Sharing memories of Ma

While spending the weekend recently with my sisters and brother in the North country we sat around and reminisced about the ‘good ‘ol days’ like we usually do. We talk about the hell we raised and the trouble we got each other into as youngsters. Being the oldest of eight I married and had a child while several of my siblings still lived at home and attended school. We lost our mother in 1979 to ovarian cancer and my younger sister who was only 13 commented she had no pictures of Ma. Well, that got me to thinking about making her a book for Mother’s Day (she’s my scrapbooking buddy) and including photos I have found of our mother. Mind you, there aren’t that many. Ma hated her picture taken and it was rare that we could catch her on film.

The book is cut from a new AccuCut die and it’s only about 4 1/4-by-5 1/2 inches. I experimented with a technique I’d seen on MaryJo McGraw’s blog. I love her work and follow her blog faithfully. The paper I settled on is a new collection from Prima called Botanical Collection. It had a soft, feminine look to it which is what I wanted and the Prima flowers I had fallen in love with worked beautifully with it!

Once all the papers were adhered the building process began by mixing Claudine Hellmuth’s gesso with water to make a watered-down version that could be painted over the pages to give them a white-washed look. I blotted off thick areas and set the pages aside to dry briefly.

All the pages were finished off on the edge with Ranger’s gold paint dabber (a Wendy Vecchi technique which I find I use often). With the addition of a few little embellies here and there to lightly dress it up I just love the way it turned out. I printed several old photos of Ma and hand journaled in dates and info that I knew. This book certainly is a collection of scrapped treasures and I hope my sister enjoys it!

Follow Linda on her blog: http://scrappedtreasures.com

DON’T MISS A BEAT

Sign up for our weekly newsletter

We don’t spam!

Sharing is caring!

The Livingston Post is the only locally owned, all-digital information and opinion site in Livingston County, Mich. It was launched by award-winning journalists who were laid off from the Livingston County Daily Press & Argus by Gannett Co. Inc. in 2009.