Family is Love Fall Leaves Journal

     To me, Thanksgiving is all about family.  When I was brainstorming ideas for Thanksgiving crafts, I wanted to find some way to incorporate this notion.  I had seen someone make glitter edged book print leaves and had some issues of the Bangor Daily News kicking around.  I had helped my sister and the student group she's a member of, Maine Business School Corps, put on a march against domestic violence and I had needed a couple copies of the paper to scrapbook the story they did on the event.  The red edged leaf actually has text from the story, which I thought would go along well with the family theme.  Anyway, this is what I came up with.

Materials:
*Glitter in 3 different fall colors
*Spiral bound notebook
*Glue
*Newspaper
*Small black and white family photos
*Silver gel pen
*3 different leaf templates
*Pencil or ballpoint pen
*Scissors

Directions:
*Cover your workstation in newspaper.
*Trace the leaf templates onto the newspaper and cut out.
*Add glue around the edge of one of the newspaper leaves and then cover it with glitter.  Set aside to dry.
*Repeat with the other two leaves.  Once the leaves are dry, shake off excess glitter and pour it back into the container.
*Print out small, completely desaturated photos of your family, however you choose to define family.
*Arrange the photos and the leaves on the notebook cover and glue down.
*Brainstorm a list of what family means to you.  Using the silver gel pen, write out that list, starting with "Family is . . ." followed by the various items.  Mine says, "Family is . . . hugs . . . hope . . . togetherness . . . memories . . . past . . . future . . . joy . . . sharing . . . acceptance . . . transcendence . . . respect . . . chaos . . . friendship . . . trust . . . compassion . . . guidance . . . silliness . . . support . . . messy . .  . wisdom . . . strength . . . a helping hand . . . good times . . . hardships . . . remembrance . . . a choice . . . celebration . . . holidays . . . traditions . . . always changing . . . home . . . stories."
*Toward the center of the journal, write "Family is love."

Family Tree Photo Wall Hanging

Materials:

*15 photo charms

*Small images of yourself, your parents, your grandparents, and your great-grandparents

*Solid colored fabric for the tree

*Fabric for the background

*Ribbon

*All purpose adhesive

*Tree pattern

*Chalk

*Scissors

*Tape

*Wooden dowel (I used a section of an old plastic coat hanger in place of the dowel)

Directions:

*Crop pictures to the appropriate size and place them inside the photo charms

*Design or locate a pattern for the tree.  Here is my pattern, and there are many more available online

*Resize the tree pattern if it is not the desired size.  I resized mine to 250% the original size

*Print and assemble the tree pattern.  My pattern took up multiple sheets of paper, so I had to cut it out and tape the pieces together, but, depending on how large you want your tree to be, you may not need to do this

*Lay out the tree pattern on the solid colored fabric.  Trace the outline with chalk, then cut out the tree shape

*Arrange the tree shape on the background fabric, then glue the tree to the background fabric.  Let dry

*Arrange the photo frames on the tree, then glue the photo frames down.  Let dry

*Glue the top of the wall hanging to the wooden dowel.  Let dry

*Glue on some ribbon to use to hang up the wall hanging.  Let dry

What to do if you don’t have a picture of one of your ancestors:

*Do you have some idea of what your ancestor looked like?  You could try constructing a picture (which is what I did).  Alternately, if you have pictures of their parents, siblings, and/or children, you could use photo morphing software to create an image of what this individual may have looked like

*If you have no idea what this individual looked like, you could write their name on a piece of paper and put it in the charm or use an image of a favorite hobby or pastime or something that you feel represents the individual

*If you know nothing about this individual whatsoever, you can always leave off this branch of the family tree or use very generic imagery about the family as a whole or the family name or something like that

Family History Collage

  I am an avid genealogist and family historian, and for quite a while I have wanted to find some way to incorporate my family history research into my crafting.  I decided to create a collage for my 5^th great grandmother, Rebecca Smith Blodget, the woman who inspired me to begin my family history research.  The purpose of this collage was to tell something of her story, though unfortunately I do not know enough about her to adequately represent her. 

Materials:

*8½ x 11 photo frame

*8½ x 11 sheet of patterned paper

*Mounting squares or other adhesive

*Foam board

*Scissors or X-acto knife

Suggested additional materials:

*Pictures of the individual and important people in her or his life

 *Signature or other handwriting sample

*Descriptive saying or quote

*Stickers or drawings representing favorite activities or pastimes

*Other mementos that remind you of the individual

Suggestions:

*Select an individual in your family to make the collage about.  Parents, grandparents, and siblings could be good choices, or perhaps a distant relative or a family friend.

*If possible, find a picture of this individual to use in your collage.  You may also want to include images of important people in this individual’s life.  In my collage, the pictures in the top right and bottom left corners are of Rebecca Blodget.  In the top left corner, the man on the left is her husband, Samuel Blodget, and the man on the right is her friend and the love of her life, Aaron Burr.  In the bottom right corner I included pictures of her parents, William and Rebecca (Moore) Smith

*You may wish to include a copy of your chosen individual’s signature or other handwriting sample.  I culled Rebecca Blodget’s signature from a photo I took of a letter she wrote.  If your chosen individual is more recent, but you don’t have an easy way to obtain a writing sample from them personally, birthday and holiday cards may be places where you could find handwriting samples

*Does the individual you chose have any famous sayings?  Maybe a favorite joke?  The quote I selected was from the introduction of a letter Rebecca wrote to James Madison that I felt was representative of her character

*What does/did this individual enjoy doing?  Find ways to represent this pictorially.  For my project, I didn’t really know what Rebecca Blodget enjoyed doing, so I used images of things that I knew she did.  I had learned from a letter she wrote to Henry Clay that when she was young, her father had encouraged her to read from his library, and from the historical references she makes in her letters, it’s pretty clear that she was a well read individual.  I also knew that she wrote a decent number of letters, so I included a picture of the letter she wrote to James Madison

*Where does/did the individual live?  I printed a portion of a map of Colonial Philadelphia onto my background paper.  The spot denoted with the number 36 is a house that her father had owned.  Other ways to incorporate residency could include a picture of the family home, images of prominent features in or around the home, or an image of the town

*Do you have any small mementos that remind you of the individual?  You may want to include these items or likenesses of said items 

*The above mentioned suggestions are just a few possibilities.  There is so much more you could do with a project like this

Directions:

*Remove glass or plastic front from the photo frame.  It will not be needed for this project

*Affix patterned paper to the photo frame backing, then put back into the frame

*Using scissors or and X-acto knife, cut out sections of foam board.  Attach items you want to stand out to the sections of foam board.  I chose to do this for all images of people, but you could find some other way to do it

*Arrange items on the patterned paper in a visually appealing manner, then adhere to the paper