Earlier this year a friend asked me if I could help her with a special heritage project for her brother and sister. Having saved for decades some childhood locks of hair from her siblings, my friend Birgitta wanted to preserve them with some photos into a special scrapbooked layout as gifts, but not being a scrapbooker herself, she enlisted my help.
We got the original photos (some of which were a bit damaged) professionally re-printed and the company did a fantastic job resorting them. Then, not really knowing what supplies I should bring with me, I packed up a hodge podge collection of papers and embellishments and spent a day at hers busily playing with paper.
Luckily, the remaining collection of Webster's Pages papers by Allison Looman I'd brought with me were a perfect choice for the project and breathed new life into the beautiful black and white photography. They also matched well with one of the papers Birgitta already had and which I decided upon for the background of the first layout.
This first LO features Bertil, aged 1, along with the lock of his hair and a handwritten note from their mother. All three LOs feature elements of the same papers and gold lame mist spatters for a sense of cohesion, along with brown accents and lettering, twine, wood veneer or cork embellishments for that masculine feel and a narrow ruler washi tape for that hint of vintage. I had hoped to also use some old fashioned black or cream photo corners but sadly, couldn't find any so opted for a very narrow mounting on dark black/brown patterned paper instead. It was decided that the embellishing could be a bit more simplistic, as this would likely appeal more to Bertil.
Handwritten note from their mother. Yes, it is the original. It was a bit nerve-wrecking adding adhesive to such a precious piece of memorabilia but it was important to Birgitta that we use the original and we did take copies.
Small letter stickers for the years, by Glitz Designs. The twirly twine is always a bit tricky to get right and glue down well but looks fab once it's done and it helps to reinforce the curliness of that lock of hair...
The original tie around the lock of hair wasn't very attractive or sturdy so I wrapped twine over top to help secure the hair further. I also didn't want to risk applying adhesive to the hair directly so the wrapped twine gave me a good place to attach the lock without damaging the hair itself.
For the frame, we bought open-fronted art canvas frames that are 12" square and they work perfectly for scrapbooking layouts and the black wood make the B&W photograph pop nicely.
Stay tuned for the next two LOs in the series shortly (LO #2 - Syskon).
