2 Mary With Love

I tell people that I am not interested in scrapbooking and yet I seem to do a whole lot of "scrapbooking"!!! I have seen awesome ideas from other paper/fabric artists where they have used clever ways to create their own way of preserving special memories. I have made previous posts of papersack books, fabric books, and boxes with "card" inserts that I have made and the list continues on. I have in my possession of "someday" stuff, a dress from the 1920's that I am going to turn into a modern twist of a scrapbook.

This is my second altered cigar box and this was made for my sister, Mary. I took a class in St. Charles, Missouri a few years ago where I learned all kinds of techniques. The techniques were so simple and yet it made my ponder as to "why didn't I think of that?"!! What I remember most was the fun I had in the creating process and it was the same this time around

Just so you know and you won't panic, no originals were harmed in the making of this box! I have favorite photos that I use over and over and some new ones that found their home on these pages.

What is most precious to me is the photo of my brother-in-law, Len, who passed away suddenly and is so very dearly missed. He was the love of my sister, Mary. Whenever I am making any kind of "scrapbooking" album, his photo finds its way onto the page and the quote of "whenever possible, choose adventure". That pretty much sums up the beyond amazing man he was.  

Len traveled all over the world in his business, loved people and new experiences!

The group of women include my Dad's mother and sisters.  I did not get to know them very well as they were scattered throughout Iowa - one in NYC and most had huge families themselves.  The youngest Aunt was my god mother and I only remember seeing her a few times.  However, Mary knew all of them quite well as she was the first born in our family.

Isn't amazing just how large families were!  My dad was the "middle" child of a family of eleven and my grandfather is on the far left.  His brother, Leo had fourteen children, Hugo had ten, and we had eight.  I lost count of cousins after sixty-three!

I love this school photo of my mom.  I have used this particular picture in a lot of my artwork as the size is perfect.  I like using my rubber stamp quotes when I use photos too.

Again, this is another one of those photos that is easy to use in art projects.  The baby is my mom.

I remember the driving segment of this trip because to me it took "forever" to arrive to our destination.  I also remember quite well that I was allowed to stand on the "hump" in the middle of the car's floor in the back seat to get a better view of the road.  You can't do any of that anymore for sure!

There are still two brothers that haven't been born yet.  I am not sure how old I am in this photo, perhaps around five years old.  My dad must have been taking the photo because he is not in it.

Aunt Lucille was one of my sister's favorite Aunts. (I am not 100% certain, but I think she had ten children)   She was married to Sam who worked for the US government and we had fun of saying that Uncle Sam worked for Uncle Sam!

This photo was one that I had not seen before and I am so glad that the photo was marked with the year and the activity or I would not have known.  This is the first time I have used this image and already I know I will use it a lot.  I can not believe how young my dad looks!

I think my grandmother and mom looked a lot alike.  I colored the b/w photo in the background.  I do not remember my mother's father as he passed away when he was 52 years old.

Here is another photo that gets placed in my artwork numerous times.  Mom and dad were actually on a double date with his brother Leo and his future wife.  Both were farmers living in Iowa.

The photo is my dad's parents celebrating their 75th wedding anniversary.  I remember my grandmother and remember most about her is the amount of ready food that was available in her kitchen and always feeding us well.  It wasn't until adulthood that I understood why.  With eleven children, I guess it was natural to have a whole "grocery store" of baked goods in your kitchen to eat.  She also taught my sister how to crochet and knit when she was little.  The memory that is most present for me about my grandfather is how he appeared one day for a "visit" to our farm and was making the rounds to all his children.  What was amazing was that he was way past 80 when he did this and driving an antique car!

Chuck is my mom's brother.  His wife Dorothy was the most amazing woman I have ever known.  I think she looks a bit like Gina Davis.  They had a farm about fourteen miles from ours and we visited each other at least once a month and always on a Sunday!  I would have to say that everyone in our family absolutely adored them!  (This is their wedding photo)

It was a wonderful surprise to find this glossy black and white photo of mom.  I think it was taken for a farm magazine as a promotion for updated appliances.  We never had a dishwasher until all the kids left home and then mom got a dishwasher.  The joke in our house was that "we" were the dishwasher!

There is fourteen years between mom and her sister Joan.  My sister Mary is the baby.  I decided to place this particular photo onto fabric that I had dyed and stenciled with spray inks.  The clear letters were altered using alcohol inks and then glued onto the fabric.  The heart charm was sewn in place.  I really like how this page turned out.

It took a bit of research to find her name and the photo was marked "Aunt Ruth" .  I am assuming that she is my Great Aunt and other than that, I have no idea exactly who she is.  I plan on solving the mystery!

I love these two photos of my sister Mary taking during the 1940's.  Dad had made her tricycle from scrap iron that was not sent to the government for the war effort.  The toy tractor looks like a wooden toy.  I can see the faces of my sister's children in her face....precious!

I don't know much about this woman except she was called by mom as "Aunt Emma".  I have a few photos of her and can not resist using them with my rubber stamp collection of quotes.  Apparently she must have had a sense of humor because I don't have a problem adding some humor to her photos!

I took a photo of Mary sitting in a chair that was taken outside on an upholstered chair and removed her image from the chair and placed her in a nest.  I thought it worked so well that I will probably do it again.  The "house" image that was added to this page was one that I had made for another project and it fit this theme well.

I am pretty sure that if you have followed any of my artwork, you have seen this image bunches of times.  I sewed the numbers onto the paper that were designed by Tim Holtz.  He has so many cool products and ephemera to use in projects....love Ranger products and his blog.

This is the inside of the cigar box covered with the fabric that I painted with a stencil.  I added fabric "tabs" to each of the pages which makes it easy to pull a page out of the box.