Completed Heritage Album

Saturday, July 23, 2011 - after midnight....

Well after many months of working on this heritage scrapbook album for my mother-in-law, I have finally finished it today and gave it to her earlier this evening in time for the family reunion. They are expecting 60-70 people and I look so forward to getting to meet all of them. I made 2 lbs. of pasta salad earlier and am finally sitting down to watch a little Hogan's Heroes with my husband before bed.

Here are the last two layouts that I created for the album earlier today. Both layouts use supplies from the Bo Bunny Timepiece Collection. I have to say that not much is left at all from the collection pack, brads, trinkets, etc. that I bought for this project. I used up all but a few scraps of the patterned paper in fact. It's a good thing that I also used papers from the DCWV Tattered Time and Mainstreet stacks as well. There are a total of 25 layouts in this entire album.

This first one's of my mother-in-law, her dad, brother and cousin. Sketch inspiration from the Jana Eubank sketch blog...

And this last one is of my husband's Great-Uncle Tom from 1945. I used another sketch from the Scrapbook Generation sketches book for one page layouts. This was great for using up what little scraps that I had left from the Timepiece collection pack..

And here's a look through the album....

I also made an envelope using my Martha Stewart scoreboard and some heavy Bazzill cardstock that I adhered to the inside back cover. Inside are a couple of CDs with the heritage photos that I used for this album in case anyone would want a copy of some of them after the reunion. My mother-in-law can just pop them into her computer and e-mail them to whomever. The envelope is held shut with some velcro...

Thank you for following along with my blog as I created this album these past several months. It's my biggest scrapbook project that I've completed thus far and I really enjoyed it. Good night....

4 More Heritage Layouts & 2 more to go...

My mother-in-law's family reunion is tomorrow and it's crunch time here for getting this heritage album completed before tomorrow. Actually, I'm hoping to have it finished in the next few hours. I only have two more layouts left to do. I just got back from running errands, and grocery shopping to pick up a few things for us and for the reunion. I wanted to go ahead and post the four layouts that I did yesterday so I don't end up with a post that's super long. I tried taking some photos outside on the deck yesterday when I only had a couple to post, but we were under another heat advisory since it was over 102 degrees with the heat index again. And my camera lense kept fogging up because of the high humidity. Then we got thunderstorms so I ended up taking the photos inside this morning.  I'll try to make this one a quick one and will be skipping all the details this time so I can get back to work....

First up is the very first page in the album. It's of the manifest record of when my husband's ancestors came over from Italy through Ellis Island back in 1913....

Next up is page 2 of the heritage album. This one's the most simple page out of the entire album and is right next to the family tree page that I posted the other day. It's of my husband's great-grandparents' birth and marriage info in Italy....

And a couple more layouts with photos. This next one's of my husband's Great-Uncle Vic sitting in a rickshaw. Taken in China during World War I or possibly right after World War I. He was my husband's grandfather's older brother and the eldest of seven children. He was 12 when he immigrated to the United States with his family back in 1913. He joined the U.S. Army before age 18 and was thrown out because of his age, then he joined the Navy - which is the branch of the military that he was in when this photo was taken. We will also be meeting a lot of relatives from his branch of the family tree at the reunion tomorrow for the first time...

And this last one's of my husband's great-grandparents, Nicola & Angiola Maria (a.k.a. Nicholas & Maria). Taken circa 1940-1941...

Two more to go and I. am. done. Woooohooo!! I've really enjoyed the process on this whole album. But I am ready to move on to other things. Enjoy the rest of your Saturday and thanks, as always, for stoppin' by...

A Few More Heritage Layouts

I hope you all are staying cool on this miserably hot 'n humid afternoon. B. and I took advantage of the frozen pineapple-mango smoothie deal they had going on at McDonald's today only. They were selling them for only a quarter. The perfect cold treat for this hot weather we're having. We are under a heat advisory through tomorrow evening. The heat index is gonna be 105 - 108 degrees tomorrow in the shade and 15 degrees higher than that in the sun - due to the 95 degree temperature plus the high humidity, and they have been posting warnings on the news, WeatherBug, etc. Not a real common thing where we live to get warnings like that here. I watered all my flowers earlier today because I didn't want the poor things wilting in all this heat and I may have to water them again this evening. B. has swimming lessons in the morning and then she's having a friend over for the afternoon tomorrow until they go to Vacation Bible School together in the evening. Speaking of VBS, I was walking B. over to the church last night, when a bee stung me on my big toe. Ouch! That hurt like you-know-what. I was wearing sandals and walking through the clover flowers, and that's when it got me. I went back into the house to put Sting-Eze on it and had my husband take B. over to the church instead.

I'm still plugging away at this heritage album. The family reunion's this coming weekend and I have at least four more layouts to do yet, plus the manifest record and birth certificates from Italy. I figure I can probably fit those two things on the first two pages of the album. The third page is gonna be the family tree information (which I have done and pictured below). I didn't scrapbook these pages in any particular order, but rather whatever I was in the mood to scrapbook at the time. But they are all in the album chronologically. I got the album all put together with extra page protectors and a title for the cover since there's a framed area to put one. I'm using a K&Company album that has a pretty rose floral pattern on a green background on the cover and it also has some crochet trim and ribbon on it. Very pretty. I think it's coming together very nicely and I hope my mother-in-law loves it as much as I do. This has been truly a labor of love and I've really enjoyed the process of making the album for her.

Speaking of family reunions, we have yet another family reunion to go to in a couple weeks. That one's for my mom's side of the family. My cousins from Germany are arriving in America today and they will be staying with my Mom for the next few weeks. I'm so excited about getting to see them all again since it's been a few years. B. is excited too, since a couple of our cousins are close to her age. The only one who speaks any English though is their dad (my first cousin). But they still manage to play with each other just fine.  So we have lots going on in the coming weeks here for sure. 

Anyhoo, this will be another long blog post (as if it isn't long enough already, right? lol!) since I have three more layouts to post and then I need to do a some housework, cook dinner before I take B. to VBS, and work on another layout later on today.....


This first layout is of my husband's great-grandfather when he was still in Italy before immigrating to the U.S.A....

Supplies Used:

Patterned Papers from DCWV Tattered Time stack - I also cut the letters and ticket out from some of the design papers and distressed everything with the Zutter Distrezz-It-All

All stamps by Fiskars

Bo Bunny Timepiece Collection - clock trinket, journaling spot, tiny alpha stickers, quote sticker in bottom corner (which I adhered to a piece of cardstock, cut out, distressed and pop-dotted up).

Tiny brads by Making Memories. They were silver before I alcohol inked them to change the color with currant alcohol ink by Tim Holtz.

Walnut Stain distress ink by Tim Holtz

Brown Sugar dye ink by Jenni Bowlin

WRMK brad setting tool/paper piercer

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Family tree info page. I printed it out onto vellum using the attic font and hand-sewed it to the layout using my Sew Easy tool. This is the first time I've used it since buying it this past winter. I do like it, but it has a bit of a learning curve as far as getting the pressure right and being able to roll it across the paper straight. I did use a metal ruler and that helped a lot...

I also added some lace trim that was off-white originally until I used my distress inks (tea dye, antique linen, and wee bit of vintage photo) to change the color of it, along with some pearl Glimmer Mist. I love the big tree in the background. It comes from the Bo Bunny Timepiece Collection. Other than that, the only other things I used were the doily lace border punch from Martha Stewart, Tim Holtz tiny attacher and some red line tape to adhere the lace down. The title strip was also cut out from one of the design papers in the Timepiece collection.

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I also created this next layout last night. This one's of my husband's grandfather and a friend taken back in the early 1920's. This was another picture that was given to my mother-in-law by one of the patients at the doctor's office she used to work for way back when.....

Supplies Used:

Patterned Papers from DCWV Tattered Time stack. The ticket up in the corner was also cut out from one of the design papers from this stack.

The pocket watch was cut out from one of the design papers from the Bo Bunny Timepiece Collection. The brad, clock sticker tab, quote and small keyhole circle sticker (on the journaling spot) are all from Timepiece.

Zutter Distrezz-it-All

Walnut Stain and Tea Dye distress inks

Vine trim punch from Martha Stewart

Tiny Attacher

Journaling spot stamp by Ali Edwards

Tim Holtz Elegant Flourishes steel-rule die, Big Shot, chipboard. I inked it with Walnut Stain distress ink using the ink blending tool, then spread some Tea Dye Distress Stickles all over the flourish with my finger. 

And that's it. Gotta get supper started so we can eat by 5:00. I'm makin' ham loaf. Easy peasy, just pop it in the oven for an hour and make a couple side dishes since I buy the ham loaf from the grocery store already made up. :) Thanks for stoppin' by and try to stay cool these next couple of days....

A Family Heirloom - 1908 Singer Treadle Sewing Machine

This has been in the family for many, many years. It was my husband's paternal great-grandmother's sewing machine, then it belonged to his grandmother, then his aunt & uncle, then his cousin for the past 30 some years, and she gave it to us because she doesn't have the room for it where she lives. She wanted to make sure it would stay in the family and knew my husband would make sure that it does. So this sewing machine has been in the family for four generations so far. My husband and his cousin went out and picked it up earlier today and brought it home and now it sits in a prominent place in our living room. I feel so honored to have a piece of family history in my home and will take special care of it until we give it to our daughter, the fifth generation, someday and, hopefully, it will always stay in the family for many generations to come......

There are even some antique buttons, old manuals, and a couple of metal tins filled with parts inside the various drawers of the cabinet....

 I am sooo super excited that it is finally sitting in my living room (it was promised to us sometime last year) and I can't stop looking at it. lol! It needs a new belt so that it can work again. So my husband is Googling to try and find one now.  Thanks for stoppin' by and I hope you all have a wonderful evening...