Grandma and Daddy

For the July Scraplift Challenge at Digitals I used inspiration from a fellow scrapper, Hutchie using her page Lainie I added the extra journaling tag so I could add some details this wasn't in the scraplifted page.

For my page I used a kit by Joyce deJonge My Little Star which is available at Digitals. I changed Joyce's kit by using the hue saturation to change the colors of the flowers to match the photo and page and changed the reeds and one set of flowers to blend mode of overlay to give the golden cast.
The font is Italianate

Now about the photo itself, it's another of my Heritage photos from my Grandma Coulter's collection. The Journaling reads:

Daddy was born in 1911 and he doesn't look more than a year or so old so that dates this photo and puts Grandma at around 16 or 17. How young and absolutely beautiful she was at that time. And I love that Daddy didn't want his picture taken, even then he had a mind of his own!

The hat is what makes this photo so priceless, Grandma has several photos from this era with these huge hats.

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Layout of the Day at 3Scrapateers

You know when you are doing something you have a real passion about and watch it evolve from the blank screen into something you love it's such a great feeling inside. Then when your peers pick you and give you extra Kudos there's no better way to start the day! Thank you 3Scrapateeres for picking my page!

This layout just came together so well for me. I loved Joyce deJonge's kit Mexico I used. It worked just perfectly for these photos.

This is Aunty Lill and Uncle Ernie with Uncle Ernie's brother George, wife Clara and son George Jr. They took a road trip in 1916 (it was on the post card) from around LA to Mexico.

I look at these cars and wonder how long did this trip take??? Look at those tires and does it even have a windshield, it must have, but there are no windows, now that's truly open air!

Uncle Ernie loved to travel, to be adventurous and see new places. Aunty Lill must have loved it too she looks pretty happy in all the photos I see of them going somewhere.

These were some of the few Heritage photos I haven't tried to remove all the dust and cracks and stuff from age and wear. I did enchance the colors a little but I liked the vinage feel of the post cards. And that's another thing that always amazes me. Since I've been scrapping the Heritage Album I have found so many of the pictures taken in this early 1900 era were printed on post cards. Such a fun glimpse back into my family's time.

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Al Ward, owner and designer at Action FX has made this Alpha just for you.
Check back later you may find a couple more!
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Action FX!

Sierra Madre - 1919

I've been doing a lot of Heritage pages lately and this one has really gotten tons of attention in the galleries. The gallery at Digitals probably got the most attention because the page was picked as the Layout for the Day click on the photo if you'd like to see the gallery there. It's made me feel really good to see what people have written. It was a harder layout to do because I had so many photos I wanted to showcase, they were old, faded, blurred just not the best quality, but very important to the story I wanted to pass on to future generations. I think sometimes the photos that express the most are overlooked because they aren't top quality. I think that's a big mistake, even a worn and torn photo can tell so much.

Here's my journaling for this one, lots of conversations over the phone to my Mom to make sure I was getting the story correct.

Some of these pictures were dated October most December of 1919. My Dad had gotten very sick and the doctors thought that if Grandma could take him to the clean fresh air of the mountains near Sierra Madre that he would improve. I think the most poignant picture is the one on the bottom left where if you look closely you'll see Daddy in a wheel chair. He was so sick at first that Grandma had to push him up the hills when they went out because he wasn’t strong enough to walk.

The doctors told Grandma to have Daddy sleep outside in the night air to help his lungs and his body heal. These pictures are old, they've blurred and faded with the years but the story of three children hiking the woods, exploring the hilltops and just being themselves are told between the snapshots. This would have made Dad 8, Aunty Flo 6 and Uncle Bill 5.

I can't imagine what struggles this must have been at this time. How did my Grandmother do this, how did she manage with three small children. There are so many questions I long to ask, so many stories gone forever untold but I am fortunate for I have so much more to pass on to you my following generations than many. Daddy grew and lived to be into his 80th year so I bless you Grandma that you found a way to help him heal and grow into the man I knew and loved.

The kit is Maddy Fernandez - Turkish Delight and Turkish Delight Word Add Ons. Maddy sells exclusively at Digitals. I've been working on her Creative Team for less than a month now but I love her designs. I have lots more ideas for more Heritage pages with this kit.

Happy 4th of July

A little holiday celebration freebie. From Lori Giles at Digital Scrapn

July 4th Starz Frame Freebie