Happy 100th Birthday

Yesterday my dear Aunt turned 100 years old. Awesome! Her children threw a large birthday party for her. She was very active in her church and much loved by all. It was so warm to see how many people care about her.

I was also thrilled to have a chance to visit with my cousins. I am the youngest cousin and even though I live rather close to many of them, I don't have a lot in common with them because of the age difference.

What most relatives said they remember about me was that I was the "shy one who sat in the corner and read books". That wasn't me!!!! That was my sister! I was the shy one that was always climbing trees or falling into fish ponds or digging in the dirt. At the time, my cousins were exciting teenagers and no one wanted to hang out with a shy little kid. Many were getting married around the time I was old enough to remember them. I always felt and still feel out of step with my relatives. But at least now I'm not as shy and am totally enjoying the fact that I look and feel a lot younger than any of them. Most of my cousins are grandparents or even great-grandparents. And I no longer climb trees or fall into fish ponds but I do still dig in dirt.

The one thing that many relatives responded to was a gift that I made for my Aunt. I created a small scrapbook using about a dozen photos that I had of her over the years. Note: everything, except for the photo developing, was free or thrifted.

For the cover I tea-stained some thrifted lace and used a piece of die cut Vintage Lace cut from old sheet music. I used my Silhouette to cut the typeface using a font on my computer.

For the flowers, I cut three Tattered Pinecones and created flowers instead of pinecone. Behind the flowers I hot-glued strips of real vintage 8mm movie film as ribbon.

For the inside pages, I did a variety of techniques to embellish each page. Because the album was spiral-bound, I could not include heavy or large 3-dimensional embellishments. On some pages I die cut the ends of the page using the Ornate On the Edge die to allow the paper on the next page to show through.

My relatives were so thrilled to see all of the photos. In fact, they were so thrilled that they have volunteered me and my first cousin once removed {my cousin's son} to be the family historians to document all of the family stories.

So I am no longer the "shy cousin sitting in the corner reading books" instead I have been promoted to the Family Historian. Actually this will be fun because I really like my cousin's son and we have a shared interest in our family's genealogy research. And I am probably closer in age to him than to his mother; my cousin.

This is linked to:
Between Naps on the Porch, Cherished Treasures, Crafts Keep Me Sane, DIY Home Sweet Home, Homemaker on a Dime, Making the World Cuter, Marvelously Messy, My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia, Rook No.17, Sew Can Do, Sugar Bee Crafts, Sumo's Sweet Stuff and The Southern Institute

Gifts From My Mother

Today I Created | A scrapbook page for my mother.

I had two goals in creating this scrapbook page; 1) incorporate two butterfly pins that had belonged to my mother and 2) experiment using a pleated paper technique.

I knew that I wanted to just attach the pins on the page. They are ornate so I didn't want to place them where they would look too fussy. From there I selected an old photo.

Next I cut two 1 1/2" x 12" strips of blue paper. I folded them into pleats and sewed them onto the paper. I tucked the photo behind the pleats and added a text box below.

I sprayed Glimmer Mist on a plain Prima Flower then attached an old button.

The headline came at the very end when I started writing in the text box. My mother encouraged my creativity and for that I thank her.

My new car scrapbook page

Today I Created | A scrapbook page of my new car.

The car was new when I bought it. It was rather exciting at the time.

I am an avid memorabilia-saver so I had the brochure and window sticker saved from when I purchased the vehicle. I included both documents in a protective sleeve.

Someday these car facts will be interesting to someone. Saving memorabilia is easy, it is knowing what to use and what to throw away that is challenging.

Laguna Seca Scrapbook Page

Today I Created | A stenciled scrapbook page.

I find that I enjoy the technique of Glimmer Mist spray. For this page I used a pre-cut diecut piece of paper as a full-page stencil. I used bits of doublesided tape to hold it on my page and then applied Glimmer Mist.

I knew that I was going to add the photo across the center so I concentrated the spray above and below where the photo would be placed.

The photo was created by using the Photomerge feature in Photoshop and "stitching" three photos together to create the panoramic shot.

Dreams do come true

Today I created | A memorable scrapbook page.

Ever since I learned about the Craft and Hobby Association trade shows, I had always dreamt of attending. It is open only to members of the craft industry and retailers. Then one day I began working in the craft industry and experienced my first CHA show. I thought it was the most exciting thing that could happen in my "scrapbooking" world.

Then earlier this year, I was invited to attend a dinner with Tim Holtz at Disneyland. Okay, so I thought this was the most exciting thing that could happen. Me, Tim and a handful of co-workers.

Well last month Tim stopped by our office. I had designed his catalog so he came by to take a look. He greeted me with a hug. I have to say, this has to be THE most exciting thing that could happen.

This scrapbook page has a photo of Tim, E.L. and me taken by Mario. My catalog is in front of us. I used the buttons and Rosette pieces I made. I included an envelope he had sent to me. Everything is slightly distressed including E.L. and me because we had been working so hard on his projects.

Good times! Happy Scrapper!

Birthday Layout

Today I created | A scrapbook page for my son's birthday.

I was going to make a birthday card but then I realized that I would just end up putting it on a scrapbook page. I decided to make a page that WAS the card.

Luckily my son is used to me scrapbooking everything so he will enjoy this as a card.

The photos are of the cars he has owned so far. Placing all of these photos on a page made it look like a car dealership lot. I added the flags just to play up the car lot theme. The flags spell out his name. The brown paper is printed with tire tread marks. The journal card has his birthday and month circled.

85th Belated Page

Today I created | A scrapbook page celebrating my father's 85th birthday.

My father passed several years ago so he never got to see this completed. I wanted to make the page bright and cheerful since he was such a warm and good person.

On the positive side: I finally completed this page.

On the negative side: I'm only six years behind in my scrapbooking. Well, that is if you don't count all of the heritage pages going back to the early 1900s that I still want to complete.

But today I created this page and I am thrilled.