The Clan Noreau

My father was from a large family... There was ten of them, not counting the ones who died very early in life. From what I can remember, it was not so unusual to have them all together on Christmas time, when I was young. But as years went by, it became more and more difficult for them to meet. In 2004, as we celebrated on a many 50th wedding anniversaries, we were finally able to have them all together and take a memorable picture. Of course, two were no longer of this world, but we were happy to capture this unique moment with all the ones who were present with their spouse. Since then, six left for the other world, and among them, my dear father.

I was lucky enough to get a copy of this beautiful picture. For the longest time, I didn't know what to do with it... until I finally got inspired! So I created a very vintage looking layout to surround all these people that I loved and still love with all my heart.

Le Clan Noreau

I had a real pleasure creating this layout, and I did it as part of a design team project for Tina's Scrapbooking, using the beautiful Printery paper collection (Prima Marketing). I created flowers out of glassine paper (Tim Holtz), using glimmer mist, distress stain and distress ink to give them the exact colour I wanted. I particularly worked hard on the cream one as I didn't have the exact shade of glimmer mist I needed. Plus, glassine doesn't take colour very well, so I had to ink, stain and mist intensively to get this result. I love the vintage look I got in the end.

A couple of months ago, my brother, who recently re-decorated his house with new curtains, wall paper, etc., brought me a nice loot of goodies: textile, ribbons, beautiful curtain ties and loads of wine labels! Just breath taking! I decided to use a piece of curtain tie, along with this gorgeous lace I had laying around for months, to create a nice border. I punched and distressed two little butterfly, and voilà!

Finally, one of the sheet in the Printery collection had letters all over it, allowing me to create a 'family crest'. I cut around the N and used gold acrylic paint to put more emphasis on the letter, and the edge of the crest. I covered it with a thick layer of Tim Holtz Glossy Accent.

Of course, I put this crest close to my dear Papa, as he was so proud of  his family. And I am so proud of who he was...

I hope you like this new layout!
Have fun scrapping!