Project Tuesday 25 May

Well I wasn't sure last week if I would be able to play for this week but I am sooooooo glad I could. I have fulfilled 2 long time ambitions with this week's challenge.

I have ALWAYS wanted to do a recipe book - (Amanda will bear me out on this one) and I have ALWAYS wanted to make a paper bag album. Considering I have about 200 brown paper sacks that have sat in my craft room for a few years it was ABOUT TIME!!!

I am so very grateful to Project Tuesday for inviting me to join their design team. I am continually doing something new and exciting as well as being challenged and inspired to do bigger and better each week (and we are going to be good friends during my recovery). Hop on over there to get the details for this week's project. I guarantee once you have made one of these fab albums you will be well and truly hooked - I sure am!

This album is still very much a work in progress - I am not so fully recovered yet that I could manage to do the whole album in a day. I have the back half of the album to finish, embellishments to add and I haven't yet decided if I will add anything along the spine like rings or ribbon but I like how it's shaping up and that's what matters. I still have to make recipe cards to fill it with as well.

The pages I have managed to do are void of photos as yet but I have already decided I will make my photos black and white. I have a lovely one of Dave proudly displaying his 'cloud biscuits' using his mother's recipe for a Christmas breakfast one year. That recipe is definately going in this album and I probably have a few more cooking photos since I photograph EVERYTHING!

In fact I am only going to put family favourite recipes in here and I have decided I am keeping this one for MYSELF! I have always wanted to do a family recipe book that includes favourite family recipes from all the 'Howard' women and maybe this is the year to do it. After all I HAVE to do something with all those paper sacks - especially since my sister-in-love Sandy gave me a whole bag full too.

I found doing up each page a real joy. I love scrapbooking but don't get much chance to do it very often and I love stamping with scrapbooking when I can too. These pages were only about 5" x 5" so were mini pages that took very little paper and came together super quick. I wanted to continue the sewing throughout and the machine was still out on the kitchen table.

After assembling each page I numbered it to help me remember the order and then took it to the machine for stitching. I then stuck each page in place in the album. I prefer to do my stitching this way for a neater finish and so as not to damage the final project if it should get stuck in the machine. You can always discard a damaged page if need be but you wouldn't want to start the whole album again!

I had fun manipulating some of the themed accent pieces such as this 'favourite family recipes' one above. I added a further green circle to the outer edge and then cut out the middle 'family' section. I backed it onto red and replaced it. This allowed me to bring my colour scheme together even more. I am a lover of red and green which is reflected in my 'strawberry themed' kitchen and added to the black and white it makes for a great colour combo.

This is usually where I start a project. I find out what project I am gonna make and then scour my brain for any recollection of supplies I think I might have that would be suitable. Then I set about finding them and collecting them all in one place. I add or remove them until I am happy with what I have left.

For this week's project I knew I had a sheet by Teresa Collins called 'bon appetit' that I purchased on a trip back home for when I made my long awaited cookbook. You can just make out the 'family favourite recipes' in it's naked state. I finally put my PTI 'recipe box' stamps to good use for creating the tabs. This was a purchase with making family cookbooks in mind that has been waiting a long time to see the light of day. I'm only sorry I bought just the one sheet of Teresa Collins.

For my album I will use a pretty handwritten font and generate the recipes on my trusty computer but for the family ones I hope to create I want hand written recipes. I just love how my husbands hand writing can be traced back to his mother and I want that kinda thing preserved.

Well I have prattled on long enough. My darling daughter spent all of yesterday creating her own bag album and was up bright and early at 7.30 am this morning so she could get back at it. It's after 9 am and we haven't even had breakfast yet. She doesn't like being told she is sooooo like me but she IS like it or not! For that very reason I think we will get along better this week if we just keep crafting. FINE with me :-)

Hope you'll play along with us all this week - you will not be disappointed - I PROMISE!