Where I'm From...

We have a challenge on our Obsessed Scrappers United boards..to go to this site and create a LO using the questions about where I am from. This was based on a poem by George Ella Lyons called "Where I'm From." It took quite awhile to come up with my words & the LO followed easily. I used paper from July's Club Scrap Jr. kit....it fit the theme beautifully!!

Where I'm From

I am from cool saltwater breezes, from shells, starfish & clams, from a Voit wetsuit for skiing over the sound, long sunny days & cold winter nights.

I am from a home built by my parents & added onto when I was born, from beautiful “mother-tended” gardens, from a shop full of tools & smells of creativity.

I am from wild blackberries, thimbleberries, nettles, elderberry trees, Fireweed, Indian Paint Brush & from the sweet scent of Sweet Peas & colorful, sweet blossoms of Nasturtiums.

I am from family gatherings reuniting souls each summer & loving, caring, closely knit kin, from George & Ruth, from Andrews & Loomis.

I am from the honest & hard-working, music lovers & the curious, from the artistic & creative.

From wait ½ hour after lunch before you can go swimming & is your homework done.

I am from solid & quiet Presbyterians, from the huge brick building & a Sunday School teacher I loved. I am from red-doored Episcopalians & a small church in Port Townsend.

I am from the Pacific NW, third generation, from pioneer stock. The ocean, sound, lakes & rivers run through my veins. From grilled & smoked salmon, butter clams, shrimp, Dungeness crab, sweet corn from grandpa’s garden.

From hardy Yankee stock in Maine who came west in the 1840s, returned to the east to fight in the Civil War, & came west again to homestead in Washington Territory, from a guitar playing dairy farmer & an Irish lass turned school teacher. From a dairy farmer’s son & a brick mason’s daughter – country & city united, strong, dedicated, hard-working men & women.

I am from photos lovingly scrapped from the 1800s to today, from a genealogy written in 1700s Ireland, tatted lace, crewel pictures, hand-made dresses, a hand-hewn shingle from a barn long gone, silver from a generation that lived in a castle & were landed gentry, my paternal grandfather’s guitar that I never heard him play, the letters from cousins in England during WWII, & the stories passed down from generation to generation to those who still love to hear them.

Fruit of the Spirit - Love

Sorry the picture is a little off center. Hopefully you can see it just fine. Prima flowers & butterfly. I really enjoyed putting this one together.


Yeah, I know I've done two for Love - but the spirit moved me to do so! I'm working on Peace & Patience now.

The Fruit of the Spirit is JOY

OK, so now I am caught up through last week. I've been doing the Bible study, I just haven't had time to do the LOs to go with it ;) Anyway, the center of each flower has a word or two about joy: laugh, heaven, happiness, have fun, care deeply, delight, etc. And, of course, my dove.

March telephone scraplift...

So, the thing is, you are emailed a layout & you have to look at it & then create your own LO. I was last on this 3 person team & this is what I came up with.


The Thickers were the wrong color, so I used some Making Memories Red paint and painted them!!

I hadn't scrapped too much from 9-11 and these pictures from the flower memorial at the Seattle Center seemed to pop up and spoke to me. So I created a "Seattle Remembers" LO showing the pictures I took when we went down to put flowers at the International Fountain. There were thousands of flowers and it was a beautiful day to go and say a prayer and remember.

The Fruit of the Sprit is - Love

A little late - this is last week's Bible Study. The Fruit of the Spirit is love.

Fruit of the Spirit

I finally finished it. The introduction page for my Scripture Scrappers Bible Study. We are starting with the "Fruit of the Spirit."

I knew what I wanted to do, but as with all my LOs - it became an ever-changing piece of work. My first thought was to have grape vines hanging over a stone wall. Then I thought about the tree of life. Then I remembered a beautiful piece of printed vellum I've had forever.

So, I sketched out a curved stone arch, drew some grapes and vines over the top, drew in a tree, etc.


Then I gathered my materials....well, sometimes your materials can lead you in a different direction... I found some Prima roses. I decided on paper piecing, so I cut out my tree, punched my leaves, cut out the stones for the arch and then decided punching out little round purple pieces and trying to make grapes was not what I wanted to do. So below is the final outcome.

I used the paper piecing for the tree, stone arch. I painted a vine and leaves on the left side and placed Prima roses. I found some cute stickers of God's creatures and tucked them in here & there and used stickers for the title - "Fruit of the Spirit." Then, I cut out the inside of the arch, placed the garden print velum under it and attached it. I placed a white piece of card stock under the whole LO and placed the sticker of the stone house behind the velum.

Lastly, I placed the white dove on the page. That white dove will repeat on each page with the name of the fruit on it. So, below is the final LO - what do you think??

Felting

November & December kits from ScrapGoods uses the technique of felting. We received some templates to make a flower, but I wanted to see what I could do. So I made a blue bird with a red wing.

Here's the blue bird in progress:



And then making the wing:



And then the end product.




I decided I wanted a wispy tail & end of wing. It was fun. I really enjoy this technique, and am so happy I also got several other colors of wool. I'll sew a bead on for an eye and cut out a felt beak. Then I plan to felt a limb for it to sit on!!

The goddess within & other creations

OK, the quarterly ATC swap at aMUSEme. Two themes. GODDESS - must use your face on the card. I guess I went a little overboard, but is was fun adding all the glitz:



The second theme was UMBRELLAS. At first I was going to do a paper piecing of the Morten's Salt Girl with white micro beads flowing out of the salt box. Too many pieces and I was not happy with the results. Then I saw a lovely stamp online of a beautiful Victorian lady with a parasol over her head. I was going to put lace on the parasol & use Glittering H2Os on it. The stamp came & it was no where near the fine detail as was shown online..poor lady looked like she was possessed. So, I decided to do some more iris folding and got my pattern and folded 16 umbrellas:



No, I didn't put the gold seal & ribbon on mine......the hostess gave me an award for knocking her socks off!! The back of the card reads: The back of the card reads, "Congratulations! Your ATC has been chosen to receive the Hostess Choice Award for the aMUSEme UMBRELLAS ATC swap. This award is given to ONE swap participant for outstanding workmanship. Your ATC is EYE CANDY and knocked my socks off!"

Charming, just charming

I was fascinated with the charms that some ladies brought on the cruise to trade. So, when Jan said she would host a charm swap, I jumped right in..........never had made a charm before in my life, but I do make dangles for my tags. Then, at ScrapGoods, one of our members wanted to host a swap & I suggested... CHARMS!! She took me up on it and so here are the charms I have made for both swaps.

They look alike, but for one swap the wire is gold & for the other swap, the wire is red. I attached lobster clips before I mailed them off. Thank you for looking & enjoy.

My first acrylic album..

OK, so it takes me awhile to get my feet wet when a new technique shows up. We received acrylic albums in September 2007's ScrapGoods kit. Humm, I started saving embellies that would look good with 'see-through' albums and amassed quite a bit....I can collect with the best of them!!

Well, the weekend of June 7th the ScrapGoods design team held an online crop & had several classes & challenges. One of the challenges I took on was to create an acrylic book. I'd been thinking about this for awhile & wanted to do a book of my sister who passed away in 2000.

I took pictures of the inside pages before I attached any ribbons, just to make sure the pages showed up OK. I hope you enjoy seeing as much as I enjoyed making it.


My sister loved the poem "When I Am Old I Shall Wear Purple" - so that's the color combination I chose - purple & red.

When I am an old woman I shall wear purple
With a red hat that doesn't go, and doesn't suit me.
And I shall spend my pension on brandy and summer gloves
And satin sandals, and say we've no money for butter.
I shall sit down on the pavement when I'm tired
And gobble up samples in shops and press alarm bells
And run my stick along the public railings
And make up for the sobriety of my youth.
I shall go out in my slippers in the rain
And pick flowers in other people's gardens
And learn to spit.


You can wear terrible shirts and grow more fat
And eat three pounds of sausages at a go
Or only bread and pickles for a week
And hoard pens and pencils and beer mats and things in boxes.
But now we must have clothes that keep us dry
And pay our rent and not swear in the street
And set a good example for the children.
We must have friends to dinner and read the papers.


But maybe I ought to practice a little now?
So people who know me are not too shocked and surprised
When suddenly I am old, and start to wear purple.
~Jenny Jacobs ~

Marianne as a baby and about 3 years old.

Marianne at about 2 on the left. The poem is a Native American Prayer

I give you this one thought to keep -
I am with you still - I do not sleep.
I am a thousand winds that blow,
I am the diamond glints on snow,
I am the sunlight on ripened grain,
I am the gentle autumn rain.

When you awaken in the morning's hush,
I am the swift, uplifting rush
of quiet birds in circled flight.
I am the soft stars that shine at night.

Do not think of me as gone -
I am with you still - in each new dawn.

Marianne at about 5 years old.

Marianne & our cousin Barbara. The poem reads:

A life well-lived is a precious gift of hope, strength and grace
from someone who has made our world a brighter, better place.

It’s filled with moments sweet and sad, with smiles and sometimes tears,
with friendships formed and good times shared and laughter through the
years.

A life well-lived is a legacy of joy and pride and pleasure,
a loving, lasting memory our grateful hearts will treasure.

Marianne's high school graduation picture 1960.

Marianne's college picture about 1964. The poem on the other side of the page reads:

The tide recedes,
but leaves behind bright seashells on the sand.
The sun goes down,
but gentle warmth still lingers on the land.
The music stops,
and yet it echoes on in sweet refrains.
For ever joy that passes, something beautiful remains.

M.D. Hughes

My sister & I at two stages in our lives...when I was a baby sitting on her lap and in 1997 standing side by side.

The text below the picture reads:

Sisters share that unique & special relationship that combines friend and family - a bond that is at the same time supportive and enduring. The woman who shares her life with a sister is blessed.

And the last page with a quote:

Each life is a miracle that changes the world…
And leaves it a better place than it was before.

Travel Journal & ATC

I finished my Travel Journal last night & love the colors & beads & ribbon!!!

I decorated the inside pages with leftover rub-ons, travel stickers and such. Plenty of room for Tim Holtz to put his autograph :-)

I really like the elastic that holds the pages closed & the base for the journal only cost me $1.99 at Goodwill!!

So, this is where I'll journal the daily happenings and clip on ticket stubs & other bits of ephemera so I can remember the moments when I get back home & start scrappin' the fun. I'm hoping I can get DH to write in it, too...I think I can without twisting his arm too much!!

This is a picture of my Alaska ATC.

I used holographic wrapping paper for the background to look like the northern lights and a great picture of Denali.

I popped a tiny eagle - yes that is supposed to be an eagle!! And I cut out totem poles & popped them up on the card as well.

The title of the card is Dena'ina - The High One. Also known as Denali and Mt. Mckinley.

Music Fat Book

This is the Fat Book page I've created for my ScrapGoods swap. Instead of choosing a particular person or type of music, I chose to show two ways to enjoy the music - through an iPod & a CD.

I had fun making the iPod out of black foam board brads and a plastic slide mount. I downloaded pictures of the screen and controls and printed them out & attached them to the iPod. I hope everyone enjoys their personal iPod!!

I was able to use several different brad & charm letters to form the word 'MUSIC' on the edge of the treble clef. The treble clef was cut from specialty paper. I decorated the iPod with a bead dangle.

I have to finish the back with my explanation of what I did & then get them sent off to the hostess - but I'll wait awhile for that..they aren't due until Auguse ;-)

Biggie Paper Clip swap

Just found this picture of a swap I did last year. We used biggie paper clips. One we had to make a flower & the other was whatever we wanted to so. So I make a paper rose & a bad hair day clip.

Rolling Pin Recipe swap

I'm in a swap in my aMUSEme group & we are making rolling pin recipes. Here's the front of mine...I just love black, red & white!!


And here is the recipe inside.


And the back, stamped with a stamp my friend Marjie made for me.

Shhhh, My secret sister mini-book swap

At SG, I am involved in a mini-book swap. We've decided to keep the person we are creating for a secret. But, I can post these pictures of the book I've created for her. This is the cover. She wanted a flexible binding so she could have a "lumpy" book. So, I chose ribbons.


The next two photos are a couple of the pages.


I also included a pocket to keep special stuff.

Fat Book

I joined a Fat Book swap at my LSS last spring. The theme was the letter "J." We each created our own cover and 12 identical pages - one for each participant. This is my cover: I wrapped gold embroidery thread around a letter "J" I made out of cardboard. I put "jewels" and other J items on the cover.




I chose Jellyfish & Jewels as my page. I covered the 6x6 chipboard with a piece of blue cellophane, then some yummy handmade paper with wonderful fiber in it and covered that with another piece of blue cellophane. The jellyfish bodies are pieces of glass (flat on one side & rounded on the other); the tentacles are beaded fringe. I attached a treasure chest filled with pearls & gold seed beads. The diver is an embossed stamp image on gray paper. The floor of the sea is torn sandpaper. There are real shells and other embellishments on the page.



This is a page done by another participant - she chose Junk as her page theme.



This participant chose Jumping Jack as her page theme. The Jumping Jack has movable arms & legs.


Now, why did I put this here?? Because I've joined an online Fat Book swap with my aMUSEme group. The book theme is Childhood Amusements...I have some ideas, but nothing has jelled yet, so I can't share with you what my page theme will be.

ATC Swap

These are the two ATCs I made for a Pennywise Arts swap. This first one was for the theme "Winter Wonderland." I used my Cuttlebug to emboss the paper with the snowflake and then swipped two different shades of blue across the embossing. I then covered the ATC with double-sided sticky tape and covered the ATC in diamond glitter. Then I stamped the snowman on a separate piece of paper; painted the nose & scarf; covered it with double-sided sticky tape and transparent glass micro beads. I then adhered the snowman to the snowflake card.




This next one was my interpretation of "Wise Men Still Seek Him." It's a trifold ATC. I used Glimmer Mist to create the blue backing. The wise men and mother & child are clip art. The mother & child are popped up from the card. The star has gold micro beads on it.

I was lucky enough to win the Hostess Choice Award for this card. I received a purple ribbon for it and the card below.

The back of the card reads, "Congratulations! You have received the Hostess Choice Award! For: Wise Men Still Seek Him. This award is given to ONE ATC swap participant for what I call 'EYE CANDY.' This could be based upon several things: composition, color, originality of design, etc., whatever happens to catch my eye and knock my socks off!" PWA ATC Swap Hostess