Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Tutorial - How to Make A Family Tree Art With Photos


Finally finished the Father's Day gift for Stubborn. We just recently had our second child, then Stubborn's dad passed away two days before Father's Day. We all thought he is finally free. He had a very bad stroke 5 years ago, and has been in coma ever since. Last year, we went back to visit him with little Caterpillar, we all thought he could hear us. Maybe he was not satisfied with a granddaughter, so secretly wished for a grandson. Anyway, we got preganant right after we came back, and had little JJ. Stubborn took JJ's picture back to him last month, and we Skyped a lot. Guess he was finally satisfied, with a grandson who can carry the family name, he just gave up. He passed away just 2 weeks after Stubborn came back. Anyway, this gave me a great idea for Father's Day gift. I made a family tree art for Stubborn's office, with photos of family members and names. He didn't say much, but I know he loves it.

Here is how I did it. I looked around the web to find a tree shape that I liked, and drew it on the back of a piece of scrapebook paper. I liked the gray and yellow color theme of the inspiration picture, so I sticked with it. Forgot to take a picture before cutting the tree out, but you get the idea.

Cut out the tree and all the leaves with scissors or knife. You don't have to be exact with leaves, you are going to use the other side, so the pencil marks won't show. But with your tree, you should drew the branches thicker than they will be and cut inside the lines. And don't worry too much if you accidently break a branch, you are going to glue everything on a background paper, so it won't show. This is what left after cutting out the branches, I am going to use this for a scrapbook page, so it won't go to waste at all.

Glue the tree to the background paper of your choice, then place the leaves where you like.

Pick out portraits of family members and print them out. What I did was  copy paste the headshots into one picture, print and cut them out. I printed 12 (3 by 4) pictures on a 4 by 6 picture, you can size them base on the size of your finished art and how many family members you want to include.

Glue the headshots on another piece of scrapbook paper, cut them out, leaving some space of the bottom for names.

Glue the pictures to the tree. I put greatgrandpa, grandpa, daddy and JJ on the main trunk of the tree following that order, so that's the main stream of the family who carrys the family name from generation to generation. In our culture, only male family members got included in the family tree, but I wanted to include all the people Stubborn loves. So I included his great aunt, his aunt, and his mother's side of the family (on a side branch). Of course I have to include our little Caterpiller, she probably is the person he loves the most in this world.

Finally put everything together.

I just love to make these special gifts for my family. I framed antique lock pieces from Stubborn's grandma's wedding luggage, and made a photo collage of daddy daugher moments in the past. I refinished a table set for little Caterpillar's 2nd birthday, and have some great ideas for this year. Even though I don't say it out loud all the time, I do love this man and our little family.







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