Remembering a much-loved great Grandma

At Altered Art Addicts, the paper arts store my daughter and I own, we sell canvas kits from Quick Quotes. We've had these particular kits on the shelf for too long and I have wondered why they're not selling, since I think they're delightful. I decided we needed a sample so folks can see the possibilities. My daughter also has a birthday sneaking up on us, so I decided to kill two birds with one stone.

Grandma's life on earth ended 30 years ago this month. I've always loved both of these photos of her. In the small one she's sitting in a car and likely in her mid-twenties. I wish I knew what the ribbon on her label says, but my best guess is that it was taken at a county fair. In the larger photo she looks the way I remember her. I can still feel the warmth of her smile.

So, Grandma, we're going to have you hanging on the wall in the store. I think you'll like it here.

I honor two wonderful women, my daughter Kathy, and my grandmother, Eva Lyons Shearer. Thank you both for the encouragement and love!

http://www.alteredartaddicts.com

Free Searching of the U.S. Census collection at Ancestry this weekend!

Head on over to http://www.ancestry.com this weekend to search this entire collection of the U.S. census. This resource is indispensable to family history research. I can place much of my family all the way back to 1790 via the census.

The 1790-1840 census lists only heads of households and the number of family members by age group. Starting in 1850 the entire household is listed. I've found both of my parents in the 1930 and 1940 census and all of my grandparents up through 1940.

Here's the 1940 image of my Armstrong grandparents household in 1940.

Happy searching!

Altered Ancestors page swap at All Things Tim yahoo group

An altered ancestors swap sounded right up my alley. I've been working on my genealogy off and on for more years than I want to count. I wish I had more ancestor's pictures, but I'm happy with the ones I have. When I was around 10 my grandfather's cousin gave me my great grandmother's obituary. I was fascinated with it after finding out that our names were the same after she married my great grandfather, John Shearer. That obit started me off on a lifelong quest to discover my ancestry.

The charge for this swap was to create 11 4"x 4" pages of "altered" ancestors. My first is Cynthia Conkey Shearer. She was born in Northwest Township, Williams County, Ohio and died there when my grandfather was just a baby. Here's the front and back of the page.

The next photo I altered is Cynthia's brother, Charley Conkey. A couple years ago, I bought dozens of postcards which had been sent to Charley, on Ebay. It's very interesting to read the notes his many friends and family members sent to him. Seems he was very loved. Like Cynthia, his life was short. He was a telephone operator in Cooney, Ohio (Williams County).

Next up is a tintype photo that was in Charley's postcard collection. I sure wish I knew who this fellow is!

The last ancestor is Martha Jane Longwell Sterling. She's a great great grandmother on my mother's side of the family.

All these were created with Tim Holtz techniques using Ranger Ink products almost exclusively. The Distress Inks are perfect for a project like this--instant "antiques". This swap has encouraged me to do some more of these to share with my family.

Some winter pictures just because it's pretty--from the inside!

Another swap for the Everything Wendy Vecchi yahoo group

This swap required that we alter a tin of the altoid type. I found some tins made for presenting gift cards and went with it. I used Ranger Ink acrylic dabber paint for the outside and covered it with Ranger Rock Candy crackle paint. The stamps are Wendy Vecchi's with the exception of the small gold motif which is Judikins. The pic shows the outside and inside of two different tins.

I'm so ready for winter to be kaput! This is what I woke up to last Wednesday

I lived near Austin, TX for 12 years and loved the winters there after living all my life in Michigan. I avoided the extreme heat when I could in mid-summer, but there were winters when the temps never got down to freezing. Didn't have or need a winter coat. In 2006 I was downsized out of my job in TX, my daughter was carrying the baby who would likely be my last grandchild, and my mother had issues and needed help, so I headed back to Michigan to be near my family.

I loved the snow and playing in it as a child--whatever was I thinking!! Wednesday I had to bring the shovel in the house and push the snow off the porch in front of the door to get outside. Sure glad the shovel was in the attached garage! The second picture is looking out from inside the garage. Nice imprint of the door trim in the snow! We got a foot of snow, but the wind neatly arranged it into drifts. Winter begone!

Chunky ATC Swap

I belong to various yahoo groups relating mostly to paper/altered arts and frequently groups will have swaps among the members. In December 2010, I participated in one with the Everything Wendy Vecchi group. We swapped "chunky ATCs" which are basically 2.5" cuts of 2x4s. ATCs (artist trading cards) are usually flat, sometimes done on a playing card, so this presented a challenge of having more surfaces to alter. We had to use some Wendy Vecchi rubber stamps, marketed as Studio 490 by Stamper Anonymous. Here is the front and back of the two I did.

They were great fun to create. I like the idea of changing a scrap of 2x4 into a piece of art. One of these days I'll do more. (Oh no--one more thing on my "one of these days" list!