Vintage Greeting Cards Gift Books

Greetings Blog Friends!

Another project I finished at my recent scrapbooking weekend was a pair of Vintage Greeting Card Gift Books.

The pages in the books are made from a chipboard base.  Each page has a different edge treatment on the right side and front and back cover have the same shape.  I covered each page with coordinating paper, added embellishments where necessary.  Just the back of each card is glued to the book, so all cards can be opened and read.  I used a length of organdy ribbon to keep the pages together in book form.  Because this is a small scale book, each greeting card is the centerpiece of each page.  

I used cards from my own personal stash for these books and all are unsigned.  There are a variety of themes, including Secret Pal, Get Well, Anniversary, Birthday, etc.  Each book also includes one card with a definite WWII theme.  These cards all date from the 1940's.

For the following book, I chose cards with children or children's illustrations.  The recipient of this book will be a penpal friend who has a collection of vintage children's books.

For this second book, I chose adult themes.  The recipient of this book will be a penpal friend who is more my age and is a scrapbooker.

Both books will be gifted out later this year for Christmas.  So, do I win the prize for having Christmas gifts completed in February?  

Speaking of Christmas, completed pages from Christmas 2018 are up next week.  Til then...

Vintage Greeting Card Book, Volume II

Greetings, Blog Friends,

I'm back from a very relaxing and productive scrapping weekend with girlfriends at our favorite B&B in northern Wisconsin.  Six of us braved the rain/sleet/snow and papercrafted like crazy while the weather raged outside.  We all completed projects and went home happy, relaxed and pretty proud of ourselves. 

I am happy to report that I completed 3 projects between Thursday afternoon and Saturday night.  

• Christmas 2018 pages.  Finished and in the album.  I'll share those with you in the next several weeks.  
• Small Vintage Greeting Card Gift Albums (two).  A smaller version of the book I describe below.  I'll share those with you in the next several weeks.
• Vintage Greeting Card Album, Volume II.  This album is a companion to Volume I book I made (at this same retreat in January, 2017).  See that post here.  Just as Volume I was dedicated to Christmas cards, Volume II is dedicated to birthday cards received.  Page size is , just big enough for one card on each page.  I used a set of preprinted base pages, some with pre-printed sentiments.  I embellished the pre-printed pages a small amount here and there to help them fit in to the rest of the book.  Here are some of my favorite pages:

This is the inside back cover.

Again, thank you Edna for your vision so many years ago.  I still have a large stack of get well cards and from other holidays and events.  I am planning two more albums with cards before the collection will be complete.

Until next time....

Stash Buster Mug Mats

Hello Blog Friends!

I have another stash-busting project to report on today.  I present to you...Mug Mats!  Pattern, pre-printed batting and inspirational statements were included in a kit by June Tailor and purchased from Connecting Threads.  These are Quilt As You Go mats with self-bindings.  I had a lot of fun choosing fabrics and sewing these up.  Each one took about an hour.

I made these for my Scrapping Sisters weekend (just completed).

For Bev (sister-in-law also), I chose the pinks and greens and cupcake theme statement because she has a sweet tooth.  "A balanced diet means a cupcake in each hand."

For Lori, I chose the irrepressible Minions with the statement "Always believe that something wonderful is about to happen" because Lori could use a little bit of wonderful about now, as she has just been through some interesting weeks dealing with a broken wrist. 

More of those lovable Minions for JoAnn and Deb.  For the world traveler Deb,  "Every day should be an adventure" and for JoAnn who babysits her grandkids with a happy heart, "Be the reason someone Smiles today"

A Packer themed mat for Maureen, who is a die-hard Packer fan with season tickets out in the elements.  "Make today so Awesome that yesterday gets Jealous"

A pretty floral for Sandy, the newest member of our group.  We are all looking forward to getting to know her better.  "Be your own kind of Beautiful"

And for myself, a sewing theme, of course.  "Dream...Inspire...Share...Smile...Believe...Create"

More from my scrapping weekend next time.  Till then...

Quilt Diary Pages Done!

Hello Blog Friends!

I'm happy to report that my Quilt Diary is caught up!  Once I got back into the scrapbooking groove, I was able to knock out the pages I needed in no time!  Here are some of my favorites:

Towne Square .  See original post here.

Corey's T-Shirt Quilt.  See original post here.

 Prairie Cupboard.  See original post here.

Minion Lunch Bag.  See original post here.

CAMPER Sweet Camper pillow.  See original post here.

NAP pillow.  See original post here.

Each project is always featured on a two-page layout (9" x 9").  Each layout features at lease one main photo of the project, sometimes others.  I also include a write up detailing the name of the project, pattern, fabrics used, date completed, owner, firsts (if any) and maker's comments.  I always try to add any fabric swatches because the photos never do the colors justice!  Sometimes I add fabrics as backgrounds to the photos and I also try to add photos of the item with the owner whenever possible.  I had no fabric swatches for the NAP pillow layout, so I chose instead to feature each owner with his unique pillow.

More fun sewing on smaller projects is in the queue.  Till next time...

Quilt Diary Catch-Up

Greetings Blog Friends,

Lurking behind the closed doors of one of my sewing cabinets was a project patiently waiting to be finished!!  Yes, another UFO.  Actually, this is an ongoing UFO of sorts...entries to the Quilt Diary.

Yes, I have a Quilt Diary. I started it in because I wanted to document my quilting journey in both words and pictures.  And since I am also a scrapper, I thought I would combine both crafts into a visual record of my work.  The diary uses a 9" x 9" double page layout for each project.  Photos, fabric swatches and a personal narrative are all included on each layout.   I've done a previous blog post about the diary, see it here.

I always have some leftover fabrics pieces from almost every project.  I save these bits and pieces to include in the Quilt Diary.  Much to my chagrin, I discovered that I have not made pages since last February or for any project completed in 2018!  So, here is the pile of leftovers...soon to be pages:

Switching gears to scrapping...

Till next time....