Oma’s china is a precious family heirloom that anyone would love to have. So, naturally it was thrilling to find the actual receipt for Oma's China dated 1941! The cost has sure gone up as you can see. The china that originally cost a mere $126 is worth more than 10 times that today. The old receipt also makes one appreciate it's value to them at the time. The receipt tells the story and sometimes answers the questions when someone is no longer around to answer them personally. They made payments on the china for 3 years before they actually brought it home. On top of that, we had a picture of Oma setting her table with that very china. That made this scrapbook page all the more exciting. I wanted to preserve the memory of this china for the rest of the family since it will go to my niece when she marries. It would be tragic if the china were damaged or lost in a natural disaster, so I took photos of the china with my digital camera. Natural light was the key to getting the raised areas to show up in the photograph. The actual photographs are bright white. So, to maintain the aged look from the receipts and photo, I placed a piece of ivory vellum over the pictures of the china. Copies of the receipts were also necessary because the originals are to be kept with the china. (See the layout instructions for preserving the original receipt.) I cut the edges of the receipts and price list with deckle edge scissors to give it an aged look.

Take a look through those old boxes and see what you can find. This added memorabilia makes for a priceless heirloom scrapbook page. It’s the next best thing to putting the actual item in your scrapbook. I think Oma would be proud and that makes my work all the more rewarding.