Thursday, January 31, 2013

The Fier Siblings

Henry Fier, Grandma Marie's Dad, had two sisters.  One was named Carrie.  One sister never married.  The other sister had a son that worked for a perfume company and would bring Grandma perfume.  Adult photo c 1890.

After adhering the vintage buttons to the side of the layout, I wrapped hemp fiber around them.


I added some dimension spreading colored texture paste over a stencil.



A quick and effective way to combine large sheets of paper together is to staple them, hiding the staples under the photos or other elements..

My Mom doesn't know which sister is Carrie, and who's who in the child photos, but it's unmistakable they are the same family!

Sunday, January 27, 2013

Heirloom

Greg's prized plane was a toy from Disney's "Tale Spin", an animated cartoon from the early 1990s.  Even more priceless is the flying cap he's wearing, an heirloom from Pa Pa Jim Gay, pictured in the Army Air Corp in World War II.








I added a digital brush on the right side of the cardstock before adding the paper elements.  I then added the journaling to another digital brush, printed it on a lighter cardstock, cut around it before adhering with pop dots over the background brush.

I downloaded the digital brushes from Echo Park.  They have a "Dollar Wednesday" when I often take advantage of the savings.  This kit was $1.50 last Wednesday.  It's fun to get the Wednesday mailing!

Thursday, January 24, 2013

Black Pearl

Here I am in 1961 pictured with my Dad's Chevrolet Impala.  We were on a family vacation at Niagara Falls.

8 Years later, this became my first car.  My friends nicknamed it the "Black Pearl".

I borrowed my Mother's car to get my license as this car had no power steering.

As a junior in high school, I was one of only a few friends that drove.  I got lots of experience giving everyone rides.

We like to take the road on the "West Virginia side" of the Potomac River from Piedmont to Keyser.  There were many consecutive sharp turns and the wheels on the car would squeal.  

One day my friends pranked me and drifted my car from the upper parking lot of the school to the lower and filled the car with paper towels.

The classic car was retired soon after.


Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Shadow Games

Sugar enjoys the winter birds even better when we pull the blinds down for afternoon shadow games. 

While not exactly a "shadow", I positioned the second word of my title upside down to reflect the meaning of the event.

We're in a cold wave here in West Virginia--the high today is to reach 16.  But sunshine is in the forecast and when I get home from work, I'll pull the blind down so our kitty can play.

Sunday, January 20, 2013

Friendship Hill

We had a nice sunny day here yesterday and went to a nearby state park "Friendship Hill" which was once the home of Albert Gallatin.  In the early 1800s, he was Secretary of the Treasury to Thomas Jefferson and rode horseback from this home near Point Marion, Pennsylvania to Washington, DC.............a distance of over 200 miles.  There are so many interesting stories here, but the winter wind was blowing and we decided we'd go back in April when the wildflowers are blooming and do more.

I modeled my journaling block after the time line on the park's display.

I liked the sentiment on this 7 Gypsies stamp: "We wander for distraction, but we travel for fulfillment".
 We don't have to travel far to find interesting places to photograph!

Friday, January 18, 2013

Spirit of '76

I first visited Harper's Ferry in 1976 during Spring Break.  That's the year we married.  It's still a favorite place to visit.  Photo on the right, 2012.

While I loved the Authentique paper design, I decided to add some color by stamping with acrylic paint using my old pattern foam stamps.

Have a great weekend!
 

 

Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Shoot for the Moon

We had just got out of the car to explore Oglebay Park, when Bob spotted the jet crossing the moon in the beautiful sky.  The first photo he took-and that one alone was perfect.

The inspirational quote reads "Shoot for the moon.  Even if you miss, you'll land among the stars!"  

 

Monday, January 14, 2013

Stitching the Story Together

These pictures were taken in October when we visited the Betsy Ross House in Philadelphia.  Can't you just imagine her studio?  The materials and storage pieces in the upholstery shop displays were full of beautiful items.

Betsy Ross learned to sew from her great aunt.  Betsy married a fellow upholsterer apprentice, John Ross.  When he was killed in the Revolutionary War, Betsy repaired uniforms and tents.  She maintained the business tiill retirement when she was completely blind.

Betsy Ross was the American flag maker noted for changing the 6-pointed stars to 5-pointed stars.

 I had a lot of fun with this layout. beginning with the font, stitchery and ribbon

and adding the seamstress and country ephemera.
 

Thursday, January 10, 2013

Worth Crossing the Atlantic

In 1786, Thomas Jefferson eloquently describes this area and the view in Harper's Ferry as one of the most stupendous in nature.  This point, where the Potomac River passes through the Blue Ridge Mountains and junctures with the Shenandoah is "worth crossing the Atlantic" to see. 

We are truly blessed to live in such a beautiful part of the world.  It is even pretty there in winter, with bare trees.

 My little window frames were too small to show the detail in the actual photos on the left, so I printed them larger where you can see my picture of Bob taking a picture from inside a window, then his actual picture through the window on the side.

 

Tuesday, January 8, 2013

Covered

The Barrackville Covered Bridge was built in 1853 by Eli and Lemuel Chenoweh, West Virginia's pioneer bridge builders.  It was saved from destruction during Jones Raid in 1863 by the Ice family, nearby mill owners.

When Bob, Greg and I each pulled out our Nikons to photograph the bridge, I guess you could say we had it "covered".  January 2013

Monday, January 7, 2013

Gift

This layout is modeled after Davinie Fiero's "Snow Bound" layout in the January issue of Scrapbook Trends.  Also in this month's issue is a layout by our friend Heather Landry.

My layout features a picture from New Year's Day.  We had a nice meal before Michelle headed back to Minnesota.  The scarf I'm wearing was homemade by Michelle, a beautiful gift from the most precious gift of all. . .a beautiful daughter-in-law!

Sunday, January 6, 2013

Winter Adventure

Because Greg is in academics, he's able to come home for 2 1/2 weeks. It makes us so happy he still enjoys coming home.

I took some extra time off at New Years and one pretty morning I asked Greg if he wanted to go somewhere to take pictures. When we attempted to go to Cooper's Rock State Park, we discovered the snow covered road led to a closed park gate. So we settled for the nearby Trout Pond.

It probably doesn't compare to the wondrous adventure of the boy and the Snowman, but to a mom, it's always special to spend time with her children.

January 2013

The Snowman card was sent a few years ago by my sister Amy.

Saturday, January 5, 2013

Charm

Mom at Clancy's on New Year's Eve 2012. At age 87, she's stylish and charming and sure loves her grandchildren!





The bottom of my layout was inspired by Kelly of Kelly Creates in her latest Happy New Year layout.

 

Friday, January 4, 2013

Abstract

When I posted this picture of Bob's (of a leaf in a frozen puddle with bubbles), a friend commented how talented he was and that the photo was "abstract". I think you could say some of Bob's traits are "abstract", spiritual and of the soul. 

December 2012

Wednesday, January 2, 2013

Invincible Summer

My tutorial for adding typography to a digital photo is published in the January issue of Scrapbooking.com.

I asked my son to take this picture of me at the start of one of our walks. I’d never been a winter person, but realizing that life goes so fast, I've learned to enjoy every season. The quote is a favorite: "In the depths of winter, I finally learned there was in me an invincible summer." 

The depth and direction of the photo, along with the contrast of dark browns and white tones provided a perfect photo for adding text.

 
 First, I sized the photo.
I then added the first layer of text in a larger font (36 point). Since the background was a dark brown at the top of the image, I chose a white font for this line of text.
The second line of text was sized slightly smaller (30 point) to lead the eye to the photo as I was walking down the hill. 
The third row, added immediately below me, was in the smallest text size (24 point) and in black as it was against the white snow.
 I sized the 2 remaining lines incrementally larger (30 point, then 36 point) to lead the eye out of the photo to the title of the layout.

 Before printing the photo, I added the digital frame.




Since the focal point of the layout was the photo and the quote (inclusive of the title) I added a simple background: Gold mist stencil on the brown cardstock and 2 pieces of patterned paper. The corner chipboard was covered in a matching scrap of patterned paper. The gold snowflake was a Christmas tree ornament.


May you have the warmth of summer throughout the new year! 

Tuesday, January 1, 2013

Kinship

I love holidays when I'm able to extend them over several days, and this is one we've been able to do that.  Yesterday I took the kids to visit my parents and for lunch at the nephews' restaurant where we visited with my sister Terry and niece Sara.  Bob's brother came to town Thursday and Michelle on Friday.  That night, my sister Amy and her family stopped at the house on their way through town and dined on my meatballs and Aunt Bernice's cookies.  On Christmas Day, Chris, Bob and I ate dinner and watched a movie.  

I'm sad Michelle left today (this is not a very good time of year for me) but am so happy that Greg will be with us for almost 2 more weeks.  Just as the kids and grand kids mean the world to my parents, our kids and parents mean the world to us! 

Happy New Year to all!