Who out there remembers what ransom notes looked like before computers?

If you saw my last post, you might be thinking how odd that I know two people with children born in August whose names are almost exactly the same. Guess again! It's the same pendant...wrong spelling! The little pendant on the left looks sooo innocent, but in reality has cost three days of panic and a cut finger! It all started when a friend texted me while I was at work and asked if I could do the pendant....Of course! I said. I wrote the name "Delanie" on a note, but left it at work. I was more than a little rusty at stamping and messed up two (!) hearts! I finally had this one done (yippee!) when I realized I had stamped "Dalanie" ! Like an idiot, I texted my friend to verify the spelling, all the while HOPING that somewhere in the back of my mind this was supposed to be the correct spelling! She is a labor and delivery nurse who works nights...I should have taken into account that she's probably tired and there is a lot of adrenaline flowing at her work place...she texted back "Delaine"!!! What?!!??

Enter my precious husband who has been trying to help me learn to solder this week...I tell him I have an idea to fix it but it involves soldering the copper name to the pendant...will he help me? Never one NOT to show off his great abilities, he of course agrees...I knew he would ;0)...we change it to "Delaine" by stamping it on copper and cutting it out, then soldering the nameplate...We are both pretty impressed with ourselves...til yesterday evening when my friend realized her mistake and texted me...It is "Delanie" after all!! Now comes the really impressive part...with a little heat from the torch the copper nameplate will come off, then you can cool your metal (the heart) and start all over again! Sure beats ruining a 3rd sterling silver heart! I have to give my husband credit for this one!

I love mixed metals, so we hatched a plan to make the other pendant for his neices's birthday! I called it my ransom note style...My daughter-in-law just looked at me...kind of blank...I had to explain to her that before computers all the words in ransom notes had to be cut from magazines and newspapers, then glued to stationery so the kidnapper's handwriting couldn't be traced. (Geez, doesn't she watch old movies???)

I realized right then and there that when the next generation comes along, we'll probably have to explain what magazines and newspapers were!!! :() Ransom notes are a dying art! Understand, I am not promoting kidnapping just to keep ransom notes from fading into the past....Actually, it brings to mind the old classic story, "The Ransom of Red Chief"....she probably doesn't know about that either.....

P.S. Is there anyone out there who can give me pointers on how to photograph silver and have it look silver in the picture? I see this all the time...the silver looks like gold or brass! Hard enough to photograph it without a glare. I worked well into the night trying to edit the photo to make the silver be silver...obviously without much luck!