Family Photos in our Traditions Tree

The ideas behind this Family Traditions tree are pretty common sense. What are some objects that say family? Hearts, monograms, and of course, family photos. Bear also suggested links in a chain, so I think I’m going to incorporate that for next year. I’m still debating if I should do a full on chain garland, or individual lengths of chain and hang them just like all the other ornaments. But I’ll start thinking about that in January.

We added a whole bunch of new family photos this year to reflect the change in our family. I’ve shown you a couple of those already, so here’s the rest.

Lobo the cat and his boy caught in a tender moment.

It’s hard to tell because the tree branch is in the way and Atti’s head was so very very tiny, but this picture is a blown up copy of this picture.

Atti rocking out to his ipod.

These photos really continue a trend that I had started in the very beginning with these little frame ornaments.

If you look closely you can see all my hot glue threads and messy fabric bunches testifying to how far I’ve come in the past ten years. Bleck.

To make these I just took two 3″ square pieces of chipboard or super thin cardboard. My favorite place to get this is at Michael’s, Joann’s or some other big box craft store. You can find them underneath every stack of scrapbooking paper, and these stores never do anything with them. You can almost always walk away with a stack for free.

I cut a hole in the center of one piece large enough for a picture to show through, and then I covered both pieces with fabric using hot glue to secure it on the back.

I glued a piece of clear plastic to the backside. I used a piece of a page protector back then, now I think I might be tempted to skip this step. I glued my photo down behind this, and then I sandwiched both square pieces together with more hot glue, making sure to slide some ribbon in the middle for a hanger.

I was figuring this out as I went and right about here in the process I discovered that my creation looked like an unholy mess. Glue was dripping out the sides, there was a big gap made by bulky fabric corners, it was an eyesore. So I glued down a piece of ribbon all along that seam to hide all my mistakes.

Then of course I wanted to decorate the front, so I just hot glued those flat backed marbles to it.

Back when I made these the crafty world was in a very different place. Now there are so many gorgeous fabrics and paper and other assorted doodads on the market, this simple idea could really be turned into something fabulous with the right supplies.