Over the weekend, I made this decorate plate to mark my parents’ wedding anniversary. (They were married on April 4, 1943.) They have been gone for years, but working with old photos of them gives me a way to still celebrate. So this project really started with a picture of my parents taken sometime in the 1950s.* The original photo showed my parents sitting around a table with my grandmother and my aunt and uncle. Everyone look great, but my mom had blinked when the flash went off and her eyes were nearly closed — probably why I hadn’t seen the photo displayed anywhere. So a few years ago (in 2008) I cropped a closeup of my parents out of the original. I did some basic retouching and then used Painter’s digital pastel to draw into the photo and open my mom’s eyes a bit. I put in some subtle color: sepia, cream and pink colors. Here is how it looked when I was finished:

I have been meaning to use this image to make a decorative plate. This past weekend, I finally had a chance to work on it. I cut the photo image to fit the inner circle of the plate, then used collage to attach the photo to the plate. I used dark brown tissue paper to create the border. I sealed everything with acrylic so the image won’t fade.

I love this picture of my parents and I have also used it to make a pendant:

Old photos and keepsakes can be such a good way to keep memories alive.  If you have a photo that you would like to rescue or a memory you would like to celebrate, we would love to help you.!

*(The photographer was probably my uncle, Ike Fitterman, a professional photography who took lots of family pictures.)