3 generations baby keepsake

I am so in love with my baby that when I realized that I hadn't created something that was just for him yet, I had to make the time to do it.
I wanted to have some sort of family tree that was especially for newborn, and at the same time I wanted to have a picture big enough that I could frame it and hang it on the wall and know that it was him without having to look close.
This is what I created for him:

I am probably going to make similar pages for all my other children, I think they will really cherish it, and so will their children, and grandchildren...
I also think that this would be a really cute gift for a new mom, instead of the usual diapers and clothes, how about something that they will keep forever?
Being a 3 generations one, it is going to be pretty easy to collect the pictures and create this page.
It can be framed, or even modge podged on a 12x12 tile, or a wooden square...
This would be cute also on canvas!
Oh boy... New ideas are coming as I write!
I guess you will see them soon!

A little patience...

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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 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!

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Kids family tree placemat: keep their appetite for family history growing!

As you know I am always looking for new ways to get my kids interested in genealogy, and have already created various project that they love, but every now and then they need something new to keep the interest alive.
I was thinking of a way to "feed" them family history and I came up with a family tree place mat!
This will surely give them an appetite to know more about their ancestors and will hopefully start nice conversations at the family table.
I decided to use the 11x14 page format, which I will then laminate to protect it from water and any inevitable mess.
The boys have helped me pick some of the embellishments like the moon and the dogs, but what really caught their attention and got  them all excited was being put on the swing under the tree!
They couldn't wait for me to finish creating, and my 4 year old just wanted me to hurry up and make his, since I started with the one for my 6 years old!

Once I made the one for my first born it was pretty much a breeze to just swap pictures, name and background, (even the dogs as they wished), to personalize it for my other children.

As you can see I added leaves to Jacob's tree. I am not sure yet if I like it better with or without leaves...
What do you think?

My children  are eager to have them on the table, as soon as I will have published them and after I will have laminated them once they are here.
I didn't make one for Mattia yet, since he is so little, and I think it would be more appropriate to use a picture of him when he is at least a toddler, and he can actually sit at the table and eat.
My children are so spoiled when it comes to their genealogy!

I am thinking to make it double sided, I am trying to come up with some fast fact genealogy games, maybe tic tac toe,  matching pictures with names, or places or jobs, matching couples or a game that we can all do together as a family, like bingo with family faces, a variation of guess who... 

If you have a different idea of a family game, maybe one that you are already playing in your home, or one that you would like to play that uses family pictures, I would love to hear 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 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!

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My first car- 52 weeks of personal genealogy- week 3

I was going to go to bed but then an  event on my facebook newsfeed caught my attention.
This is the 3rd year of the 52 weeks to better genealogy, and I like it that it challenges you to actually write your own personal genealogy.
The 52 weeks personal genealogy challenge, is this week about cars.

What was my first car...
You might laugh at this one, since I never really had a car in my 30 years I lived in Italy!! I didn't even have a driver license since I didn't want to pay the yearly fee without needing it.
The first car I drove was a green Renault 5 that my then boyfriend was teaching me how to drive. I was only 16, and you need to know that in Italy you can get a driver license only when you are 18, so, I wasn't exactly supposed to even try to drive it! Shh!;) I did scare quite a few people that morning!
In Italy  would go everywhere using buses or trains, sometimes I would get a ride from a friend or family member and only once going to University I got a Vespa scooter after my then boyfriend ( a different one) taught me how to drive it! I believe it was 1994.
There are quite a few stories about that Vespa! I would literally drive it under any weather condition, sun, rain, fog, snow...

I used it to go on a 3 day trip along the sides of the Mediterranean coast leaving from Cava de' Tirreni, Salerno(Campania region) to Cetraro (Calabria region) with a friend of mine. We would sleep on the beach in the town we reached by each night. What a crazy adventure that was! I even managed to have an accident on the way there, making it all more interesting swimming in those salty waters with a couple of bleeding knees!
That Vespa got stolen a couple years later and had to buy a new(used) one, which got stolen once I moved to USA, but I did manage to have a pretty bad accident on that one too!
It was here in the States that I finally decided to get a driver license after the birth of my first child,  since where I live there is no bus, and  I didn't think that it would be "safe" to drive a Vespa with a baby on my lap. I started driving my husband's car in 2004, a Honda Accord, but that was his car, so I guess my real first car is the one I currently drive the most, a Toyota Sienna 2004 which we got from some friends of ours when we were expecting our 3rd child, in August 2008. What a blessing that car has been, especially after we ended up having only one car after my accident in 2009! It is now even a greater blessing, since there is no way that we could go around in a smaller car with our 4 kids!
To be exact, though, this car is legally on my husband's name, cause the day we bought it I couldn't go sign the title, so maybe I still have to wait to get my very own car!

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)

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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 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!

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I'm back!

Did you miss me?
Well, I missed posting on the blog too, but my family needed my complete attention, so I had to take a long break.
I am returning with a good news: our family welcomed our 4th boy on December 2nd. His name is Mattia and he is just an angel!

This was my most difficult pregnancy yet, but it was worth it!
I am now much better, so I got back to work, and I will have a new idea for you in the next post.

I won't be posting regularly since life with 4 kids is more hectic than I could imagine, and if you add doing genealogy research, being a personal publisher and storybook designer, you can figure out that my spare time is almost non existing!

I do have many ideas though, and will find the time to put them together, hopefully before the  NE family history conference in March, where I will be teaching on Italian genealogy and creative genealogy/family history.

Ok, I need to keep this short, or I won't be able to share my new project!

Thank you for visiting!

FREE Premiere weekend!

Great news!!!
HM is having its very first Free Premier Weekend! That’s right, from October 14 - 17, you can get full access to a Heritage Makers Premier account, absolutely free. This is a no-risk opportunity for you to try designing storybooks, canvas prints, greeting cards, playing cards, photo books, and more with over 47,000 pieces of digital art and thousands of pre-designed templates.
Imagine having free reign on a scrapbook store. That’s what it’s like when you use Heritage Makers Premier account. Unlimited creativity and fun is waiting for you! Join us!
Here’s a sampling of some of the art you’ll find in Premier:





To participate in FREE Premier Weekend, simply log into Studio and click on the “unlock Premier” button. This button will be available from 7:00 p.m. October 14 until noon October 18 MDT.
If you don’t already have a Studio account, get a free account here

Also, check out all of the great classes going on this weekend, too!

Thu, Oct 14, 2010 7:00 PM MDT
Topic: Celebrate FREE Premier Weekend & Explore October's Art
Instructor: Lynda Angelastro and Tanja Rigby
Studio Product Manager Lynda Angelastro and Creative Marketing Assistant Tanja Rigby celebrate FREE Premier Weekend by showing fabulous tips and tricks with the October art collections.

Register here.

Fri, Oct 15, 2010 6:00 PM MDT
Topic: Celebrate Our FREE Premier Weekend, Day Two
Instructor: Lynda Angelastro
Studio Product Manager Lynda Angelastro answers your art and design questions.

Register here.


Sat, Oct 16, 2010 12:01 PM MDT
Topic: Celebrate FREE Premier Weekend, Day Three, Saturday Show-and-Tell
Instructor: Lynda Angelastro
Lynda Angelastro shows off projects you have made during FREE Premier Weekend. To have work considered for the Saturday Show-and-Tell, email project previews to langelastro@heritagemakers.com.

Register here.


You can contact me with any question at any time!

What Can You Make With the New Art this holiday season

This holiday you can really let your imagination fly with the new art available!
Here is some ideas that are sure to make your holidays really special:

Delight the spooks in your life! Template ID #: 39756, Playing Card Deck

No tricks, just treats with this fun greeting card. Template ID #: 38867, 7x5 Greeting Card

Remember the special moments of the fall with a board book. Template ID #: 18801, 8x8 Board Book

Creative Thanksgiving Table place cards. Template ID #: 39747, Playing Card Deck

Celebrate the blessings in your life with this festive flip book! Template ID #: 39767, Flip Book

For a preview of the template, click here.
Count your many blessings with this adorable bucket. Template ID #: 39768, 12x12 scrap page

A fun neighborly Christmas gift! Template ID #: 16841, 5x7 Post card

 

Trim the tree with these unique ornaments! Template ID #: 37814, Playing Card Deck

Tuck the lil’ ones into bed on Christmas Eve with this charming storybook. Template ID #: 40432, 7x5 Storybook

 

For a preview of this template, click here

This greeting card is a great twist on the traditional holiday card. Template ID #: 20770, 5x7 greeting card

For more creative ideas and template applications, be sure to check out the Master Class recorded September 23, 2010, right here.

You can create any of these projects by signing up for a free account on my website.

Choose the template you like and then contact me to purchase the credits to publish it at a discounted price!

October 2010 pick of the month: Storybooks!

What is going to be this year?
Is your gift going to be returned on Dec 26th?
When it comes to holiday gift giving, it's hard to match the impact of a customized keepsake storybook.
Now through the month of October 2010 you can buy a two-pack of our most popular storybook sizes at a huge discount! In fact, Heritage Makers is offering a 20% discount for the entire month!!!

2 Storybooks (8"x8") $79.95
2 Storybooks (11.5"x8.5") $95.95
2 Storybooks (12"x12") $111.95
2 Wirebound Storybooks $39.95
Premier Account holders enjoy even BETTER PRICES! 
Check the flier for all the details!

Contact me today to place your order!