Prickly Pear Scrapbooking Pages

Hello Blog Friends,

Last Thursday was our regular monthly scrapbooking night.  We made three 2-page layouts from Close To My Heart's Prickly Pear collection.  These are cute summer pages with a little cactus theme.  What do you think?

A Riddle for YOU:  What is Red and White and Black all-over?  Tune in for next week's post to find out!!

No Worries!

Greetings Blog Friends!

I thought I would share the pages I made last night at Scrapping Group.  Thanks to my daughter, Kristy, for the design and leading us through successfully.  

The paper is from Close To My Heart "No Worries" paper packet.  Tropical in theme, it will be perfect for Florida or Hawaii pics (yes, friends, thinking about a trip to our 50th state next year!).

Here are the pages:

Meanwhile, back to the sewing machine.  More Show and Tell next post....

Scrapbooking News

Hello Blog Friends,

Well, my sewing machine is still lonely, but I'm finally caught up around the house enough to get back to it this week.  I will definitely have a sewing report for you next post.  

What have I been doing, you ask?  Well, I've been trying to manage the eBay listings I have online right now.  I'm selling various and sundry, odds and ends, old and new.  Just downsizing.  So far, I'm doing fairly well.  It is a time consuming process, however...choose the item, research the item, photograph the item, create the listing, ship it when it sells.  Then, there is the paperwork and sales records to maintain.  On average I make a trip to the post office once a day or so.

I have been crafting a little, tho.  A welcome respite from all the eBay work.  We had our regular monthly scrapbooking class.  We made pages using Close to My Heart's Little Dreamer paper packet and accessories.  Here are the finished pages, ready for photos:

So this couple of hours of crafting has gotten my creative juices flowing again.  The eBay listings can now take care of themselves for awhile.  Susan needs to get crafting again!!

Til next post...

Last week...not a total loss!

Hello Blogger Friends,

Well, I'm happy to report that I'm feeling much better after my bout with the flu.  Still a lingering cough, but I'm able to function at full capacity.  

Our home is now all put back together and I'm smiling every day.  Love the new paint job.  We eliminated an accent wall, and now everything looks clean and bright.  

I found out late last week that our neighborhood rummage sale will be happening in 3 weeks.  So, I've been spending time this week going through kitchen cupboards, closets and other nooks and crannies, cleaning and clearing things out.  Many of the items that were on display above the cabinets in my kitchen and on the walls are not going back and/or not staying either.  The downsizing bug has hit me, and I've cleared out quite a bit already.  My eBay seller account is also getting a workout.

Unfortunately, all this activity has not left any time for sewing!  But, I was able to take advantage of some of the time (while painting was going on last week) to do some scrapping.  I'll be going on retreat next week, and my goal is to bring several projects up to date.  To help that idea along, I pre-made some base pages, 16 in all.  I'll admit they look a tad plain, but all that really is needed is photos, some embellishments, a little journaling, and voila, finished pages.  These are all for my Plays and Concerts book.  I'm doing the entire book in the same paper collection (Laughing Lola from Close to My Heart).  

Easter is this coming weekend, and it will be a quiet one, the girls and families all have other plans.  I'm hoping to reacquaint with the sewing machine and make progress on the UFOs pile.  

Until next post....

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?

Jeepers Creepers Pages

Hello Blog Friends,

This week I'd like to share some new pages I've made.  I was away on a scrapbooking retreat this past weekend.  Our entire monthly group was also there, so we combined the two events and made our October pages while at retreat.  

These pages are from Close to My Heart Jeepers Creepers paper packet.  All the papers are double sided, and several of them had definite Halloween themes.  This month, Kristy (my daughter and consultant) gave us a choice to do Halloween or non-Halloween pages.  I chose the "non".  Here's the results:

Well, I've been retired now about a month, and am starting to get into the groove of being home everyday.  My goal is to do some sort of crafting for a block of time everyday.  Tune in this weekend for a report on what I accomplished this week.  Wish me luck!

Till next time...

Calypso and Happy Times Pages

Hello again, Blog Friends!

As I mentioned in my last post, in the past month, I've created 6 (12 pages total) two-page scrapbooking layouts.  The scrapbooking group that I belong to meets once a month (currently at my house) and is led by my daughter, Kristy, who is a Close to My Heart consultant.  She designs the pages.  And, she gets dinner out of it, too!  Last week was meat loaf, baked potatoes, salad.

Here are the pages we made at the end of May.  These were made using the Calypso paper packet:

These pages were made just this past week, using the Happy Times paper packet, a special packet offered only in May for National Scrapbooking month.

My thanks once again to Kristy for creating some pretty awesome layouts.

Next time:  an update on sewing projects in process.  See you then!  

Penelope Pages

Hello Blog Friends,

I've been doing some spring cleaning lately, and very little sewing.  I have had a chance, however, to do a little scrapbooking with my monthly scrapping group.  Last week we made some pages using the Close to My Heart Penelope paper packet and accessories.  Here are the three 2-page layouts we made:

Meanwhile, I am working slowly on the pillowcase project, and next post will be a show and tell of pillowcase progress.

Till then...

Pinewood Derby Project

Hello Blog Friends!

I wanted to share the project I completed at the scrapping retreat I attended last weekend.  This is a 9" x 9" accordion book.  The front and back covers are attached with two additional pages.  There are 10 pages total, counting the outside and inside covers.  You 'read' the book, turning the pages to the right.  Because the covers and pages are connected, it becomes a continuous process.

Front cover

First two pages (inside)

Next two pages (inside)

Back cover

Last two pages (inside)

I'm very happy with how the book turned out.  I'm sure he will be, too.  One Christmas present down, but how many to go???

Quick and easy sewing projects are on deck.  More on that in the next post.

Till next time...

Halloween Pages

Hello Blog Friends!

My show-and-tell for this week is a set of three two-page layouts.  We had scrap group on Thursday and used the Nevermore paper packet from Close to My Heart.  Here are the layouts, all ready and waiting for photos:

More on those three quickie projects (that I mentioned last week) in next week's post.

Til then...

Pretty Pages

Hello Blog Friends,

This week I switched gears from sewing to scrapping.  Here is my newest set of pages, all that's left is photos!  These pages were made from papers and card stock from Close to My Heart Blossom collection.  Enjoy.

On deck:  A 9" x 13" covered baking dish, (2) wooden spoons, and this fabric.  

More on this new project next week.  Till then...