If you're one of EWGS's snowbirds, you may be wondering what's been happening at our general meetings the last few months. Our December 2007 general meeting was held Saturday, December 1st at the downtown branch of the Spokane Public Library. The topic was "Creative Ideas" or "Genie Gifts" and was presented by Melodie Hall, Creative Memories consultant, as well as several other society members who brought in their creative gift ideas for sharing family history during the holidays.
Melodie, our main speaker, and her husband Ric shared the many acid-free, archival safe products for photo and document storage and display. She also showed several albums she's created, as well as hard-bound quality family history and photo books that her company can publish. For more information, visit her website at http://www.mycmsite.com/melodehall.
Susan Beamer brought in a large, framed, multi-generational fan-shaped ancestral tree, custom printed by a friend. What a great gift idea for the holidays! I've long wanted something like that for my dining room wall, surrounded by photos of the ancestors of my husband and myself. Pat Mielbrecht brought in two creative gift ideas I especially liked: one was a set of 4 1/4" x 5 1/2" note cards with ancestral photos and sketches of ancestral locations printed on the front. Pat just uses Microsoft Publisher, her photo editing software, and a printer to create these on off-white heavy paper. They looked professionally made. The other was a small wooden basket with hinged lids, purchased at a local craft store. Pat used carbon paper to trace ancestral signatures on the lid of the basket, then took a black Sharpie marker to retrace the signatures, making them look like she'd taken a woodburning tool to create them, without all the fuss and muss! A coat of varnish finished the project, and my, did it look grand!
There were other gift ideas as well; I just didn't get a chance to see them all after closing up the EWGS Ways and Means table. If you brought or noticed something that you think should have been mentioned, please leave your comments below. We have some very creative members in our society, and they have some very lucky family members who were recipients of their loving ancestral and historical gifts!
No comments:
Post a Comment