The new set Roots and Wings is now officially on sale at RBD. I have been working with this set for a few weeks now and I am loving it! I thought I'd do a little project with you to give you a bit of a feel for the set itself and the sentiment behind it.
Often as a mother, and especially at this time of year, I have looked back at what I have done with and for my children and wonder if I am doing enough. Am I instilling enough tradition in my children's lives? Is there enough constancy and routine? Am I doing my job preparing them for the world and helping them grow to be contributing members of society? Have I done my duty as far as preserving the family memories and heritage? I think these are questions every mother has about themselves. Just the fact that we worry about these things I think is answer enough that we are doing our best.
I would like to focus on the part of preserving the family memories and heritage. When I designed the stamp set Roots and Wings I had this exact purpose in mind. Not only does this stamp set cover many of your greeting card needs but it also plays a great role in family tradition and heritage.
I've done this framed project as a demonstration of how this set can help you keep your ties close to heart and memory. I've photographed it so that you can see the ways of leaving it simple and clean but still expressing the respect for the family roots or more personal by adding family ancestor's photographs.
I first took a white piece of 8.5x11" cardstock and printed out my family's clan history (I am of Scottish decent, my dad's given names are Ian James MacIntyre!!!) which I found by doing a Google search for my clan name (When I printed I did so without using the Magenta or Yellow cartridges to get the color, you can also use the basic print mode if your printer has it....it shows as black until the next step). Crumple your paper gently and uncrumple and smooth flat, I added a few tears for vintage feel.
Then I took a cold, wet, tea bag (English Breakfast works best) and lightly dabbed and swabbed the entire paper, changing the printing on the paper to a pretty teal color and giving the page an antique look by tea staining. Set aside to dry.

I then took the trunk image from the set Roots and Wings and stamped first the tree trunk, and then masked off the trunk leaving just the branch portion of the image, inverted it and created the roots portion of my tree. I used a post-it note to do this. I love that this adds a whole new image to the set just by doing this simple trick!
I then added my leaves, which is a separate stamp image for maximum versatility, cut out the entire image with the ovals Nestabilities and then proceeded to tea stain this portion as well.
*keep a piece of paper towel close at hand in case you need to blot the excess moisture from your image... a little running is good but too much can be disaster!
I made a little ribon decoration using our taffeta edge satin ribbon in Teal by looping and layering the ribbon and adhering it with Scor-tape. I then popped the focal image up with foam dimensionals and layered it on top. I added some antique copper swirls for some bling.
I stamped the images "family" and "Roots" and made a label of sorts to tie the whole thing together. I tea stained this as well and also popped this below the focal image. This is the point where you can leave it as is. Simple and clean and beautiful. I almost prefer this version as a wall hanging and the more personal one as a scrapbook layout page. (I've blurred the photographs to provide privacy)
To add in the family photos all I did was punch out ovals from the photographs (NEVER use original photograps when you are working with heritage projects, have them professionally copied and archive the originals!!) to mimic the ovals previously used in the layout. I popped these up as well to give it the dimension and voila!!! There you have it. Beautifully displayed memories and a constant reminder of your family roots.
Swing by the store to see the full details of this new set and it's matching partner.. while you're there, take a look at the new ribbon... we've marked it down 20% for this week only as one of our New Year's celebration perks!
Hope you liked this project!
Wishing you all the best in 2009!!!!
Remember to kiss your babies- they grow up so quickly!
Recipe:
Stamps: Roots and Wings- RBD
Ink: SU! Old Olive, Chocolate Chip, Kiwi Kiss
CS: Whisper White SU!
Ribbon: Taffeta Edge Satin in Teal- RBD