I've had a thing for typewriters recently...

...must've started with this...

It's my grandma's typewriter. I picked it up from her over a year ago now and she passed on over a month ago. Of course we've all been thinking about her a lot and her typewriter is one thing of hers that I'm lucky enough to have. It's big, but I love it.

Have been looking around the place for typewriter paper and stamps and've found these:

I've posted about this paper from Jillibean Soup before - got some in my latest Blue Bazaar order. I really like it. There are little messages on each of the typewriter papers...so cute.

The way that I scrap (using the divided page protectors) is my visual diary and just the place that I record stuff about us and for us. The typewriter thing just fits with it. It also says something about me, ie. that I like typewriters, I like cute and they remind me of my grandmother who used to belt out the church bulletin on it every week or month. She was always at her typewriter. Or at the table in the kitchen writing stuff.

At her funeral, Uncle Lindsay (my mum's brother) talked about Grandma and how she put the church recipe book together. It was no small undertaking and I realised that she was a book author like me. My mum is too, she's written Bible study books. Three generations of us, I'd never realised that before.

As my mum said to me once, memories ground us as people and make us feel like we belong. Another reason I scrapbook - photos and stories help me make connections and bring all that good stuff together.

Photos are worth spending time with, they've proved that to me on more than one occasion.

...big sigh....scrapbooking really is good for the soul.

Here are some more typewriter things I've found:

Sticky Keys from October Afternoon - you can see the rest of them here, as well as the Mini Market stickers. Love, love.

And from Hero Arts...

Retro Typewriter

Vintage  

Typewriter Letters

My Type

Type

These are from Cavallini & Co and are called Vintage Office 

Maya Road - Just My Type

Say Cheese from Maya Road. 

I've also had a thing for cameras recently too. Same reasons as the typewriters - just for stamping in the scrapping stuff. 

American Crafts - Hello There set. 

Been throwing some old phones in there too. These remind me of my other grandparents.  

Kitch set by The (now defunct) Girls Paperie.

Inkadinkado - clear mini Camera

I had Grandma's typewriter on the bench for a while and during that time the family came over for dinner.

I put a bit of paper in it and typed this note because I knew they'd ask about it.

Sarah (niece, 13) had never typed on a typewriter before and Luke (nephew, 16) reeaallly missed the backspace, he said. Was funny to see them and hear them clacking away on it.

Nothing like the smell of an old typewriter, esp. one that was your grandmother's.

PS. Did a search on www.thefind.com for typewriter rubber stamps and found a few interesting ones plus a lot of typewriter alpha sets. It's always good seeing things in one place.

PPS. Did a search for camera rubber stamps too and found some tiny, hand carved ones being sold on etsy. So cute, check 'em out here and here (they're from the same seller). And check out this one - it looks like a Barbie camera, but it's a stamp!

PPPS. Just for kicks I did a search for sewing machine rubber stamps too - but this one's my favourite. What do you think, Sue?

Mum's craft room

Hey there again,

Posting pics of Mum's craft room for you today.

Recently Mum said she was going to her craft room and Pete (who was visiting) said, "Going to your shed are you, Mum?"

Um, yep!

She uses a spare bedroom in their house as her shed. I actually wrote Punch Art Fun book 2 in this room. Not sure how I did it.

Like I mentioned previously, Dad made the hutch for her and it's been a winner from the beginning.

These pics were taken a while ago and I know Mum wants to get in there and go through all the stuff again and purge. I think she's feeling a need to purge.

You know how it is when you craft and use your space and after a while it just gets out of hand and every time you walk in you feel a bit stressed, disorganised and/or frustrated by the mess?

Yep, the usual signs of needing a 'move it on out' as I call it.

In fact, I've just done another one on my own craft desk. Moved stuff off my desk - that was the main priority. Feels good.

See the blue and black tote at the side there? She bought a lazy susan for it and the whole thing spins now. So great. I can see all her punches down the bottom there in the drawers. Oh, and a bear hiding under there. That sounds like a song...

Lots of paper lined up in the boxes to the side. Looks very clean and organised, doesn't it?

Wonder how it looks now, like, right now, at this exact moment? What's the bet it's not this clean? Usually means some crafty fun is going on!

And to finish. This is the other side of her room. The old trusty sewing machine and overlocker. I think an overlocker does that criss cross on the edge of your fabric or something so it doesn't fray, but all I know is, Mum thought it was the best thing ever when she bought it and whipped up so many things in a fraction of the time. She loved it. Do you use it for quilting too, Mum? Or was that what it was for in the first place?

That big fabric bag (that she made) holds her quilting mats and such. And can you see her sewing bag on top of the shelf? Cute. Yay, we match.

Well, there you go. We've reached the end of the posts dedicated to my creative mother, but I guarantee my mother hasn't reached the end of her creativity!

And one last thing.

What I find interesting, and I've only just noticed this, she's a fab sewer and a fab papercrafter, but I don't think she's ever combined the two. Have you sewed on a scrapbook page, Mum?

Righto, folks, bye now!

See you soon for another series I'm calling, A Scrap Quiz!

A Creative Family - Mum

Hi there, 

Showing the last of the photo proof of some of Mum's crafts again today. 

I've included the list again, so you can see where we're up to - ie. the empty nest stage. This is probably quite typical for creative people. Mum's always made time for some type of craft or another, but she's had her lean times. She did jigsaws for a while there. Big ones and a lot of them. 

But this time - the empty nest time - was a very productive time on her crafting calendar. She discovered quilting and sewed with abandon. She discovered glue guns and dried flowers. She discovered teddy bears and her love for all things furry.  

I think she did a lot more crafting for four reasons - more money in the house, more time on her hands, more people doing crafty stuff around her in the church group and she was missing us and needed to fill the void. Makes a lot of sense to me. 

Let's have a look at some of the crafty loveliness shall we?

Mum's list of crafts

Plaster of Paris Craft (Moulds & Painting)

Knitting

Embroidery

We're still technically in the early years of the list, but she had embroidery listed here, so I had to show you this bag she made for me. 

She and Sue both had one and I wanted one too. I'm not a sewer or anything, I just wanted a bag like them! Mum was good enough (in both ways) to make it for me. It's lovely, don't you think? Note the bee button. My bag is different to theirs. They're all different. 

Sewing (Doll’s clothes)

Pressed Flowers

Cross stitch

Applique

Crochet

I've shared this before, but those strawberries are worth sharing again.

Ceramics

Hobbytex

ClayPot Craft - Decorating etc

String & Nail Pictures

Latch Hook

More sewing craft – Barbie Doll outfits etc

Doll House Decorating (wallpapering, rug-making, mini-furniture making)

Macreme

Quilling

Fabric & Lace Covered Photo Frames/Journals/Notebooks etc

Smocking

(empty nest stage starts about here) 

Candlewicking

Hot Glue Gun Craft

Old Gold Books

I wish I had pictures of these!

Dried Flower Arranging

Folk Art

Patchwork

Crazy  Patchwork

Quilting 

This was an industrious stage. She made a lot of quilts and quilt-y wall hangings. 

Long Stitch

Tatting

Decoupage

Paper Making

Soft Toys (sewn, knitted, crocheted etc)

And onto the Teddy Bears.

Another very industrious stage!

These are the big bears. All regular bear size. 

These are the small bears. They're sitting on a table top. And those ones at the front are tiny. And jointed. They're about two inches high when sitting. Maybe less. 

So cute. 

The bookshelf was a Christmas gift that was made for her to hold all the bears. 

You need that sometimes. Somewhere to put all the stuff you make...

Here's Sunshine. Mum made her for me. She's about 3 foot high and heavy. 

She's sitting on the chair in our spare room right now.  

Linky (on the left) and Binky. Or Blinkie. Or ? I can't remember the name of the pink one. 

Linky for Luke (her grandson). 

Maybe Slinky for Sarah, heh heh.

Mr and Mrs Gustafus. My favourites. 

These bears make me smile every single time I see them. 

And the tiny, jointed bear she made for me. He's half the size of Gustafus's foot! 

Honestly, he's amazing. 

Ribbon Flowers

Silk Flower Arranging

Christmas Decoration Making (Sequin balls, Foam covered baubles, stick trees etc etc)

Card Making

Punch Art

I know! Can you believe it? Very Mum again. She often comes up with an ambitious project and tries it to see if she can do it. 

And she rarely fails. In fact, she doesn't. 

This started with the giraffe. I remember making up those giraffes together one day. We had a great time. And then that led to her wanting to make more animals etc etc. You know how it is. 

She made it as a gift for Jack for his bedroom. 

He's had it up in there for quite a while now. It's still gorgeous. 

He's gorgeous-er.

Took this photo too to illustrate the punch art, but I love the reflection of the three of us in the glass. Jack's looking up and Casey's in front of me.  

Scrapbooking

Papercraft

General Crafts (by the dozens) includes: 

Suncatchers

Fake lead lighting

Cellophane pics

Copper pics

Leaf rubbing

Sand/pebble mosaics pics

Rockpainting

Pipe cleaner art

Paddlepop stick art

Clay figures

Shrinkies

Pencil case making

Well, there you go, hey?

Mum's fabbo list of creative prowess, massive accomplishment and skill in the crafting arena. Amazing, isn't she? Truly amazing. 

I really think it's fairly obvious where my crafting gene came from, don't you? :o)

Next up, her craft room!

A Creative Family - Mum

Hi there girls,

Hope you're all doing well this week!

Are you ready for Mum's creative prowess in photo form? We don't have photos of everything, but we rustled up a good sample of things. You know, I think she even did a project of all her crafting projects. I think she put photos of all her handmade things in a tin (like those lunch tins that were around a couple of years ago) and then decorated the tin itself.

I wonder if a photo of the tin went in the tin? ha ha

You've seen this one before, but I included it because no doubt she made our clothes.

When I was typing String and Nail Pictures on the list - I did think to myself...I'll admit it...they're kinda easy, aren't they?

Well, looking at the above I take that back.

Not easy. And that's cotton, not string. I remember this picture, it hung above the stairs in our 70s house. We pretty much lived in one house in the 70s, another in the 80s and another in the 90s. Pretty much.

Summary: String and Nail Pictures = not easy.

What if you break the string...er, cotton?

What if you bang your finger while banging the nails in?

Lots of potential for dissatisfaction and injury with ye olde string and nails craft.

This is another 70s house memory. Sue and I are 19 months apart. We didn't get dressed in the same clothes much, just similar ones like these sometimes.

Look at Sue's handbag. She had a tissue in there and 20c for the offering at Sunday School.

Mum crocheted those dresses. I wonder if they were itchy?

Oh my word, I love this photo. This is why I take photos now - because they'll turn into classic ones in the future. Makes me want to go to my mother's house and look through her albums and get some printed. Can I do that sometime, Mum?

Things Mum made in this photo:

Her dress probably. Love it. She's in blue on the side there.
My dress probably.
The cake - she definitely made the cake.

Now, what sort of cake do you think it is? I tell ya, it took us ages to figure it out, but with her memory and our detective skills, we worked out it's an orange ladybug. I used to like ladybugs and she said there was no red food colouring back then, so she used orange! Before we worked it out I wondered why she'd made me an orange creature cake...

The little boy isn't my brother, he's my cousin. Pete was asleep upstairs apparently. The rest are the four grandparents, Granny's brother and uncles and aunties.

Ah, more crochet. This is a shirt/top thing she made for Pete. He was seen in it often...

Amazing handiwork going on there. This from someone who loves crochet, but makes up everything she does because she has no idea how to read a pattern. In consultation with Mum I do the stitches right (I think there's only three), I just have different names for them.

This one's a Barbie poncho!

Did you have a poncho in the 70s/80s? I remember we did - they were knitted or crocheted, I can't remember.

The poncho should come back. They keep your shoulders/neck/arms warm with room for flapping if you need a bit of air because you're hot. Works for me!

Hobbytex.

This is one of my favourites because I remember doing a lot of it with Mum and Sue. Mum had a big container of Hobbytex paints and we used to go to town colouring in. I had favourite colours because they flowed easily. It's a fun craft except when the paint doesn't flow smoothly.

I just did a Google search for Hobbytex and found an Australian site for it. Golly, seeing the paint pens (which is essentially what they are) again took me back! I remember those plastic guards to stop us squeezing while painting. We had to take the couple we had off and on and always put them on the one we were using.

The photo above is a pillowcase Mum made for me. Debra means 'bee' thus the bees. Cute. I remember the Hobbytex bits were cold to roll onto in winter.

Mum also used the Hobbytex paints to label our socks too. D and S because we had a lot of white socks for school and they were forever getting mixed up. Good idea. Also useful for us when we went swimming at school. We could always point out the D and S socks and find them easily.

The doll house.

And that's the divan that she covered three times. And she probably made those curtains too. I say probably, because she always did that kind of stuff growing up, but I'm not completely sure if she made these exact ones. Can't half tell this is the 70s house :o)

She wallpapered and carpeted this doll house. She made tonnes and tonnes of Barbie clothes. I was lucky. She also made the bed, sheets, pillows, dressing table, dressing table seat, beanbag, lounge suite, floor rugs and the macreme planter hanger on the front there. Can you see it? Third level up, on the right pole - there's some string covering something brown. That's it. There might even be another one down the bottom too. Told ya Mum liked a challenge. She was good at this stuff and made it to see if she could make it and she enjoyed it.

Get this - she even made a Barbie clutch purse. It was crocheted and so tiny. She used a piece of one of her old necklace chains for the strap.

Wow. I mean, really, wow, Mum.

Next we move onto the ceramics phase. This phase lasted quite a while. I'd say at least 10 years.

She made us quite a few things over the years, this cup being one of them. Sadly the handle's broken, but it's still a keeper.

We made a lot of ceramics with her too. It's quite a process to have kids involved in. You choose your greenware first, take it home without breaking it, clean it up without breaking it, paint it without breaking it, take it back without breaking it and get it home again without breaking it.

I think there was some 'breaking it' with us involved.

I used to like using the scraping tools to get the rough edges off. And then the sanding tools to make it nice to paint on. We used to sit at the coffee table with a towel on the table and scrape and sand the greenware together. I know I did this, but I've no memory of what I actually made.

This is a clock Mum made Sue. We both got one, mine was more pinkish, hers was more browner pink. 

A lot of fine hand detail doing on there. And it's not 2D work, it's all 3D, and takes a bit of skill. 

Mum made a lot of ceramics over the years - salt and pepper shakers (we had those mushroom ones on the table every night for years and years), ornaments, clocks, gifts, more ornaments, a nativity set (I really like that set, always have)...

...these swans. They're ornaments.

And these knicky knacky things. The ones with lids held jewellery on her dressing table, I think. 

Aren't they so cute? They're tiny, only a couple of inches high, and the pictures are stencils you put on, they're not painted. 

One thing I've realised, Mum likes miniature. Little clothes, little handbags, little ceramics, little bears - they're coming up soon! 

She's made little mini albums too. And I mean mini, mini ones. Tiny. 

That's all from Mum's list of crafts for today. 

Be back with some more soon!