Finally a Family Tree Bag!

I love my Heritage so much that I want to be able to have and show off my Family Tree with me wherever I go...
With this passion of mine I have made books, cards, calendars, flipbooks and more, but while I can bring some of these with me in a bag, I really have to have a "reason" to show them off.
When I saw that Heritage Makers was offering a bucket bag, my heart jumped: I could make one with my Family Tree!!!
I started creating it as soon as I could, and thanks to the import feature, I didn't need to create a tree from the beginning, so I took one of the projects I had made in the past, and modified it to suit the size and shape of the bag.
I wanted one side to have pictures of my kids, my husband and I, and the other one to have our whole 5 generations family tree, so this is what I came up with:

It took about 3 weeks to receive it, but oh what joy when I could finally have it in my hands!

Isn't it gorgeous?I have had it for less than a week, and I LOVE it!

I Love how people will stop me to tell me how much they like it, and ask me if I made it, then we start talking about the similarity between my kids or my husband and their ancestors...
I think this is one of the coolest family Tree projects I have created!
Now I can really say that I have my Heritage with me everywhere I go, and I don't need to really find an excuse to talk about my passion, people come and ask me about it!

LOVE IT LOVE IT LOVE IT!!!

I also love that because I am a Club HM member I was able to get a pretty nice discount on this bag, plus, since I had been accumulating publishing points, I did not have to spend my money all at once!

If you would like to create a bag like this, just contact me or make a comment below, and I will be happy to help!
It can be made with any of the Family Tree Templates I created, any background, and can be customized to fit your family tree needs.

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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!

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Family Reunion idea from the Template Gallery

Summer is just around the corner and many of you are going to have a family reunion soon.
If you are the one that is helping putting it together, I have found a project in the Template gallery that you might want to try.

 It's a really well thought 8.5x11 booklet/magazine that outlines events and shows off a little of the family heritage, it even gives space for notes and family recipes and might  help you increase your family reunion attendance.

You can give a look at the whole template by clicking here , it will also give you the option to make your own.
As with any other template, you can change it any way you want it, to suit your needs.

You are going to love it!

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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!

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A genealogist's view of a mother

This morning, I was sitting on the chair while my husband was making my mother's day breakfast, and I started to think that I wanted to make a mother's day quote that could be also used as a genealogy quote... A few minutes later, this is what was created:

 

Then another one came to my mind, and I feel that it really shows how important mothers are in a family tree.

I know that to us genealogists, a mother's maiden name can be frustrating when not found, because it means slowing  down our researches, pulling our hair, sleepless nights, but we carry something that will not show on the paper. 

 It is a love that gets carried down from generation to generation and  defines us much more than a last name could.

It took just a couple minutes to make these 2 pages (it took more to think of the quotes:)).

I just love how putting a quote on a page and beautifying it with images just enhances the whole meaning of it.

I just want to wish a happy mother's day to the mother that were, the mothers that are, and the mothers that will bless the lives of children all over the world!

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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!

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Featured Templates: generations

Every now and then, I like looking at what other Heritage Makers have created that can be used for genealogy and family history projects. Today I looked for projects with keyword "generation" or "generations"

These are the beautiful Templates I found:

Which one is your favorite?
I am sure that more templates with keyword generations will be added in the future, so be sure to search for them yourself, as there might be more than the ones I displayed.
Don't forget that while these templates were created in a particular format, you can always convert them in a different format (i.e.: from a scrap page to a greeting card or a canvas) using the import feature.

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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!

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3 generations of Love Template

I was just looking into the template Gallery, and I found this cute three generations of Love canvas Template.

It made me think of my mom and her mom, and I thought this canvas template would be perfect to honor them.
It took me only 5 minutes to switch the pictures and change a couple things, and I am now really in love with the result.

I am my nonna Michelina's namesake, and I am pretty proud of it... I had been wanting to do something that was specific to me and her, but life has been taking its toll, and didn't quite find the time to make it from scratch, so I am very grateful for this template!
I lost my grandma to stomach cancer when I was 12. It was so heartbreaking seeing her go through all that suffering... I was with her when she passed away, and the memory is still vivid nowadays...
I miss her very much, especially now, during Christmas time, because we used to all go to her house, and enjoy our time together...

I hope this template will help many of you remembering and honoring your grandparents.

May you have a Christmas full of good old memories to remember and new beautiful ones to create.

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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!

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4x8 family circles tree card

I was working on last minute gifts and I just couldn't resist but making a family tree out of the 4x8 photocard format.
I also had been wanting to make a family tree out of simple circles, and I did.
Here is the final result:

This is a cute little gift that I can give not only to my husband, but also each of my kids, and it will cost me less than $1 each!^_^
I like it so much that it has become my facebook profile picture!

My husband is also getting this cute calendar, to display on his desk at the office:

I am debating if I want to put them back to back and laminate them, or just give them to him separately...
Either way, He's going to love them!
This would make a  cute little gift to have at each table at the family reunion dinner, or for each member of your family. If you don't have the pictures, you can just use the names, and maybe birth dates, and they will look great too!

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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!

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Gingerbread Christmas card template

Every now and then among the thousands of already beautiful templates available in the Template gallery on my website, I happen to find one that is just too gorgeous not to share.
This Christmas card is one of them:

I just love it!
I love the colors, I love the style, and I love that has the space to write a full Christmas letter!
This is a 7x5 Greeting Card, Template ID: 74266.
You can give a better look at it here. 
How about a supercute matching address label?

Template ID #63375
These are  premier Template, so you will need PREMIER to edit them.
Contact me to ask how you can get a FREE month of PREMIER and you will be able to create this wonderful Christmas letter/card in no time!
And remember, these templates are fully modifiable, so if you need more pictures, you can add them, re-size them, change embellishments, background and add as much text as you like!
If you want to save when you order this cards, you need to have them ready to ship before the 20% off cards offer ends, at the end of November.

 This are the holiday deadlines for publishing and ordering your projects in time for Christmas:

Family tree canvas collage

After creating the 2 sides family tree, I realized that this would be perfect to create any kind of Family tree collage, like this one:

This is another possibility:

Or if you like, you can put together this version of canvas collage:

and make it like this:

or if you prefer the tree canvas to have a border:

and if you want all of them to have a border:

You get the idea!
You really can have lots of fun planning your family tree collage! It will be even better once it is on your wall!

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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!

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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?

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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!

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A family tree worth fighting for

I have been working on this portable family tree magnetic game, and finished it just in time for the 33rd Annual Florida State Genealogical Society Conference.

The family tree mat was created with a 8.5x11 page and the family face pieces using a 5x7 invitation.

I then cropped and glued them on 1 inch wood tassels, completing them by sticking a magnet behind each piece.

As a finishing touch, I applied a shiny layer of a clear gloss medium.

I was doing this while in the hotel room the night before the conference, and could hardly keep my kids away from them while the coating dried.

When they woke up this morning, the first thing they wanted to do was playing with their family tree.

They were still in their pajamas, not even caring about breakfast. They HAD to play...

I had to establish turns, as they started fighting on who was putting this or that picture on the tree.

Little by little, they started putting the faces in the right places.

My heart melted each time they would tell me who that person was, and even more when they got to the point that they would remember and just tell me "this is Nana's mom, my great grandma", "This is nonno Oreste!" and so on.

They didn't like it when I had to take the game to display at the genealogical conference, but I promised them they would play more tonight.

I am thinking to make more copies of this game, maybe personalizing it for each of my children, so there will be no more fighting, and I will be able to just enjoy seeing them playing while impressing the faces and names of their ancestors in their mind, and hopefully their heart too.