VALENTINES

Valentine's Day will soon be here, but it isn't too late to participate in the NORBAG Valentine exchange. Just make a valentine...a card in whatever form strikes your fancy and take it or mail it to arrive at the NORBAG mailbox by February 8. The valentines will be shown on Zoom after the Show & Tell workshop. This exchange is always a favorite with our members. We want to encourage new members or those of you who have never participated in our monthly exchanges to please join in. Here are a few photos of valentines that were featured in a 2012 display in the kiosk at the Humboldt County Library.

VALENTINES

 Our February "workshop" was a wonderful tour through 27 years worth of amazing creative calendars made by four very clever women. Many thanks to Carolyn Jones for sharing this collaborative project with us. NORBAG members who missed the "show" can watch the recording by going to the link that can be found on page 3 of the newsletter. It is the last recording on the page and it does take a little time to load.

The February book exchange is traditionally valentines. This year 18 members participated in the exchange and there are some wonderful cards/books that will soon be shown on our Flickr site. Until that happens, here is a teaser peek at the valentine from Mary Elizabeth Nelson, aka Emmy. 

The following photos are of valentines from past years that are now on display in the kiosk at the Humboldt County Library in Eureka, CA.

LET'S MAKE CARDS

Traditionally, the February NORBAG workshop has been to make Valentine cards for people in care and rehabilitation homes. This has been a project led by Lorraine Miller-Wolf for many years, but due to Covid restrictions, those who wish to make and donate Valentine cards will need to do so independently and deliver them to Lorraine. Her contact information is in the newsletter.

Instead, NORBAG will host a card making workshop at our regular February Zoom meeting. Please join us as Diane Williams shows us how to create two 3D structures that are able to fold flat and fit into an A2 envelope. The first structure is a Bridge Card.

Bridge Card

A Bridge Card is much like a tunnel structure where you can layer elements on to the bridge to create depth. Since we will be making a prototype, we will keep with a simple Valentine theme.

The second 3D card is a Tent Card. This card easily stands alone for display and lends itself to being embellished on the outside with cut out shapes glued to its sides. Again, this card can be folded flat for easy mailing. Both cards are fun to create and easy to share by mail or in person.

Tent card shown flat and for display

Materials for the Bridge card:

• Card: 1 piece of cardstock 4 1/4" by 8" (grain short)
• 1 piece of cardstock 1/2" x 5 1/2" (this is the bridge piece)
• 1 piece of cardstock 1/2" x 3 1/2"
• 1 piece pattern paper 2 7/8" x 4 1/4"
• 2 pieces pattern paper 1 1/4" x 4 1/4"

Materials for the Tent card:

• 3 pieces colored cardstock 3 1/2" x 3 1/2"
• 1 piece of cardstock 1/2" x 1/2"

Tools and Supplies:

• Bone folder
• Paper cutter, or ruler and x-acto knife
• Scissors
• Pencil
• Glue or double stick tape (adhesive of your choice)
• Optional: score board for scoring folds
• Optional: pictures, cut shapes such as hearts, and pieces of patterned paper to embellish your cards

Here are more examples of the cards

Bridge card

Bridge card

Tent Card flat

Tent Card displayed

When:   Saturday, February 13 at 10 a.m. PST

Where:  On your computer, tablet or smartphone via Zoom

RSVP:    YES, to Dolores Guffey by Feb. 5 to receive password and instructions

Workshop questions: Diane Williams

Zoom questions: Bobbie Hayes - contact information for everyone will be in the newsletter.

RED, WHITE, & VALENTINES

North Redwoods Book Arts Guild members both past and present have created books and cards to celebrate Valentine's Day and to be creative using a red and white theme. Many interesting items are now on display in the kiosk at the Humboldt County Library in Eureka. Included are: a whirligig spiral book with words of love, art papers and stamps; book pages fashioned into a flowered bracelet; a red book with woven binding and lots of beads; a wrap and closure book with collected quotations; a red and gold accordion book of sentiments in calligraphy; an embroidered felt pin based on a 1970's Vogue pattern on a cut-out card with red embroidery; and an Abecedaries of Dog book with original drawings by one NORBAG member, assembled by another member using a third member's instructions. Abecedary books are alphabet books. "They're the A is for apple and B is for bear books" as defined by Shereen LaPlantz in her book, The Art & Craft of Handmade Books. Be sure to check out this display if you're in the Eureka area.

VALENTINE MAKING WORKSHOP

It has become a tradition for NORBAG members to dedicate our February workshop to making valentines for Lorraine Miller-Wolf to distribute to people around Humboldt County. Recipients of these valentines are those receiving the Senior Nutrition home-delivered meals, participants at the senior lunch sites, kidney dialysis patients, and people living in local convalescent and board & care homes. Lorraine shared that she distributed 815 valentines last year... many made by NORBAG members! If you can't come to the workshop, but would like to give Lorraine your own homemade valentines, just email her at curly1363@gmail.com.

Materials to bring:

• Miscellaneous papers suitable for valentines
• Paper doilies
• Ribbon, lace and other adornments
• Bone folder
• Scissors
• PVA glue or glue stick
• X-acto knife & cutting mat
• Stamps & stamp pads
• Scrap paper to protect the table surface

WHEN?   Saturday Feb. 8 at noon
WHERE?  Eureka Methodist Church, Del Norte & F Streets
BRING?   See above list for suggestions
RSVP?     No
COST?     None

2017 February Workshop - Valentines

We met on February 11 for an unusual workshop. Instead of learning how to make a structure or a new design technique, we made Valentines. Lorraine Miller-Wolf hosted her annual Valentine card making party with us. She collects cards from various groups and then delivers them to folks at the Senior Nutrition home delivered meals, senior lunch sites, dialysis patients and in convalescent and board and care homes.

It was interesting to watch our members making the cards. Some people are regular card makers and brought all kinds of materials to use: stamped and embossed cutouts, precut decorations and sayings, stickers and stamps. Others came and sat down carefully looking at all of the snippets of paper and attacked with scissors and glue. No matter which style, the cards are delightful.

Edge G and Lynne G making Valentines with paper doilies.

JoAnn E and Beth M are playing with a table full of supplies!

 We received a note from Lorraine who said she delivered 590 valentines made by several groups including ours. It was a delightful play day. And now, here are some of the cards we made (imagine a sound like TA-DA!).

See the heart in the middle with the woven spine,
 Michele K gave a recent workshop on this technique.

The card with the pop-up hearts is a structure from a recent workshop
 given by Edge G.

Valentine Library Kiosk

The latest kiosk display at the Humboldt County Library features valentines from past NORBAG exchanges. The annual February exchange of valentines is always one of the most popular exchanges of the year. The "cards" are often very sculptural or more like books than cards which adds to the fun. If you have the opportunity, take a trip to the library to see this lovely display.

Once again thanks go to Lynne Gurnee for maintaining and updating the kiosk displays.

VALENTINE MAKING with Lorraine Miller-Wolf

It's valentine making time! Once again Lorraine will lead February's workshop to make valentines for our friends and families as well as people in the community. This is the 12th year that Lorraine has spearheaded this very worthy project to distribute original valentines to senior lunch sites, kidney dialysis patients, people living in local convalescent and board and care homes, and participants in the Senior Nutrition home delivered meals program. Last year Lorraine distributed 950 valentines...many made by NORBAG members. If you aren't able to come to the meeting/workshop, but would like to contribute your own handmade valentines, please contact Lorraine, her contact information is in the newsletter.

Materials to bring:

• Miscellaneous papers suitable for valentines
• Paper doilies
• Ribbon, lace, and other adornments
• Bone folder
• Scissors
• PVA glue or glue stick
• X-acto knife and cutting mat
• Stamps and stamp pads

When?   Saturday Feb. 11 at 12 noon

Where?  Eureka Methodist Church, Del Norte & F Streets

Bring?    See list above

RSVP?    No

Cost?     None

February 2016 Workshop - Valentines

This month our "workshop" had a purpose other than book arts. Lorraine Miller-Wolf had us prepare Valentine cards for the Senior Nutrition Program home delivered meals, participants at the senior lunch sites, kidney dialysis patients and people living in our local board and care homes.

Lorraine brought some supplies and the rest of us did too.  Some of us had already made cards at home. We then spent the next several hours making Valentines. Here are the pictures. Need I say more?

And now for the results!

Lots and lots of cards.

Take a look at the February 14th blog. It shows the display of Valentine cards that have been part of the previous years' exchanges.