This year I joined a couple of Yahoo groups, altered books (AB) first, and then clothpaperstudio (CPS). Both are populated by warm and friendly, talented and generous individuals whose work is inspiring. I've been a 'lurker' for most of the time I've been a member on both groups but just this summer I decided to participate in the 'themed swaps' on CPS. The current swap has a simple theme: PINK. This evening I rummaged through my stash to assemble some nifty items to mail on Monday.

I chose a silk blank (hand-dyed with cochineal);

a commercial garden print in pink-orange tones;

pink and pink & white ribbons;

an array of papers of various weights - solids, prints, florals, stripes, and borders; victorian, post-modern and atomic patterns;

some ephemera and found items in shades of pink.

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In June, my family celebrated my Mom's 85th birthday with a surprise party and family dinner at the Old Mill in Westminster, Massachusetts. My 5 siblings; their spouses and children and even great-grandchildren brought the party to nearly 30 strong and ranged in ages from 2 years to 92 years. It was a fine, happy day.

I created a memory-lane guest book with places for each family member to leave a personal message.

I used a commercial spiral bound scrap book that I found in JoAnn's.

I used a variety of things to embellish the pages:
pictures both original and reproductions;
purchased and found objects;
fabric flowers;

buttons, rub-ons and more.

It was fun sorting through old pictures and making selections;

playing my own solitary memory lane game.

In the book, I traced my mother's journey starting with the earliest picture I had through to the present year.

Images showed her as a young girl of 16;
as a bride;
as a new mom in 1944 and 1946;
and with her expanding family in the 50s and 60s when 4 more children were added.

In addition to the pages with pictures,

I left space for personal messages.
On this page I affixed ephemera from World War II for the message.

The V-Mail is pristine and never-used from a stationery set that I acquired at a yard sale.

I left some pages only minimally embellished;

these were designated for memories or stories.

Each section of the memory book, is divided and identified by its contents.