Paper and Fiber Arts: Vintage Photos Used in Cardmaking

Grandma as a young woman

When sorting through water-damaged books I was reminded of a few things about life and stuff in general. One, never take anyone or anything for granted. Two, you never know what you may find when sorting things headed for the trash bin. Three, even though my grandmother lived with us for a short time, I didn't really know her very well. Four, I wanted to make this vintage photo into a card for my mother for Mother's Day. Five, how could it already be time for Mother's Day?! And that is how my grandmother became the focus of my mother's card.

A little Photoshopping to repair and lighten the 100-year-old photo

I scanned Grandma and printed out several copies of her onto cardstock made for printers. Our scanner/ copier is a laser printer. I used Hammermill 80lb cover weight paper purchased from Costco.com. There are many options when it comes to printing photographs. Because this picture was going to be altered with a glaze medium, I wanted a smooth surface that would not bleed. If you do not have access to a laser printer, you can take a copy of your picture to a copy center and have it printed there. Or, if you do not intend to put anything moist on the printout, it won't smear and become a big mess!

The photo on the left shows the colored Creative Medium that I used on the photo. On the righthand side is the dried and cropped photo. To make the photograph look like it was in a gold-gild picture frame I made a border with tissue tape. Washi tape or Post-it notes would work, also. It is important that whatever is used doesn't damage the photograph and makes a nice clean line, too.

Embossing paste used to frame photograph

Embossing paste dries a pretty antique gold color

The heart shape took on a leather-like look after distressed with ink. The lace ribbon was also inked a little bit to tone down the harshness of the white.

There are many layers to this card and also layers of flowers.

The very bottom of the flower is a paper doily which was distressed with ink and folded. Glued on top of that is a piece of ribbon formed into a hoop. More distressed paper flowers were glued on top and finished with a resin flower center.

Ribbon base for paper flowers to rest upon

Below is the side view of the big flower embellishment. There are also two different types of lace ribbon layered with the patterned paper.

Lots of layers make this flower embellishment

And finally, here is the finished card with all of the embellishments and distressing completed.

Vintage Photo used on Greeting Card

This card is to go with a set of greeting cards that I made for my mom to be able to mail out to whomever she wants. All eight of the cards are posted on this post if you would like to see them.