My Wedding Family Tree Scrapbook page...

So I made this page the other day and tried to use only one graphics kit so that I could remember it in acknowledging the designer. Well, I lost that note that said where it was! Anyway I will find it and make sure that I do not forget next time.

When I googled "family tree murals" last month when I painted the tree on my bedroom wall, this fun vintage comic "family tree" came up. I loved it and had to share it. I am coming to LOVE the process of "Googling" mostly, you can tell if it's not good to click on a site or not, and I have not come up with anything naughty yet. (Knock on wood)

Yeah for FAMILIES!!!!!!!!!

Pop Bottle Charms as Keyrings...

So I'm finally getting around to post the key ring that I made for my mother-in-law (top) It has photos of her Mom and Dad: Walt and Phoebe Openshaw and a "twin"photo of my husband. It seems that when the elementary school took the yearly pictures, his was so "naughty" looking that they made him take another. The photographer thought he was twins and his mom got both set of pictures!

Here is a key chain for my mom of her grandchildren and one of my sister, brother and I.
And this one I made for my sister and the two photos show both sides of each charm. I used swarovski crystals and the photos do no Justice what so ever at how beautiful these really are. It was fun making them.
And here is a charm bracelet that I made of all my grandchildren. I love wearing it!

My Family Tree Wall Mural...

Well my Family Tree Wall Mural is going to take longer to finish than I thought. What was I thinking?!!~! Anyway, I have many more photos to collect and to re size and print. Oh, I did choose the Sepia toned prints. I also decided to add more color in the frames as It all was getting a bit boring with just the ivory colored frames.

Here is what I have so far... The neatest thing are the "frame vinyl stickers that I bought at IKEA . I was helping my daughter who lives in Maricopa with an Activity Days class and IKEA is on the way home. I had stopped to find some more small frames. I liked the idea of being able to hang the 3-D frames slightly over the vinyl ones. I sort of looks like an over sized scrapbook page don't you think?
These are the stickers... $14,99 for four sheets. You can really make a nice combination with them.

My Family Tree Wall Mural

After MUCH pressure from her mother and sisters, my oldest daughter Brooke has FINALLY created a blog!!! She is so funny and creative (as are all my daughters) that I am sure that you will adore her as much as we do. Check out her blog: Brooke ala Mode.

So today I finally started on the "family tree wall mural" that I have been wanting to paint for some years now. The greatest obstacle was finding the right spot to paint it. When I moved some things around in my bedroom to make room for the old vanity that I have been restoring (will unveil soon...) the right spot came to mind. The wall is about 8 feet long and 10 feet high.

I googled "family trees" and downloaded some images to look at. I can not paint ANYTHING with out looking at some images first. (That is why I am soooo bad at cartooning. Just can't do it.)

This photo is when it was just about finished. I did some more fine tuning and added my signature. I have now just finished priming a bunch of frames that I will paint and distress the color ivory. I have not decided whether the photos of all my family will be in color, sepia or black and white. I think I need to see a few examples in the frames and on the wall first. I'll show and brag about it in a few days...
One of the things that I just LOVE about blogging is that when I "brag" there are actually people out there that are interested in my projects! So thank you fellow crazy art girls (and boys) everywhere!!!!

Show and Tell Sundays. BLING!

I only had time to get out a few pieces of my Grandma Bochman's jewelry that I inherited. I wear the broaches all the time and sometimes the earrings. But, boy do the earings hurt after an hour! The really cool thing is that I have some photos of my Grandma wearing the jewelry!!! I borrowed all these great photos from my Aunt and scanned them for my own records. It was fun getting to know my grandparents before I was born, and recognizing the jewelry that I now owned was like winning the lottery for me. I treasure these wonderful bling pieces even more now. Here is a photo of my Grandfather and Grandmother Bochman. I have been making pages for my family history books with the scanned photos of the jewelry along with the photos. This is just a portion of that page.

And then to my surprise, my husband gave me this FABULOUS belt this weekend for my birthday. The buckle is made from vintage jewelry. I love it!!!!!!

Family Resemblances

A couple of weeks ago my Mom let me borrow a box of photos and documents that belonged to my Grandmother Beger. I have been scanning and cropping till my eyes hurt. But the aching "tennis, but really Bowling elbows" and soar eyes is all worth the trouble. I came across this photo (above left) of my grandma and saw my grandson Nash! He is the only grandchild so far to have dark eyes and now we know where he got them from!

It has been so much fun finding "My People", and finding that "Fruit really doesn't Fall Far from the Tree"