BRENDA'S SCRAPBOOK AND CARD MAKING NOOK: 2024

On August 22, 2024 my profile on Facebook was hacked. I had a roomful of crafters in my Nook and was distracted. I have always been very careful but I was victim of helping a friend to re-access her Facebook account. Not only did the perpetrator disable me from accessing my profile and several groups I had created, but ALL of my photos in my profile and groups were removed. As of this date, any attempts to notify Facebook have been unfruitful - receiving no response. The perpetrator also tried to sell a Honda Civic on my page and get people to make a deposit. I have never owned a Honda!

It is sad that years of memories have vanished. Life has been exceptionally busy and I haven't had time to access any backups I had to see what I may still have. Essentially my "scrapbooking" and creating memory albums has come to an abrupt halt. Going forward I will be sure to securely save elsewhere any thing important to me. It is sad that anything I had posted anywhere was now wiped clean. It is as if I no longer existed! I especially felt bad that the images of creations of those who had come to the Nook over the years and the memories we made were no longer present to be inspiring for others.

I had considered not getting back on Facebook at all but for my craft group, it is the most effective way to plan events, manage RSVPs and provide information.

It is a sad world we live in where people can be so evil and malicious. Choose kindness always in everything The Golden Rule still matters: Do onto others as you would have them do onto you. (Matthew 7:12)

LIGHTED SHADOW BOXES

As a paper crafter who began with scrapbookiing and progressed to creating handmade greeting cards, I loved discovering other crafts with paper. While I have enjoyed making paper bead jewelry and handmade boxes, journals and other items, I discovered a real passion for lighted shadow boxes.

When I first started creating shadow boxes, I designed my own scenes using the plethora of wafer thin dies, the steel rule dies and the images that I could cut on my digital electronic machines such as the Cricut, the Silhoutte and Brother Scan and Cut.

Here are some examples of my earlier projects:

Gina K Design dies were used in this project. Pictured above.

I soon began collecting other village die sets as winter village scenes were among my favorites to create.

My next interest in shadow box designs were for the Christmas and Easter holidays.

First, I created them with individual dies but then I discovered SVG designs electronically. - SVG strands for Scalable Vector Graphics. In additiion to the ones that are in the libraries of the Cricut, Silhouette and such, I started downloading designs from Etsy.

This was a gift for my sister and I loved the images she sent me after receiving it. The gift included a card that had a Pear Blossom Press light in it!

I designed the following lighted shadow boxes for my granddaughters. The themes were tailored to their interests.

School Days

The Dancers

. .

Baking Cookies with Grandma

I love to create these! You can probably tell!

The autumn farm lighted shadow box was created with a file downloaded from Etsy.

I left Santa out of this design so that it could be on display beyond Christmas!

My craft room is decorated with a red truck theme, so I had to create this design to have on display.

I love this winter / Christmas design that I created with an Etsy file.

Steel rule dies were used in addition to Silhouette and Cricut cuts and paper punched elements for this Autumn shadow box.

The patriotic lighted boxes were created for a raffle for my County Chorus as part of a Patriotic Concert.

I created lighted shadow boxes as gifts for my County Chorus Directors.

For a Country Chorus Concert that featured music over the decades, I created the rock band lighted shadow box as part of a raffle basket.

The next band lighted shadow box was created for my son who is a drummer in a band in Alaska.

Before I discovered fairy lights that had the button type batteries, these are what I used for the boxes.

I learned the basic of creating lighted shadow boxes by watching the following tutorial on YouTube:

You Tube Tutorial

I compiled the following information to share with others - for the supplies I used initially. I hope that you find this helpful!

The following photos represent the process in creating a shadow box as well as a gathering of friends that learned to create them.

In closing, here are photo memories of my handmade cards, framed decor and lighted shadow boxes that have been donated to my church bookstore. 100% of the proceeds support Missions.