Friendship Swap

I recently attended the Club Scrap Retreat (see Paul and me wearing cowboy hats!), and about 50 of us signed up to swap pages about ourselves. It's a great way to learn more about each other, and have a lasting memory of the friendships formed through scrapbooking and crafting together. I decided this year to make my books from the kit made especially for the Retreat. This year, it was called Bandanarama. Although it technically has a country-western theme, the colors and designs are completely adaptable to any project you have in mind. I love the post-bound album I created. The colors are rich, and lots of fun. This is a great memory of the weekend, and something that I will really enjoy.

My page for the swap is below. One photo is from our trip to England, while the other is from our snowshoeing adventure earlier in the year. I love pictures of me on snowshoes for some reason!

We also swapped "twinchies," or two inch square pieces of art. I decided to put these in little pockets, so I could pull them out of the pocket to see the text on the back. Most of the ladies wrote their name on the back. My twinchie is in the upper left corner, and uses a really cool herringbone technique that everyone at Club Scrap has gone cuckoo over. This is the cover page for the second album.

I don't often do swaps, but I love doing these swaps for retreat. It's nice to have so many memories, and learn more about all of my Club Scrap friends. It's really touching that so many of us took the time to share a bit of ourselves with each other.

Craft show season starts

This weekend I began my craft show season at the Bluffs. I don't do many shows in the summer, since I work with paper and don't have a tent. Also, even with a tent, cards don't stay on tables too well in the wind!

It was nice to see some familiar faces and meet some new folks. If you're looking for me this season, I'll be at the November 14th show in Chassell at the school on 41. The show is 10am - 3pm.

If you'd like to get notified when I have a show, drop me a line at liftbridge@charter.net to get added to my mailing list, follow me on Twitter (liftbridgecards), or become my "friend" on Facebook. I promise on Twitter and Facebook not to let you know every time I make a sandwich!

Have a great week!

Thank you!

I had the privilege of working on a project for a dear friend. They just dedicated a new space at the university, and wanted to thank the donors. There are many people impacted by the donation, so I came up with the idea of a book (what else!). The book itself is a standard hand-stitched book for me with a pocket page in the back for some photos.

Inside the book, I cut pieces of light grey cardstock so that they could be signed by all of the people, and matted in interesting ways inside.

The cover uses a herringbone technique I learned from Club Scrap. These are the same colors that are used in the book as mat colors, so it was a nice way to bring the inside outside. This is a fantastic technique to use up small scraps. I coated the end product with some bookbinder glue (watered down a bit) to give the final piece a bit of stability and sheen.

The papers are from the Science, Music, and Mosaic Twist collections from Club Scrap. I'm running low on all of these papers, so I have to choose my projects carefully!

The resulting book was stuffed! But, it will stand easily on its own! I also made a coordinating box to go with the book. All in all, a very rewarding project.

Wine for newlyweds

I went to a cousin's wedding this weekend, and she was a beautiful bride. It made me think back to our wedding, and all of the thoughtful presents we received from our friends - some on our registry, and some not. We noticed that they had wine glasses on their registry, and so we took that as a starting point to assemble our package.

To start, I made them a handmade book with a wine theme. The book is hand-stitched, and includes beads on the spine. I had some special charms of wine bottles that I'd been saving for a book like this. The papers are from Club Scrap (solids), and Karen Foster Design (wine patterned). I hope they use this book to store memories of good evenings together - perhaps with a bottle of wine!

We also found some great wine and beer glasses for them. To make sure they had something to fill the glasses, we took a selection of wines from our collection. Some were made by my husband who is really into home brewing wines and beer.

To finish it off, the Club Scrap wedding collection provided the perfect backdrop for a card. The embossed "love" and "honor" parts are integrated into the paper. The silver panel was made by printing out the words, and since it was vellum, it was easy to stamp the silver heart in the middle and emboss it. It's very simple, and elegant, and I'm really happy with how it turned out.

Spinning around

This is the third book I was going to exhibit at the Great Lakes Art Showcase. The show was cancelled, but should be on again next year!

This piece is a hand-stitched book with beading on the spine. All of the materials are from Club Scrap. The inspiration was the art on the cover. I used a spin art machine, and some techniques I learned at Club Scrap's annual retreat. Spin art just isn't for kids - you can create some really great effects, but of course, they are all random. This piece was made with dye inks on a porous paper. I spent a whole day playing, and created a lot of different pieces. Some were masterpieces, and some were not. You can use alcohol inks, mists, and a variety of different papers and materials. Basically, if you can spin it, try it out!

I may not be as active for a few weeks. It's time for a holiday. I do have plans to visit a bookbinding shop on vacation, so I'll definitely be sharing any inspiration I get from my holiday!

Enjoy the summer!