What to do with hundreds of handwritten notes?

Hi,

Complete newby here. My wife and daughter scrapbook a lot. When our kids were small they used to write notes back and forth with elves that visited each night in December. My amazing wife kept all of them! There are so many! Everything from sticky notes to full 8.5x11" pages.

I really want to do something with all of these and surprise the kids and my wife this Christmas. I am totally at a loss as to what to do.

Any and all suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I need to make 3 books, so only one could have the originals.

Thank you!

What a lovely idea!
I think I would scan all the notes into your computer, then create 3 photobooks.
You could even add some old photos you might have of when the kids were young.
I will admit to not knowing how to do this but I believe you use certain websites to create the photobooks and they print and create them and send them too you.
I am sure someone who knows how to do this will pop in and help you.
I must say, this is one of the most amazing and thoughtful gifts I have ever heard of.....

I just want to say it is wonderful that you are doing this!!

Yes...Photobooks ...I second the notion!

I was also going to say that - make pretty pages - I would do 8 1/2 x 11. Scan them and download them to Shutterfly.

Then they will all have a nice copy!

There is a scrapbook option and a photobook option. The scrapbook option actually means they offer templates you can use so they really aren't your scrapbook pages.

The photobooks - you can download a blank page and just throw the page you have made in that spot.

Wow! How special is that? You can really get to know someone through note writing in a different way than just through talking.

The ladies above have some very good ideas, but I would take it on another route.

I have lots of notes my friends and I passed around in highschool that are very artistic (what else are you supposed to do in Physics class?) and I treasure each and every one. The thing is I want to store and display these little notes. One of the whole points of scrapbooking to me is to find a way to preserve and present the little pieces of ephemera in my life. That being said, I'd do a mini album without sleeves so that if the notes were folded I could open them up.

Here are some elf scrapbooking items that might highlight the specialness of these notes.

Thanks to everyone who made suggestions! I am underway. I took all of them to my work yesterday. I used the scanner there and got them all scanned in. Took some time since the different sizes, shapes, colours and contrasts. I ended up going black and white - my wife used a red pen to reply as the elves and it didn't scan well unless I made it black and white and turned the contrast way up.

Now going through each one and cropping, straightening and rotating. A long process but I'm loving it!!!

You are too sweet. I agree a photo book is a great way to go, but I will add one note. I would consider haveing the book printed as a coffee table size book. These books are usually very large. The benefit will be you can put letters and pictures collaged on to the pages AND the finished product will be a gorgeous decoration to treasure every Christmas.
*Hint if the outside of the book is red you could trim it with a black ribbon and gems in the shape of a square to look like a buckle...then it would look like a santa suit...that might be cute.

I love the photo table 12 x 12 better also - the only reason I thought 8 1/2.x 11 is that to get it to Shutterfly or one of the book companies you have to scan it first to download it.

Most people don't have access to a 12 x 12 scanner so it turns into a real pain in the neck. I had to box mine up and send the to a company in Boca Raton, Florida who did an excellent job but if you don't want to mail them and there isn't a 12 x 12 scanner in your town, you have the tedious task of scanning them in 4 pieces and stitching.

The stitching works great but is a lot of work. Photoshop makes the "cleanest" scans I've found but it takes a lot of time for each one.

There are easier scan programs which are great for posting here but not as clear when printing in book format - I know from experience.

But I totally agree - I think the larger would be better.

I'll have to find the name of the Ap. my daughter is using on her smart phone... She snaps a picture of her daughters art work, etc. and it downloads to that site and then she can get a book printed out.. easier than scanning..

keep in mind for future projects and this is so sweet you are doing this for your 'girls'...

Would love to know what the app is Diana!

I have changed my approach. I cropped all the scanned images and started putting together collages, but all in b&w didn't look very good. Plus I thought that we should preserve the originals anyway.

So last night I bought a few hundred clear plastic page protectors. I got about 80 pages done - double sided so 160 viewing pages. I have about 20% of the total left to do.

One of the issues is these aren't marked with dates, and they aren't in much order. With them all in a binder, my wife and I can go through it and move pages around to give it some order before we give it to the kids - yes, I had to enlist my wife's help since I was struggling - the page protectors were her idea.

I like the idea of taking pictures then making photobooks from them. The kids can decide if they want that or just have the original book at our house that they can revisit from time to time.

Thanks again to all!

I would make a book/'big-mini album' (lol) out of them, with envelopes on the pages that the notes could be stored inside- wow, I wish I had some notes, I have the pages designing themselves in my head, already!

-kory