Not rain or snow or
thousands of miles kept me from
opening my Flip Pal package!

But there was also a downside to being on vacation last week.  Here is some proof that my Flip Pal arrived just a few days too late.  While we were in Spain we had loads of opportunities to scan interesting photos, objects and documents.  Although we did bring a lot of old photographs home with us, you can bet that I'll be packing the Flip Pal the next time we visit Madrid!  There will be chances to scan family things, but also all our touristy things for scrapbooks, such as tickets, brochures and other ephemera we always collect along the way... These are all similar to things you might do when you travel over the holidays to visit far away family.

My mother-in-law and Hubby in Madrid, Spain
checking out family photos from the 1930s-1970s

We attended a cousin's wedding at Seville's City Hall
Wouldn't it be great to have a scan of this document!
That's the bride signing her wedding certificate

We took the AVE, Spain's high speed rail,
from Madrid to Seville and could have made a scan
of the tickets for our scrapbook before they were
collected by the staff at the train station!

Disclaimer -  I was chosen by Flip-Pal to participate in the Simple Gifts Genealogy Blog Hop event and received a Flip-Pal scanner to use and evaluate.

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Copyright 2011, Heather Wilkinson Rojo

The Simple Gifts Genealogy Blog Hop!

Post #1

Thanks to the producers of the Flip Pal scanner, I will be receiving one of their products soon to try out in return for blogging about ideas for producing holiday genealogy gifts.  It sounds like fun, and I appreciate Thomas MacEntee from Geneabloggers.com for putting this special offer together for me and six other geneabloggers.  Please see the Flip Pal http://flip-pal.com/

I’m a member of the sandwich generation.  I’m taking care of my husband, myself, my own child and our aging parents.  My daughter is newly fledged, leaving us as “Empty Nesters.”  She is working in Boston, and is on her own.  However, not too long ago she sliced her leg with a piece of glass and called me in New Hampshire for help.  “Mom, I’m bleeding all over!  So I’m in the bathtub so I won’t get the floor all gross.”  My advice?  “You are blocks from some of the most famous hospitals in the world and you called New Hampshire?”   We had her call a taxi and go to an emergency room, and met her there within the hour to “help” her wait four hours to be stitched up.  I’m sure it always helps for Mom to be there, no matter what! It’s a good thing we are not too far.

My mom is living alone one and half hours from me, which is close enough for visiting but not close enough for emergencies.  And my in-laws?  They live in Spain.  My husband is a third generation only child.  With no other siblings to help out, this week we were in Madrid helping make sure all their lifelines and other help are still set up and working well from six months ago during our last visit.  Father-in-law spending two days a week in a Parkinson’s day care, and mother-in-law with her back strained from osteoporosis receiving a cleaning lady and home health worker to check on them four days a week.  Of course we had a “honey-do” list to work on, too, during our visit. Don’t forget that we also made time to just visit, chat, play dominoes and enjoy family, too. 

This was also a great time to find out that I was being sent a Flip Pal through a special offer set up by Thomas MacEntee of the Geneabloggers.com website.  The Flip Pal Blog Hop will feature seven geneabloggers writing holiday posts on using the Flip Pal scanner to produce gifts for the gift giving season.  I saw on line that several of these bloggers had already received their Flip Pal scanners via UPS.  However, I had to depend on my cat sitter to watch for the UPS delivery for me since I was not at home.  She wanted all the fun of announcing its arrival to me via email, except that the weather threw a cog into those plans.

Little did I know that the big Halloween Blizzard of 2011 was going to cause so many problems while we were away.  On TeleMadrid I heard the TV reports about New England and New York.  On Facebook and email my cat sitter friend and others reported power outages and cold nights below freezing.  Was Mom alone in Massachusetts without power?  I got my daughter, and other friends to try to call her since my calls from Spain weren’t connecting.   Finally, we all connected with Mom at the same time!  I think she got five calls all in a row, and she was fine, and even had power!  I appreciate the internet for helping us through that crisis, and cell phones, too!  I appreciate my daughter, friends and fellow geneabloggers who all jumped in to help contact Mom, too.  Friendship is appreciated even more when thousands of miles separate loved ones.

With all this excitement happening within a few days, it will be great to get home and get back into the routine of blogging.  I will finally see my Flip Pal in person, and begin the new project of creating some family oriented holiday crafts and gifts.  I’ve been picking everyone’s brain for ideas, and I think I’ve come up with a few good ones.  It will all come together when I finally learn how to use my new scanner.  And after I throw out the contents of my fridge, which sat a week without power while we were gone.

Please follow these other geneabloggers as we all post about our Flip Pal Blog Hop adventures between now and Christmas:

Participating Bloggers

Sheri Fenley
The Educated Genealogist
http://sherifenley.blogspot.com

Drusilla Pair
Find Your Folks
http://www.findyourfolks.blogspot.com

Marian Pierre Louis
Roots and Rambles
http://rootsandrambles.blogspot.com

Caroline Pointer
For Your Family Story
http://www.4yourfamilystory.com/blog.html

Heather Wilkinson Rojo
Nutfield Genealogy
http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com

Nancy Shively
Gathering Stories
http://nancyshively.blogspot.com

Julie Cahill Tarr
GenBlog
http://genblogjulie.blogspot.com

Disclaimer- I was chosen by Flip Pal to participate in this blogging event, and will receive a Flip Pal scanner to evaluate and use.  


The Simple Gifts Genealogy Blog Hop press release
http://www.pitchengine.com/couragentinc/flippal-mobile-scanner-presents-the-simple-gifts-genealogy-blog-hop

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Copyright 2011, Heather Wilkinson Rojo