VINTAGE CHRISTMAS CARD ALBUM x 3!

Hello Blog Friends,

As I mentioned in the last few posts, I made a Vintage Christmas Card Album not only for me, but as a gift for a friend.  In all, I made 3 such albums, each one unique to itself.  The two books with black covers are similar, using the same pages as bases.  The smaller, brown cover book is a slightly smaller size, and features both printed pages and clear pocket pages.   Each book also includes a title page, a dedication page (to Edna and Elmer, of course!) and a brief history of Edna and Elmer and how I found the cards.  Here is a photo of the three:

Some pages from the second book:

Some pages from the third (brown cover) book:

 This book also featured printed vellum pages.  "Christmas" is such a page.  The white area is a card mat adhered to the back side of the page.   The backside is shown below:

 Even after making three albums, I still had leftover cards.  I used them up by cutting some images and sentiments to fit into the clear pocket pages, like this one.

An example of the cute pre-printed pages in this book.

As you can see, all different and unique, as paper colors and page layouts were dependent on the cards.  This was such a fun project and I just love how they all turned out.  A nice respite from scrapbooking with photos!  Now to wait until next December to gift them at Christmas.

It is back to the sewing machine for me this week.  I'll give a report next post.  Till then...

Vintage Christmas Card Album - Thanks, Edna!

Hello Blog Friends,

Sorry I missed my post last week, but I was away on a scrapbooking retreat at the Crystal Bell Inn & Spa in Wabeno, Wisconsin.  The Bell is a beautiful Victorian mansion that caters to scrapping and quilting groups, as well as other guests.  Hosts Donna and Mike VerVoort are more than just proprietors, they are friends, too.  Comfy beds and great breakfasts, not to mention wonderful scrappin' buddies Courtney, Peg, Angie and Katie.  I had a productive and relaxing time.  

I took only one project to work on, and no photographs were involved.  Before I show you pictures, let me tell you a little story about it.  This is a story about a young woman named Edna Carolina Ida Klemp and her beau/husband Elmer Filter.  Edna was born in Black Creek in 1919 and moved to Cedarburg in the early 1940's to work as a nanny and housekeeper for owners of a mink farm.  She joined Immanuel Lutheran Church and was a member there until her death in 2003.  Edna worked throughout the war years until her marriage to Elmer in August of 1947.  Elmer Filter was also born in 1919 in Wisconsin.  He enlisted in the Army on Dec. 11, 1941, just four days after Pearl Harbor.  He was 21.  His enlistment term was for the duration of the war plus six months, so he was gone from home until early in 1946.  He spent some time in an Evac hospital, so he must have been wounded late in the war.  I believe Edna and Elmer met shortly after he returned home.  (I learned this history from Edna's online obit and Elmer's service record).  

Edna was a scrapbooker!  Shortly after Edna passed away, I visited an estate sale in Cedarburg.  I remember the house even today, where I found her scrapbooks of greeting cards she saved during her time in Cedarburg before she was married.  These cards were pasted into two scrapbooks and date from 1942 to 1947.  I bought them, removed the cards from the books, and have had them in storage for 13 years!   There are Christmas, birthday, Easter, Valentine, get well, and other misc. cards.   I always knew that I wanted to showcase them in a scrapbook, and I've been looking for the just the right papers for that purpose.  I finally found the perfect pages for the Christmas cards in Close to My Heart's Autumn seasonal catalog.   Card themes range from cute, patriotic, traditional and religious.  The preprinted "Happy Happy Christmas" pages are 7" wide by 8 1/2" long.  I added coordinating paper scraps from other kits, ribbon, stickers, and some rubber stamping.  The cards are 70+ years old, and the paper is fragile.  Each card is backed with acid-free cardstock, then added to the page.  Some pages were printed with holiday sayings and sentiments, and I left them as is.  The pages are not in protectors, so you can open each card and read the sentiment within.  Here are some pics of the results:

 I just loved this one.  I had to show you the inside.

 This is another of my favorites.

 This one is my absolute favorite.  It even had a piece of play money inside.  I hope Edna got the real thing for Christmas that year!

Greeting card makers just don't make these kind of cards anymore.  Most of the cards are 3" by 4" size, a few run a little larger.  I'm still looking for pages suitable for the rest of the cards.   

I just love the way this turned out.  Blog friends...what do you think?

Holidays 2015

Hello Blog Friends,

Yes, it has been a very long time since I've posted.  I have been very busy, as usual, with Christmas projects, and actually did complete one project for me!  More on this one later.

Here is the hand/home made lineup for this year:

 "Laundered Money".  An money origami/scrapping project for my brother in law.

 Bingo dauber bag for my daughter Kim.

Circle purse for my niece Heather.

Sock monkey pillow cases for nephew Kurt.

 Doll closet and doll dresses for granddaughters.  Husband Denis made the doll clothes closet.

Minion pillowcases for daughter Kerri.  Guess who loves Minions???

Another successful Christmas in the record books.  Till next time...

Merry Christmas!

Hello Blog Friends and Merry Christmas to you all!

The festivities here at our house have ceased, and all but a few gifts have been given.  We have yet to travel this coming weekend to Iron Mountain, MI for Christmas with Denis' brother and his family.

We live in split level home.  We have a living room upstairs, just off the dining room and kitchen, and a living room in our lower level also.  We have a large 6 ft. tree upstairs, and a 4 ft. tree downstairs.  Here is a picture of our upstairs tree:

And our downstairs tree:

Although you can't see the detail very well, our smaller tree is decorated with ornaments hand made by Denis' late mother, Stella.  She loved to do plastic canvas needlepoint in her later years.  We added some round balls in various colors to fill it in.  It is a very special tree, especially for Denis, as it keeps the spirit of his mother alive for him each year.

My dad loved jigsaw puzzles.  One of our holiday traditions when I was growing up was to have a jigsaw puzzle working over the holidays.  He always set up the card table and we'd all work on it over the course of the holiday season.  A number of years ago, I resurrected this tradition, and now we work a puzzle at Christmastime in memory and in honor of my Dad.  And, it is still done on his original card table.  It just wouldn't be right any other way.  Here is a picture of this year's puzzle: 

It was begun and completed on our family Christmas day held this past Saturday.

Although both Denis and I were busy with holiday shopping, baking and wrapping, we still found time to work on some holiday gifts.  More on those next post.





Again, Merry Christmas to you and your family!!