Magnetic Family Tree game, revised

After playing so much with their 4 generations magnetic family tree, I feel that my kids are ready for their 5th generation, which now calls for a bigger board.
So here is a 12x12 page version of it.

I have also decided to have a different board for each holiday, just to spruce things up a bit.
Kids and grown ups  will love playing with a magnetic family tree whose theme can be changed according to each holiday. The more they will play, the more their heart will be drawn into the desire to know more about their ancestors. 
Here is a possible Halloween Background:

Thanksgiving background

Christmas background:

Valentine's day back ground

St. Patrick day background

Easter back ground.

Independence Day background:

I thought to put together a tree with the flag where each ancestor came from. It just so happens that my ancestors are all Italian and my husband's first 4 generation ancestors were all already established in USA.

Another idea is to have an identical family tree with actually the pictures already on them, so that the kids can compare and see by themselves if they  matched all the right ancestors with their place in the family tree.
I will post more backgrounds on the CavaGenealogy facebook page, so be sure to like it to know first hand when I make more!

These12x12 pages can be switched back and forth on a magnetic sheet inserted in a shadow box

or on a 14x14 magnetic  board.

You can find the shadow box ready to decorate and the 14x14 magnetic board  at Micheal's for $4-$5 if you have a 50% coupon.
The magnetic sheet can be found in any hardware store like Home Depot or Lowe's, but also online in various craft stores for about $6.
I haven't put mine together yet, since I am creating more family tree pages to go with the magnetic tree and I will print a few of the ones that fit my family style most,  but I wanted to give you an idea of how it would look inside the shadow box, so I used one of the 12x12 family tree pages I already created and the magnets I had from the old magnetic tree and here it is:

It will need some decoration, maybe I could spray the frame of the shadow box with magnetic paint so that it will hold more magnets, or I could modge podge something related to the various holidays or a quote about genealogy.
I guess I will have to post again when I finally complete my work of art!^__^

Stay tuned!

EDIT: my shipment just came in! The pages are gorgeous! vibrant colors, high quality papers (not to mention acid free and archival quality)... As soon as I add the next generation magnets and paint the shadow box, I will post more pictures!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
You can get a free Publishing account by signing up at http://www.preservemyheritage.com and start creating unlimited projects at once!
Love my Creative Genealogy templates and ideas? 

My HM club members can have their favorite template transferred to their account for personal use, or  can have it completely personalized by me for them  for a reasonable fee.

Want more for less? Check out our incredible host rewards and My Club HM!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Family tree wall

I have a wall in my house that has a big picture of the Colosseum on it, and while in some way it describes part of my children's heritage (mine), I really want to make that wall our family  Heritage wall, more specifically our Family tree wall.
While I wait for my husband and I to find the time to paint that wall, which will be when we will be painting the whole living room and kitchen, I have been scattering my brain.
First of all, this time I will not have a single tree with my kids as the root persons. I have that nicely framed on another wall in the house, but there is a problem: I made it when I only had 3 kids. Now I have 4, and who knows if the Lord will bless us with more.
I have come to realize that those kind of family tree displays are for families that are done having kids, or that don't mind creating a new display each time a new child enters their lives.

So, what to do, what to do...
My solution is to have a family tree for each of the parents and then have a picture for each of the kids hung under the 2 family trees. This way when a new child comes, a new picture can be added, and when the kids grow up, if wanted, their picture  can be substituted with their grown up ones.
When they get married and have kids, I can either add more pictures, or substitute with  their family picture. (Yeah, I am thinking waaayy ahead!^_^)
As a final touch, the family name can be added.
I am scattering my brain for different ways to assemble the whole project.
Here are the ideas I have been working on:
 
2  20x24 canvases, one for the family tree with me as the root person, one for the one with my husband as the other root person.
a 8x8 canvas with a picture for each of my kids(4) and a 20x8 canvas with our family name (optional).

Cost    as low as  $343  (with a Gold HM Club membership) plus shipping, might save 10% more if I publish when canvas publishing goes on sale in December
Should I want these framed the cost would go up
2 20x20  canvases,4 8x8 canvases and a  20x8 canvas with our family name (optional).

Cost:   as low as  $330   (with a Gold HM Club membership) plus shipping, might save 10% more if I publish when canvas publishing goes on sale in December
A smaller and much less expensive way would be:
2 11x14 posters , 4 8x8 pages, and enough 5x5 greeting cards or 5x7 invitations or 3x3 family folds to fill  with the letters of our family name.

Cost: as low as  $20 (with a Gold HM Club membership) plus shipping.
I could also use the 4x8 photo card for the letters of the last name,, making it even less expensive. 
These can be framed, or modge podged on tiles or wood to give them dimension.

Cost will depend on the sales I can find on frames and/ or coupons I can use.

It would almost be cute if I painted a tree or found something to stencil on the wall, like this:

Once we will finally have this in my house, I think my kids will love it too, because there will be big pictures of them (you know how when they are little it is all about them ) but then there is this big canvas with this family tree, and they will have more opportunities to hear about their ancestors since they will be constantly "looking" at them!
Now, which color should my wall be?

 

Decisions decisions...

Do you have a Heritage wall in your home?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
You can get a free Publishing account by signing up at http://www.preservemyheritage.com and start creating unlimited projects at once!
Love my Creative Genealogy templates and ideas? 

My HM club members can have their favorite template transferred to their account for personal use, or  can have it completely personalized by me for them  for a reasonable fee.

Want more for less? Check out our incredible host rewards and My Club HM!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Family pedigree heart

I have been thinking of different ways to display a family pedigree, and while I have created quite a few different family trees, I really wanted something different.
This Family pedigree heart came to me from the constant thought that Family and Genealogy is about Love.
It is composed of leaves and has pictures and names of a person's ancestors with such person at the bottom:

Here is a 5 generations version with a darker background:

 This is also how it will look if used as a Magnetic Family Tree background once the picture magnets are on it.
I think it would look cute even as the cover for a 5x5 greeting card.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
You can get a free Publishing account by signing up at http://www.preservemyheritage.com and start creating unlimited projects at once!
Love my Creative Genealogy templates and ideas? 

My HM club members can have their favorite template transferred to their account for personal use, or  can have it completely personalized by me for them  for a reasonable fee.

Want more for less? Check out our incredible host rewards and My Club HM!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

5 generations post bound album

I couldn't wait for my baby to be born, because I had been thinking about creating a post bound album where I could preserve all the genealogy/family history pages I was going to create for my family, but I couldn't publish it until our newest member of the family was here, because I wanted his picture on that cover, together with all the other members of the family!
So, here is the idea:
A post bound album that has a 5 generation family tree on the cover. Inside, I will add pages as I create them.
This pages will all be about our family, starting with our children and going all the way back to any ancestors that I will gather information on.
There can be basic pages with just vital stats and a picture, pages with info about jobs, travels, achievements for each person, pages with pictures and story of family heirlooms, copies of letters and anything that is related to our family.
This is going to be a life long project, but what is nice about it, is that when my children will be grown up, they will be able to make copies of the whole album or of just the pages they are interested in, and nobody will have to fight on who is taking what.
Meanwhile they will grow to learn more and more about their family, and they will get excited each and every time that we have a new page to add to the album.
Also, I won't have to make a new book in case the Lord blesses us with more kids: I will just add more pages to the album! I don't need to wait for anybody to send me more info to finish a book, I can add them later!
I was finally able to create the album cover today, so here is the front cover:

Here is a particular of the front:

Aren't my babies just handsome?^_^
This is the back:

What do you think?
I can't wait to receive this in the mail and start filling it with the pages I already created!

I can create a post bound album like this for you, or I can help you create it yourself, just contact me for details!
Enjoy your family history preservation!
EDIT: Here is how the post bound album looks in real life:

and here are my children looking through its pages

(post bound albums come with 10 plastic sleeves)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
You can get a free Publishing account by signing up at http://www.preservemyheritage.com and start creating unlimited projects at once!
Love my Creative Genealogy templates and ideas? 

My HM club members can have their favorite Creative Genealogy template transferred to their account for personal use, or  can have it completely personalized by me for them  for a reasonable fee.

Want more for less? Check out our incredible host rewards and My Club HM!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~