Happy 100th Birthday

Yesterday my dear Aunt turned 100 years old. Awesome! Her children threw a large birthday party for her. She was very active in her church and much loved by all. It was so warm to see how many people care about her.

I was also thrilled to have a chance to visit with my cousins. I am the youngest cousin and even though I live rather close to many of them, I don't have a lot in common with them because of the age difference.

What most relatives said they remember about me was that I was the "shy one who sat in the corner and read books". That wasn't me!!!! That was my sister! I was the shy one that was always climbing trees or falling into fish ponds or digging in the dirt. At the time, my cousins were exciting teenagers and no one wanted to hang out with a shy little kid. Many were getting married around the time I was old enough to remember them. I always felt and still feel out of step with my relatives. But at least now I'm not as shy and am totally enjoying the fact that I look and feel a lot younger than any of them. Most of my cousins are grandparents or even great-grandparents. And I no longer climb trees or fall into fish ponds but I do still dig in dirt.

The one thing that many relatives responded to was a gift that I made for my Aunt. I created a small scrapbook using about a dozen photos that I had of her over the years. Note: everything, except for the photo developing, was free or thrifted.

For the cover I tea-stained some thrifted lace and used a piece of die cut Vintage Lace cut from old sheet music. I used my Silhouette to cut the typeface using a font on my computer.

For the flowers, I cut three Tattered Pinecones and created flowers instead of pinecone. Behind the flowers I hot-glued strips of real vintage 8mm movie film as ribbon.

For the inside pages, I did a variety of techniques to embellish each page. Because the album was spiral-bound, I could not include heavy or large 3-dimensional embellishments. On some pages I die cut the ends of the page using the Ornate On the Edge die to allow the paper on the next page to show through.

My relatives were so thrilled to see all of the photos. In fact, they were so thrilled that they have volunteered me and my first cousin once removed {my cousin's son} to be the family historians to document all of the family stories.

So I am no longer the "shy cousin sitting in the corner reading books" instead I have been promoted to the Family Historian. Actually this will be fun because I really like my cousin's son and we have a shared interest in our family's genealogy research. And I am probably closer in age to him than to his mother; my cousin.

This is linked to:
Between Naps on the Porch, Cherished Treasures, Crafts Keep Me Sane, DIY Home Sweet Home, Homemaker on a Dime, Making the World Cuter, Marvelously Messy, My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia, Rook No.17, Sew Can Do, Sugar Bee Crafts, Sumo's Sweet Stuff and The Southern Institute