Graphhic 45 - Domestic Goddess - All About Things My Mama Says ...

Hi Folks!  I'm sorry I've been kind of MIA lately, but I've been working on some big DT projects, and branching out into new directions - crafty speaking.  Today I want to share a project I made 'just for me', and it took me in a new direction completely.  I am a card maker, right?  But in recent weeks I've been making a TON of cards for craft shows this summer, and was just plain tired of them, and wanted to do something different.  I had an idea, sat down at my work table, and before I knew it, had made this sweet mini album!  It's all about my Mama, now almost 82 years 'young', and some of her funky sayings that I've heard all my life.

This is the closed up 'front' of the album.  It measures 3" across, 4 1/4" tall, and about 1/2" thick.  I made the fastener using a couple of circles of kraft cardstock and a couple of eyelets ... they are very easy to make!  Here is the 'back' side with it closed ...

I wanted the last saying to be 'I love you" because I have heard that more than any other thing she's said in my almost 60 years.  I printed all of the quotes on muslin, using freezer paper and my ink jet printer, then I fringed the edges. 

Above is the opened front size of the album.  It is 4 1/4" by 20" opened out. , and has 6 pages plus the smaller 'flap' on the right hand end.

And this is the back side of the album.  It has 5 pages plus the flap and front of the book.  Let's look at the pages ...

For the first page I made a small pocket to hold Mama's library card from 1950!  The pocket is made from kraft card stock, and they are so easy to make!  The second page is my favorite quote - other than I love you!  Mama pronounces can't as 'cain't'  or 'kain't', and I can hear her saying this over and over throughout my life, and whenever I face a challenge I still hear her saying this to me.  As a child, when told to do something, we dare not say 'I can't' because that's what we would hear!

Page 3 is a picture of my Mama when she was about 5 or 6 years old.  Yes, it's in bad shape, but I love this picture so much!  And the fourth page is another one of her sayings ... "A mockingbird singing at night means something bad is about to happen".  And she truly believes this!  In 1978 my dad was on the road for his job and had a heart attack in his truck.  He was helped and taken to a hospital and lived for 30 more years, but Mama still swears she heard a mockingbird singing outside her bedroom window around midnight the night before she got the phone call.

The fifth page is her gardening wisdom quote, and she swears by it!  "You follow the signs in the almanac, and you never plant when the signs are in the bowels'.  In almanacs there is a kind of 'zodiac' type thing where you find out when it's the best time to plant your gardens.  As you can tell, I don't even know enough about it to describe it accurately, but each year my Mama plants her garden (and yes, at 81 she still has a garden) by the signs in the almanac. The sixth page is just a picture I cut from the Graphic 45 paper and highlighted with a bit of platinum Stickles ... it just fit the gardening thing so very well!

Now to the pages on the 'back' side of the album ...

The next page is just a couple of pictures of my Mama in her younger days.  I love the bottom one most ... she looks like such a pretty, natural and healthy teenager!  The next page is my favorite 'weather wisdom' quote, and in my adult life, I find this one is true.  Of course she will be the first to tell you that she got this one from HER mother.  "One extreme follows another", and it really is true!

Another picture cut from the G45 paper, and another picture of Mama.  And my Mama LOVES to fish!  So did her Mama before her ... thankfully, the gene did not pass on to me, and I do not care for fishing!  I know, sacrilege, right?  But it's just so boring!  It's not even the messy-ness ... just the boring-ness!  Anyway, the quote is 'Fish won't bite if the wind is out of the east'.  And it has proven to be true, so you fisher folks out there pay attention!

And of course the page above is the back cover and flap of the album.  Here are some of the details ... I won't share step by steps because I hope to do a tutorial soon.


Supplies:

• Base card stock (kraft) - The Paper Studio
• Patterned papers - Graphics 45 'Domestic Goddess'
• Unbleached muslin - Hobby Lobby
• Stickles 'platinum'
• Scraps, bits and pieces of card stock
• Eyelets, twine from my stash
• Brown ink - Stampabilities

Tools:

• Martha Stewart / EK Success paper trimmer
• Martha Stewart / EK Success scoring board
• scissors, ruler, craft knife
• Silent Setter
• Ink Jet printer

And that is it!  Keep coming back because I hope to do a tutorial soon!  Also, I am working on a larger version of this type of album, so I will share details of it as soon as it's finished.  AND, please don't forget to go join in the fun blog hop over at Friendship's Garden Challenge.

See you again soon, Blessings, Becky!