I've always liked playing with scissors, paper and glue and we always had scrapbooks for Christmas when I was little and some of the Gloy glue that came in a glass bottle with a rubber top that had to be stabbed with a sharp scissor point to get the glue out....health and safety horror!
It was almost exactly 2 years ago when my blog post looked like this............
It was the Wednesday boot sale a few weeks ago and fishing through a box of books that one of the house clearance bods had on the ground by his van I found 2 old scrapbooks of postcards and cuttings.
One of them opened at a page with a poster and postcards about and by the artist Eric Ravilious. I love his work.
The man only wanted a £1 for the two so I bought them.....................for goodness sake .............why do I want someone else's collections?!I just couldn't bear the thought of them being chucked on a bonfire or in a dustbin.
I took lots of the postcards out of the scrapbooks and some of the cuttings but several were water or damp damaged, too well stuck or not subjects that interested me.
For a while I couldn't decide what to fix them into, modern books for scrapbooking have small pages and not many of them but then remembered I had a big watercolour drawing pad, also found at a boot sale. I collected more interesting bits from some old books plus some of my own old postcards and got some photo corners for the postcards and then started sticking things in - just like 60 years ago!
Not quite as random as they used to be, as I've been filling pages on a theme.
Apples
I'm still having great fun with scissors, paper and glue!
Random suggestion but when things are really well stuck down they can sometimes be lifted safely using dental floss as a saw. Your scrapbooking looks great fun!
ReplyDeleteOh that's a good tip to remember for the future - wonder if it would work on stamps stuck into a stamp album
DeleteYour books are just beautiful keep going marie
ReplyDeleteFinding interesting bits to stick in is fun
DeleteGoodness, some of those picture postcards must be worth over £1.00 each, what a bargain you scored! Scrapbooking is a very different thing these days. Only yesterday I saw Tonic Studios peddling expensive dies to make "Memory Books". Rather lovely, but small, and when Jodie said in America the empty books sell for $100, my jaw hit the floor.
ReplyDeleteGoodness, that's rather a lot for an empty book!
DeleteI was just wondering whether to let my scrapbooking stuff go but today’s post has given me renewed enthusiasm ! Anne
ReplyDeleteCutting and sticking is good for you - that's what I've decided!
DeleteGreat memories of childhood scrap books. I have loads of postcards collected over the years some in an album and the rest in a shoe box, I may try this idea. I love Eric Ravilious's work too:)
ReplyDeleteI used to collect postcards for years - they were the only memento of a holiday I could afford! Most went years ago but I'd kept some interesting ones luckily
DeleteThey are wonderful!
ReplyDeleteThank you
DeleteI scrapbooked from childhood right through to a few years ago. The childhood ones went when we cleared the house after mum died. My more recent ones went only a few weeks ago. I decided they were no good for anyone but me and my decision to dump them. So I did.
ReplyDeleteMy childhood ones were often cuttings from Christmas cards. Wish I'd kept the Ipswich Town FC one I did all through one year in the late 60's - it might have been worth something
DeleteThere has to be a joke there saying that to a Norwich supporter. I will refrain.
DeleteYour scrapbooks are lovely. In the Chalet School books, the girls make scrapbooks for children in hospital to look at.
ReplyDeleteI love Ravilious too; my current calendar is a Ravilious one. It will be hard to get rid of the pictures at the end of the year but they're too big to keep.
I used my Ravilious calendar to make envelopes for my homemade greetings cards. Any big calendars I get end up as envelopes, cards or wrappings.
DeleteWhen my Dad was in the building trade we would get about a dozen calendars every year from all the reps - we had them in every room.
DeleteDon't need one now with a diary and the date always on the lap top
Sue, I think these are lovely. I'm sure the grandchildren will enjoy looking at the pictures with you when they visit too. I was fond of making scrapbooks. I had a"Royal" scrapbook, in the 1960s with pictures cut from magazines and newspapers of the late Queen and her family. The earliest pictures were the birth of Prince Andrew, and also Princess Margaret's wedding... And it lasted till the birth of Prince Edward in 1964. Then we moved house in 1965, and my Bix of scrapbooks and stamp albums mysteriously disappeared. You are right about the Gloy Gum. No PVA or Prittstick back then
ReplyDeletePritt stick is a great invention - for all ages!
DeleteIt's annoying how things disappear during moves - I think I've got rid of things before moving and then wondered where they went years later
I remember Gloy and having to push the rubber against paper to get it to flow after it had been stabbed.
ReplyDeleteThere was another sort of glue that smelled of coconut - we had it at primary school and I remember one girl sniffing it and eating bits - way before glue sniffing was a thing!
DeleteLove them! I used to collect postcards mainly of places and countries with the occasional odd ones eg Arthur Ashe comes to mind. Even my American pen friends sent me postcards of the areas they lived in and I have one of the twin towers in New York which I'll never get rid of, but I did get rid of a lot of them when the books were getting to be too many to store. If I come across any pictures which appeal to me I take a photocopy on decent paper and use them for cards. You're a woman after my own heart (smile).
ReplyDeleteThe photocopying is a good idea . I shall keep the scrapbooks going now I've started
DeleteBeautiful work. I love the theme placement on each page. Your large page format water color binder makes a perfect scrapbook.
ReplyDeleteThat's a fun and beautiful hobby, Sue. Last year I used old Christmas cards to make alphabet scrapbooks for my grandkids. I hope they take them out each year and enjoy the colorful collection of Christmas memories. They can add their own cards and photos to the pages too.
ReplyDeleteInteresting collections. I would enjoy returning to them. Hardly anyone makes scrapbooks now. At one time nearly everyone did.
ReplyDeleteLove them. I would enjoy looking through them.
ReplyDeleteYour scrapbook is coming along nicely and I love the little collections you have put together. I too like to cut and stick. Catriona
ReplyDeleteI'd forgotten all about that glue...happy days! x
ReplyDeleteI like your scrapbook so much. I read the book 'The Children who Lived in a Barn' when I was a child. Borrowed it from the local library in East London. The library was, to me, bliss to visit. From the smell of polish and wood when entering and the date stamping of books when leaving. Roberta - East London expat, living in Australia.
ReplyDelete