Photo collages - final

Years ago, we were all back in Indiana at my aunt's bed & breakfast. It was Sunday morning and Aunt Eleanor sat down to play the piano. Soon, everyone was singing church hymns...everyone except mom. She had her camera and was snapping photos of everyone singing. She went home and started painting. I think she painted every single person that was there....over 20 of us!

She painted my son laughing and singing.....and then took a photo of the painting and sent it to me. I have loved this photo. He was with family. He was singing. He was laughing. He was about 15 years old at the time....and I have held true to the fact that no matter where his journey in life will take him, I know the fun loving, laughing, happy little boy is inside of him....looking for a way out! And so I wrote:

You are the light of my life
You give joy to my day
You're the song in my soul
You're in my heart to stay.

From the day you were born
No matter what's been done
I'll love you forever
Jason, my firstborn son.



Nothing more than a photo, mounted, with my poem. A simple photo collage for sure.

And then there's this photo of Jeff, taken when he was about 2 1/2. I remember that it was a "window" for us. He had so many seizures and would fall down and get bruises or cuts....always on his head and face as well as the rest of his body. I remember waking up, looking at him and saying, "We have to go get photos done today!!!" It was a rare moment when he didn't have any visible signs of his seizures showing.

But more than that, I remember the fear of losing him. The hours that he was unconscious after a seizure, how I daily held him in my arms and prayed for his safety. I just remember my heart aching with love for him and fear for his life. Thinking back to the time of this photo, I wrote:

I used to sing a song to you
Every single night
I'd hold you in my arms
and hug you really tight

Sometimes I'd sing an hour or two
And hold you in my heart
I find I still hum the tune
Though we're miles apart.

And it's so true! I find that out of nowhere....I just start singing the little song that I made up and sang to him all those years ago. I wonder if it's my daily prayer. Although I still worry about both of my boys, I have turned them over to Jehovah. I know that HE alone will keep them safe. But I will always love them.



So, now I have all the photos mounted on the glass doors on the shelves....it's time to add the final touches.  A rub on sentiment....did you know rub ons work on glass?

A Star of David and snowflake and lots of swarovsky crystals in the center top panel

And rather than use my white pen, I made my dots with heat set crystals on top of the glass....oh!  does this "bling" when you walk by!!!

Well, it took me a couple of days.....but I actually "altered" the bookcase.  And I'm so happy with it...because you can't see the MESS that's inside!  LOL!!!  

Don't worry.  It will all come off with undu if I decide to move the library back to another room!


Footnote: For those of you who read my blog via emails....I have added a link list on the right on the web where you can click and easily get back to each of my video tutorials.

Where did time go?

It is nearly impossible to imagine that Jason turns 30 tomorrow! Where on earth did my life go? And don't even tell me I'm old....I still think I'm the 30-year-old! LOL!

This pic was taken last Thursday. He has grown so tall, so healthy. I've written his story before, but realizing that 20 years ago, when he was 10, his doctors said he would be dead in 2 years....all I can do is praise God that he has turned into such a healthy young man, free of all meds! So much for listening to the doctors! It was a long, hard struggle and there were moments when I wondered if we would ever make it. Health is such a priceless thing and if you've never had a chronically sick child...well, just be thankful!



1 Tim 6:12: Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou are also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses.

Jason, we fought the good fight. We won the battle of your health. And it is through my faith that I lay hold to eternal life.

I love you son!

Mom

Shadowbox Memories, Part 1 of 2

These shadowboxes are 2' x 3', with hinged glass fronts and a total depth of 2 1/2". This is Jason's box, he's my oldest son, soon to turn 29. I started by laying a sheet of foam core board in the bottom of the box and covered that with his baby blanket. The blanket was made by mom's mom.



I think I made these boxes about 1995 - long before I took up scrapbooking. But obviously, I was into the vintage look. This is a little pop-up card. But the halo is actually Grandma's wedding ring. I think it's quite fun to hide little things like this and make you have to look to see what's there! Idea # 2 - make a list of what's in the shadowbox, who it came from, it's date or origin, and put that in a pocket on the back of the shadowbox. Just so no one throws away Grandma's wedding ring!!!



Here's the cigar his dad handed out and his baby spoon. I didn't want to tape or glue a thing, so I've wrapped fine thread around these and then stitched them to the baby blanket. More like a loose basting stitch.



His baptismal certificate, the rose from the alter that day, a hanky from his godmother - it's folded as a baby bonnet. Now, you can't stitch paper, but you can use a lot of "T-pins" to hold things in place.



Here's a really fun technique. I wanted a unique way to showcase his photos K-12. Behind his senior photo is a vintage fan. I cut the ovals using a craft knife and put his photo in the center of each blade of the fan. I've got his life in a nutshell right before my eyes every day of the week!



These are the cutest little crocheted sandals that his godmother made for him. Jason was a premie and only weighed 6 pounds and his feet were so tiny. These are about 2" long.



I think it was obvious back then I was destined to do collage! His baby photo is in a counted cross stitch frame my dear friend Pam made. His first baby toy, the newspaper clipping of his birth, more flowers from the day he was born tucked in a hanky pocket. And I've threaded silk ribbon through the items. Do you see his first lock of hair tied to the bow?




And here's his christening outfit. Handmade by me! White velour onesie, matching jacket and hat. Pale blue shirt with a matching bowtie. I tell you - he was just too cute that day!!! This was attached to the blanket using pins. Note the hanging chipboard boys attached to silk ribbon looped from the top frame. Lots of dried greenery and it's still just fine! You can even see the tassle from his graduation cap hanging to the left.



And I was definitely not a stamper when I made this, but I found these wood printer blocks that spelled his name and one that is the Boy Scout emblem. I couldn't resist adding them to his shadowbox. Note the metal corners that I added to the outside of the box.



I've received hundreds of compliments on this box over the years and it's so much more fun than to have everything tucked away. Maybe this is just scrapbooking on a grand scale? It doesn't have a title and there's no journaling, but sometimes, memories stand alone, just as they are!

Home decor

I'm trying to downsize, but there are just some things that will stay with me even into the nursing home! LOL! So today, I worked on hanging them on a spare wall in the guest bedroom. In the center was today's project.


It didn't photo too well with the flash on, but that was a brown/black metal key from Hobby Lobby - on the 66% off aisle. I needed something to hang the 48" long christening gown on. And the 2 vintage doll dresses. A layer of Krylon primer and 2 layers of Krylon white glossy paint - and I have a white key!




Everything in my life has some kind of meaning. The christening gown is one that was given to me when I had an antique shop in San Diego. It was totally brown with loads of bug stains and big holes in it. I used Biz to clean it and then Japanese paste to mend the tears. If you looked at it today, you would not be able to see any damage at all. I need to find another piece of old vintage clothing and then I can do step shots as I go through the process of repairing it. The other antique dealer who gave it to me could not believe the restoration job I did on it!

The little doll dresses - well, they are the kind I always wanted for my dolls when I was a little girl - all pretty and covered in lace. I've decided it's never to late to awaken that childhood spirit that lives deep inside of each of us! So here they hang - reminding me every day that it's ok to be a kid, to have some fun, and to play a bit!



On the left is a 2' x 3' shadowbox filled with Jason's baby things. Tomorrow I will blog more on that and share some techniques for preserving your kids things.



On the right is Jeff's shadowbox. We'll be talking about that on Saturday.



I know so many people put their kid's baby things in boxes and store them away. I wanted to display them, look at them, share them with others, and just enjoy the memories of their childhood on a daily basis. I know also that I don't have room to display all the momentos I've accumulated in my life, but these 2 shadowboxes bring great joy and lots of smiles to me. The boys can certainly wait another 30 or 40 years to have them!!!

Rocks, frogs and poems

If you know me, you know I'm not afraid to put much of anything on a scrapbook page. I think if you look closely, you can see the actual physical rocks on this page. The photos of Jason are just so cute...he was throwing rocks into the river and just laughing...then turning around to make sure we were watching him. Memory Makers magazine had a call for lumpy pages...I do think I gave them lumpy...and they published this! It is really the heaviest layout I've ever done.

Note the little green paper punched frogs crawling around in the rocks? And some of the rocks have been painted. Some of the rocks are flat paper. Truly a fun project!



This is probably my favorite photo of Jason. I have always loved the look on his face...like he was just not quite sure what to do and just a little scared. This is a 12 x 12 layout...and rather than buy one of those transparancies with the designs to go over it, I simply put this in the wide format printer and printed right over the paper and the photo. Designed the overlay in photoshop and just hit the print button. The little pocket has a note to him about this day.



I cannot help but laugh every time I look at this one. What kind of mom an I that I would not only let him eat the grass....I had to get the camera and take pictures! LOL! And I wrote the poem:

Eating stick and grass
That's what I like to do
I think it's pretty cute
But it makes me go poo....

Anything I touch
goes right into my mouth
And then my mom will say
"you better spit that out!!!"



And this is one of my earliest layouts....but I still just love it. The series of photos just match the poem I wrote for this one:

My bubba is hard to hold
And he likes to look at me
It seems he sleeps all the time
Except when he has to pee
He sure makes funny faces
He's just as cute as can be
I really like my bubbe
And I know that he likes me!



I have found that often a simple little poem can say so much more than any journaling. I have thousands of photos yet to scrap. A never ending project!

Rocks, frogs and poems. So appropriate for scrapbooking my memories of these 2 little boys!

Into each life

a little rain must fall. Continuing here to share from my album, The Closets of my Life....Jason was 10 years old in 1988 and had severe asthma. After 31 days in intensive care, the doctors said that he would be dead in 2 years. I didn't know what to do. I was so afraid that they were right, but I was so determined to make them wrong. I sold everything we owned and moved to San Diego. All we had were our clothes, our photos and scrapbooks and a few things for the kitchen. I was on my own, a single mom without a dime. And I was a thousand miles away from my sisters. I had no idea where my life would take me. I had one single solitary goal...to keep this child alive.



The house we lived in had sliding doors for closets, so I recreated them here. Sort of bland, huh? These layouts are done on foam core board which I hollowed out to give me almost 1/4" depth inside the closets. So hang on...it's what's behind the doors that counts!



Every night after school, I took Jason to the beach and told him to play in the ocean. I told him that the salt in the water would heal his lungs. I prayed every moment of every day knowing that if he died, I would surely die as well. Fear encompassed my life. Fear drove me to create breathing exercises, games that forced him to use his lungs, and a daily regime of drugs and nebulizer treatments. Within 2 years, he was well on the road to recovery and our new life brought us new friends, new interests, new hobbies and new collections. And in no time at all my closets were once again filled to the brim...perhaps fuller than they had ever been.



I had a full time day job, and on weekends, I worked in an antique shop. So this closet is filled with junk! But it's also filled with photos of my sisters, notes about their lives, and you can see little notes tucked inside of purses...and little scrapbooks that I have recreated....holding secrets from my past.



I have the templates to make each of these closets so if you want to make them for yourself, just let me know! And although the doors slide back and forth, they also flip up for easy access to what's hidden behind them.

It has to rain in order for rainbows to shine. And behind every cloud is a silver lining. I have learned that a little rain in life is good. And that closets packed to the brim with memories are worth more than anything else!


Closets already shared:
1978
1968
1958