Our sweet river town of Petaluma, California is home to some pretty special movers & shakers, The Fabulous Women, who’s mission is this:
We are a local group dedicated to supporting meaningful causes. Our small nonprofit brings light and hope to families who are going through extraordinary hardship. We provide emotional and financial support to families facing various challenges. We strive to find positive messages in every situation that we encounter. Our group helps the community: Learn important lessons, Heal through difficult experiences, Find gratitude in their own lives, and Bring awareness to issues that impact the community as well as individuals.
Fabulous Women also raises awareness and donations for local organizations that provide positive resources for our community. Every cause that we champion gives us an opportunity to empower the next generation and model kindness through service and charity.
Each year they host Festival of Trees in downtown Petaluma, featuring upwards of fifty 4-foot Christmas trees, decorated by local businesses and individuals, to be auctioned off for charity. This will be my first year contributing and I’ll be handcrafting all of the ornaments for my tree.
I found an antique photo album loaded with cabinet card photographs from late 1800s at one of the vintage shops in town that was the inspiration for my first set of ornaments. I trimmed down full-page mats into individual frames and embellished as little assemblage art collages, then put back in the photos unharmed. The winning bidder can choose to replace any of those photos with their own family pictures if they wish through the slide-slot in the back of each. Please forgive the glue & ink fingers in video below.
Below are a baker’s dozen Antique Album Photo Ornaments that I completed today. I’ll be crafting additional smaller ornaments to add to the tree as well. Stay tuned for the final reveal at the end of November!






Cathe, these are magnificent. I can’t wait to see the tree in all its glory … albeit from afar xox
Love these!
Those are wonderful, it will be a great 🌲
OMG those are all SO WONDERFUL! I love everything you do – always so pretty and creative and unique. Love it!!
Beautiful!
Great idea to use for diffrent themes.
Can’t wait to see how it turns out.
Really good versions of newly minted ‘Victorian’ ornaments..or possibly even an Edwardian flavor in some of them, all evocative, and very thoughtfully done..bravo! I would buy a couple of these to add to my collection so well done…
Were there any names associated with the photographs and/or album?