About Hanna and paper...
I have been making cards since I was about 8 or 9. As a kid I loved taping paper together and folding it into an accordion to make a long pull-out birthday card with pastels and water color paints. I grew up on Long Island, NY, and would come in Manhattan with my father on Saturdays when I was young. He would take me to an art supply store where I would load up on things with colors. There were no Michaels or AC Moore or Joann or online stores then; New York City was my mecca, and I knew I was very lucky.
When I was 14 I made my first scrapbook, an homage to all things Beatles made with bright red construction paper - the long size. Sadly, it was pre-acid-free and has disintegrated into little bits.
I did paper crafting projects as life allowed through my twenties and thirties, including making a family tree scrapbook and birthday cards.
In 1999 I moved into the modern era of rubber stamps and scrapbooks. I discovered rubber stamps at Michaels and my world has never been the same. I embraced rubber stamping with a fervor that surprised even me. I pulled out water color paints and markers and chalks that I hadn't used since I was young and found new life in their old wrappers and containers.
In 2000 I planted a garden specifically to grow plants that I could make into paper. I had a wonderful array of iris, daffodils, ginger, lilies, grasses, mums, spiderwort... and a basket of onion skins was available all the time. The pots would be bubbling on the stove as I pre-empted the burners for paper and my husband and I had to eat cold dinners. I dried pansies, mums, rose petals and daisies to embed in my paper; I'm still coming across flowers resting among the pages of old books, waiting to be of use in handmade paper.
In 2001 my mother had a massive stroke and developed vascular dementia. She moved from New York to North Carolina so that I could more easily be her caregiver, and slowly I realized that I could not do it all. I decided to learn digital scrapbooking so that I could scrapbook on my laptop while sitting with my mother. I came to enjoy digital scrapbooking deeply - the elements are so incredibly beautiful and the designs are so flexible. I had always done hybrid work, particularly with photo manipulation and titles, but this took digital to a whole new level. In 2011 I purged my paper craft supplies, but I still missed the feel of paper.
My mother died in 2012 and I have slowly been recovering, moving on in my own life. I am deeply grateful for the years we had together and for the love we shared. Now I am ready to return to paper and, coincidently, to return to teaching.
2015 will be a very good year.
For more information about my work, my teaching and my coaching, please visit my website: hannalyons.weebly.com
I have been making cards since I was about 8 or 9. As a kid I loved taping paper together and folding it into an accordion to make a long pull-out birthday card with pastels and water color paints. I grew up on Long Island, NY, and would come in Manhattan with my father on Saturdays when I was young. He would take me to an art supply store where I would load up on things with colors. There were no Michaels or AC Moore or Joann or online stores then; New York City was my mecca, and I knew I was very lucky.
When I was 14 I made my first scrapbook, an homage to all things Beatles made with bright red construction paper - the long size. Sadly, it was pre-acid-free and has disintegrated into little bits.
I did paper crafting projects as life allowed through my twenties and thirties, including making a family tree scrapbook and birthday cards.
In 1999 I moved into the modern era of rubber stamps and scrapbooks. I discovered rubber stamps at Michaels and my world has never been the same. I embraced rubber stamping with a fervor that surprised even me. I pulled out water color paints and markers and chalks that I hadn't used since I was young and found new life in their old wrappers and containers.
In 2000 I planted a garden specifically to grow plants that I could make into paper. I had a wonderful array of iris, daffodils, ginger, lilies, grasses, mums, spiderwort... and a basket of onion skins was available all the time. The pots would be bubbling on the stove as I pre-empted the burners for paper and my husband and I had to eat cold dinners. I dried pansies, mums, rose petals and daisies to embed in my paper; I'm still coming across flowers resting among the pages of old books, waiting to be of use in handmade paper.
In 2001 my mother had a massive stroke and developed vascular dementia. She moved from New York to North Carolina so that I could more easily be her caregiver, and slowly I realized that I could not do it all. I decided to learn digital scrapbooking so that I could scrapbook on my laptop while sitting with my mother. I came to enjoy digital scrapbooking deeply - the elements are so incredibly beautiful and the designs are so flexible. I had always done hybrid work, particularly with photo manipulation and titles, but this took digital to a whole new level. In 2011 I purged my paper craft supplies, but I still missed the feel of paper.
My mother died in 2012 and I have slowly been recovering, moving on in my own life. I am deeply grateful for the years we had together and for the love we shared. Now I am ready to return to paper and, coincidently, to return to teaching.
2015 will be a very good year.
For more information about my work, my teaching and my coaching, please visit my website: hannalyons.weebly.com