Another Vintage Scrap Book Page

This scrap book page is another of the series of pages I made following our trip to Ellis Island. This photograph of my husband's mother as an infant had sustained water damage and is extremely brittle, so scanning it allowed me to preserve it and correct some background defects.

Lacking a current Photoshop program (can you believe it, and with all the photographs I take!), I was able to successfully use the Microsoft "Paint" program to copy a tiny section of the background and paste it over the adjacent section of background to hide several flaws. Although it is painstaking, the results were amazing and well worth the investment of time. I did the same thing with the family group photograph in the previous post to cover over some handwriting that was done in ballpoint ink on the front of the picture.

Looking for a different way to display the photograph, which was much smaller than the other family portrait, I framed it with a mat that I cut from a panel embossed with the Cuttlebug Textile folder and matted it on several mats that were ultimately edged with a vintage style paper lace that was punched with one of the EKSuccess border punches.

I used the largest Nestabilities "Labels Four" die to cut out the center opening in the mat, and then used that scrap as the base to mat a small journal box. To get a slightly larger mat to mat the black label panel, I flipped the die over onto the tan card stock and traced around the outside edge to give me a tan mat to carry the color theme through. The embellishments on the top and bottom arches are two of the flourishes that remain from the punched lace that were glued in place and fastened with copper brads.

The hinges are from Tim Holtz Grungeboard Elements collection. I used Martha Stewart copper ink (darker and more subdued than ColorBox's copper) and clear embossing powder to emboss the entire front surface and sides of the hinges. I then painted them with Folk Art's Acrylic Crackle Medium and after drying, used Folk Art's Antiquing Polish #590 Brown. Although I didn't get as much crackling as I'd hoped for, the antiquing polish darkened the hinges enough to give them a truly vintage appearance. I was pleased that the color matched nicely with Making Memories copper brads. (Click on the pictures for a larger view.)

If you look closely at the lower right corner of the background design paper panel, you can see an image of the Statue of Liberty. I was delighted to find this piece in my scrap bin, a remnant from a very old DCWV travel themed paper stack. I could not have asked for a more appropriate image for the background of this page. I distressed and sponged the edges to keep a vintage feel.

To identify the family members in the portraits, I created small text boxes in a Word document and typed names and dates using the Monotype Corsiva font. As much as I preferred something more elaborate, Monotype Corsiva is decorative as well as readable. After printing and cutting, I sponged with Frayed Burlap Distress Ink and mounted each on scraps of tan card stock.