Voices from the Past

"In order to know where we are going, it is important to know where we have been." This quote is at the start of the binders of family history that my mother compiled and then gave to each of her children for Christmas 10 years ago.

Living on the other side of the world, separated from my past by an ocean, intensified my appreciation for this marvellous gift. The photos that I have in my posssession and those that have been scanned from various sources bring a special appreciation for the lives of my ancestors. Their images capture physical similarities and mannerisms and even their hobbies, talents and skills seem to ribbon through the family as well.

Occassionally, as I work on cataloging the old photos, one or two seem to grab my attention and almost beg to be freshened up and 'framed' in a layout. How fun it is to do something creative to bring those photos out of storage, dust them off so to speak and brighten them up with some colour and embellishment and a breath of life. While the people in them may no longer live, these captured moments give them a voice. And they seem to speak as I work with them.

Since I haven't posted anything for the past few weeks, I thought I'd post some of the photos that were recently re-captured and rejuvenated in layout form. Don't the girls just seem to want to burst off the page and begin dancing? Don't those college boys look a bit smug about their prank? And the fresh joy of a new friendship still speaks volumes 87 years later about fun and shared interests.

Each is a reminder from the past that basic values never change. Life should always be celebrated. Relationships always valued. And a bit of harmless fun is never a bad idea.

Live, Love, Laugh. What do you hear from your heritage photos?

All the above layouts use kits from Janet Carr's Little Feet Designs found at For the Love of Art. Remember: Dear Sweet Friend and Put it in a Mask It; Pranks: Xtra Xtra and King of My Heart; When We Rats Sewed: Sew You're a Seamstress, God Bless America (sewing machine) and a modified freebie from Creative Memories (corsage) also designed by Janet Carr. Note: the last layout features actual fabric swatches that were kept in my grandmother's scrapbook. The buttons were extracted from photos of 1920s buttons found on the internet.

Music and Sunshine

There is a daily choice I have to make. Whether to look at the clouds or see the sunshine behind them. In an effort to remember the sunshine, I started my botanical illustration class last night, and I promised some friends to post the outcome of them here (a humbling thing to do).

It was a simple class format, not much instruction, not the best light, and working in the room next to the pokies certainly not as serene and contemplative as sitting in a meadow surrounded by wildflowers! But as I am ignoring the clouds I focused on my seed pod with my blurry eyesight and eventually worked out that by looking over the top of my glasses I could see the detail better. And by closing my left eye, even better again. My right eye was doing all the work, and my eye-hand coordination was not the best after its long winter rest (of about 25 winters!)but in the end my sketches somewhat resembled the gumnut and poppy stalk I picked from the pile in the basket provided by our artist-in-residence.



Next week it will be watercoloring layers. The sample looked interesting and may suit as background "paper" for a layout sometime. We'll see.

At the end of the class I chatted with the 4 other ladies at my table and then talked a bit with one of the 20 year old uni students at the other table. They were having a great time! I learned he was a 3rd year Biology student and had taken the class for a bit of fun. Yes, that is exactly what this is about: fun. We chatted about the need for having creative outlets and of course I thought of my own son in his second year studying Chemistry at the same university. His creative outlet is his music. I had created this layout just a couple of nights ago while he was rehearsing with his orchestra group. Yes, there is something really special about having a creative outlet - even if it is an outlet from your usual creative outlets!


We all need a bit of sunshine and this kit by Janet Carr is filled with it! Janet's Dear Sweet Friend kit brought just the right amount of sunshine and whimsy to my favourite photo of my son enjoying his flute for his own pleasure.

Being a part of Janet's creative team is another corner of sunshine in my life. You can meet the team and view other layouts by my Creative Team pals at our gallery at Little Feet Digital Designs.