Another Unbelievingly Easy Pocket

 Thanks Lisa Frase (JJCV)

"I made a bunch of pockets with 6 x 6 scrapbook paper. Each one has 3 pockets (the one centered has little papers in it to demonstrate). I played with my edge punches & decorative edge scissors. In the end, I think the scissors are the easiest to use. You could embellish & add ephemera. It also fits a teabag.

1. Fold a 6 x 6 paper triangular leaving one half inch.

2. Fold again leaving about one half inch.

3. Glue the edge (I used paperclips to until it dried).

I’m building a happy mail stash."

I then cut the corners at an angle.

I used double sided paper, so the middle layer is different than the rest.

Three - Four Pocket Pocket

Another Favorite!

Super quick and easy

Lots of sizes

Natasha/Treasure Books Video

Paper Size     /  Completed Pocket

8 x 12    /    4 x 6        

7 x 10  /   3.5 x 5      

    7 x 9   /   3.5 x 4.5       

7 x 9   /   3.5 x 4.5   

6 x 9   /   3 x 4.5     

6 x 8   /   3 x 4    

etc.

1.  Fold in half vertically

2.  Fold up from bottom

3.  Fold top/first corner down diagonally

4.  Fold second corner down - about 1/2 inch away

5.  Do the same for third and fourth corners

6.  Distress

7.  Glue triangles down

8.  Glue up the middle edge

9.  Decorate    

Just FInished!

Wish I'd Started This a Year Ago! 

June 2, 2026

Scrap Strip Clusters

March 29, 2026

Love My Pet ATCs

14. The Last Letter of Rachel Ellsworth by Barbara O'Neal

listened on Audible

395 pgs.

2025
Adult CRF
Finished 3/17
Goodreads rating: 4.35
My rating: 4

My comments: No notes?  Bummer.

Goodreads synopsis: Two women overcoming past traumas embark on a healing journey across continents in a novel about friendship, family, and rediscovery by the USA Today bestselling author of When We Believed in Mermaids.

Recently and abruptly divorced Veronica Barrington is anxious for a new direction when she answers a listing for a travel companion. It’s from Mariah Ellsworth, a young woman adjusting to an injury that ended her Olympic career. She’s also grieving her mother, Rachel, a lauded food writer, and Mariah aims to trace the steps of her mother’s final, unfinished project so she can heal and also honor the woman she misses.

Veronica seizes on the opportunity to experience with Mariah the culture, traditions, and intoxicating aromas of Parsi cafés throughout London, Paris, Morocco, and India. Accompanied by a former war photographer who has a wounded history of his own, and with just Rachel’s letters to guide them, the quest is a chance to not only close a chapter in life but also begin a new one.

Following the letters one by one—each a clue to an illuminating mystery—Veronica and Mariah must face the painful and beautiful challenges of freeing themselves from the dark shadows of the past. Together, far from home, they can find the light.

13. A Solitude of Wolverines by Alice Henderson

#1 Alex Carter

listened on Audible

352 pgs.

2020
Adult Mystery
Finished 3/13/2026
Goodreads rating:  3.91 
My rating: 3.75
Setting: contemporary Montana Wildlife sanctuary  

My comments: Can't find notes, know I wrote them somewhere....

Goodreads synopsis:  The first book in a thrilling series featuring an intrepid wildlife biologist who's dedicated to saving endangered species...and relies on her superior survival skills to thwart those who aim to stop her.

While studying wolverines on a wildlife sanctuary in Montana, biologist Alex Carter is run off the road and threatened by locals determined to force her off the land.

Undeterred in her mission to help save this threatened species, Alex tracks wolverines on foot and by cameras positioned in remote regions of the preserve. But when she reviews the photos, she discovers disturbing images of an animal of a different kind: a severely injured man seemingly lost and wandering in the wilds.

After searches for the unknown man come up empty, local law enforcement is strangely set on dismissing the case altogether, raising Alex’s suspicions. Then another invasive predator trespasses onto the preserve. The hunter turns out to be another human—and the prey is the wildlife biologist herself. Alex realizes too late that she has seen too much—she's stumbled onto a far-reaching illegal operation and now has become the biggest threat.

In this wild and dangerous landscape, Alex’s life depends on staying one step ahead—using all she knows about the animal world and what it takes to win the brutal battle for survival.

12. Girl Gone Missing by Marcie R. Rendon

#2 Cash Blackbear

listened on Audible

208 pgs.

2019
Adult Historical Fiction Mystery
Finished 3/5/2026
Goodreads rating: 3.97
My rating: 4
Setting: North Dakota/Minnesota Line - both sides of the Red River

My comments: darn, no notes.

Goodreads synopsis: Nineteen-year-old Cash Blackbear helps law enforcement solve the mysterious disappearance of a local girl from Minnesota's Red River Valley.

1970s, Fargo-Moorhead: it’s the tail end of the age of peace and love, but Cash Blackbear isn’t feeling it. Bored by her freshman classes at Moorhead State College, Cash just wants to play pool, learn judo, chain-smoke, and be left alone. But when one of Cash’s classmates vanishes without a trace, Cash, whose dreams have revealed dangerous realities in the past, can’t stop envisioning terrified girls begging for help. Things become even more intense when an unexpected houseguest starts crashing in her living room: a brother she didn’t even know was alive, from whom she was separated when they were taken from the Ojibwe White Earth Reservation as children and forced into foster care.

When Sheriff Wheaton, her guardian and friend, asks for Cash’s help with the case of the missing girl, she must override her apprehension about leaving her hometown—and her rule to never get in somebody else’s car—in order to discover the truth about the girl’s whereabouts. Can she get to her before it’s too late?

Rolodex - Dex Appeal - Friendship Blooms - February 2026

11. Murder on the Red River by Marcie Rendon

#1 Cash Blackbear

listened on Libby

320 pgs.

2017
Adult Mystery/Historical Fiction 
Finished 2/28/2026
Goodreads rating: 3.7
My rating: 4
Setting: 1970 1970 Fargo/MN state line

My comments: Cash is 19; smart, feisty, Native American, and really close to being an alcoholic, which is hard to watch.  She spends her life driving trucks for the local farms during the day and playing pool each night.  She drinks and smokes hard, has no friends except for the local sheriff who first met her when she was three years old, and lives a pretty solitary, empty life.  Then there's a murder nearby, and she helps the sheriff investigate.  Making it even more interesting, it's set in 1970. At only 6 hours long it was the perfect length, didn't drag on and on, and I enjoyed all the indigenous information.

Goodreads synopsis:  Set in 1970s along Red River Valley, Marcie R. Rendon's gripping new mystery follows the life of a young Ojibwe woman as she struggles to come to terms with the callous murder of a Native American stranger, bringing to life the gritty, dark reality of a flawed foster care system and the oppression of indigenous people.

Renee "Cash" Blackbear, a 19-year-old, tough-as-nails, resilient Ojibwe woman, has lived all her life in Fargo, sister city to Minnesota's Moorhead, just downriver from the Cities. Her life revolves around driving truck for local farmers, drinking beer, playing pool, smoking cigarettes, and solving criminal investigations through the power of her visions. She has one friend, Sheriff Wheaton, who's also her guardian and helped her out of the broken foster care system. Together they must work to solve a murder across cultures in a rural Midwest community layered in racism, genocide, and oppression.

Full Deck Challenge #4 Week 7

 Kept this one simple.  Only used 4/8 I think....dark blue, coral, tree, book page.  The leaves on the trees are raised and sparkly, love the texture.

10. Her Deadly Game by Robert Dugoni

#1 Keera Duggan, Seattle lawyer

listened on Audible

396 pgs.

2023
Adult Murder Mystery -  legal thriller
Finished 2/13/2026
Goodreads rating:  4.42 
My rating: 4
Setting: Contemporary Seattle

My comments: I love murder mysteries, but I'm not the biggest fan of being on the legal side of things.   Not sure why, although I used to love the John Grisham novels - from the legal side.  This was a great mystery, but the way the answers came together were a bit perplexing to me ... sort of hard to believe.  But it kept me interested and thinking, and although I disliked most of the characters, I'm happy to have read it.  I do like Robert Dugoni.

Goodreads synopsis:  A defense attorney is prepared to play. But is she a pawn in a master’s deadly match? A twisting novel of suspense by New York Times bestselling author Robert Dugoni.

Keera Duggan was building a solid reputation as a Seattle prosecutor, until her romantic relationship with a senior colleague ended badly. For the competitive former chess prodigy, returning to her family’s failing criminal defense law firm to work for her father is the best shot she has. With the right moves, she hopes to restore the family’s reputation, her relationship with her father, and her career.

Keera’s chance to play in the big leagues comes when she’s retained by Vince LaRussa, an investment adviser accused of murdering his wealthy wife. There’s little hard evidence against him, but considering the couple’s impending and potentially nasty divorce, LaRussa faces life in prison. The prosecutor is equally challenging: Miller Ambrose, Keera’s former lover, who’s eager to destroy her in court on her first homicide defense.

As Keera and her team follow the evidence, they uncover a complicated and deadly game that’s more than Keera bargained for. When shocking information turns the case upside down, Keera must decide between her duty to her client, her family’s legacy, and her own future.

Full Deck Challenge #4 - Week 6

 I used 5 of 6 prompts, I'm not really a shaker box gal....

Light blue, turquoise, sheet music, black marks and flowers.

9. Natural Selection - a short story by Erin Hildebrand

listened on Audible

54 pgs.

2024
Adult contemporary short story
Finished 2/8/2026
Goodreads rating: 3.61
My rating: 4
Setting: contemporary Galapagos Island

My comments: Even though it was supposed to be a mystery and you knew exactly what was going on, it was fun to adventure into the sea and surroundings of the Galapagos Islands.

Goodreads synopsis:  When her boyfriend bails at the last minute, a New York woman embarks on their couples’ cruise alone to find that maybe the person she was supposed to fall in love with was herself.

After a string of bad dates and no prospects, Sophia Othonos has finally hit the jackpot: an actual nice guy. When he suggests a romantic getaway, she’s sure they’re about to take the next step toward their future. A rustic cruise to the Galápagos Islands isn’t exactly her idea of a vacation, but Sophia is ready for anything…until her boyfriend has to cancel.

Now she’s all alone on a trip that was meant for two. Sophia finds herself at a crossroads about who she is, what she wants, and whether her relationship is really everything she thought. But if she’s going to suffer an identity crisis, at least she gets to do it amid the unexpected majesty of nature.

Eight days of wild, unobstructed beauty are enough to make anyone reevaluate their life. These islands are all about adapting to your surroundings—and change just might be what Sophia needs most of all.

8. Candle Island by Lauren Wolk

listened on Audible

352 pgs. (9:24)

2025
Middle Grades HF (almost CRF)
Finished 2/7/2026
Goodreads rating: 4.31
My rating: 5
Setting: Island off the coast of Maine, approaching DownEast

My comments: I'm so glad I read this.  No cell phones, no computers, the encyclopedia at the library dates from 1902. In my head it was the 70s.  Many facets of the story....losing your dad, moving with your mom from Vermont to a Maine island - an island only accessible by ferry - saving an osprey baby and raising it, Townies vs Summer kids, making friends, fishing and horse riding, learning to sail and exploring.  And painting. So good.

Goodreads synopsis:  A moving portrait of loss and the restorative power of art from Lauren Wolk, the Newbery Honor-winning author of Beyond the Bright Sea.

Lucretia Sanderson has a secret.

Lucretia and her mother have come to tiny Candle Island, Maine ( Summer, 986; Winter, 315) to escape—escape memories of the car accident that killed her father and escape the journalists that hound her mother, a famous and reclusive artist. The rocky coast and ocean breeze are a welcome respite for Lucretia, who dedicates her summer days to painting, exploring the island, and caring for an orphaned osprey chick.

But Candle Island has secrets of its own—a hidden room in her new house, a mysterious boy with a beautiful voice—and just like the strong tides that surround the shores, they will catch Lucretia in their wake.

With an unforgettable New England setting and a complex web of relationships old and new, Candle Island is a powerful story about art, loss, and the power of being true to your own voice.

Full Deck Challenge #4 - Week 5

 This week I used 4 of 8 prompts - Orange, happy scraps, sentiment, dark green (didn't use hearts, zigzag, lace or buttons)

Bookmarks

Scrappy Bookmarks for May 2026

Whimsical Houses Bookmarks March 2026

Whimsical Winter Bookmarks February 2026

Circle top bookmarks for December Swap

Hidden Paper Clip bookmarks made with playing cards for December Swap.

Xmas Bookmarks for Brunch Friends

BYS Bookmarks

Halloween Bookmarks