Judee with one of her scrapbooks
Jaine Toth
When longtime winter visitors to Pinal County Judee Clark and her husband Al opted to switch from their RV to a house, they chose Robson Ranch. Over the years they kept finding themselves drawn to this community and moved into their new home in October 2021.
A longtime paper crafter, Judee joined the Robson Ranch Paper Crafting Club in January 2022. Her first introduction to this art form was at a Creative Memories party in 1995. She enjoyed it so much, she says, “I was hooked!” Judee began making scrapbooks with photos of their various vacations. She became so adept at the craft that a local stationery store hired her to teach scrapbooking to their customers. She taught there for 10 years.
The lasting treasure of a scrapbook is being able to peruse them and let old memories resurface. She and Al especially like to do that together each New Year, not only with the ones from their vacations, but also the one she made to commemorate their wedding.
Not one to waste anything, Judee takes the “scraps” left over after cutting and fitting papers onto her scrapbook pages and uses them to create a greeting card.
The first time she made a card for that specific purpose, rather than just to use up her extra papers, was when Al asked her if she’d make a card for him to give someone. “Who is it for?” she asked. The answer surprised and delighted her. “For you. Have you seen the price of cards these days?” After a good laugh, she made the card, and inserted this saying:
Reduce the clutter and the mess—a generic card relieves the stress.
Reuse this greeting throughout the year—just add your message of good cheer
Recycle this card—it won’t be hard and
Remember—you are the sunshine in my life.
He gave it to her on their anniversary and, as suggested, continues to give it again each year.
It’s become a treasured tradition, “except for when we can’t find it!” she added. But eventually it shows up and the tradition resumes.
Judee says, “I taught card making for two years to a small group of RVers prior to coming to RR. Card making allows me to give back, especially with the RR Paper Crafters group donating cards to veterans, seniors, and charity groups. I don’t do much rubber stamping or use the cutting machine systems. I’m old school and like to use paper, scissors, and glue. But the people from RR Paper Crafters are very friendly, generous, and sharing, and willing to help me learn new techniques. I very much appreciate that.”
Having enjoyed the creativity required to code in her work as a computer programmer, she is enjoying the switch from “creativity in a business sense” to this new artistic creativity.
Judee says, “I don’t even use a computer anymore. I went from hi tech to low tech to no tech!”
Another distinction she appreciates is the freedom that comes with this craft. Unless you want to follow a pattern for some of the more intricate designs, you can just let your own imagination flow from your mind and heart onto the paper. She loves that “there are no absolute rules and no wrong way to do things.”