My Photos - Finished.

Those Pictures....UGH Remember? ( Part 1 ) Well I made a Placemat... YAY!!!

Here's what I did...

Take One Empty cereal Box. Cut away the upper and lower flaps. Cut up one side to open up box. At this point you trim to even out and cut off the extra flap on the side where they glued the box together ( Its that lil 1/2 inch strip If yours has one ) You can cut the box down to any size but for a placemat I used it as large as possible.

I took my sorted and cut pictures, ( I cut people out of the pictures so they looked like they stood alone) I used different deckle cutting scissors and even my pinking shears.

Place the pictures wherever you like, overlapping as you go. You might want to try placement b4 gluing the pics down to be sure you like where you are putting it.

Next I took a piece of copy paper and printed up some words like Love, nostalgia, friends, good times. All the things i thought of when i looked at the collage. I realized the paper was stark white against the old B&W photos so I tried tea staining with my coffee...OOPS Better to stain before printing since the ink from the words just ran.....LOL I dabbed a paper towel dipped in coffee on a clean sheet of paper and let it dry over night.

Then it happened...An accidental surprise.....My cat slept on it. When I got it it was crinkled. ......Hey Wait.... I like this...So I crinkled it up more then put it in the printer and print out the words again.


Now it has a nice aged look. I cut out some words and glued a few down.
One thing I learned was to put down some paper on the box first before doing this. because there will always be gaps between some pictures and you can see the box underneath. I put the word in on some of the gaps.



Next.... The back. I had some printed cardstock and covered the back so people don't know I eat Natures path Flax and granola..LOL...and it gave it a more finished look.

Then i covered it with clear contact paper.

VIOLA!



One down....Hmmmm I think my family will be getting placemats for Christmas.
They make a nice keepsake if you can identify some of the people. I may print up name tags to put over the photos next time, especially if I use it as a gift. I recognize some people and can deduce from some of the writing on the back of the pics who the others are.

Pictures, Pictures and More Pictures

Did I mention I am bombarded with Pictures? HA! ( Yea I think I did.LOL) Why do we take so many? Have film and digital on 2 PCs! Professional and amateur.

When my grandparents Died I got to inherit everything since I was the packrat I guess they felt it was safe with me? Who Knows. I am glad to have inherited the pics and the genealogy info ( what little of it there was.) Problem was, most of the pics weren't transcribed. I have pics of people that are most likely dead and buried and if there is any family I don't think they know their family members were recorded anyway.

Some of these pictures were taken so far away that it is impossible to clearly see who was there, ( as if they were capturing a memory of the event rather then the people involved). But don't we all do that, that's why we take so many damn Pictures.

Well I hate throwing pictures away, I feel guilty. So I finally set out to tackle the mountain of pictures of people I don't know, HAHA!

First step: Sort and cut -out and trim.

Come Back Tomorrow to see how this goes....

PART 2

Pictures....Overkill....Repurposing?

Why do we take pictures? I found myself thinking that the other night.

I have been wanting to gain some control of my clutter, one thing I have been putting off is organizing my photos.
Some are already in boxes with index cards, somewhat organized, but the boxes are old and falling apart.

I really wanted to do scrapbooking but cannot get myself in the MODE....UGH very detailed and would definetly put me in the zen mode if I would just allow myself to go there....Life was so much easier before I got a PC. It seems the PC has sped up my brain processors somewhat, not to mention years of anti-depressants ( which left me with a form of Adult add! Damnit)...Anyhoo I am digressing....

Back to the pictures.

I figure we are trying to capture a moment in time, that is so fleeting and slipping away so quickly. Preserve a memory forever, as it were.

As for me I learned early on to take 2 or 3 shots to ensure a good photo..That was before digital, where we can just hit Delete. (SHHHHH don't tell anyone but I got TONS of digital pics too, They are on 2 different PCS)

NOW I am being overrun with photos.






I decided that I needed to pair down. I have tons of pictures where the subject in question is..well... Questionable....

"HMMMMM... What exactly was I trying to capture here?"

Not to mention blurred photos and tons of duplicates. When my daughter was young I took tons of photos. The labs used to run specials on duplicates and since we always share our pics, especially with gramma well.... We always ticked the box for dupes for a penny or half price, or whatever....

Now that my mom has passed I inherited her photos, which means i have dupes, and trips of everything. UGH!

DOES anyone know how to repurpose photos?

Not only that but I also Inherited the pics from my grandparents when they passed...I have a tote of black and whites of PPL I CANNOT IDENTIFY! HELPPPPPP!

So I am surfing the net and the green sites and there is very Little in way of crafting or repurposing old photos. (NO I dont want to digitize my 2,000 pictures! I still LIKE Tangible things.)

I am open to suggestions People....Anyone???? ( Cue Crickets)

Ok so I got this idea when looking at some of the pics to make coasters or postcards. Does anyone even use Postcards? Not to mention snail mail.

Placemats with the old black and whites would be super I think. Most of the ppl I am sure are all passed away since the pics were from the 40's - 60's mostly. ( we are talking adults in the middle age range) Alot are my family and their friends and some are just people who got in the shot of a lake or beach or pool. So I don't think there would be an issue with image usage and royalties and such, and alot of ppl like nostalgic things.

I tried the coasters already. Here are some Prototypes. I made 6. 2 with a deckled edge, 2 with a pinked edge and 2 with a straight edge.




Ok. I guess the real test comes when I use them. I used clear contact paper. I glued the picture to a piece of cardboard from a cerealbox.



I'm just wondering if I should have used laminating plastic instead since it is thicker and offers a better seal. I will see how these hold up.

Meanwhile If anyone has any ideas on repurposing pics pleaseeee Let me know....I have tons.