Marva in her crafting nook
Jaine Toth
Among the several crafts that beckon Marva Laudert—including gourd decorating, quilting, beading, and sculpting with polymer clay—paper crafting is her main creative endeavor. She began with scrapbooking when her son Shane was born 50 years ago.
Living in Kansas at the time, Marva worked on her projects along with her Creative Memories representative. After relocating to Colorado Springs, Colo., she found a group of ladies who enjoyed getting together to work on their scrapbooks. One woman owned most of the needed equipment and was happy to share it with her crafting friends.
When they heard about some card making classes, they carpooled together to Colorado Springs and Marva found this new type of paper crafting useful. She’d decided to stop making scrapbooks when she realized her grandchildren, now part of the new technically oriented generation, were no longer into physical books. She laughed as she imagined them thinking, “If it isn’t digital, I don’t care!”
On buying a winter home here at Robson Ranch, Marva immediately joined the Paper Crafting Club. Even with a paper crafting area set up in her laundry room (a full bedroom in her Woodland Park, Colo., home is dedicated to the craft), she enjoys being with the other members and enjoys the access to the varied pieces of equipment and extra supplies available at the studio. She also enjoys participating in the varied charitable projects, especially the thank you cards we give to the Pinal County Animal Care and Control shelter, which they in turn give to folks adopting a pet and to their many volunteers and donors. It’s become so special to Marva that she started a similar project in Colorado with her Ute Pass Social Club and it’s as well-received there as here. She said she “doesn’t always know if it’s good,” but then realizes it’s value and feels a welcome “sense of worth—artistic worth” when, after being unsure, others express their joy and appreciation of the cards they receive.
The importance of our outreach became obvious when some firemen, who have frequently been recipients of cards of appreciation, stopped into the studio to see where we worked and meet some of the people who’ve been so generous and bring light into their often stressful lives.
While living in Colorado, Marva became quite ill. Unable to enjoy the many cards she received, her husband, Scott, saved them all for her to read at a later date. She was overwhelmed by the number of cards she received along with the heartfelt, personal messages they contained. She said, “It reinforced the importance of letting others know you care about them, especially with homemade cards.”