Talking Talent

Betty Grable

I am amazed at the artistic talent some lucky people have. It is such a gift. I'm jealous really as I cannot draw to save my life. I got Grade E in A Level Art, one step short of F for fail! The interest was there, but definitely not the talent.

My Dad can draw. It was his hobby when he was young. So much so that when he was a teenager, an artist who lived in the village saw him drawing and asked his parents if they would allow him to train as an artist, but they refused. He continued with his hobby and the drawing above was one he did when he was 20 years old, so that would be in 1943. He drew a whole series of film stars of the day, but sadly, those drawings are now falling to pieces. Last week Karen and I decided to photograph them so that they can 'live' a bit longer. We sent Dad copies and he wrote straight back saying we 'had made his day'. Bless.

My sister inherited his artistic bent and became an Art teacher. She taught secondary school pupils for over twenty years before she retired due to ill health. She has been known to paint on Church walls - no, not Graffiti! - she was asked to do a Noah's Ark mural.

Zachary Quinto drawing

On my side of the family, artistic talent skipped a generation (me), and it is Karen who shows arty tendencies. She likes to draw, and like her Grandfather before her, she draws current film personalities. She will even draw while watching TV. Here is one she's just finished.
Much to her disgust, I don't really know who he is or what  films he's been in! She's just told me he's in Heroes on TV. What do I know?! 

Brighton Seafront Sculpture

Talking talent, does anyone know which artist created this sculpture on Brighton seafront? I would like to know. My photo captured the old couple sitting next to it and I think it's a nice shot, seeing them and the 'kissing couples' together. The sculpture is made from a sheet of metal with holes drilled in it to let the light through. Very simple but very effective I think.

If only....

My mother must be the only member of my family left for me to introduce.

This is one of the few 'old' photos I have of her. She's sitting on the steps of the cottage in Wavendon where she lived when newly married. My older sister Maureen is sitting on her knee. I don't know the exact date. Perhaps it was 1954 when Maureen was two years old.

Why don't I have any early photos of Mum? Because there are none.

She was born in Jarrow, County Durham. Her family was poor and apparently her father took part in the Hunger Marches from Jarrow to London in the late 20's and early 30's. Mum was orphaned when she was four by the death of both her parents; her Dad from alcohol-induced liver disease and her Mum from cancer. She was put into a childrens' home and was eventually adopted by a miner and his wife who didn't have children of their own.

After the war, Mum joined the Land Army and was sent to Woburn in Bedfordshire where she met my father who worked in an Ironmonger's Shop. One day she asked him to mend her bicycle and the rest, as they say, is history. I do have later photos of Mum, from her wedding day onwards.

Mum never talked about her past. I didn't even know she had a brother and sister until I was 10 years old! Everything I know about her younger days has been told me by my father. My own childhood memories of her are her quick temper (she chased my sister and I around the dining table with a leather belt if we were naughty) and the way she said whatever came into her head before thinking it through. The one piece of advice I remember her giving us children was, 'If you can't hit 'em, kick 'em!'- a legacy from her upbringing I guess.

Mum is 79 now and has Alzheimers Disease. She is deteriorating rapidly and cannot remember the names of family members who are alive, let alone those who have passed away. All her childhood memories are gone forever.

That's the main reason I scrapbook: to pass on the story of my family before it is forgotten, for my children to know where they came from, for them to have a record of their early years, and for them to know what makes me 'Me'.

If only I had asked Mum years ago all the questions I would dearly love to ask her now.

If only someone had recorded her family's story too.

Matchbook Instructions

As requested by Angie, here are the instructions to make a matchbook for your scrapbook pages.

The measurements above are the ones I used on my 'Jenni's Rules' layout http://cupboardcrafter.blogspot.com/2009/08/jennis-rules.html

Please note that the diagram is not drawn to scale.

Cut the rectangle cover (top diagram) 26.9cm x 10cm from cardstock.
Cut 5 rectangular pages (bottom diagram) 11.5cm x 9.5cm from cardstock.
Score the cover along the dotted lines at the intervals shown on the diagram. If you want to round all of the corners like I did, now is the time to do it before you assemble anything.

Gather the pages together and place in the 4mm fold of the cover. Fold up the bottom end of the cover. Using a piercing tool, make two holes for brads (indicated by circles on the diagram) but do not pierce through the back of the cover. Fold down the flap cover to enclose the pages. When tightening the brads allow a little room for the front flap to slip underneath and stay closed.
Once assembled, score each page just above the front cover flap (approx 2.5cm) so that each page can fold forwards to reveal the one behind. Now you can decorate the pages. There is plenty of room for thick embellishments, allowed for by the 1.5cm top cover fold.

You can alter the size of the matchbook, but the total number of pages and their size will determine the cover measurements. Using more pages will mean you need to enlarge the 4mm cover fold to fit them all in.

I hope you enjoy making this, it really is easy. I have to thank my daughter, Karen, who did the diagram on 'Paint Shop Pro' in under 5 minutes when I would have struggled to do it in a day! (She says I'm useless on the computer!).

Outside My Comfort Zone

It's funny sometimes that you're stuck for an idea, then inspiration hits you from an unexpected place!

I've been thinking about doing a layout called 'crafting too much', and sort of had the journaling I wanted to say ready.. but I didn't have a photo to use on the page and was therefore stuck about where to start.

Enter the T-shirt I'm wearing today. I like the applique flower detail (which is why I bought it in the first place) and I suddenly realised that the flowers are cut from a piece of striped material, very similar to a sheet of paper I have in my stash from Hot Off The Press .

Now I knew I wanted to use striped flowers on my page, and I just had to use up a sheet of white cardstock (from my American Crafts box of 60!) and I'm in a blue and brown phase at the moment. Things were starting to come together. I chose some bird stamps from Graphicus and a small flower from The Stamp Man and got to work.

Here is the resulting scrapbook page. I agonised over whether or not to put it up here for the reasons below, and I'm not sure the journaling is clear in the photo. Click on the image to make it larger.

This layout is way outside of my comfort zone!  It is actually a First!

I have never put together a page without a photo. I have never used white for the main page. I dislike my own handwriting, featuring it as little as possible, and this is the most handwritten journaling I have ever done. I just don't 'do' doodling on pages (too modern). I rarely stamp onto patterned paper..... I could go on about how difficult this layout was for me to make. But I won't.

I'll put it down to experience and file it in my 'Things We Do' scrapbook.

I hope you noticed that all the branches on the tree are not full. 

Obviously, I'm still not crafting enough!

Jenni's Rules

My older daughter, Jenni, is a scrapbooker like me.

I did this layout in 2006 when she was aged 16, and we both did our scrapping sat on the floor of the Lounge!

It's a tongue-in-cheek page about how she does her Scrapping and the main feature is a matchbook which I created to contain 'Jenni's Rules'. The book opens up and the pages fold forward to reveal her rules one by one:

Title Page - Rule Book

Rule One- spread out and make as much mess as possible

Rule Two - have the radio or TV on in the background

Rule Three - Have Fun!

Final Page - a photo of Jenni and the comment 'making memories'. 

This page is one of my favourites because it shows how alike we are, not just in looks (I'm a lot taller and wider!), but in our interests. She likes scrapbooking, reading and cooking, as do I. But she's far more outgoing and talkative! She's great fun to be around.

Jenni's off to University in September and we'll miss her.

By the way, if anyone's interested I can post the template measurements I used for the matchbook and how to assemble it. Just leave a comment below.

Recycled Frame

This picture frame now hangs on our bedroom wall. The photo doesn't really do it justice as it's textured and quite sparkly in the light. It is actually three long and narrow frames with three individual spaces within each one. I bought the frames many years ago and stapled them together, and it has hung untouched in my kitchen since then. There were seaside emblems stuck into each of the nine spaces - a ship's wheel, seashells, yachts etc. All blue and white. But it was looking old and tired and, as my bedroom needed 'something' on the wall, I recently decided to recycle it somehow. I didn't really think ahead to the end result before starting the project though!

Firstly, I painted the frame with two colours from the Tim Holtz Crackle Paint range and let it dry. Then I had to find some items to put in the nine separate frames, but there I drew a blank. I'm not an artist to draw small pictures, neither could I find any suitable nic-nacs to put into the holes.

But I do have lots of cards in a box waiting for suitable occasions to send them to people. So I sorted through my homemade cards and chose those that were 1. the right colours to look good in the bedroom, and 2. were unlikely to be sent to anyone anyway.

In other words, I used the cards I'm not particularly proud of.

Then I cut the back off each of the cards and arranged them a few times until I was happy. I adhered them in place, attached ribbons and hung the whole thing on the wall. I could have removed the sentiments, but it is what it is, a display of cards, so I left them on. Surprisingly, it really does 'lift' the bedroom and it's not immediately obvious what it's made of!

Result; a cheap and very personal piece of 'Art' that anyone could do without having to have any artistic talent. How about recycling an old photo frame in your home?

My Crafting Space

I like to be nosy and see where everyone else does their crafting, so today I thought it only fair to introduce you to my space.....

My very first post explained why I chose the name Cupboardcrafter for my Blog. Basically, I have to tidy everything away after each crafting session. Nothing can be left out. Not one thing. So my stash lives in boxes at the bottom of two double wardrobes. There's also my computer room (a glorified name for a broomcupboard) but there's very little space in there either as you can see from the photo above.

Looking South

Looking North

My crafting space is actually the Lounge. The table is a fold-away table which also manages to fit into the bottom of one of the wardrobes! My lovely daughters bought it for me as a Mother's Day present to replace the small wooden table I used to work on. The photos show my space looking very tidy, but I did that for your benefit - it's usually covered in paper and boxes and works in progress. I can never seem to find an item twice under all the stash!

I often bemoan the fact that I do not have a dedicated crafting space. I have to interrupt my crafting at a crucial moment and pack away for the night. Or I have to stay up late to finish the project. But there is one big advantage to this state of affairs. It saves money! 

Every craft purchase I make has to be thought about long and hard - do I have room to store it, can something I already have do the task for me, do I really need yet more scrapbook papers? The result is that I spend less money than I would if I had a proper space for working in and could buy at will -- that's what I tell myself anyway.

I'm off now to pack everything away. Sigh.

Just Playing

My computer room, despite painting it this weekend along with the hallway, is very bland. I have a pinboard with photos of family etc and all the desktop and printer paraphernalia (including the endless cables) on the floor and three shelves. I have room for a chair and not much else. My 'Computer Room' is actually a broomcupboard that I've taken over! But it sounds good to call it that.

It still needed brightening up after the painting. Something playful, colourful and cheap.

So this morning I made a plaque of sorts from my stash to stand on top of the pinboard. I had some Heidi Swapp chipboard letters and, of course, papers, ribbons and brads in my stash. I wrote on some of the paper (Hot Off The Press Vintage Papers), used distress ink on all the edges and played with brads and bows! The only other thing I had to do was strengthen the blue paper backing which I did by gluing two pieces of cardboard together, the type you find inside large transit envelopes. I save envelopes to re-use anyway so I had plenty to rummage through. It took a couple of hours to do and I enjoyed just playing around.

So here it is adding a bit of cheerfulness to my cupboard computer room. And there's a sneak preview of my crafting space in picture 1 - i.e. the table I use in my lounge.

That's also a clue to the subject of my next post!

Sizzix Giveaway

Sorry I've not posted for a while. I had a busy week at work last week and this weekend was spent painting the hallway. When you live in a townhouse there's a lot of hallway!!

However, I grabbed myself a bargain last week! A box of American Crafts 12x12 white cardstock - working out at 20p per sheet including the postage. I was very pleased with myself, but now I'm thinking, 'What on Earth do I do with all that card?' Hmm.

Well, I've a few Sizzix Sidekick items I have never used and will gladly give them away to someone. The catch is that I need you to use a sheet of 12x12 white cardstock as the starting point of a scrapbook layout and then comment here with a link to your Blog page. (I have 60 pages of white cardstock to use up so I need lots of ideas!)

The giveaway consists of a Christmas Tag embossing folder,Gift #4 die, pack of 5 Simple Impressions Folders, Jessie and Tucker die, and MacKenzie die. The last two are Me and My Big Ideas designs.

So, let me see what you can do to inspire me with basic white cardstock, and you could win all of the above.

I'll choose a winner on September 1st 2009 - so get scrappin!

Dream BIG

Thank you Anne for the items I won on your 'Pretty' Blog Giveaway recently. There were loads of things in the package when it arrived including an acetate photo-wrap with 'dream BIG' printed onto it. That item inspired this page.

My younger daughter, Karen, recently won an award from her college in Brighton. Unfortunately the only record of the event I have is a blurred photo of her with the award. This was one time when I had to use a single photo on a 12x12 layout! Also I needed a busy page to draw the eye away from studying the photo in too much detail!! Blue and brown are two of Karen's favourite colours, hence the choice of colour-scheme. I have hidden some journaling in the file folder beneath the photo, which says: 'You've applied to Bournemouth University to do a Media degree. Remember, the future belongs to those who believe in their dreams. Dream big.' I love including quotations and just had to use an appropriate one here as well.

This year has been an eventful one for Karen. She turned eighteen in February and a few days later took her first ever aeroplane flight -- to Los Angeles, USA -- on a college media trip (they never had school trips like that in my day).

Then in July she spent ten days at the Giffoni Film Festival near Salerno in Italy. She came back last week with 4 kilos of pasta in her suitcase, a gift from the host family she stayed with! Very much appreciated as  we love Italian food.

I'm not quite so jealous of her Italian trip as I went there myself years ago before I married. I visited Salerno, Rome and Pompeii. It is my ambition to return to Rome someday. It is truly a beautiful city, full of colour and history, and friendly Italians.

Arrivederci.