Diane Davison: Family album

• posted by: guest
• posted in: Scrap Life, Projects
• on: June 5, 2008

 Family Paper bag Album

As soon as I saw the New “We are Family” acrylic stamp set I knew that I had to do a “Family Tree” Paperbag book. I’ve done Genealogy for years and had successfully researched my Mother’s Grandfather’s family in Scotland going back to the early 1700’s. I wanted something that was condensed, easy to look at yet it had to be special.

My mother’s grandfather came from the Orkney Islands in Scotland & settled near my home. He married my great grandmother & had two children. She died of tuberculosis in Denver, Colorado shortly after the only picture we have of them was taken and he dropped the children off at their maternal grandmother’s for her to raise. They didn’t see him again until my grandfather was in his late 20’s. What we do know of him and his life in Scotland is what  I have uncovered after years of research. Everything is documented & I have copies of all the Parish records to back up my research. One of my real treasures is the parish token that was found by a friend of mine who does metal detecting. Several years back our streets were torn up to put in new sewer lines & that’s when he found it. The funny thing is, this token is from the Parish of St. Mary’s, South Ronaldsay, Orkney Islands, Scotland. The same Parish my great grandfather was baptized in! How coincidental is that?

I started with 4 standard brown lunch bags, folded them in half and laid them out alternating the opening. Then I cut my cardstock into 4 ½ x 5 inches using the New Heidi Grace papers from the Only Time line the and one piece I had from A Little Birds Tale.  For the cover I stamped the tree image from the We Are Family stamp set & colored it using my markers. The insides pages are various Heidi Grace papers, punches & embellishments. The tags are also decorated using different punches, papers & using the stamps again. Each tag is labeled according to the generation and I will fill in important information on them. To finish it off, I used my crop-I-dial to punch the holes, added the binder rings & decorated with coordinating ribbons. Paperbag albums are so easy to make, yet look so nice when finished.

Once my book was finished, I decided that I needed to have something special to store my book & my family treasures in. I had found this cool box at a yard sale recently & knew it would be perfect for this project.  I hand drew the tree and traced it onto brown cardstock & cut it out. I also used scraps from the Only Time papers to decorate the top, used my scalloped daisy embossing punch to give the top a fancy border, stamped I *heart* my family from the We Are Family stamp set. Then added Raindots, vellum flowers from the Cloud 9 Vellum Flower kit, used my scallop punch to punch out the title and added brads so that I could hang it from a tree branch. I love the idea of having my Family Tree Paperbag Album & my family treasures stored together. I am so happy with how this project turned out and it’s something that I can proudly display on a shelf for everyone to see.

Supplies:
No. 5 Scissors -  these are my absolute Favorite!
Fingertip Craft Knife
Fiskars Tape Runner
Heidi Grace line Only Time - Med Floral,   Main, Dots, Flower Rings
Heidi Grace line “A Little Bird’s Tale”
Cherrywood Lane Cardstock
Cloud 9 Vellum Flower Kit
Raindots
Urban Acres Blvd – Mini Words
Midnight Kisses – Journal Blocks
“We are Family” acrylic stamp set
“Leave it to Weaver” border punch
Comin’ Up Roses Border & Corner Punch
Scalloped Daisy Embossing Border Punch
“Round the Bend” squeeze punch

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