90th BIRTHDAY FRAMED COLLAGE

In a couple of weeks, we'll be celebrating my grandmother's 90th birthday, and I put together this photo collage for her.  Actually, she probably won't care to look at photos of herself, but family and friends who attend the party will enjoy it.  Unfortunately, I don't have a lot of photos from the earlier years and some of these aren't that clear, but Stampin' Up!'s "My Digital Studio" worked like a dream cropping the photos without compromising the quality.  And trust me . . . some of these pictures were REALLY cropped to a tiny fraction of the original photo's size!  Since I couldn't get a borderless collage print, I decided to add the journaling, which was inspired by something my son said about mamaw several years ago when I asked how he'd describe her.  He said, "She's really nice, and she never gets mad."  Sooooo true!  I can't think of a time in my life when I ever saw her angry or heard her raise her voice.  How many people do you know who fit that description?  Finally, the frame.  When I saw it, I had to have it even though I had already purchased a frame for this project.  I couldn't figure out why this frame seemed so important . . . until I finished.  Mamaw has often talked about mountain trips she enjoyed and walking along creek beds.  That immediately came to mind when I stood back and studied the finished project.  The colors in the frame look so much like rocks in a creek (they even look wet!), tree trunks in the woods, leaves that have been lying on the ground for a while, and sticks that she may have picked up and tossed--or larger ones used to steady herself while walking through the woods.  Yes, this frame is perfect, and I now know why.  BTW, the ribbon on the frame is some that she gave to me!  I almost forgot to mention one design detail . . . because of the colors in the frame, I opted to use a mix of sepia and black and white tones for the photos, which I think ended up being a great choice!