All About Parents...

The living, the living – they praise You, as I am doing today;

 parents tell their children about Your faithfulness.

Isaiah 38: 19

Welcome to this week’s Challenge!  The Designers decided that this week’s Challenge would be to make something ‘All About Parents.’  I decided to use one of the few photos that I have of my parents taken in the early 1970s.  The original photo was quite discolored and yellowed.  I fixed it the best I could in Photoshop Elements.  It still has a bit of a green cast, and since olive green was one of Mama’s favorite colors – and the color of her eyes – I found a lovely set of papers to use with it.  (DCWV – The Family Connections Stack)  One piece has a faint, tone-on-tone design and the companion page has a ‘family tree’ diagram entitled, ‘Pedigree Chart.’

I used the CWC Oval Flourish Frame on the front of the photo and the Oval Scalloped Frame Background from the CWC Celebrate Sophisticate set.  After cutting it out on my Cricut, I embossed the flourished frame in my Cuttlebug.   Because doing that made it rather flimsy, although I like how it looks, I then put a coat of Mod Podge on it – and I like it even better!  I inked the edges of the scalloped oval for underneath it.

I decided to incorporate several ‘positive representations’ from my parents as design elements.

            *  To represent my Dutch heritage, I used the new CWC Tulip Flourishes 5 pattern at the base of the frame and also in the upper right corner.  I used tiny PopDots to raise the center part of the tulip blossoms.  I used a deep red wallpaper for them.

            *  There are 5 jeweled, buttoned flowers in graduated sizes representing the 5 of us siblings.  I am the eldest, then boy, girl, boy, girl.

            *  Music was a big part of our life, so I included a bit of old sheet music that I have scanned and can change the color as needed in my PSE 10 program.  I used an EKSuccess punch.

            *  Mama was a wonderful seamstress and taught me to sew at an early age – thus the spool of (Timeless Twine) thread, needle and the quilt pieces.  I faux-stitched around the edges of the paper, using my WeRMemoryKeepers perforator and then going around with a fine, black Sharpie.

            * Education and reading was important to Daddy – thus, the ‘book page’ flower using the CWC 5 Point Flower pattern.

            * Mama was a country girl, but she taught me how to be a ‘lady’ – thus the Lace at the bottom.  I inked it sparsely with Spanish Olive and then spritzed it with water to give it an ‘aged’ look.  When it was dry, I attached it with my ATG.

            *  I made a Velum envelope, inked the edges with Spanish Olive and put a light olive green card in it for journaling.  More cards can be added as necessary.

 

The colors are more vibrant in person, but this is the best I can do with my iPhone and PSE 10 – Some turn out better than others and I don’t quite know what makes the difference…

Thanks for visiting this Challenge!  Now it’s Your turn to make some kind of project ‘All About Parents’ and link it up over at CookingwithCricket.com -  Happy reminiscing!  See you next week!!