Lisa M. Pace - Delight in the seasons: crafting a year of memorable holidays and celebrations

E ach season of the year is filled not only with holidays, but also with many special occasions and memorable events. I hope, as you flip through this book, you will find loads of inspiration for all that is celebrated during the seasons. In each chapter, you will find cards, tags, layouts and decorative items that can be given as gifts or used to commemorate occasions from the everyday to the extraordinary.

In has projects and techniques for Grandparents Day, Thanksgiving and more.

Finally, Ill show you how to take the techniques in each chapter and use them to celebrate all of the seasons. Look through More Seasonal Delights, starting on page 114, to see how the techniques in this book can be transformed to suit more than one season.

All of the projects youll see in these pages have a slight vintage feel, as I have incorporated my signature embellishments, such as vintage buttons, glass glitter, trims and pearls. If you like this look, you can replicate it yourself, or give each technique and project your own spin. With the many wonderful art and craft supplies available today, its easy to put your own stamp on your projects. My hope is that while you browse through this book, you will find ways to create and accent projects that celebrate all the wonderful special occasions and memorable moments that are sprinkled throughout the seasons. Maybe youll even be inspired to start a few creative traditions for your family. And remember: While youre busy creating and celebrating, always take delight in the seasons.

G rowing up, I always looked forward to each season. In southeast Texas, we mainly had two seasons: winter and summer. As winter approached, the one thing I had in mind was the two-week Christmas break we had from school every year. I can remember getting so excited as Christmas got closer because that meant extra arts and crafts in school. I loved making paper and clay ornaments to bring home for our tree and using spray paint and glitter to turn a thick magazine into a tabletop tree decoration. My mom and I made things together at home to celebrate Christmas. Over the years, weve made raffia baskets, dough ornaments and cloth ornaments, as well as paper ornaments and numerous treats. Obviously, the love of crafting that I felt then is here to stay!

As much as winter makes me think of holidays, spring holds its own special occasions. I looked forward to watching the spring flowers bloom, but as fast as spring came, it left again as the hot Texas summer started. My family would take advantage of what little spring we had, though! One of my favorite times in spring was Easter. As spring approached, my mom and I looked forward to making bird nest cupcakes for Easter. When we made our cupcakes, I loved adding the green food coloring and shredded coconut to the icing to make the grass. Once my sister was old enough, she joined in the fun and she loved putting the jelly bean eggs on top of the shredded coconut topping. Deciding which colors to put on each cupcake was the hardest part. Another tradition in my house was that my mom and dad would always hide Easter eggs for us kids to find. Let me just say, some were pretty challenging to find. We found one egg behind a basket several years after it had been hidden. We still cannot understand why that thing did not smell! I guess it had been sitting there all that time waiting to be found.

Our short spring would quickly turn into summer and then my brother and I would run around the block barefoot and fancy-free all day long with not one care in the world. One summer, we created our own Slip n Slide using a water hose and a piece of plastic that covered the entire front yard. We and all the neighborhood kids had an incredible day of slipping and sliding. However, when mom and dad came home from work and saw the lovely mud pit their front yard had become, my brother Richard and I headed right up to our rooms without even needing to be told. But I have to tell you, we had a blast, the yard did recover, and my mom and dad werent too hard on us. We were just kids having fun on a hot summer day. Summer for my family was also marked by a two-week trip to visit my grandparents. It was fun seeing our grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins. We would all have big picnics and visit the old homestead where my grandmother cooked on the wood-burning stove. Another summer tradition was that on July 4th we would attend a pool party and spend the day swimming and playing games, then in the evening we would either sit on our garage roof or go down to the warehouse my mom and dad owned and climb up onto the roof there to watch the fireworks. It was fun to be so high up because it seemed like you could reach out and touch the brilliant fireworks. It was always sad to see summer end because of all the fun we had.

Once autumn started to hit Texas, we were back in school, excited to attend football games and enjoy the state fair. In the autumn, my mom always enjoyed helping me and my siblings get our costumes ready for Halloween. We never purchased ours; we just dug around in mom and dads closet and made our own. One year, Mom dressed up as Mother Goose and hosted a Halloween party for all of the kids in the neighborhood. It was so much fun, and it is one of my favorite holiday memories.