“Ancestral Frame”
Artwork by Vanessa Spencer
Photography by Vanessa Spencer

My inspiration for this project came from an old photograph of my great-grandmother on my mother’s side of the family. This worked so well with the 7gyspies ephemera!

Start with the rustic frame (5HT-110696). Take a copy of a vintage photograph and cut it down to size to fit onto the frame. Choose your ephemera 7gyspies ephemera pieces (5SG-11083) and some small ephemera pieces from the Bon Voyage collage sheet (5AR-M164) and cut out.

Distress the edges of your photograph and all the ephemera pieces with the edge distressing tool (5TO-370). Then on the photograph, use the scratching tool (5TO-373) to gently scratch the edges and corners. Once you have done that, lightly ink the edges of the photo with brown ink (5VS-000-054). This will make the scratched areas more obvious and give the photo more of a worn look. You can also ink the edges of all your ephemera pieces.

Weave a piece of Marquis Twill (5FF-44005) through the bottom edge of the frame. You can secure it to the left and right edges by placing a glue dot (5JV-MINI) on the back of the frame and gently attaching the ribbon.
Attach all the ephemera to the frame easily by inserting the pieces into the wire holders. Attach any extra vintage elements that coordinate with the project. I used some Melissa Frances Scrolls (5HH-CXAPPLIQUE), Cavallini miniature clothes pins (5CPCANOCLIPS) and some 7gypsies gaffer tape (5SG-17135).