Once upon a time........

This year I decided to "do" a handmade Christmas.  Money is very tight so I knew I had to make do with the things that I already had, so no budget busting trips to the craft store.  Luckily, I'm a bit of a pack rat who used to enjoy lots of different crafting so I dug into my craft trunk & had a look around.  

Oh boy!!!  It had been so long since I'd looked inside the old trunk that it was like shopping because I'd forgotten why I bought all of that "stuff".  (I'm still not sure what I was planning on doing with a gazillion wooden balls.)  My recent free art class with Tam, aka Willowing, opened my eyes to mixed media & I really had a lot of media to mix.

I've knitted a few fingerless gloves using some yarn that I already had or that Grandma gifted me while I was home for Thanksgiving.  I also knitted a hat for an ex-neighbor as a "Thank You" for everything he did while he was living next door.  I'm a new knitter, so nothing complicated.

Aaaanyway............  Grandmas are always so difficult when it comes to gift giving.  Mine doesn't need anything & if she does, she goes out & buys it.  I didn't want to revert back to jewelry (though I did with Mom) so I had to come up with something different.  I decided to make a collage for her to hang on her wall.  I wasn't sure about the direction I was going to approach the collage, but as it turned out, it pretty much made itself.

When I was home for Thanksgiving I collected a few old photos & a few letters that Granddaddy had written to Grandma while he was in the Navy.  I scanned the photos & tried to fix them, but soon gave up because I'm no whiz with photo editing.  

I came up with the title, then started telling the story. 

I included pics of my Uncle Eddie, Mom, on the bottom left is Mom holding me when I was 3 days old  (look at that head of hair) & me on the bottom right.  

I used a stretched canvas & matte medium to adhere copies of his letters to the background.  I smeared white paint on top of the letters to obscure them a little & push them into the background a little more.  

I wanted to include parts of each of their lives, while they were apart & while they were married.  

Granddaddy was drafted into the Navy while he & Grandma were dating & spent his time aboard the USS Brinkley Bass.  I found an old photo of the ship & included it here, below a picture of Granddaddy.  A friend gave me a box of old jewelry so I snipped the back off of an earring & glued it above the "Hope" ticket that I distressed.

This is my Mom's brother who died when he was 22.  He was very much "snips & snails" kinda little boy so I had to include part of the quote.

  My Granddaddy owned & ran a general store  so I included the name of his store along with a few buttons as a little nod to Grandma's abilities as a seamstress.  

The flowers were pretty & added more dimension to the piece, but Grandma also used to have beautiful flower gardens.  She always had fresh flowers in her house & supplied flowers for her Eastern Star chapter & sometimes the church.

 Mom was a little lady so "sugar & spice" was very appropriate for her as well.

I glued an old keyhole cover that I had with the intent of gluing a key on Granddaddy's side, but didn't have a pretty key.  I wanted to convey the "key to her heart" thing, but couldn't quite pull it off.  I still like it, though.

I made the "Family" embellishment by using rubber stamps to stamp into Sculpey, then distressing.

The piece still felt disjointed so I added the pearls to pull everything together, but there still seemed to be an empty space at the bottom.
Granddaddy & Grandma used to go dancing almost every week, so I made up a dance card with some of Granddaddy's favorite songs & forged his name to all of the dances.  I distressed it, glued it down & I love it.  

Hanging it put me in a quandary, until I looked through a bag of hardware that I'd kept when I remodeled my house.  I found the painted "thing" that was used to wrap the string from the blinds to keep them up & thought it was perfect.  It was already painted & shabby & it resembles a cleat used to secure boats, etc so I screwed it into the top.  I'm going to look for some old chain to hook around the "cleat".

I didn't have boxes to wrap the knitted items so I made these.  I got this great idea from Mystelle at Little Glimpses.  Mystelle & Tam at Willowing have been so inspirational to me I can't stand it.  It seems like they've opened a door such that I can't keep up with all of the ideas & things I want to do.

For these little gift pouches I used grocery bags, pages ripped out of a phone book, fabric & paper.  I used a glue stick to quickly stick the items down to the bags, then struggled with my sewing machine to free stitch everything down, then I sewed up the sides.  The bottom left is just a grocery bag wrapped around the item & tied up with butchers twine.  He's a no nonsense kinda guy, so no frills for him.

If you've made it this far, you're a trooper & thanks for hanging in with me.  I'm currently working on an owl collage & a pair of copper etched earrings for Mom so will post pics when I get them completed.  

I'm also going to post a tutorial for copper etching.... keep an eye out for that.  

I hope you all are able to gear down & enjoy the the holiday season.  I know that everything seems to be rushed as the days tick away, but just slow down, take a breath & look around.

I know we all want to find that "perfect" gift for those special people, but don't forget to take the time to enjoy those special people.