Preserving memories my way

My grandmother only knew how to make one kind of cake.

When I was very small, she kept me while my mother worked as a substitute teacher.  It was World War II and all the male teachers had been drafted.  These were long days for a three-year-old and I'm sure I was a burden for my grandmother as she went about her daily chores.  This house was in the country, so there was a garden to tend and eggs to gather. I would churn butter for her in a wooden churn that was nearly as tall as I was, and crawl under the house for her to help find eggs the chickens had laid.   But once in awhile she would make a cake.

My grandmother's cake was a yellow cake, with flour, baking powder I guess, one egg, and sugar. Her frosting was always a thin, crusty mixture of sugar and water, maybe an egg white, with pineapple chunks mixed in.  It was a very, very sweet cake.  But when she mixed the batter, she'd ask me to help stir in the mixing bowl, which was a large green crock.

My mother ended up with many of my grandmother's dishes, and when she herself went into a nursing home a few years before her death, I asked her if I could have that green crock.  It was far back in the cabinet in her kitchen, and although it had been occasionally used to make cornbread and such, it was not going to be used anymore. She said yes, so I took it to my home in Houston.

Somehow after it came into my possession, it got broken.  Sixty-five years of use, at least, and in my house it got broken!  I was heartsick.

I saved a piece of it, which amounted to half the bowl, vowing to do something with it one day.  I tried making a painting of it, but that wasn't really preserving it and I was terrified that the piece I had left would get broken or lost.  I hung onto it.

Now, years later, I have come up with the solution, and I am happy to share it here.

I mounted it on an 11x14 wooden frame, by pouring plaster of Paris around the base. I added some modeling paste on top of that, and when that dried, I added a leveling product to fill in cracks.  I thought of making it into a planter (and I still might) but for now, I cut a piece of styrofoam to fit inside for artificial flowers.

I was going to buy flowers from Michael's, then I remembered, hey, I can make them!   I wanted large ones.  I looked on YouTube for ideas, but the only large flowers anyone was talking about were HUGE flowers -- not what I meant by large.  I finally scanned one of my flowers from one of my favorite punches, enlarged it to the size I wanted and cut it on my Force in two colors of yellow.  In my studio I still had stamens and stems from flower making several years ago  (that's why I keep everything within reach!) and gradually remembered how I did it.  I avoided using the glue gun, and tried other ways of putting them together but I think it's going to take the glue gun after all because they don't stand up exactly the way I want.  And I may add some greenery.

The last thing to decide was how to finish the frame.  I decided I wanted the entire focus to be on the crock itself, so I painted the frame and the plaster background the same creamy color,  similar to buff titanium.  The flowers, in yellow, are just perfect for this project.

The wood frame, with the heavy crock and even heavier plaster, will be difficult to hang and a plain old picture hanger was not going to work so I settled on large eye-hooks and a chain for hanging.  I was going to add a wooden support across the bottom but I don't think it needs it. If this comes apart someday after I'm dead and gone, I hope my granddaughters will value this enough to fix it.  It wouldn't be difficult.

This is my way of paying tribute to the memories I have of people who are now gone.  I have something beautiful to see every day.  In the last photo, and behind the crock in the frame, is a milking stool my granddad used during those same years.  I sanded that and painted it pink.  It now holds live ivy which adds even more to my studio.

I don't like visiting cemeteries.  I much prefer to surround myself with pleasant reminders of simpler times.

I love it!

But the flowers need more work.

Craft packs are now available as part of the studio clearance!

Studio clearance going on.  Really!


 It's been fun coordinating all these things and making extra die cuts to supplement, as well as cutting out pop-up bases for step cards or whatever anyone would care to use them for.  However, the biggest problem I can see (these are heavy-duty boxes, about 9x12x2) is the shipping cost.  eBay really encourages free shipping but I don't quite know how to price them reasonably and offer shipping too.  I'll figure it out.

The browns and all their accompaniments are my favorites.

Because I have the parchment craft supplies site, and now the studio clearance, I have been trying to tie it all together so that once I have all this put up, I'll have time to PLAY!  I want to get back to painting, and collaging, and have some female heads in foam that I found at JoAnn's that I am anxious to play with.

I also have created some 5x7 bullet journals to include with the craft packs, just for the last six months of the year to introduce people to the idea of bullet journals.  I love using mine, and I really do need a way to look at the month as a whole when remembering all the commitments I have -- including what day my mini-Aussie gets her heartworm meds.  Anyway, I am taking more photos of the craft packs later today.  That is, after I finish hassling with the eBay store inputs.

Do you also set up self-imposed deadlines?  I'm really bad about that!  Balance -- time to play -- is essential.

So much to play with, so little time.... random thoughts

As I re-re-organize after completing a major project, I always find things I forgot I had.

Not as messy as it looks!

I found a big stock of white tissue paper that I've probably had for a long time, and decided to cover all those little boxes I saved from Christmas.  Each time someone got a small technology gift or something else with a clever box, I grabbed it and so this week was the time to either cover them, paint them, or toss them.

I decided to spray paint the tissue paper until it was soggy, then let it dry overnight.  I cut or ripped it up into pieces and using ModPodge, covered all the little boxes I could find.  For now, I just have them stacked around the studio (space is still at a premium) until I decide to use them as containers.

Even with labels, I have trouble finding things that are not in clear containers, so I'm not sure yet how I will use them.  Some will hold finished greeting cards, some will be shipped off with craft packs I am making up, and some will stay around just for decoration.



While I was on my ModPodging projects, I covered a cheap wood frame that I had bought years ago for a future project, so that I could display the photo of my little doggies, both of whom passed away from old age within the last several years.  They were my studio companions for a long time and just recently I decided to get another little friend and adopted a Mini-Aussie rescue, a 7-year-old female named Lady.  She is what is called a "velcro-dog" so she stays with me every minute.  I need that.  It gives me someone to talk to besides myself as I work.

Lady, my Mini-Aussie

So after Christmas cards, what shall I make?

As I have said before, I am fascinated with little houses.  Little houses to live in, little houses made of clay, of wood, and this week I'm making them of paper.  These are only about 3"x3".

Last night I made three little houses of parchment.  That's even more fun, because the doors, facings, shutters and other decorations can be embossed while the little house is still flat.  I figured that out when I made one of chipboard, and then later was gluing on doors and shutters... it takes a pair of tweezers and steady hands.  So the next ones get all that before the folding and the gluing! (Sometimes I'm slow at figuring out things.)

I have lots of templates for little houses, but I found one on Pinterest that I really, really like.  I have cut several from cardstock and chipboard on my Pazzles, and embossed by hand three of them last night from parchment.  As I work, I think of new things to add to each.  The paper houses are difficult to keep "square" so I do that with another piece of paper sized to the floor, glued from the top before the roof is added.  Before I cut more, I am going to add the floor to the original piece.

The cardstock houses have Duralar clear plastic windows, and I designed the shutters and rooftop with Corel Draw.  Obviously the chipboard houses are the most sturdy, and then I paint them and add glitter (or not).  One has snow (white embossing powder) and one has "grass" (Flower Soft.)  It would be easy to add a battery-powered tea light inside.  I am thinking of spray painting one with the mirror spray paint I bought for no reason.

I got a catalog from Nasco and among all the pages of paper products, I saw patterns that include roofing, bricks, etc.  The only problem is the patterns are on glossy paper.  Glossy isn't my thing.
Then I remembered I can do the same thing in CorelDraw, and design what I want for the house as I go.  I'm not doing this in mass quantity!  But Nasco is a great place to get nearly everything for crafting, and they sell in quantity for classrooms.

I saw some things in that catalog that I nearly ordered -- but I stopped myself!  First, I need to finish finding proper places for the thousands of dollars of "stuff" I have already!