Thursday, September 17, 2009

May I Have a Card Please...

This is my latest endeavor: putting genealogy on playing cards. I have been wanting to do it for awhile, but just... well, had this great idea, and no direction.

Now, thanks to a M.L.M. aka Multi-Level Marketing company (yes, I acknowledge all your boos and hisses), I found a place that sells playing cards that you can put ANYTHING on. Well, one pic on the back of the deck, and anything you want on the front of the cards. I went to a Heritage Studio party (yes, again, boos and hisses), and saw the deck of cards that had a family reunion pic on the back. Cue light bulb above the head.

Instead of face cards with the four suits, I am doing four generations on each side of our family. I've never seen it done before, and I am so excited for my kids to get to know their heritage. Each family branch gets their own colored background; Dad's side - red, Mom's - yellow and their children(my siblings) get.... ORANGE! :D Because red+yellow=orange. Okay, maybe too kitschy, but you get the idea.

What you see is my Dad's "Grandpapa," with a pic of his business card. I still need to add something about him being a sailor. I know that he had tons of tattoos including one of a ship that covered his whole front torso. If the family asked, he would flex his pecs to make the ship's flag "wave." I'm just not sure that I would... be able to put that on there - but what teenager couldn't relate to THAT ancestor! And NO, you may NOT have a tattoo.

I'll put a hole punch in the corner and string them all to a clamp so that they don't get lost, and then let the kids look through them for church. Or maybe when we're waiting in line for something, or when I tell a story about one of the ancestors,

"Your Great-Great Gramma "Momps" said, 'If there are TWO jobs in this town, I will have one of them!'"

She taught herself how to run a printing press when they were low on funds. My kids should know that about their ancestors.

The surprise in all of this has been to trace family resemblances through the photos. I'm trying to get pics of each ancestor in about their 20s, so you can clearly see "that Danish forehead" in each succeeding generation. I'm adding a flag for country of origin, and toying with an outline of the country as well.

The scary thing is that this has never been done before, and I am worried that I will think of a better way to do it AFTER I've pushed "print." Fifteen bucks down the drain. So, if you have any ideas, post 'em, and if you want to do your own, here is my upline -who will give me free things for your business-: Heidi Arave, heidi@storiesthatlive.com 1.801.491.0966

Yes, yes, BOOO HISSSSSS. You don't have to do it. You can do what I first did and try printing your cards on paper and then taking it to the copy store to hard laminate it. You'll still spend the same. I'm just trying to make my genealogy look a little "classier" on a deck of face cards. Hmmm. I wonder if my staunch Mormon ancestors would approve of me putting their images on a face card. Too late now! And, no, you still may not get a tattoo. Grandpa was at sea when he did that and his mom wasn't there to say "NO!"

9 comments:

MMW said...

I'm always up for a good boo and hiss at others.

Therefore MLM = ???

fab idea BTW.

Danika said...

Very, very, very very cool! I love the idea. Please keep a copy of the info you gather for the back of the cards. I may want to duplicate this one when I have more time and money!

Meredith said...

what happens when you lose cards to the deck? I see a Back to the Future people being erased from existence conflict....

And seriously, you have time to plan stuff like this - don't you have poop to clean out of carpet somewhere?

Nicole said...

What a great idea! This could be a future Christmas Present in the making...

Unknown said...

Anyone who uses "kitschy" correctly has my attention :-) Good luck with your cards I'm sure they will be awesome.

Reggs said...

Yes, please print TWO sets, as this is genius!!

Erika said...

Very good idea! I will have to look more into it...hmmmm.

Danika said...

I was reading through the comments and thought, "I didn't already comment, did I?" Then I remembered you have a sister named Danika too! :) Ha ha!

Glad you got the project done - great idea!

PS - why is this blog post and all the comments showing up as Sept 17, 2009? Very strange! I went to look for it on your blog and it didn't show up on the top...I could only find it through your FB link...

Lisa said...

A W E S O M E!!! That was a TON of work! I can't wait to see them. Although, I feel like you should make color copies and laminate THOSE and punch holes in the copies.....these seem waaaaay too valuable to let the kids use, lose, and destroy! Put them in the safe!