|
|
| www.1001TopWords.com |
|
|
Preserving Thanksgiving Memories for Scrapbooking
Last year our family tried out a new way to preserve Thanksgiving memories, and the result was truly a treasured keepsake. A day or two before Thanksgiving, my daughter and I used a turkey rubber stamp to make place cards for all of our family members. We colored the place cards with colored pencils and wrote people's names on them with a metallic gold pen. We then cut up strips of paper to put into a small basket to distribute before Thanksgiving dinner. The day of Thanksgiving, after all of the guests had arrived, we handed out the slips of paper and asked everyone to write down something they were thankful for. Now you should have seen the looks I got! Keep in mind that there were family members of all ages, from young teenagers to adults. Most of them looked at me like I was crazy (because this memory-making stuff is all new to them), but I told them they had to do it before they could eat. So they all sat to write down what they were thankful for. Some came up with something very quickly, and others sat there perplexed and worried they were going to spell something wrong. Several didn't write anything down at all. The end result was a wide variety of very thoughtful answers. I put away the slips of paper, made sure to take some good family pictures (carving the turkey, eating dinner, visiting with each other, napping after dinner), and made sure to keep some of the place cards. I don't always get to my scrapbook pages immediately after an event like this. I do, however, make sure everything is in one place so that I can assemble my pages when I'm ready. I later went to the store to buy some pre-cut Thanksgiving and fall images for my scrapbook pages, and then framed my pictures with some coordinating cardstock pieces. I then laid out two scrapbook pages with the photos, a couple of the turkey place cards, and most of the slips of paper people had written on. I tried to arrange a person's slip of paper near their photo. My finished project was by no means fancy or a work of art, but it will always be an irreplaceable treasured family keepsake. Photos of finished project:http://www.crafty-moms.com/scrapbooking/sample_layouts_4.shtml Rachel Paxton is a freelance writer and mom of four. For scrapbooking, card making, gift-giving ideas, and more family memory-making activities, visit http://www.crafty-moms.com
|
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
How to Make a Simple Gemstone Necklace With gemstone beads, every bead is precious. Every bead is beautiful. Alittle more effort is needed when stringing a gemstone necklace together. Comic Book Collecting, Oh What An Enjoyable Past Time It Is! Have you ever read a comic book before? I imagine just about everyone, at some time in their life, has read at least one comic book. But do your interests and enjoyment level go beyond that? You may have said to yourself, at sometime or another, I would like to start a comic book collection some day. Heck, you may even have several comic books lying around that you have just never organized. Puzzle Pieces, Sequins, and Rhine Stones in Your Scrapbooks Puzzle pieces make playful embellishments and borders. Puzzle pieces give a creative and playful look to children's art and educational scrapbooks. Make Origami Origami is a wonderful and elegant art. It has been developed and embraced over the past 2,000 years by young and old alike. Who would have ever thought that you could fold paper in such a way to make creations like: Making Your Own Bird Feeder There is estimated to be over 100 billion individual wild birds on earth, and each one needs to eat certain amounts of food on a daily basis in order to survive. That's where we come in! Birdfeeders are fun to make and are essential in order for birds to live. Bird houses can be made out of practically anything and are usually hung in different locations around your yard for birds to enjoy. Purchasing a bird feeder is another option, however this can be expensive and both methods serve practically the same purpose. Embroidery Designs Digitizing Software Embroidery Magic 2 software program was created with multiple function lettering, editing and digitizing features for embroidery designs and was designed for those who have home embroidery machines and software. We have also have had customers purchase this embroidery software who have well established commercial embroidery businesses but have found that it creates better lettering than any other program they have purchased, regardless of price! However, in regard to the EM 2 price, it should be understood that you will not get the full features of a high end digitizing program with a lot of "bells and whistles". Let's focus on what is included in this great, very affordable program! Kona Cotton: The Quilters & Embroiderers Dream Fabric What, Exactly, Is Kona Cotton?Kona(R) cotton is a premium, 100% cotton broadcloth from Robert Kaufman Fabrics in Los Angeles. The company introduced the fabric in the 1980's in response to the then rapidly emerging quilting industry, an interest that continues unabated today. It is a soft, light fabric, often called the 'Quilter's Cotton', that is also ideal for fine apparel such as children's clothing; soft, comfortable shirts; dresses; applique and home decorating. It has a 'meaty' hand, which means you can really feel the difference when you touch the fabric and that makes it a joy to work with.Warps. And Wefts, TooKona cotton has a high 60 by 60 thread count. This means there are 60 warp threads and 60 weft threads per square inch of fabric. Until I did some research, I didn't know what warp and weft threads were. (I had never even heard the word 'weft'.) A warp thread is a support thread in the loom, long and strong and usually tied down onto the loom; a weft thread is passed back and forth between the warp threads to form cloth. It is that high thread count, all those warps and wefts playing together, that make Kona cotton a soft, light, yet very durable material; one of the best woven fabrics available for hand or machine quilting.Pre-use CareIt's a good idea to launder the fabric to remove any sizing/finish before using it in your project. Treat it as you would any new 100% cotton fabric: Gentle wash, mild detergent, tumble dry low, remove promptly and iron. Expect about a 1-3% shrinkage.What About Color?Kona is available in plenty of colors, 170 solid colors according to the manufacturer's web site, RobertKaufman.com. And a quick search for 'hand dyed Kona cotton' will pop up vendors offering hundreds of colors and patterns of beautifully dyed Kona cotton fabric.But Aren't You an Embroiderer?Yes, I am a machine embroiderer and those same qualities that make Kona cotton ideal for quilting and sewing apply to machine embroidery, too. That meaty feel I mentioned makes it very easy to hoop and quick to stabilize. The push/pull factor is minimal and, best of all, the stitched out designs are gorgeous on it. Even though there a many cheaper fabrics, I test all my embroidery designs on Kona cotton and turn to it first for any finished embroidery project I have. A Few Tips About Comic Book Backing Boards Comic Book Backing Boards come in different thicknesses and acid-free properties. The basic purpose for using a backing board is to give the comic some stiffness, which helps keep the comic pages from bending, creasing or wrinkling. When a backing is placed in the center of the comic it protects the comic book spine from crushing. The second purpose for using a backing board in a comic is its potential to neutralize acid in the comic book paper. Blown Glass: They Do Still Make It Like They Used To Blown art glass is quickly becoming one of the fastest growing hobbies in North America... and it is about time. Glassblowing has been around since 27 BC in Syria, though the first evidence of manmade glass products occurs in Mesopotamia in the late 3rd century BC. But the advancement of actual "blowing" glass using a tube transformed the materials usefulness. The new technique quickly spread throughout the Roman world. A Look at Cabinet Humidors Cabinet humidors are specially designed for the serious cigar aficionado. Much more of an investment than a small desktop humidor that can hold 100 to 200 cigars, cabinet humidors can be as small as a standing chest, can hold up to 8000 cigars or more, can measure as much as four feet wide by 20 inches deep and over six feet in height or larger and resemble a large bookcase, and can cost from the high hundreds of dollars to thousands of dollars. These humidors are designed for the discriminating aficionado, and because of their size and the cost, they are considered a good long-term investment. Airbrushing Does Not Have to be All Disappointment, Heartache, and Bloody Hard Work! A smart, but irritating man once told me that Airbrushing did not have to be all blood, sweat and tears. If only I had someone guiding me back in those hard, frustrating and sick in the stomach days of airbrushing, I wouldn't have wasted all that time and money! Kids Crafts: Balloons, Bubbles & Balls #1 Craft: Colored Bubbles Activities: Flyswatter Bubbles, Cotton Ball Pickup, Balloon Water Fun Snack: Chewy Popcorn Balls Reading Selection: The Twenty-One Balloons by William Pene du Bois A Look at Patriotic Lapel Pins Perhaps the most popular type of lapel pin is the patriotic pin. Dating back to the Civil War in the United States, lapel pins that declare a person's patriotism are popular, highly collectible and trade-worthy! From the Civil War through WWI, patriotic lapel pins were medallions hung from ribbons pinned on a lapel. After WWI, there were more factories and the ability to mass-produce die-cast metal led to the popularity of die-cast lapel pins. The trend took off and patriotic lapel pins became more popular and collectible as the nation moved into a depression and everyone tried to do their own part, even something as simple as a lapel pin. The quality and craftsmanship of these earlier lapel pins is excellent, and a single patriotic lapel pin can sell at auction for $25.00 or more, depending on the subject matter. Remember When You Were Taught How To Make Things From Metal With Your Bare Hands? How would you like the chance to use the skills you learnt decades ago... if you could find the right kind of practical challenge? You can you know. Not all that many years ago, just about every home had a backyard shed or workshop; the shed was a special place which the practical man about the house could call his own. Identifying US Coins with Bullish Futures Okay, let's get something straight? I do not advocate the purchase of United States coins strictly for investment purposes. Like most traditional collectors, I believe coins are to be primarily appreciated for their artistic beauty, historical connections, and the joy of pursuing them. However, it should be no secret that a significant number of us do add to our numismatic holdings while simultaneously peeking at the payback angle, too. An Interesting Look at the Cuban Cigar Even most non-cigar smokers have heard some of the lore surrounding the Cuban cigar. Long revered as the finest and best tasting brands in the world, they have traditionally been extremely difficult to procure. Consequently there exists a very profitable market for importing and distributing Cuban cigars to cigar-lovers worldwide. There are many brands of Cuban cigars available, but some of the most well known include Coronas Especiales (rumored to be one of Fidel Castro's favorites) and Montecristos. Picture Frame Crafts For Your Kids Party One of the most popular party favors is a framed picture of the party guest taken at your kids party. He or she could be showing off a silly hat or party costume, performing an outrageous party game stunt, or wearing a face full of frosting and ice cream. Treasure Hunting - The Unusual Ways When you think of treasure hunting, maybe gold coins and precious stones come to mind, but it doesn't end there. You can start in your own attic to see what treasures you find. Then you can check out some of the more unusual ways to go treasure hunting. You Are A Diamond So Scrapbook About Yourself As a devoted scrapper, you probably gain satisfaction from scrapbooking about others. Organize That Stash! Do you control your stash or does it control you? I have become the master of my stash. When my husband found out that his sock drawer had become yet another place for cross stitch supplies, it was either get it under control or end up in divorce court. Being a stay at home mom of four, I quickly realized that being a single mom would seriously hamper my stash purchasing power and set off to become as organized as possible. First stop?
|
| © Athifea Distribution LLC - 2013 |