Relating To Your Relatives

One of my favorite kinds of layouts to create is a layout in which I am comparing one of my family members to another and finding similarities.  There is such a sense of kinship that comes to me when I create these layouts that I find it very fulfilling!

I made the above layout in 2006 when my daughter and I were both eleven years from being twenty years old.  She was on one side of twenty and I was on the other.  (This was one of the layouts I created when I was going through my, “I-must-create-everything-on-the-layout-from-scratch-for-it-to-truly-be-mine-phase, so I made all those papers and elements). Here’s what the journaling reads:

“Eleven years from being twenty, I am a mom of two great kids.  I have been a wife for eleven years.  I have learned that my parents were always right!  I still enjoy scrapbooking and traveling, just like I did back then.  I have learned a lot and survived much.  I am spiritual and faithful.  I like who I am!  During those eleven years, I graduated from college, just like I had planned.  Not everything has gone as I had decided it would, but I have learned that is life; it’s full of surprises and I can roll with it just fine!

Eleven years from being twenty, you are my sweet, innocent girl, everything is black and white to you.  You have lots of dreams about what you will do when you grow up.  You wrote in a report at school that the perosn you admire the most is your mom…ME!  Wow!!!  You are a very good friend to everyone.  You are very responsible and a big help!  You love to read and would rather do that than almost anything.  You love to play soccer and scored a goal this year.  You also love to play basketball.  You really want to learn to play the harp.  You are my girl and I love you!”

Supplies: Note To Self by Zoe Pearn, fonts are Weathered and Printing Primer by Fontologie (me)

I created this layout to document life changing events that occurred to both my Grandma and I when we were 31.  Journaling reads:

“You were 31 years old in 1941. You had three children and one on the way. Your husband had kidney disease, or what, in your journals you call, “acute nephritis”. On April 5, 1941, you gave birth to a baby boy, my uncle. You were at a hospital several  hours away from your husband who lay in bed, too sick to travel. At that time, there was not much they could do for him. On April 18, 1941 your husband passed away and left you alone, a widow with three children and a brand new baby.

I have known this story about you my whole life. I knew it was hard for you and I knew you were heart broken to lose your husband that you loved so much.

When I was 31, my husband was diagnosed with nephritis…or advanced kidney failure. I had two children at the time and five months after his diagnosis, we found out we were expecting our third.  It was so hard and he was really, really sick.  I couldn’t help but think of you and how similar our situations were.

Six months after diagnosis, my husband started dialysis, an option not available in 1941 and I know it saved his life. Seven months after diagnosis, he received a new kidney from his younger brother. We were able to bring our new baby home from the hospital together. He is now very healthy.

Such similar stories…yet such different endings.”

(You can read more information on this in the post script below).

During that time in my life, I found a lot of comfort and strength in what my Grandma had been through before me.

I asked our team to share with us some of their layouts where they were able to relate to their relatives and it has been fun to see the results!

Layout by Ana, layout linked to supplies.

“This is a page about my mom, when she was pregnant with me. In the journaling I write about her age, which was the same as mine when I was pregnant with my first child. I journal about her life and all the things that happened and that she probably didn’t have a clue at the time of the pictures. As I am also pregnant (at the time I did the layout) I wonder about what life will store for me in the future and the surprises and I will probably have when I’m also a grandmother.”

Layout by Kelley, supplies: One Love Charity Collab; Worn Up In You by Penny Springmann & Lauren Grier; Tiny Type Alpha by Zoe Pearn; Pea Remi Font.

Layout by NeeNee

Layout by Janet

Layout by Janet, click on layout for credits

If you have some layouts where you were able to relate to your relatives, we would love to see them, so link us up in the comments!  If you don’t have any YET, we hope we gave you some ideas!

P.S., First up, I want to announce the winner from yesterday’s post…… Leslie was the random winner chosen from yesterday’s comments, this is what she said:  “I have known and loved Peppermint’s scrapbooking LO’s and now to see her doing designing is amazing!!  I really love her kit Unconditionally with its bold red and elegant patterns.”

P.S.S  I just wanted to give you a little update about my husband, because I’m sure many of you don’t know about our experience I shared in the layout today.  He is doing AWESOME and is very healthy!  Tomorrow, we will be celebrating what we affectionately call “Kidney Day” at our house, it will 4 years since he received a new kidney from his younger brother!  There really isn’t a day that goes by that we don’t think about it in one way or another.  It’s amazing when you are forced to stare death in the face, how life changes and we will never be the same!

P.S.S.S If you are on Twitter, you know that I love Paperclipping Roundtable!!  They are looking for an “average scrapper” (someone not in the industry) to join them for a discussion!  You can find out more about it here as well as subscribe and listen to the podcasts.  Read the instructions carefully and give it a shot!!  I would love for one of our readers to be on the show!! ***Today is the LAST day***