How to Make a Family Photo Collage

I have a nephew and his fiancee who are serving in the Air Force.  They have a photo wall of family members who also served in the military.  

So this year his Christmas present is framed photos of my father who served during the Korean War, my paternal grandfather who served in WWI and my maternal grandmother (Nana) who worked in the government city of Oak Ridge, TN during WWII. 

While the men's photos entailed just popping them into frames I found at Goodwill,  Nana's took a bit more work as it became a collage.

Another Goodwill frame, taken apart carefully to re-use the mat. 

I scanned original photos, cropped out Nana and put her in an oval border.  Then printed out draft images to play with positioning. 

When I had that right I printed out the photos on cardstock with the best resolution and attached the group shot behind the mat.  I put a matboard scrap in the mat cutout, placed the oval where I wanted it and traced the curved edge.  The scrap was cut out slightly smaller to fit behind the oval.  All was secured in place with crafter's tape which is only the sticky part of tape.

I printed out a name label, cut it out and glued to the mat, placed the note from Harry Truman and tacked it down with acid free glue.

Then I placed the 2 pins and pushed on them to mark where I needed to cut the holes.  The holes were just narrow slits that the pin backs could fit through.  The backing was just thin enough to let me slide a strip of cardstock through the pin back and tape it in place so I didn't have to glue the pins. 

Clean the glass well, assemble back in the frame and I used hot glue dots to hold it all in place.  Normally I use glazier points but the wood was too hard and I'm shipping this so not shifting inside the frame is a good thing.

The last step was a paper dust cover glued on the back and trimmed with a craft knife, a cardstock pocket was glued down on the sides and bottom and I printed out copies of the certificates Nana received for her work during WWII.

The government didn't tell anyone at Oak Ridge what they were building until it was all over, it was simply called the Manhattan Project - it was Atom Bomb which helped end the war.  At first she was in some type of munitions job, but because of health issues was moved to a position as a guard.  The photo is the group of women that served as guards of the 'City Behind the Fence'.

My grandfather was a fireman in Oak Ridge during that time and my mother was a teenager.  What a strange life it must have been.  The pictures of the houses look like FEMA houses.