Heritage Wreath and Tree

Here's one of the most fun projects I've ever done, without a doubt.  I've been wanting to do something like this for several years now.  My friend, Dee, had her Mary Kay open house last weekend and she had a similar one that her sister made.  After seeing it, I knew I couldn't wait any longer.  I had to work on my tree...and I wanted to make a wreath, too.  I have a lot of photos of my ancestors already on hand, from working on my heritage album.  I wanted to include not only my ancestors on my wreath and tree, but my current family as well.

To make them all have the vintage look I was after, I edited all my current photos into a sepia tone before printing them.  This was so much fun.  The little tree now sits on the end of my dining room table, so the lights show outside from the window, too.  This means we now have 13 trees in our home, counting the one on the front porch.  The number keeps growing!  I actually decorated a tree AND a wreath with my vintage tags.  The wreath is on the wall in my dining room.  I still have more tags to finish, so I'll be adding a few more.  I just had to show you this now.  I loved making this project!
Here's the wreath:

Here are close-ups of the tags:

Here's the tree:

... and some close-ups of tags on the tree:

...and more close-ups of the tags on the wreath:

I've mixed up and blended together all the ancestors from both sides of the family, along with current photos of family.  I really did not want them separate.  I did, however, add labels on the backs of the tags so we won't forget who is who.

If you have any photos of your ancestors, I highly recommend this project.  If not, you could easily make one that is current.  You could even print all the photos in color, for an entirely different look.  Give it a try.  I think the kids will love it!

December 18/19 and counting...

Happy stamping!

MDS Layout / Photo of Me!

I am so excited to share this with you.  While going through some of my parents' things, I came across this old negative --- yes, a negative.  It's a favorite old photo of me (at 3 or 4 years old) that I thought was lost forever.  On an impulse, I put it into my scanner, backed it with white CS and scanned it into my iPhoto program on my Mac.  It worked!  It was like magic that I could have my old photo back again after all this time.  I edited and tweaked the 'color' a bit and then used it with My Digital Studio to create a layout.  This opens up an entire new world of possibilities in saving old photos (or even negatives) that would otherwise NOT make for very good scrapbooking.  I remember the photo so well because this was an absolute favorite dress of mine.  My mother made it for me and it was yellow.  I begged to wear it most every day because I loved it that much.

My Digital Studio Project

I have become almost obsessed with working on a special project of mine.  I am making an album for my husband -- of his dad's life.
This didn't just involve making some digital pages.  Oh no, it meant getting out all those odds and ends of boxes that people give you (to clear their own house and their own conscience for not doing anything with them:) and actually sorting them all.

Once sorted, I had to scan them all into my computer, something which I confess that I just learned how to do.  With my new Mac, that part was super simple, but took a lot of time.  I enlisted the help of my husband and we got a rhythm going.  Then, I had to photo edit them all.

I soon realized that I needed a plan to organize the nearly 200 photos.  I started exporting them into organized folders onto my desktop.  It feels so GOOD to have that part finished.  Finally, I got to start working on the album.  I chose Downtown Grunge and it lends itself quite well to a vintage/heritage album look.  Because the photos span 91 years, some were in color -- much of which was old, faded color.  I edited these by changing them into antique or sepia or black and white, depending on which looked best for each one, and then faded the color a bit.  I did all this in my iPhoto on my Mac.  By adjusting the colors, all the photos work well together.

Wow, I'm tired just typing about what I did.

Anyway, here is a sneak peek at my project.  It involves layers and layers of images, to give texture and dimension.  I'm absolutely loving the look and am so excited about being this far along.
If the program will let me do it, I think my book could be about 70 pages long!  I am then going to try to edit it more and scale back on some of the photos so it won't be so long --- maybe.

This was a learning process as the album grew.  I would encourage you to try this because, the more you work with MDS, the better you get at it and the more you discover all that you can do with it.  I've always chosen to scrapbook IRL, with tons of layers and embellishments but, with over 200 photos, I would NEVER get finished that way.  The beauty of using MDS is that, once you have them printed for you, you can add embellishments anyway and create hybrid pages.

By the way, the photo sorting and scanning was so successful, that it has renewed my ambition to get caught up with the old photos from my own children.  I did not scrapbook when they were little and I was feeling like I was drowning in photos because I am now scrapbooking for my 3 grandchildren.  I truly did not know if I would ever finish the albums for my own children and really wanted to do so.

Now, I have renewed hope that this is a possibility, if I do a good chunk of it with My Digital Studio.  This gives you the opportunity to enhance the old photos and actually get the pages finished.  Yay!  I have actually been working on sorting photos for my own children.  Hey, Jenn and Matt, you may have albums yet!!!