Celebrate your roots

In 1993 I bought an issue of Martha Stewart Magazine at Barnes and Noble. I was still in high school at the time. When I bought it I had hoped to create something inspired by the cover for a gift for my mom, but the high school girl that I was, and a Senior at that, being 17 got in the way and I missed my opportunity for a Christmas gift that year. I have always kept that magazine though. I graduated high school, moved to a different town and lived with my grandparent's for the summer until I moved into my first apartment, and then I started college, moved to another apartment, met my hubby, dated him for 5 years, got married, bought a house, had a baby, bought another house, moved again, had another baby, and that magazine has moved with me every time, I cherished it so much.

On the cover of that magazine was a family tree, bits of paper in the shape of leaves noting generations of mom's and dads and contained within a white frame. Inside was an article filled with many examples of documenting your history, fancy graphs and wall murals.

I wasn't ready in 1993 to create a project like this, but in recent months, the idea of doing so has resurfaced. Steve's grandmother passed away in December of 2007. My grandfather passed away in March of 2008. Morgan met both of these sweet souls. Occasionally she asks about her elders, and finds it confusing determining who goes with who. I have a mom? My mom has a mom? Dad's mom is not my mom? I decided that even though the girls can't read, I thought it would be a great time to make a wall hanging that shows my girls where they came from. I'll probably redo this eventually and expand a bit more, but for now I created a family tree documenting as far back as my girl's are familiar.

I used a Jenni Bowlin kit for this project. To create it:

1. Trace a tree trunk on the back side of a piece of patterned paper and trim.

2. Adhere it to a piece of cardstock and trim out a bit larger than the paper.

3. Hand stitch the detail.

4. Adhere to the center of a piece of patterned paper that fits the inside a frame.

5. Print names on labels and attach to cardstock.

6. Arrange labels and leaves and adhere.

Because the most important thing to me was names, I didn't go out of my way to find dates. I just wanted my girls to know who their grand and great grandparent's were, and who they belonged to, so to speak.

Because of the history behind that Martha Stewart magazine, this project is very meaningful to me. I have two additional white frames of the same size, and I have a photo of Morgan in one, and Payton in the other. My family tree is in the center in the grouping on the wall.

My inlaws have oggled this a few times when they've been over. Doing something like this would make a great anniversary or Christmas gift.

I made this a couple of months ago and with November and Thanksgiving coming swiftly, I thought now might be the perfect time to share it.

Thanks for stopping by! If you have made a similar project I'd love to see it.

Davinie