Thursday 30 June 2011

Vintage Geek Extraordinaire...What To Do With Vintage Photos?

My Great-Grandmother
I was looking through a box of old family photos the other night with my daughter. I knew I had a problem when I came across an old Christmas photo from the 70's, and my first thought was "Is that a Malibu Barbie..?? What the heck would THAT be worth today??" Then we got to the truly amazing photos. My Grandfather was born in Germany, and came to Canada in the 1930's. The photo on the top is my Great-Grandmother, who died in 1907, so the photo would date around the 1900's. My Grandfather was notorious for GLUING photos into albums (he didn't trust those vintage black triangles), so many of my photos have black paper stuck to the backs, making it hard to read any dates that may have been printed, but every once in awhile you come across a hint of my Grandfather's writing, and you can make out a date.
Grandad and his Harley - circa 1920's

There are some dated in the late 1920's, when my Grandfather had a Harley (!!), some beautiful family portraits, and a large array of wedding portraits, all from the 1920's through the 1930's. I've been researching how best to display them, and came across some great ideas. One in particular is to display them in vintage glass bottles. I like the look of this, but the thought of curling these priceless family treasures hurts.

Germany - around the early 1920's or earlier
Another interesting idea would be to scan and print the photos onto photo transfer paper (you can find this at craft/office supply stores), and then simply iron the images onto fabric or a quilt. Space them out evenly over the whole quilt, and then simply trim the edges and the spaces between the pictures with matching ribbon. You could use this as an actual quilt, or even as a wall hanging.

I finally decided to just invest in some good quality vintage frames, being such a traditionalist ; )


Available on Etsy - NOT family ; )
Available on Bonanza
Also on Bonanza!

8 comments:

  1. Wonderful! Thank you so much for sharing your family and the love of history that we share :)
    Pam

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  2. I really appreciate the comment, thank you : ). I have so many more photos I'd like to share, this blog may have a Part 2!

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  3. Just a really great blog and you are doing so much on it . I honestly look forward to each new addition

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  4. That really means a lot to me, thank you : ). It's hard for me to share things, but I lke blogging quite a bit now, so who knows what you'll see next time ; )

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  5. Thanks for sharing these lovely photos of your family and I like the tips you shared on displaying them. I am like you I am more of a traditionalist and would put them in frames, but I really like the photo transfer and making a quilt or wall hanging...that would be quite a piece!

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  6. I really appreciate the comment, thank yo : ). I actually took some time this morning to look through all the other old photos I have, and I hope to add another blog to share them. I wish I could sew well enough to attempt that quilt!

    Jewel

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  7. Wow. You are so lucky to have such old pictures of your family!

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  8. Thank you : )...It always feels like Christmas when I look through them...lol...there's quite a few other ones I'll be posting...blogging is quite a fun experience

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