The Last of the Ancestors

It's time for me to finish playing with cartes de visites and move on to other projects. Here's the last of the family....(The photos are kind of washed out so you may need to click on them to get a good view.)
Claudette was a timeless beauty.

No one was surprised when Henry ran off to join the circus.

Divorce was not an option in those days. George was painfully aware.

Ernestine was an avid reader. Her books took her to wonderful places.

I'll soon be blending families when I create cartes de visite books for the 10 of us participating in this fun collaborative!

Meet A Few More of the Family

From the time she was a tiny baby, everyone knew there was something very special about Edwina.

Some thought Uncle Harold took his cigar smoking much too seriously.

Hope those brought a smile to your face! Here's a little something I thought might make that smile a little bigger.
My friend Riki is having a giveaway, and an amazing giveaway at that.
Click HERE to visit her beautiful blog and enter for a chance to win one of her fabulous workshops!

Another Ancestor for the Books

Cousin Jeanette saw her good-for-nothing husband Ralph much differently than the rest of the family.....

An Old New Ancestor

I've started altering some carte de visites for our upcoming collaborative book project.

Meet Aunt Mary..she loved her garden....
She'll be added to someone's "family" album soon.

Alter Those Ancestors Blogiversary & Give-Away

As much as I appreciate the simple beauty of those photographs from days gone by, I also can't resist "making them my own."
I especially enjoy CDV's , or cartes de visites. Carte de visite photographs are small prints mounted on thick boards that were wildly popular in the late 1800's. Part of their popularity was their size (2&1/2"x4") and durability. Some of the same reasons I like them so much today. They're one of the few collectibles (and I have many) that take little space. Altering them is fun too, about the same size as an atc.


I achieved this transformation by first using tracing paper to mask those portions of the photo I didn't want painted or inked.



Using gouache paint, I colored the background, then stamped using various stamps on the dried paint. Embellishments included collage images and dresden trim.








In an old Yahoo group (now defunct) we made collaborative books with our altered cdv's.


This gorgeous cover of my book was created by Sharon McAllister, from the UK.

Doesn't this look like fun? And if you've never attempted altered art before, this is a great starter canvas. So in honor of my one month blogiversary I'd like to host a giveaway. Do one simple thing to enter: become a vintage dragonfly follower! If you'd like to leave a comment, please do. I appreciate the feedback.


I will happily send the winner (selected by random.org on May 20th) the 4 cdv's, flowers, scrabble tiles, lace, vintage seam binding and ribbon pictured above.

I have some additional cdv's listed in my Etsy shop, linked on my sidebar.
Good Luck and thanks so much for taking the time to check out my blog.