craftgrrl | First attempts at Pocket Shrines

I finally finished the pocket shrines I was making for my husband. And with not much time to spare. I finished them two days ago, wrapped them yesterday and gave them to him for Father's Day today.

The first one I'm showing is the second one I made:

This is the full outside, open.
The picture on the front is from one time we took our daughter to the park. There were those spinning letters, so he spelled out "Dad". As I was taking the picture, he stuck his face in the shot.

One the back is a portrait our 3 year old drew of Daddy, as well as her personal paint job (and an "I love you" heart I found thanks to google).

This is the inside.

I included pictures from this past March when we took a trip to PA, and a pic from the park a couple of weeks ago after our kid fell and scraped her knee up. He carried her all the way back to the car. A hero for sure.

For small details, I added little Superman cutouts, a Superdad cutout that I added to his shirt, a superdad pic at the bottom and shiny fabric paint around the edges and in the shape of hearts and thought bubbles.

The second shrine I'm posting is the first one I created and the one that I put most of the time and effort into. It took me about two weeks to make it since it was my first and I didn't have any idea what I was going to do with it.

It's a memory box for my father-in-law, who passed away this past March (the reason we were in PA).

outside, open:

on the front, I printed a picture of the flowers we gave his partner, which had a lovely symbolism which I've since forgotten... and also a Willow Tree brand angel figurine: Angel of Remembrance. He collected angels.

On the back was the poem which was on his memory cards at the wake.
"Afterglow"

inside:

He was a dressmaker. Once upon a time he had a shop. He called himself a seamstress. I included sewing images from one of his old patterns because it wouldn't have been complete without it. I added colorful beads because everything was bright and shiny with him.

I included the red velvet material because red was his favorite color. The angel wing was one of my old charms, but I added the red bead. That along with the feather are just more of the angel collection coming through. Everyone told us he was probably an angel in his own way now... so... yeah.

And the picture. It's one of the best pictures ever taken of him. He was always the life of the party, the centerpiece in any crowd. This picture (in the full version) was the statement: it's all about Fred. Because it always was. He was an amazing person, a cheerful giver, loving and so sweet, but his charm and wit always made him the center of attention.

I just rambled on, didn't I?

Well, I'm x-posting this to