New Heritage Pages

With all the devasting effects of the forces of nature that 2010 has brought to this ole world so far, I hope this post  finds you, my friends, safe, well and happy.  We are fine here in the holler.  Just like two ole bears, we have been hibernating waiting for the arrival of spring.  I feel it is just around the corner!

I did finally manage to get all my Christmas decorations taken down and packed away, and have been doing the winter cleaning: of washing down walls, cleaning out closets, etc.  Mostly, we have been sleeping by day and watching Gunsmokes by night.  My hubby is an avid fan of the old televisions show Gunsmoke and he has over 300 episodes recorded on dvd.  By the time spring gets here, I dare say we will have watched them all as we are up to episode 191 now.  I swear my house was beginning to smell like the ole saloons and stables, hence, my house cleaning!

This evening, I think we will venture out into the world and visit my brothers and perhaps go out to dinner but I did want to show you two more heritage pages I got done for my album this week using images I found on the internet when I fist begin my ancestral search.   I used products available at Scrapbook Graphics:
A Pioneers Story by Lorie Davison  and the Images of Tradition Collection by the Studio Girls

For a full list of credits you could visit one of the galleries below and please leave me a little commentso I know you were there!  Thanks!

http://www.scrapbookgraphics.com/photopost/showphoto.php?photo=78345&cat=500&ppuser=8995
http://www.sbelements.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=80758
http://www.digishoptalk.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=899473&ppuser=2184

http://www.scrapbookgraphics.com/photopost/showphoto.php?photo=78346&cat=500&ppuser=8995
http://www.sbelements.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=80759
http://www.digishoptalk.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=899474&ppuser=2184

Happy Scrappin!

The Journey Begins

My digital scrapbooking journey I spoke of in the previous post has begun!  I have hundreds of heritage pages I have created over the years but many of them are not "good enough" to include in my photo book so I began my journey by browsing through my hard drive.  My hubby gave me a huge new hard drive for Christmas so most of digi-collection was deleted as I did my pc clean-up. Yep!  Believe it or not, I sent many kits and elements to the trash as well as many of the old pages I had created over the years.  There are a few pages I created that I still dearly love so I plan on redoing them, or at least updating them.  Here is an example...

The original layout and credits were posted in the Scrap Artist gallery in April of 2008.

Click HERE if you would like to check it out.

a portion of the Newspaper Article about my family reads:

"The Kiper family was among the first pioneers of Grayson County. George Frederick Kiper, a Private in the Revolutionary War, was stationed at Fort Pitt, then Yohogania County, Virginia, now Pittsburg Pa, in 1777 and 1778. With his wife, Elizabeth, and four children, they were planning to migrate to Kaintuck, then part of Virginia. While still in the service, George Frederick as killed by the Indians in October of 1778 as their migration began. Elizabeth was scalped in the same attack but lived. Wearing a turban type head covering, she came to Kentucky with her children, Henry, Frederick and Jacob; the fourth child is not identified."

I want to include family history and stories as much as possible in my photo book so I was so proud to have saved this old newspaper article!  I freshened my page up just a bit for my photo book using Berry Sweet Clusters and Berry Sweet Mini Kit from Rosey Posey Studio {those products are not currently available). To ensure all my pretties would be included when I printed the page, I used the Artscow Templates from Studio Wendy.  Having some books created for Christmas gifts this year and seeing some of my journaling cut off when the page was printed, I plan on using this great tool for all my pages I create in the future!

I want to include double-pages for most of my photo book so to further tie the new page to the old, I created my background using papers from True Beauty by Studio Rosey Posey along with her Berry Sweet Mini Kit.  My brothers call this, our "Brady Bunch" photo but I love it as it is the ONLY family photo we ever had taken.

http://www.scrapbookgraphics.com/photopost/showphoto.php?photo=77591&cat=3521
http://www.scrapbookgraphics.com/photopost/showphoto.php?photo=77592&cat=3521

I also have some great  history to include in my photo book on the first Kentucky pioneers of the Phelps family that I found on the internet while doing my genealogical research!  Originally, I thought William Phelps was only kin to my husband being his 5th Great Grandfather in five different ways.  I have since learned that he is my 6th Great Grandfather in two ways, and he is also a 6th Great Grandfather of my ex-husband!  All this means my three sons, and my husband's two sons are not only step-brothers but they are 7th and 8th cousins in 17 ways!  It sounds like a Springer show doesn't it?  Darn all those kissin' cousins!

 

http://www.scrapbookgraphics.com/photopost/showphoto.php?photo=77437&cat=500&ppuser=8995
http://www.scrapbookgraphics.com/photopost/showphoto.php?photo=77438&cat=500&ppuser=8995

For those two pages I used the fantastic kit A Pioneer Story by Lorie Davison...loooove it!
So much to do and so little time to do it in so I'm off again...
Happy Scrappin!

My Scrapbooking Goals for 2010

My biggest digital scrapbooking goal for 2010 is to create special books for my family about the origins of our family.  I want to include not only the facts such as names and birth dates but I want to include special family stories and memories as well.  My mother passed away with Alzheimer's in 2008 and one of the most significant memories I have of those last few weeks is hearing my baby brother say one time, "I did not know that about Mama."  At the time, she thought I was her sister and she was wanting me to take her "honky-tonkin".  This came as a surprise to him for he did not know that when Mama still lived at home, she and her sisters often went their Father to barn dances and such where they sang and square-danced while he played the fiddle with a band.  He had never been around the kitchen table at Grandma's when all the girls would have their "hen-parties" and speak about their memories of "yesterday'.  I was...and I remembered.

Likewise, having married at age 17, and being close with my ex-in-laws through out my 23 years as a member of that family,  I have similar memories of that family.  I loved hearing all the stories from family members who have long since passed.  I know things that no one else in that family who is living today knows, or remembers, or experienced.  My  husband (#2 for ten years now)  has the same recollections from his family.  Like me, he was always fascinated by stories told by the elders of his family...and like me, his Father passed away with Altzheimers.

What happens if he and I develop Altzheimer's?  Will our kids understand when our past begins to influence our actions?  We have five sons between us but they do know really know much about their grandparents or all the other rich characters within these families that my husband and I have known and loved throughout our lives.  I want to leave something behind for them and for their children...I want to get it down before I forget it...before it is gone forever.  I realize, that for the most part, they think my love of scrapbooking is not real important, and I know that I am not going to be creating masterpieces such that I have seen in the galleries from the talented laout artists in our community but I also know that someday, someone I love is going to be so thankful for this digital "obsession" of mine.

Several years ago, my son Matthew and I cleaned the cemetery up on the hill.  He was out of work at the time and needed some extra money and I helped him.  We raked and hauled off years of leaves and tree branches which littered the ground along with the garbage left behind from those who had found nothing better to do on a summer night than to hide and out and drink booze up there on the hill.  It really did look so peaceful and serene after we mowed and everything was all cleaned up.  There is one section there that just has rocks for markers,  No names or dates, and no one knows who most of these graves belong to but we do know they are ancestors. Every one up there is somehow connected to the Phelps family.    I know they are in a better place with no more toil, no more sadness, no more sickness, and I made sure every rock, every marker had at least one flower beside it when I left that day for I wanted to show we do not forget.

I think this will be the introduction page of my Phelps book.  I will be using  the Artscow Blank Cover Templates from Studio Wendy for this book.  They make it so easy to keep your pretty pages inside the safe zone for printing at Artscow.  I will also be using the white 12x12 square white paper as my background so all my pages have a uniform look.  Its is from Prsitine by Studio Rosey Posey

 Happy Scrappin!

A New Decade

We are well on our way on our  journey into the new decade.  I can remember writing a paper when I was in high school (I graduated in 1974) about what I thought the future would be like, and now I am living in that future!  In a way, I was not far off in my predictions for I thought life would be pretty much the same.  I was not like some of my friends thinking we would be living like the Jetsons cartoon but when you really think about it, things are much different...Cell phones, personal computers, and electric cars are a few of the things I had not imagined back then.  I am not into many of the new  high-tech gizmos but I really can not imagine my life without my computer!

I do remember predicting a WWIII for I just could not imagine a world living in peace.  Man, being what he is, I still do not ever see that happening but I do think that most leaders in todays world still have the dream of peace for their people, unfortunately, there are leaders who believe war is a way to achieve peace...I have never understood that.

I thought that world hunger would no longer be a problem.  I was a part of the generation who was told to clean their plates for there were children starving in Africa.  I still find it hard not to clean my plate for that reason and the children are still starving in Africa, and all across the world.  That is mankind's biggest shame.

I still hope for peace and understanding, and my prayers continue for all our soldiers to come home to a country who appreciates all the sacrifices they have made for us one and all.  I still hope that this will be the year that I can get my weight under control and adapt a healthier lifestyle, and I wish I could get my mind set to quit that ugly habit I first adopted in 1974-smoking.  Oh well, I have learned to be content.  Happiness is a state of mind and I am happy, and I am richly blessed!  I am excited to enter into this decade!

Happy Scrappin!