Chris at her craft desk in her Arizona home
Jaine Toth
Joining the Paper Crafting Club was high on the list of priorities for Chris Haisting after moving to Robson Ranch two years ago, and she did so almost immediately. “I really like the classes and camaraderie, she says. “It’s nice to have something in common with people.”
Chris is “all in favor of the charity cards, especially the cards expressing appreciation. It’s a lost art. It feels very good to be doing something for other people who are always serving.”
She sends out lots of cards with personal messages, especially to friends who are alone. “It helps them know they are not forgotten.” She adds with a laugh, “I help keep the post office in business!”
A longtime paper crafter, Chris volunteered to become our club historian and maintain a scrapbook of our classes, charity projects, publicity releases, and other activities.
Chris first began scrapbooking about 30 years ago with Creative Memories. Five years later she attended a Stampin’ Up! party and “…got sucked in!” That was the beginning of “a group of Stampin’ Up! friends who got together monthly to create cards and learn new techniques for years. We had our own demonstrator dedicated to our group.”
Wanting to find a way to be of service in the community, Chris began helping a group of women in a senior living facility make cards. She did the cutting and prepped the materials, then took everything with her to the facility, and the ladies would make five cards each at a session. Seeing their obvious delight was payment enough for Chris, but the ladies insisted they wanted to help pay for it, so finally Chris agreed to take $1 from each of them per session. “These were people of the generation that understands and appreciates the time and care that goes into handmade cards and handwritten sentiments,” Chris said. She laments the newer, busier generations that conduct almost all their correspondence via text, email, and social media. The get-togethers at the facility ended due to the COVID-19 pandemic and since then several have passed on, but Chris keeps in touch with one of the surviving women and treasures their communications.
Chris has made special scrapbooks for her children. Her mother-in-law lived at that senior facility and was having memory lapses. One of Chris’s sons brought his scrapbook in which there were many pictures of his grandmother and they sat and went through it and each time she saw herself, it triggered a memory and she’d become quite animated. It was a gift for all of them.
Chris has a section of the master bedroom in her Robson Ranch home set up for her paper crafting. When she needs to stamp or use equipment, she uses the kitchen counter and then takes it all back to her desk to assemble. It’s a fraction of the space she has in her Minnesota home. There she has two 8’ long countertops set up with a lateral file and other storage pieces below them. One cabinet has small shallow drawers that are perfect for keeping her stamps in order. Another has side drawers that she’s filled with smaller containers to organize her various supplies. The lateral file is home to all her papers.
Chris misses her craft room in the winter, but not the weather. She’s quite content to be here where she only has to shovel sunshine.