Mary Jane Shoes...

Remember last month when I joined an April challenge for Letter Writing Month? We were assigned one special Blog Pal to correspond with. Well, I was super lucky and my special Blog Pal was exactly that...SPECIAL. I still have yet to meet this wonderful lady but I am thrilled to call her friend just from our correspondence. This Mary Jane Shoes scrappy book is something she made and sent to me on the final days of April.

I actually had tears when I opened the package and look through this wonderful handmade book. For someone I have yet to meet to take the time to view my entire blog and realize I am infatuated with Mary Jane shoes and then to honor me with this treasure is quite overwhelming. She took the time to print out the numerous photos I had posted showing Mary Jane shoes. I didn't even realize how many I had shown. These are my green suede ones.

This photo on the left is my newest black pair. The little red Mary Jane is my daughter's from when she was little and I still have this shoe. My grandma had the other one and it sadly has gotten lost through the passage of time and lives.

These two pages of the book show my Mary Jane stamp I am in love with. My wonderful Blog Pal took the time to embellish each page with so many happy and cheerful things like hearts, flowers, lace and buttons. I love them all.

She even took the time to research the history of Mary Jane shoes and include that with the photos. I am truly amazed at how much effort, time and care she put into this book of mine.

Fortunately my wonderful Blog Pal signed this treasure and I shall keep it close to me forever.

Hopefully we will get to meet in person as she does not live too far from me.

Thank you so much for your time and talents and thoughtfulness Miss Blog Pal. I am eternally grateful.

Scrapbook page or Tag keeper???

So I do not "scrapbook" as in the current terms however I certainly do my version of scrapbooking and always have. From the days of putting photos in an album and then having no text as to who or what is happening in the photos, to the horrible days of putting photos in those icky sticky photo albums which have long since ruined and eaten the photos, to the more current trend of designing and decorating the pages...oh and then maybe put a tiny photo on said page.

What you see here is utilizing scrapbook archival paper in the lovely shades of pink which not only represent girly but also cancer wellness in a generous 12" x 12" size. I needed to make some tags and thought why not make the scrapbook page to house the tags in also. I made six tags and kept the embellishments all fairly flat so the page would not be too bulky. Lots of butterflies, glitter, an angel, some lace, my favorite mary jane shoe stamp, princess ribbons and stickers.

I used another sheet of the scrapbook paper to cut strips and sewed them onto the base sheet. This gave me pockets in which to place the tags. Each tag can be removed to view and then replaced back in the pocket for keeping.

For Colette once again to cheer her in her battle against cancer. Think Pink and Health!!!

Once I started this project I just couldn't stop until I was satisfied with the cheer and smiles I hopefully sent along with it.

This is a part of a bigger project that Sherry at Country Wings is doing and I am so blessed to be a tiny part of it.

Do you have any ideas for Pink mailable items to send to Colette?

Scrapping...

I was working on this scrapbook when I got the call. Please, please can you do this Saturday?

Well, this was last Thursday afternoon and I just cannot say no. So last Saturday I spent my day at our local Chamber of Commerce Visitor Center as a volunteer to greet people and help them with what they might like to do in town or what they would like to eat for lunch or dinner. Unfortunately it was pouring rain...again. This is my third Saturday that it has rained and needless to say it makes for very few people visiting and walking around. I practically open the door for anyone even close to it so I can invite them inside.

Luckily I knew when I was going that it was raining so I went prepared for a lot of down time. I scooped up this mess of pictures, papers, tape gun and scrapbook and toted it along with me to the Chamber. As I had so few visitors I busied myself with sorting, ripping and taping all of this into my little book. I actually had more time than supplies to work on.

My little book is well on it's way to being up-to-date. It will never be complete as it is ongoing. I shall share additional pictures with you soon. It chronicles my girlfriend and I becoming and making "Saucy Chicks". It is so funny to look back over a few years and see what we were doing. The phrase "What were we thinking?!!" comes to mind.

I have some additional things to include in my little scrapbook. Then I will take some more photos to share with you.

Talk about UFO's! This is a major task just to get caught up on this one. It has been sitting well over a year and I did it in a day and a half thanks to rain.

Do you have any rainy day projects?

Creative Cue...

If you are looking for a weekly (or sporadic if you choose) creative challenge then I suggest you
check out this wonderful blog: http://threecreativestudios.com/blog/category/creative-cue/
Every Sunday they post a random word and then you can elect to participate or not. You can use any artistic medium you like to then interpret that week's cue word.
So I thought it might be fun. I began with a small 7" x 8" spiral scrapbook I had on the shelf. As you can see I decorated it.

Week one the word was EAST. Hmmm...one of many ideas came to my mind. However I decided that the sunrise in the East was the most promising for me as I do not prefer the dreary of Winter. So Sunrise to represent East it was.

Week two the word was HEEL. Well...I immediately thought of the high heel of a very sexy shoe only to see that Sue Bleiweiss http://suebleiweiss.com/blog of Three Creative Studios posted that exact thought and quite well I might say. I thought about heel for several days and this little puppy was the next best thing to a sexy high heel shoe.

Week three already and the word is TRACK. So...immediately I had to think of my good old Wilson Jones Columnar Pads that I used for so many years in my working days...Yes, before and during computers in the work place...to keep track of so many accounting and business functions.

I am having fun with this weekly Creative Cue challenge. Thank you to Sue, Teri and Vicki for being so creative.

I hope you check out this site and find some creative spark to expand your artwork.

What will you create?