Sunday, March 20, 2011

My 50th Birthday Travel Album

I finally finished it!! Last September my mom and I took a "family heritage" trip to the Madison Wisconsin area. On and off over the last 15 years, I've spent a great deal of time doing family genealogy research. My mom's family is "easy" because they all came from Norway between 1840 and 1850 - and settled in two counties (Dane and Green) Wisconsin. Thru Ancestry.com I've meet cousins 5 and 6 generations removed. Some still live very near the original homestead of the ancestors I've researched the most.

My greatest 50th birthday wish was to have my picture take at the grave of our common "mother", Birgit Halverson. She died on my birthday (83 years earlier). Despite 6-8 months of research, contacting EVERYBODY I could think of, sending my newly met cousins out to area cemeteries - we still haven't found Birgit's grave. But in the end I cherish meeting those cousins and sharing a common background! In addition, I wanted to visit the Wisconsin State Historical Society to gather records I could find online, but cost $15 a copy to get.

So here is my travel/birthday album from that trip. I started with a Graphic 45 Kraft envelope album. Covered a great deal of it in Graphic 45 Steampunk Debutant paper and added some additional mini envelopes for additional storage. Other supplies used: Primas, Glimmer Mist, rhinestones, Slice, washi tape, Memory Box stamps, and some Tim Holtz stuff.

Closed it's a pretty small album.
Just under flap is a picture (a bad one) of the birthday girl - ME!

Each "page" is an envelope. Inside I put a journal card and a photo for that day.
The small envelopes also have journal cards and hold "ephemera". In this case my pass to the UW library.






On my birthday I used this numbered paper and "highlighted" my age!



I decorated some of the inside flaps.


8 comments:

  1. Deb, this is a real work of art ! Great idea to use envelopes and to keep your memories. Very pretty travel album !!

    ReplyDelete
  2. What a fabulous album! I just love all the envelopes and places to stash treasures, and the colors are gorgeous. I was into searching my family tree for years, then hit so many walls I got discouraged. I'll have to take up the hunt again. Glad you had such a great time - what a wonderful way to spend a birthday, and such a beautiful memento of the experience.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Amazing Deb...great idea and gorgeous!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Wow!! What an amazing album. Geneaology is so much fun. When I did ours I met all those cousins and it was so fun getting to know them. I think your album is just fabulous. You have such beautiful ideas.

    ReplyDelete
  5. This is gorgeous, Deb! It's so beautifully put together with your signature "style". (DD had to do a bit of geneology herself and make a family tree for school; she still has to present it to the class.)

    ReplyDelete
  6. What an amazing souvenir of that special birthday journey.

    ReplyDelete
  7. It is NOT a bad picture of you! I loved this when I first saw it and love it again now. Thanks for sharing.

    ReplyDelete
  8. What a wonderful album and a perfect way to keep your precious memories. The colors and details were beautiful too. Sure you will cherish it. take care, gerri

    ReplyDelete