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Get Inspired! 8 Last-Minute Holiday Heritage Craft Ideas
Looking for last-minute holiday heritage craft inspiration for over the holidays? Here’s a round-up of some of my favorite heritage and holiday crafts made by myself and Gems listeners. These are fantastic conversation starters that will delight your family members and tell the unique stories of your ancestors. The look great on display and can be customized for just about any holiday or occasion. Make a gift for yourself or someone you love!
Heritage Christmas Stocking
1. Watch this 2-part video series on my YouTube channel about how I created a homemade stocking that celebrates all the moms who came before me. It’s a crazy quilt design with embroidery and photos I transferred to fabric.
Here’s a handout with instructions.
Heritage-Themed Jewelry
There are SO many wonderful ways to wear our family history. Click below to see examples and instructions for each of these three ideas:
2. A single clip-on earring becomes a hair tie.
3. A pendant necklace featuring an old postage stamp references my family history.
4. A charm bracelet made with tiny framed photos of loved one.
If you like family history themed jewelry but don’t have the means to craft it, check out our brand new line of hand-made family history inspired jewelry. Order one today for the genealogist in your life (makes a great stocking stuffer!).
Heritage Christmas Ornaments
5. A picture frame ornament has black and white photos inserted in the openings of small wooden craft frames. The frames are painted frames silver and hung with simple metallic twine.
6. The gorgeous ornament shown here, made by professional genealogist Amy Urman, was featured in Genealogy Gems Premium podcast episode 15 (Premium website membership required to access–but you can look at it here for free!). Amy takes old glass and crystal and scrapbooking paper and solder and creates these one-of-a-kind holiday tributes to her ancestors.
Heritage Calendar
7. Ring in the new year by making a calendar packed with family photos and even birthdays, anniversaries or other family celebrations. This was another great idea sent in by one of our listeners!
Holiday Heritage Wreath
8. You can make a family history-themed wreath with tiny photos of loved ones intertwined in the branches so that the faces of your loved ones can be part of your holiday celebrations. Click on the link above to see inspiring photos and find a link to a 4-part video tutorial.
More Holiday Heritage Craft Ideas from Genealogy Gems
- Lisa Louise Cooke’s Pinterest Board: Family History Craft Projects
- Premium eLearning Video: Inspiring Ways to Capture the Non-Genealogists in Your Life. See handout on page 268 of the Premium eLearning Companion Guide.
- Heritage Stocking Stuffer: Sweet Memories Candy Bar
How to Print Merged Images in Evernote
Need a better understanding of how to print merged Images in Evernote? Here’s a Q&A from a reader.
Recently I heard from Joe, who was trying to merge screen clips into a single image and note. He found that after he merged the screen clips, “the merged clips appear as one note on the screen. However, when I try to print or save the merged note, only the portion under the cursor is printed or saved. For example, after I right clicked on this obit to ‘Save as,’ only the top or bottom part was saved to another directory on my PC.
How can I make the vertical bar on the right encompass ALL of the merged clips, rather than just one of them, depending on where the cursor is located? Here is an example of my problem. When I print the obit, a small, top portion prints on page 1, then the large, bottom portion prints on page 2. Thanks in advance for your help!”
Here’s how merged images work in Evernote:
Joe clipped the item in pieces. Each piece is an image, and each piece saved as a separate note. Then he merged them all together. “Merge” means they were all put in one note, but it doesn’t mean the separate images were actually stitched together to make one single image.
The end result is multiple images in one note. That’s why when Joe goes to print, Evernote prints each image on one page. Of course, he can always preview how the printing will come out.
How to Print Merged Images in Evernote in a continuous format:
1. After merging the notes into one, click the Share button at the top of the note, and click “Share Note.” This will copy the URL for that note to your computer’s clipboard.
2. Go to you web browser and Paste the URL into the address field
3. With the entire note on your screen, use the Evernote Web Browser clipper to “Clip > Full Page.” This will create a new note with the entire obit in one image.
You can see the difference when you go to File > Print Preview in Evernote for the merged note and then the full page note. The merged note is broken up and the full page note is more continuous like the original obit, and likely over fewer pages. It’s an extra step, but should do the job if you really need the item to be reinstated as one image.
Whenever possible clip items from the web using the web browser clipper’s Full Page, or Article feature. It can capture what’s on the page even further down where you can’t see. (The exception would be items that appear in special “viewers” which is how sites like Ancestry display their images. In that case you need to use the Screenshot feature and clip what you can see on the screen, and then move down and clip the next portion separately.)
Thanks to Joe for his question!
Genealogy Gems: Your Ultimate Evernote Education
Thousands of genealogists use Evernote to keep track of their family history. Because everyone learns differently, I’ve created a variety of helpful resources in video, audio, print and online formats. The Evernote app and software are free to use–and so are many of my tutorials. Click here to learn (for free) how to get started in Evernote and how to access the ultimate Evernote education for genealogists!
Is that Memory Real? Understanding Relatives with Dementia and Memory Loss
“Old Memories,” by H. Bullock Webster, 1881, via Wikimedia Commons.
When a loved one suffers from dementia or Alzheimer’s, it can be difficult to gather their memories–or to understand how “real” the memories are. Lisa gathered some great advice from an expert!
Many of us have (or will have) loved ones who Alzheimer’s or dementia and memory loss. When they start to become memory-impaired, can we still gather and preserve any of their memories?
Lisa Louise Cooke posed this question in a special interview with Kathy Hawkins, a therapist and Master Trainer with Timeslips Creative Storytelling. Kathy explains that it depends on how advanced their condition is. Meanwhile, we can definitely do some things to improve the experience of asking memory-impaired loved ones about the past. For example:
- When asking questions about the past, don’t use the phrase, “Do you remember?”Ask instead questions like “who, what, where,”….etc. People may shut down when they feel like they’re being given a memory test. So don’t put that kind of pressure on them.
- Your tone of voice and overall approach are so important. Don’t be sing-songy or condescending. Treat them like an adult.
- The emotional integrity of someone’s story is still often intact, even with memory-impairment. Meaning, the emotion attached to a memory or a person will likely be real. But the chronology or details may get confused with other similar events that were also true. Whenever possible, verify facts (especially dates) with other sources.
- Don’t make every conversation (or even most of them) about what they remember (or don’t). Be interested in who they are now: their thoughts and creativity.
You can listen to Lisa’s entire interview with Kathy Hawkins in the free Genealogy Gems Podcast episode 186. Kathy also shared some information about the organization she works with, Timeslips Creative Storytelling. Click here to see a pdf with some creative storytelling and arts materials created by TimeSlips.
More Family Memories Tips from Genealogy Gems
- How to Interview Your Family. Listen to a free interview with an expert in the Family History: Genealogy Made Easy step-by-step podcast series.
- Publish a Q&A with a Relative (Transcribed Oral History Interview)
- How to Reconstruct Early Childhood Memories and Stories
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Sunny Morton
Sunny Morton, Contributing Editor. Her voice is often heard on the Genealogy Gems Podcast. She’s known for her expertise on the world’s biggest family history websites (she’s the author of Genealogy Giants: Comparing the 4 Major Websites); writing personal and family histories (Story of My Life: A Workbook for Preserving Your Legacy); and sharing her latest favorite reads for the Genealogy Gems Book Club.
