How to Create Era-Themed Scrapbook Pages

For the sake of those who have old family photos but don't know how to create an era-specific scrapbook page, allow me to help you out. The first thing you need to determine is what era the photos you want to use are from. If the dates of the photos are on the back, you're in luck because then you just have to match it with the era. If your photo is undated you will need to put some time into researching it's era using clues from clothing, poses, hair styles, hats, etc. A great online source for this is the Fashion-Era web site. You'll find costume (clothing) clues from every period of history and you'll be surprised at how easy it is to determine the approximate date of your photograph.

Once you have an approximate date for your photograph you can look at where it falls in the timeline of history. We don't have to go too far back because photography wasn't invented until the early 1800s (From Wikipedia, "1837 - Daguerr'es first daguerreotype, the first image that was fixed and did not fade and needed under 30 minutes of light exposure."). So there's really no reason to consider historical periods before that. Here's a breakdown of eras as defined by social/political events as well as fashion trends:

Victorian 1837-1901 This is the period of highly decorative elements with lots of hearts, pearls, lace, and scroll work. Colors often favor reds and pinks, ivory, and other pastels. Think soft, fussy, and old and you've got Victorian. Definitely leans towards the feminine.

Art Nouveau 1880-1914 Less fussy, less feminine, curvy lines with plant and floral motifs being very popular. Darker colors including black come into favor. Think Tiffany lamps and player pianos which came into popularity during this period.

WWI 1915-1920 Women's hemlines rise for the first time showing the ankle and a bit of the calf. Do to the war, adornments and jewelry are minimal but hats are very popular for both men and ladies.

Art Deco 1920-1939 This includes the exciting time of the "Roaring Twenties" with the Flapper girls, and the gangster/prohibition era. It also includes the 1930s, a time of the Great Depression. The 1920s saw women's hemlines rise to a scandalous peak of "just above the knee" in 1928. During the Depression women were less concerned with home and clothing fashions and more concerned with financial survival. Styles were more subdued in the early 1930s but became more exciting as the decade progressed and economic times got better.

1940s/WWII This era was strongly influenced by the War. Victory gardens and all things patriotic were popular, as was the industrial influence after the war.

1950s The 1950s images include pastel colors (think ice cream, sherbet) with black accents, lots of chrome and plastic, vinyl records, jukeboxes, poodle skirts, and the birth of rock and roll.

1960s The 1960s images include peace signs, tie-dyed t-shirts, "flower power", bell bottom pants, longer hair for men, lava lamps and mood rings. The end of the decade was all about Vietnam as was the beginning of the 1970s.

1970s The 1970s images include unisex clothing for men and women with jeans becoming truly fashionable. A return of the "Gibson Girl" look with "maxi" length dresses and skirts for women for a brief time. Hot pants, Go-go boots, and micro mini skirts were the rage. Fluorescent colors including hot pink were popular.

It would be great if you had personal effects from your ancestor that you could use on your scrapbook page about them. You could photograph or scan their items and include them as theme elements along with a time-related photograph (you don't want to use an adult man's hat with his baby picture). However, we don't all have the luxury of having personal effects from our ancestors. In that case, creating a scrapbook page using period items from a kit would be the next best thing. A consistent theme is what you're after.

So where do you find era-theme scrapbook kits? Well, it's not easy. For some reason these kits aren't popular with kit artists. There are some out there however and I'll be telling you about them them in upcoming posts.

(Scrapbook page shown above was created using the "Art Nouveau" kit by Rachel Turner.)