Giving Thanks

Today is Veteran's Day, and I for one am grateful for all those families who make the sacrifices that come when a family member joins one of our armed forces and serves our country.  It is a huge sacrifice and one without which we couldn’t enjoy the freedoms we now have.  Thank you, all of you, who served and those who endure long periods of time without your loved ones and who sometimes endure the loss of that loved one.  Thanks YOU!

What are you thankful for?  That’s the question I asked myself when I started this project. I wanted to create a project that put all those things I hold dear together and expressed my feelings.  My husband jumped in when he saw what I was doing and added his own thoughts.  It turned out great except for the couple of words that I got crooked and I didn’t catch it until it was too late to change it. 

For this project you’ll need:

One sheet of solid colored card stock

One sheet of background paper

one small scrap of contrasting paper

One 12x12 artist canvas

Paint to cover the edges of the canvas

Mod Podge

Glue

Tools:

Gypsy

Several Cricut Font Cartridges.

paint brush

craft knife

This project started with my Gypsy and really was pretty easy because of the Gypsy.  I used just about every font I have, and I threw in a few graphics in to fill some holes and to add interest to the canvas. 

Before I cut the words out, I took my 12x12 canvas and painted the edges with black paint.  It took at 3 coats to sufficiently cover the canvas.  Sadly, I forgot to take a picture of this process as well as all the other steps.  After the sides dried, I liberally painted the canvas with Mod Podge and added a sheet of paper on top of the canvas from the Old World stack from DCWV and then liberally spread a coat of Mod Podge over the paper. 

I cut the words from a sheet of black Core’dinations paper and then left them on the mat until I was ready to glue them on.

When the canvas and paper was dry, I trimmed the edges of the paper that over lapped the edges of the canvas, and sanded off the rough edges.  This meant that I had to go back and touch up the black paint on the edges, but I didn’t do that at this point. I began gluing the words on the canvas using the negative images left in the paper as a guide.  I actually laid the 12x12 negative image of the words on the canvas and began gluing the words on according to the outlines of the words.  I did cut one of the graphics in a deep autumn orange to give a little pop of color and to add interest.

Once all the words and graphics were glued on and dry, I went back and repainted the edges pulling some of the paint onto the edges of the paper.  I like the look this added to the canvas.  Sorry for the glare on this picture.  Pulling the black paint onto the top of the canvas covered the edges of the paper which has a white core. 

At this point it was time for a top coat of Mod Podge, and I was careful to make paint brush strokes as though there were actual paint strokes on the canvas. 

And I was done.  I hung it on my family room wall to show you my work. 

One more look:

That crooked “friends” is really bugging me!  Oh, well!  I like how it turned over all. 

My final words for you all today are be thankful for the freedoms we have and the people who have made it possible.!

A Big Family

As I promised I’ll be doing some Heritage scrapping this week and sharing my process of getting these photos in a scrapbook. 

When I received the photo of my mother’s large family, I was thrilled.  I’d never seen it before and was happy that I could recognize most of the people in it.  After I got the photo, I immediately wrote my aunt and asked her if she could put together a list of the people in the photo which leads me to one of the biggest reasons to scrap those old photos.  Let your children know who those people are and why the picture was important to you. Most of my journaling for this layout is just a head by head account of the people in the photo.  Now my children will be able to look at it and figure out who is who. 

This paper is Daisy D’s and it is certainly vintage.  I think the pink is a bit different for heritage photos but the paper has an aged appearance and the design is from the 40’s or 50’s.  I think it reflects the way I feel about my mother’s family. 

I used just a touch of brown Coredinations cardstock to mat the photos and as shadows for some of the embellishments. The darker pink is Bazzill and is raspberry. The light pink is just cardstock I had and is probably from Hobby Lobby.

When it came to the title of this page I chose one word. Family—there was no other word for it.  I have this huge heritage that I want to share with my children and their children.  I used Ashleigh’s Alphabet with the cursive feature and since there is no shadow feature for the cursive option, I played around with it on my Gypsy until I got it the way I wanted.  The F is cut at 3 1/2” and the rest of the word at 1".   I liked the way it looked when I was finished.  All the swirls are cut from Ashleigh’s Alphabet too.  I used my threading water punch on the mat for the big picture and then then faux stitched it.  The word Family was pop dotted to lift it away from the flourish behind it. 

The label holder is from my stash and I’ve long ago forgotten where I got it.  I attached it with brads and placed a piece of ephemera that I also bought a very long time ago.  You can also see the stickles that I added.  I have a hard time resisting the little bit of bling.  Love those Stickles.

The flowers are a mixture of Primas and Flora doodles with brads that have been sitting in my embellishment box for a long time.  It’s making me so happy that I am using up all my supplies. 

I included the photo of my mother and her twin sister to help my children make a connection between their grandmother and this rather large family.  Since my mother was a twin and photos were an not as easily acquired in the 40’s, my mother rarely had her picture taken without her twin sister.  My mother is on the left. Isn’t she pretty!  I think this photo was taken about two years after the big family picture was taken.  They had gone away to boarding school and the picture was taken there. 

The scalloped edge on the mat of this picture was accomplished with an old Fiskars template.  I traced it and hand cut it so that it would have even corners.  It’s always good to pull out old tools and let them see the light of day again. 

The most important thing about Heritage scrapping is to leave a record behind that tells who, what when and where. I especially wanted to leave a list of whom the picture included.  Believe it or not but there are several sisters who are not in the picture and one brother who died in infancy.  There was a grand total of 18 children. My mother and her twin were born third from last.  She died at the age of 75 and her oldest sister died one month later.  Estella was 99 years old.  When my mother was born the oldest siblings were already married and had children of their own.  What a family!  I am proud to call them mine.