Echoes Of The Past

As you all know I was recently accepted as a Design Team Member over at Let’s Scrap. Anyone interested in becoming a DT member was asked to submit a layout using this fabulous sketch that was made by Cheri O’Neill the owner of the group.

The sketch was perfect for a layout I wanted to do for my heritage album. Because I always do two page layouts for this album I decided to just mirror the sketch. Here is my layout.

These are pictures of my Great Grandparents William Eli Edwin Thomas and Mary Permilla Lavina Howey on my Mother’s side of the family. Also in the picture are my Grandfather, William Justice Thomas who is the youngest boy in the picture and his brother Samuel Eli. They had such interesting names back then, didn’t they? The pictures would have been taken around 1894.
I was thrilled when I found some lace in my stash that had several designs on it, one of which looked just like a banner. So I carefully cut it apart to use on the layout. The lace was originally white but I wanted it more of a cream color. Eila Sandberg, a friend, I met in another group was kind enough to explain how I could dye it with tea bags and water. Thanks Eila.
I made the flowers out of ribbon and used some of the Easy Brad Maker brads for the centre’s. On the green ones I placed pearls which I changed the color to cream using some glimmer powder. On the gold ones I cut out tiny clocks from Graphics 45 paper and then put one of the brad maker clear crystals over them. The fabric feathers were just from the dollar store. The lace butterfly was from an old broach that I took the back off of. Most of the paper used was card stock but there is some Basic Grey Cappella mixed in there to. I used my sissors to distress the edge of the cream cardstock and lots of Antique Linen Distress ink to distress all the papers.
I belong to a Heritage Scrapbooking site and my friend Karen Moore from that group mentioned that she was using a key on each of her heritage layouts so there would be some continuity through out the album. I thought this sounded like a great idea. The first heritage page I did had, had a key, butterflies, a ticket stub and clocks on it. I couldn’t decide which of these I wanted to repeat throughout my album so I decided to use all four. I don’t use them all on every page but do make sure to use some of them. As you can see on this one I used the key, butterfly and the clock.
I hope you enjoyed seeing the layout and Happy Scrapping.

Never thought I would do it

As a scrapper I'm sure you have done tons of layouts about your children, grandchildren, husband, friends or trips. But have you ever scrapped about yourself. It's a very hard thing to do.

I have been wanting to do a Book Of Me but never thought I would finally get around to it. This is an album about yourself, your childhood, teen years, favorite things, etc. There are a number of reason why I have thought about doing this

First would be that my father passed away when I was only 13 and had been sick for a few years before that so I never got to talk to him about his early life. I have been able over the years to talk to a few people who knew him and get bits of information but still I would have liked to have heard it from him.

My Mother lived until she was 78 but to her, her life was boring. She couldn't see why anyone would be interested in hearing about anything she might have done when she was a child, teen or her early married life. It was only shortly before she passed away that she told me a few stories, but I would have loved to have heard many more.

I have been researching my family tree since shortly after my fathers passing and have been able to get some stories about my Great Grandparents and my Grandparents coming to Canada. I cherish those stories and love to scrap about them. If you would like to see a layout I did about my Great Grandmother you can find it here and my Great Grandfather's is here. Being able to tell something about there life makes them so much more real to me.

So when I came across some information a while back about doing a Book of Me I thought it was something I would like to do. It's not because I have had a real interesting life either because I haven't. It's so that my children and grandchildren will get to know a little about me. I don't want them later on wondering about the things I loved or hated, things I did as a kid, what class was my favorite in school or any of that. I want them to know all about me just in case I'm not around when they're ready to ask questions

So all that being said I finally got around to doing a couple of layouts about me. Both of them I did for challenges over at Let's Scrap The first one is my introduction page for my book. It's called Pieces Of Me and I used jigsaw puzzle piece shapes to cut out pictures of myself from very young to now (getting old lol) I also listed a few of the roles I have. I have put several butterflies on the layout because they have special meaning to me and I used pink as the main color because it is my favorite color. I had a few extra pictures so added them in as well but not real pleased with their placement so may change them around a bit before I put the pages in my album. The poem I found quite a while back and have no idea where. I have tried to find out who wrote it but have not had any luck finding it again. So if you recognize it please let me know so I can five credit to who ever wrote it. So here it is



The next layout also has pictures of me and I'm doing my favorite thing - Scrapbooking at a crop at my LSS - Memory Lane. Because I was so busy doing a bunch of challenges I didn't get around to doing the second page but will get at it when things settle down some. Part of the challenge was to put a quote on the page. I used "Scrapbooking is a work of heart". Which I am sure is true for all of us that scrap. If you take a close look you will see one of Cheri's, from Let's Scrap, fantastic sketches in front of me.

So now I have a start on my Book of Me album. Hopefully I will get a chance to do more pages soon. I have so many things I want to scrap about and I want to work some more on my Heritage album so I guess I better end this long blog entry and get back to scrapping.

I hope you are all having a fantastic weekend, Happy Scrapping.

In My Easter Bonnet

I have been having so much fun over at Lets Scrap doing their challenges. I am getting the hang of using sketches to do my layouts and I'm finding that it's not taking me near as long to finish them. In the last week I have done 3 two page layouts and it would have taken me at least a month to have done that before. I also like how friendly everyone is and all the positive comments they make about everyones layouts.

The group have 3 types of things going on each week. On Monday they have a question of the week for us all to give input to. On Wednesday they have a sketch challenge. The sketches are usually 2 page sketches which is part of the reason I really like the group because its hard to find 2 pagers. If you only like to do one page then you can use just one side of the sketch. Then on Fridays they do a design team challenge. In this challenge one of the design team gives you rules to follow in doing your layout and you can use any sketch in the group folder to follow. I made the layout "In My Easter Bonnet" for last weeks design team challenge.

Here is my layout








Some of the things we were to follow for the challenge were to use a vintage photo, use 3 patterned papers, have homemade details or some souvenir or special embellishment, and use some of your favorite colors.

The pictures are of me at Easter when I was little, I think that alone makes them heritage lol. I used 4 patterned papers which were from my stash so I don't know what the brand names are but they all seemed to go together will and the bunny paper worked will for an Easter layout. Although purple isn't a color I would pick to wear it seems to be a color I gravitate to when buying scrapbooking paper. I tend to have a lot of it. I also love the shade of green I used. Lastly I made the flowers out of different size circles using the papers I used in the layout and then put a button in for the centre.

At first I wasn't that pleased with the layout as it just seemed to plain but it has grown on me. I hope you like it.

A Very Special Memory

You have to love Graphics 45 paper for scrapping your special memories. I actually did this layout a couple of months ago in a class at my Local Scrapbook Store, Memory Lane. I collect old world Santa's and my original plan was to use pictures that were taken this past Christmas with me standing with my collection. But I decided to use some much older pictures and I would like to share the story behind them.

As long as I can remember we put 3 non traditional items on our Christmas tree. They were an Indian doll, small panda bear and a cupie doll along with a more traditional Santa. I believe the first 3 items may have been won at a fair and put away to give to me at Christmas when I was quite young. The cupie doll disappeared years ago but when I got married I took with me the other 3 items.

I continued to put them on our tree. Anyone who saw them, including my husband, thought they were rather silly items for a Christmas tree but to me they were precious. Sadly, about 10 years ago, we had a flood in our basement and the items were ruined. I must admitted I shed a few tears when I had to throw them out. Each Christmas I think about them as I decorate my tree.

I have had a box of negatives that I got from my Mom about 30 years ago. I never really did anything with them as it was fairly expensive to send them away and have prints made. A couple of months ago I borrowed a negative reader and quite enjoyed scanning them. A lot of the pictures I have never seen before so it was exciting getting to see them.

I was looking at some of the Christmas ones I got developed and low and behold there were 3 pictures taken around 1959 when I would have been 4. I am holding the very dolls I just told you about. I must admit there were a few more tears shed when I saw them.

There were only 3 kids at that point , my brother Jim and 2 more sisters Debbie and Cathy would come later. But I still love the pictures taken of my Mom, Dad, sister's Ardell and Rose and myself. I decided they would be perfect for the layout I did in class. I have shared the layouts with my special friends in my Scrapbooking groups but thought some of my blog followers and my family might enjoy seeing them. Oh and by the way, I'm the really cute one in the picture LOL

Heritage Layout - My Great Grandmother

It's taken me a lot longer to get this layout done than I had planned but I finally finished it tonight. It's another heritage layout, this time of my Great Grandmother Ann Brisco. As you may remember a while back I did a layout of my Great Grandfather who was Ann's husband. I had a lot of journaling to do and I was having trouble finding a way to hide it to make room to put another picture and keepsake on the layout. Retta, a friend in my Scrapbooking Class yahoo group, suggested a steamer trunk and was kind enough to make me a svg. that I could cut out with my Cricut. Its so nice to have friends who are willing to lend a hand when needed. Thanks Retta. I used grunge board paper and walnut distress ink for the straps on the trunk. The buckles, brads and lock were made to look rusted by using glossy accents and alcohol ink and then using the heat gun on them. I got the idea for the rusted look from this tutorial Magnets hold the buckles down and the bottom closed. I did a lot of distressing and some tearing of the paper. The paper is from the Graphic 45 line. I just love their paper for my heritage pages.

Karen, another cyber friend, had mentioned that when she did her heritage layouts that she was going to put a key of some sort on each layout to create some continuity. I loved the idea but couldn't decide which item from my Great Grandfathers layout to use for my Great Grandmothers so I used three items instead LOL. I put some butterflies, the ticket stub and if you look closely at the three flowers on the first page you will see a small clock in the centre of one of them.

Some of my siblings, nieces and nephew's are interested in the heritage layouts I do so I've put a close up of the journaling so that they can read a little about their ancestor. Anyone else that is interested please feel free to read it to. The pictures in the locket have yellowed quite a bit which is understandable as it was left to my grandfather in 1914 but was probably worn by Ann for many years before that. I hope that everyone enjoys the layout. I know I had lots of fun making it.

My Great Grandfathers Hertiage Scrapbook page

It's been a while since I last posted but have been very busy lately and also hurt my back which has made it hard to do any scrapbooking.
I went to a scrapbooking crop yesturday at my LSS, Memory Lane and had a great time scrapping and visiting with Verna and Wendy. I have been wanting to get started on my heritage album so did up a 2 page layout for my Great Grandfather. I used Graphics 45 paper and lots of distressing. The little butterflies were cut from the paper and then I put glossy accents on them. The key was from Tim Holtz Idea-ology Grunge board pack and I used the Drunken Scotch Tutorial I found here to make it look old and rusted. I'm really pleased with the way the layout turned out. I hope everyone is having a great day and hopefully I will be back soon with some more layouts.