The Fairy Wedding Dress ~ hiding inside a little Altoids tin!

You are invited to a very special Royal Wedding….

 

No, don’t get excited. It’s not a delayed in the post invite to THAT wedding, because THAT wedding happened a week ago.   This is a different wedding altogether! 

❤  ~  ❤  ~  ❤

I’ve been trying to share this Fairy Wedding Tin for the last week,  and … well life got in the way and the rest is history.  But here I am now, doing the sharing!  Whoo hoo!

Chatting with another blogger, (Gillyflower)  in comments on my  last Altoids (size) Tin Transformation (<– clickable link)   a couple of weeks ago,  I told her that I had plans for a Fairy Themed Tin …. and began it straight away.  So this is me, sending you an invitation to come and share the secret of the tiny, all handmade (by me), ‘Fairy Wedding Dress hidden inside a Tin’!

Let’s begin at the beginning, shall we?

The Front of the Altoids size Tin is the first page of a three page ‘book’  which is an introduction to what’s inside the tin!

The front of the tin is the beginning of the story.  There are another two pages to the ‘book’, which are held closed by a small hidden magnet.

It says:   The Fairy Prince asked the Fairy girl to marry him, and she said ‘Yes’!  So with lots of excitement, a Fairy Wedding was planned.  With the finest silk spiders put to work, spinning the finest webs to make the finest Fairy Wedding dress.  On the opposite page is a tiny sketch of a wedding dress.

Then …  you open the tin to see the Wedding Dress of the Year (well, almost), which was all hand-made by Cobwebs.  er …. using Cobwebs …  ah,  no … er,  umm  ….  aw… just open the tin!

I wanted to do a fancy arty type of photo.  Black and white, but the dress and tree in colour.  Not sure it’s worth the effort, but it was an enjoyable few minutes of play-time.  😀

All the papers you see lining the inside of the little Tin are Graphic 45 ~ Fairy Dust.

The bodice of the Wedding Gown was made from lightweight, air dry clay.

That’s an English Penny you see at the base of the tin, in the centre.  An English Penny is (roughly) the same size as an American penny.

The tin measures 9cm tall,  and 6.cm wide, which is approx or just over  3.5″  in inches tall and 2.36 inches wide,  and it’s just over three quarters of an inch deep.

The Fairy Ballet Shoes you can see hanging from the knob, next to the mirror, are also made by me, and are roughly about a third of the size of a penny.

The dress isn’t dangling on the floor of the tin, as it looks in that last photo.  I can actually put my finger between the ‘grass and flowers’ and the bottom of the wedding dress … which you can see in the next photo .  .  .

… can you see the grass and flowers beneath the dress, in the above (bit fuzzy) photograph?

The dress is festooned with soft pink and red flowers, with bits of greenery here and there.  It has a sparkly ribbon around the waist, and a petticoat made from white cheesecloth fabric.   The skirt of the dress is topped off with two layers of pure white, fine, Tulle. The shoulder straps on the bodice are satin.

The tree which the dress is hanging from was made from a Pine twiggy bit which I found in my garden, which has been drying out for weeks in my craft room.  I didn’t have any plans for it at the time I picked it up (and thanked nature for it), but I knew I’d use it in some way, and ….  this Fairyland Wedding altered Tin is the perfect place!

I really enjoyed making this lovely altered Tin, and would love to make one like it again at some point.  But making a different sort of dress next time.  I have a million thoughts about what sort of dress and how it might look.  But … this tin was quite an intensive make.  All stops, starts and stops again, as I waited for bits of things to set / dry etc, – and I will freely admit that patience isn’t one of my strongest virtues.

 

Anyhooo  … that’s me done and dusted for this lovely Monday. I’m so glad that I finally got to sorting the photos out, and getting to share this Altered Tin with you.

I’ve spent the weekend just gone, trying to catch up with other peoples blog posts that I’ve missed.  Now I think I’m up to date …. but just in case my ‘Reader’ is telling me porky pies, and I’ve missed a blog post of yours, please do let me know in a comment so that I can come and catch up!

Thank you so much for coming, and for having a coffee moment with me.  I love seeing you here.  I’m sorry I’m sometimes missing in action – I have some health issues which are being a proper pain in the ‘you know where’. (not literally, you understand.  I have no problems with my ‘you know where‘).  But …  let’s not bother about the health issues, for they are like dragons.  They’re only scary if you think about them too much!  So we won’t.  😀

As always. . .  I love your company and love to chat with you, so please feel welcome to comment.  Let me know what you think.  Let me know what’s going on in your life.  And … if you’re in the United Kingdom, then today is a Bank Holiday – so let me know what you’re planning to do with this day off work (if you have the day off work – ’cause some folks aren’t able to.).

Have a magnificent Monday, whatever you’re doing, and a truly blessed, wonderful week.  Sending much love to you ~ 

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Happy Anniversary – Rock Style!

Today, Mr.Cobs and I have been married 37 years.  Really doesn’t seem that long … but the sprinkling of grey in Mr.Cobs hair, and the ‘God spilt grey all over’ my hair, kind of tells the truth of the matter.

I wondered how many actual days 37 years worked out to be … so I went in search, and found something which gave me not only the answer to that question but answers to a few more too … so I set to work and made a personalised ‘thing’ using photoshop:  …

Please note that I missed out how many times we’ve given each other one of  *those* looks when we’ve disagreed with each other.  lol.

I handmade just a simple card, – I didn’t feel it needed anything complicated.  He’s not really a complicated type of chap.  I wanted to get Little Cobs involved so got him helping me to find tiny little rocks which were flatter than the norm.  We collected a little pot of them, so that I could make a choice of two which kind of matched each other.

Little Cobs kept asking me:  “What are you going to make with them Grammy?” ... and of course I couldn’t tell him, because he’s just useless at keeping secrets, so I told him that I wasn’t entirely certain, but that I would show him when he came for the day on Saturday.

I hand wrote the words, as it just made it all more personal and special.  And yes… he really is my rock.  Even with the bad cough he’s sporting at the moment, he’s still right there.

a partial side view – so that you can see that the rock pebbles really aren’t that thick.

The lighting makes it look like I’ve used cream card on top of a black layer, on top of another cream layer, and then attached to a white cut and folded card – but in fact,  all the card – apart from the black card, is snow-white white.  I think that the difference is that the layers of white card are linen card – so it reflects the light in a slightly different way and softens the hardness of the white.  But … to the naked eye, the card really is white.

37 years…  and it doesn’t feel a day too long.  If I had my time over, I’d pick him again, every time.

Thank you so much for coming and sharing a coffee with me and taking a peep at the card.  I love seeing you.  But … you know that anyway 😀

Sending squidges, from me here in my corner, to you there in yours.

 

A little bit of Dorset in a little Tin!

Those of you who have known me for some time,  know that I love working in ‘little’.  I love the quirkiness of making little things, and I’ve made things in tins before and posted them on the blog here, but not very often.  However, just as the world turns, I’m kind of coming back to tins again. I first began making things in tins about 25 years ago, (obviously I was only … ooo…  erm ...  two and a half at the time – cough-fibber-cough), and I remember the Master Craftsman – who was teaching me to sculpt in clay –  commenting many times that …  “… It’s all in the details with you, Cobs, isn’t it!”.  He noticed something that had never occurred to me – but once he said it, I could see that indeed, it really was!

Will you open the box …. or will you take the money?!!!

But anyhoo …. Mr.Cobs has a friend who lives back where we used to live – (someone Cobs Snr. used to work with) – who comes and visits every now and again, and both of them go out and make a day of having jolly fun together, eating, visiting places of interest, and generally doing what lads like to do.  Well, Mr.Cobs Friend is coming in a few weeks for a visit, and I got to thinking that here I was, making things for __________ (fill in blank space), but I’d never made anything for him.  So I set about thinking of what I could make him which would be a memory of Dorset (where we now live).

I know that when he comes to visit this time, Mr.Cobs and he have made a plan to get on a boat and go over to Brownsea Island.  Now … I will freely admit that since we’ve lived in Dorset, I’ve had absolutely no inclination to visit the island.  I will sometimes sit in the harbour on the mainland, with a coffee, and get the binoculars out to have a bit of a nose at what’s going on around the island – but have never wanted to go.

Brownsea Island – circled to make it easier to spot.

When I found out the chaps planned to go there, I thought I could make something relating to Brownsea Island, as a surprise for Mr.Cobs Friend, which he could take home.  BUT . . . after doing some research I was stumped about what on earth I could fit into a little tin Diorama,  which would be interesting, but also decorative, if he and his wife wanted to display the gift. which related to Brownsea Island.   Nothing.  My brain gave me either a red squirrel or a tree.  No.  Those wouldn’t do at all!

Brownsea Island – A link to the National Trust Website –  if you’d like to see/read about the island.

So I had to think about other places which might be on the agenda for another time, and Portland Bill Lighthouse popped into my head.  The more I thought about it the more solid it became – so …. I made it.  Well …  I made an artist’s impression of just the actual lighthouse.  It does have a cottage building attached to it – but I chose not to include that as it would have made the tin too crowded – so just made the lighthouse itself, from lightweight clay (so that the tin remained light in weight) – adding the windows, door, the ‘foghorn’ sounder on the side …  and the railing around the walkway which runs around the big lamp at the top.

I set the lighthouse atop of some ‘Portland rock’ – well, an artistic impression of it anyway. 

Portland Stone is a limestone which has been used for centuries and can be seen in many buildings such as St. Paul’s Cathedral and Buckingham Palace.  (you can read more about this on Wikipedia by clicking  HERE)

Behind the lighthouse you can see a section of map which shows the position of Portland Bill Lighthouse,  and on the inside of the lid [of the tin] is a little bit of information relating to Portland Bill Lighthouse.

For anyone interested in reading more about Portland Bill – I offer two clickable links:

Trinity House  – a website which gives information about a lot of the Lighthouses here in the UK – but this link will take you directly to the Portland Bill page.

Wikipedia – Portland Bill – a short read.

You can just about see the flag waving in the breeze, on top of the Lighthouse – it’s the British Red Ensign, which is the flag used by civilian vessels.

The tin is roughly the size of an Altoids Tin – at (approx) 95mm x 60mm x 20mm (ish).  And …  the lighthouse isn’t flat backed (which it seems to look in the photos).  When I created it, I made it completely round from base to top.  So when you look at it, you can turn the tin a little, and see around to the back.

Ohh…. and yes, those really are teeny tiny,  real  sea shells in front of the tin!  So delicate and so pretty.

Well, that’s what I’ve been up to in the last few days, in my newly painted craft room.  I’m still in a bit of a fiddle with the organisation – but my fingers were itching to make and create, so I left everything as it was, and instead sat and made something.  I could stand it no longer!  (A gals gotta do what a gals gotta do!).

Thank you so much for coming for a visit.  I love to see you here.  Do let me know that you’ve been and shared a coffee moment with me.  I love to know who I’m talking to – so just say ‘hello’ in a comment if you can’t think of anything to say, and I promise I’ll say hello right back!

Wishing you a truly blessed Monday and a happy week ahead.  Everything here in Great Britain is gearing up for the Royal Wedding in a week and a bit’s time.  Flags and bunting are coming out all over the land.  It’s all looking very jolly!  Anything going on where you live?

Sending you much love and squidges ~ 

 

Copper? Show Stopper!

One of my family members was to celebrate their 7th Wedding Anniversary and I wanted to make them an appropriate card.  I found out that the 7th Anniversary can be one of two things: The Copper Anniversary or Wool Anniversary.

For a moment it did cross and entertain my childish brain that I should do a little felting project with some wool tops, and make a couple of sheep and fix them to the front of a card,  ….  of course that would be ….  after I’d done a watercolour bit of painting to the card and done the grass;  perhaps with a stream running through the field;  some hedging;  oh and a TREE!  Obviously it would have to have a tree! …  and some birds standing in the tree;  Maybe Blue Birds of Happiness!!  And maybe I should add birds in the sky too,  and how about a farmer coming through the gate?!!

But perhaps not.  I would probably have gone over the top, [snigger]  so I decided upon Copper.  But a Copper what?  Pot?  Saucepan?  Wire?  Copper what?   I Googled and up popped copper wire, coil, strands, mines, even copper piping for plumbers,  …. and a Copper Kettle card which I loved, but felt it needed a bit of  ‘cobwebbing‘ …. so I designed a card kind of like it, but a leeetle beet different. (say that in a French accent, it sounds so perfect. lol)

tsk tsk … back to the topic Cobs! 

Copper, Improving society since the dawn of civilization!

 

I made the kettle from Copper Mirri Card and ’rounded’ it,  firstly by gently manipulating it with a bone folder, and then putting different thickness’ of foam pads so that it held the curve.

Taken from the side and slightly above, to try and show the dimension which the copper kettle has.

Although I’d printed the ‘Seven Years’ in a coppery colour underneath the Copper Kettle, I wanted it to be almost like hot coals, so with the help of an embossing pen I added some warm coppery Cosmic Shimmer Embossing Powder, embossed it,  and LOVED the way it turned out.   I embossed the handle of the kettle with another embossing powder (which I’ve had for donkeys years, and never seems to run out) in a darker shade.  Finally … I drew dots and flicks with the embossing pen, so that the ‘fire’ under the kettle threw out ‘sparks’ as it crackled with the heat.

I’d printed some ‘steam’ coming out of the spout which, if you look closely, it says  Copper…  7 years… and it’s bendy and steam like.

Copper – It’s Elemental!

 

The card looks way nicer in real life than it does in these photos.  I tried my best to get good photo’s but I failed miserably.  These are the best of about 25 photo’s.

I will never get an award for photography. 

Copper: The best jewellery to turn your skin GREEN!

But anyhoo …. that’s all there was to it!   😀

Copper: still essential

Happy Sunday!  I trust that your weekend has been throughly lovely and that you are getting as much joy out of it as you can.  I think we should all treat weekend like dirty laundry.  Our aim should be to get that laundry spotless and get every last bit of dirt out.  Likewise weekends.  Get every last bit of joy out of it.  Squeeeze  it until it’s exhausted and you’re happily tired.

Have a truly blessed rest of your day.  ~

 

 

Just the two of us ~ ‘appley ever after!

These ATC’s  which I’m about to share, weren’t actually what I was going to post about today,  but the painting I was going to share has gone missing.  I remember putting it somewhere safe, so that I could take photo’s of it once I’d finished making the card I was working on. Do you think I can remember where the safe place was?  Not on your nelly!

So … filling in for the missing bit of art, are two ATC’s/ACEO’s which I painted a little while ago.  I have photos, but didn’t realise until I looked at them to pop the photos on this post, how grainy and fuzzy they are.  I asked Mr.C if he thought that the photo’s were good enough to post on the blog here, and he said  ‘yes, ‘course they are!‘ … so we’ll blame him.

(Please note…  I didn’t say it was his fault.   I said we’ll blame him.  BIG difference.)   😀

These were ‘two of a kind’  ATC’s – both hand painted by me and meant to be together as a pair.  You see …  this first one is called:  ‘Just the Two of Us ~ what a pear!’

ATC/ACEO – mounted and framed.  The painting is called ‘Just the Two of Us ~ what a pear!’

Sorry the grainy images.  I’m not sure what happened – maybe I shook the camera or possibly had it on the wrong setting … I have no idea.

ATC/ACEO hand painted by Cobwebs.  The painting is called:  ‘Just the Two of Us ~ what a pear!’

The slightly wonky left hand side of the pot was intentional.  The painting represents how the life of two people (the pears in this case), grow together, but they don’t crowd each other  … and they make their home in a slightly wonky pot which tells the story of how life isn’t as perfect as we’d perhaps like it to be, but we make the best of what we have and what is just a ‘wonky’ pot to some,  is a really pretty home of fabulousness to others.

Life isn’t perfect,  and neither is the wonky pot.  But it’s still fabulous – just like life in general when you think about it.

The second of these ATC/ACEO’s, – which is the other half of the pair of paintings,  –  is called:  ‘Appley Ever After!’

ATC/ACEO – mounted and framed.  The painting is called ‘Appley Ever After‘

This painting is of a round Topiary Tree, complete with 6 Apples .  A family of Apples living  ‘Appley Ever After‘.

ATC/ACEO hand painted by Cobwebs.  The painting is called:  ‘Appley Ever After’!

It speaks for itself in the title …   the ‘family’ of apples could be a couple and their four children, or just a couple with their parents and in-laws  …  there are more ways than one to make a family.  But they all lived  ‘Appley Ever After’!

I mounted and framed these two paintings and put them for sale …  and was thrilled, from the top of my head down to my wriggly toes that they both sold within a couple of days!  I wondered if the lady buyer was going to give them as a gift (maybe a wedding present, as they’d ‘fit the bill’ – so to speak) or if she was keeping them, and she told me she wanted to keep them and hang them in her own home.  I felt so honoured.

At the top of this post I’ve made a white ‘card’ which gives you the measurement of an ATC/ACEO. This size doesn’t differ.  You aren’t allowed to go above this size.  Now I actually measured this out and made it exactly as you see in the photo …  but I know that WordPress  will re-size images sometimes, so if you get a rule or measuring tape, you’ll be able to judge if it’s showing up at the right size.  If it isn’t … just look on your rule/measuring tap to actually be able to visualise how small an ATC really is.

I would love you to have a go at one.  You don’t have to paint …  you can do practically anything on a bit of card, paper, Watercolour paper, board, wood, …. anything!

Ok…. I’ve yacked long enough,  so I’ll shut up and let you finish your coffee in peace.

Thank you so much for coming and having a coffee moment with me.  🙂

Sending squidges and love to you in your corner, from me in mine.  ❤ 

Happy Anniversary!

Well my goodness, it’s been quiet around this blog for the last month, hasn’t it!  I won’t bore you with the details, suffice to say:  Life sometimes gets in the way and it can take up valuable crafting time.  How dare it! 

“What a darn cheek”, I hear you say.   I agree.  How VERY dare it, indeed!

I’ve been trying to fit a little crafting time in, and one of the things which was on the list of ‘To Do’, was an anniversary card for my truly lovely neighbours.  Big M  (aka Mr. Cobs)  learnt that they were going on a fabulous holiday to celebrate their wedding anniversary, so he shared the news with me and of course … I instantly went into ‘must make a card’ mode, and this, dear readers, is what this lovely blog post is about.

I’ll put in as many details as possible in case this card inspires you to make something similar for someone you know.  But if I leave anything out, please feel free to ask in a comment.  Comments are moderated (to delete ‘spam’ before it gets onto the blog) – so your ‘question’ or comment won’t appear on the blog straight away.  But I will reply asap, I promise, cross my heart, hold up my pinky finger and say “Honour Bright”.  (yerrsss….  Shirley Temple was a part of my growing up.  My mother loved the films).

Anyway … let’s get on with it, shall we?

The ‘base’ card I used was a 5×5″ ready scored card (by Craftwork Cards), in a beautiful soft biscuit colour, with white polka dots.  I began by cutting half of the front of the card off, diagonally, and then on the reverse of the cut off piece of card, I sprayed it with plain cold water from a very fine mist spray.  I let the water penetrate the card and after a moment or two, I curled the card round a little tube, to give it that lovely curve you see in the photograph above.  If you do this – hold the card there for a moment, to kind of ‘set’ the curve and give it a memory of where you want it to be.  Then set it on one side to dry while you get your papers chosen and cut to size.

For this project I chose papers from Docrafts ‘Papermania’ in their Parisienne Blue range.  The doily is also from this range.  I cut a 12×12 into 6″ squares, then cut one square diagonally, and also cut a doily in the same way.

I fixed the triangle of paper and the doily to the curved piece of card first, (you might find this easier to do if you drape the curved card over the edge of your desk and work with it that way),  then fixed a 6×6 sheet of the paper to the card, as shown.

I attached the curve back onto the card again, and using strong red tape, I taped it down to the front of the card. I then punched two holes through the curved piece of card, and the card front (now attached, beneath it) and then ensured the curve stayed exactly where I wanted it to be by using a tie of thin organza ribbon through the punched holes.

My attention then turned to the back, and I made a card stand for the back, so that the wallet card would stand up when it was finished.  (Imagine a school photograph, which has one of those stiff fold out bits on the reverse, enabling you to stand the photo up without a frame.  The card stands I make are the same sort of thing).  I then finally fixed the ‘loose’ front in place, along the inner bottom, thereby creating a wallet style card.

I added some metal, vintage style corners in place, using some strong glue and my craft clamps.  (Bought some time ago from The Range for next to nothing.  I HIGHLY recommend them!)

Corners fixed in place and not moving, ….  then came the fun stuff!

The Roses came from my stash.  I buy flowers anywhere I find them.  If I see flowers which I know would work perfectly on cards (or albums etc), I buy them straight away.  Finding the right flowers when you need them can be a task and a half sometimes, so I try to have a selection already in the craft room so that I have them when I need them.

The roses I chose for this card are a kind of delicate to touch, silky flowers and I fell in love with them because of their softly folded petals and the way they curled at the edges.   I tucked them into the curve of the card and added silky green leaves wherever I thought they were needed.

I made a big bow using some wide, pretty blue Organza and added a satin ribbon from the Parisienne Blue range on top, to layer,  and also tie the biscuity colour of the card into the ribbons, and finally, I added a large rose to the centre of the ribbons and fixed it in place.

Next came the tags which I wanted to tuck into the pocket.  I used some beautiful royalty free images and also stamped a ‘post card’  onto some card, then vintaged it up using a warm brown ink pad and duster brush.

All around the edges of the tags I kind of sprinkly, embossed some very fine, golden embossing powder to give them a bit of pizzazz.  The stamped message that you can just about see on the tag behind the postcard above reads: 

Marriage
1. A legal commitment to live as
husband and wife
2. Wedlock
3. A close and intimate association
4. A pledge.

Which kind of sums it all up in a few words, doesn’t it?.  I loved it!  It was perfect for this tag.

And finally …  this card would never have fit into a regular envelope, so I made it a matching box, which I lined with contrasting papers from the same Papermania Parisienne Blue range …

The card was ready and waiting for my neighbours when they came home from their holiday.

Thank you so much for coming and spending some time with me.  I’m sorry that it’s been a bit quiet around here, Thank you to those of you who so kindly kept me in your prayers and sent me messages.  You touched my heart in so many ways and kept me plodding along.  Thank you.  I want to say I love you, for it.  And I do – but not in a creepy way you understand!    . . . aw, you know what I mean.  (chuckling to myself here).

Have a truly blessed rest of your day.  I hope your weekend is fabulous and that the sun shines warm upon your face  …. just not so hot that it melts you though!

Heaps of love and squishy stuff …

Suits You Sir!

Hello all.  It’s great to see you here.  Before I get into talking about this card I’d like to take a moment to say a very warm welcome to new followers.  I’m absolutely thrilled to pieces that you’ve signed up here, – so a big thank you!

I actually made this card about two weeks ago and I’ve been struggling ever since to get the photographs loaded, sort out the clearest ones, (most of them look like I was joggimg while operating the camera),  resize them (to make them smaller than the size of an Olympic swimming pool!) and then load them onto the blog here.  Time seems to have flown and before I could blink, every day came to its end about 12 hours before I needed it to.  But … better late than never….

The idea behind this card came from looking at cards which had been made for men for all sorts of occasions: Birthdays, Anniversary, Fathers Day,  ‘Congratulations’ cards, and also cards sent to celebrate Civil Partnerships. I always struggled finding a decent shop bought card for men, but making one is even worse!  So I thought I’d give myself a challenge to come up with a design which would be a little different.  Something  which had a bit of style (and a spoonful of humour),  but instead of it being for a specific occasion, I wanted to make a ‘multi-functional’ type of card, which would be great as a card sent on or for any occasion.  I especially wanted to include a Civil Partnership suitable card as I’ve grown so tired of seeing two cut outs of grooms in wedding attire on the front of a card.  They’re great, and they state what the cards for, but I wanted something different. I began by fixing two 6″x6″ cards together and cutting the flap to the left hand side of the fold in a diagonal from inner crease top, to the outer corner bottom.

2 6×6″ white cards glued to each other, then the centre panel lined with black card.

The right hand side of the card was firstly cut in the same way, but then cut again, as you can see in the photo above.  This was in order for it to become the folded over side of the suit jacket. 

Adding the ‘fabric pattern’ of the suit

I originally began this idea thinking I was going to make a striped suit, but instead I chose a more fun, spotty card – black with white dots. I added two silver buttons, and made a jacket breast pocket – with faux stitching, to make it look like it was stitched to the front of the card.  I made the stitch holes using a sewers marker tool:

the white card shows the little holes made by the tool.

The collar to the jacket was an easy make.  Two strips of cardstock, cut to the correct length and scored (with a 1cm fold which would be used to fix the collar to the inside edge), then cut and shaped, with a ‘v’ cut out at just the right point, to represent a collar on a jacket, and then fixed to the card. Then it needed a shirt.  I simply measured the width of the inner card, then took off around a centimetre and cut some white card to that width.  I scored the card across the width at the depth I wanted the collar to be, and then cut down the centre of the card just enough to make it look like the shirt was unbuttoned a the top.  I then rounded the corners of the collar with my Memory Keepers Corner Chomper.  Next: came the tie. Aww, now this proved to be a big pain in the rear end – because the only time I’ve ever tied a tie was when I was in my Secondary School, and it was around my neck.  I can tie ties around my neck … but doing it around this card was something of a skill that was lost on me.  It took me roughly seven or eight go’s before I got even close.  <sigh>  But .. in the end I managed it and gave myself a well deserved  ‘FINALLY!!!’  – out loud and very exhaustingly proud. The shirt was fixed into place.  The tie was fixed so that the knot would hang free, but that the body of the tie would kind of bunch a little over the jacket closure. and finally, the jacket was fixed into place and ‘closed’. Then came the tags for tucking into the ‘pocket’ which I’d just made within the card, inside the shirt. The larger of the two tags is for the ‘dedication’ of the card (to/from etc):-  I think I found that frame on the Graphics Fairy – but wherever it was, I changed it so that it matched the purple of the tie.  The long slim tag was stamped with an empty clock face – the idea being that the time could be filled by the sender drawing on the hands to mark the time appropriate.  It could be the time he was born;  Time the child sending the card was born;  Time of the Civil Partnership;  etc etc.  And above the clock face – details of what the time meant/means;  date of birth etc, or maybe: details of where the receiver of the card is meant to meet you (say for a meal) – etc etc.  Or even maybe a photograph(s) of children or of the receiver themself. The backs of the tags  … the larger one is a vintage image which I coloured to match the tie;  and the long slim tag is a copy of an original vintage postcard of the same length and width as you see in the photograph. I added a paper rose and some metal filigree leaves.  (Metal for the more masculine feel of them), and a fob watch on a chain, which I draped up to the breast pocket, and fixed in place with a ring.  (The chain hangs free, and gives movement to the card.) I made a tag for the breast pocket too and added some folded and stitched ribbon to the end of it, to make the handkerchief popping out of the pocket. And finally …  I made a matching box for the card. The tiny shirt fixed to the front of the box is actually one piece of folded paper (sort or origami style folding), and I made a tie out of two pieces of card which was closest in colour to the tie on the card as I could possibly get.  I added a blank tag to the front of the box so that the recipient’s name could be added, just as you would do on an envelope.

The whole set!

I have to admit that there were times, as I was making this card, that I began to wish I’d never started – it seemed to be taking me forever to do the smallest things.  However, once it was finished and I sat back and looked at it, I loved it. Thank you so much for coming today and having a look at this card.  Hope you like it.

Have a wonderful rest of your day.  May the weather be kind and may life treat you well.

Lots of love ~

What a Dream Scrapbook Page!

I have a ‘bought for the purpose’ scrapbook which, although it has a (sort of) ‘padded’ binder (cover) – in the centre of the cover it has a little cut out section where you’re supposed to slide a photograph into the ‘hole’ (from a little slit on the inside cover) so that it shows you what the scrapbook is about.  Problem was that even though I loved the cover of the scrapbook, I felt that the ‘photograph’ section on the front was, well, a little too twee.  A bit (kind of) predictable.  I didn’t want a photograph on the front, I wanted something better than just a photo.

So I cut out that bit on the inside cover, and so got a ‘hole’ right through the front cover.  (Think of a serving hatch into the dining room from the kitchen).  I then cut up a scrapbook page saver, (one of those plastic page holders which you put your ‘made’ pages into to protect them) and carefully glued a square of that soft, pliable plastic to the front of the cover and then hid the glue with some pretty pleated ribbon.

Then … I made something which I was far happier with which would show through that window.  I made  … Page One of my scrapbook.

Page One of my Scrapbook

Such a simple idea.  I kept the page white, but draped bakers twine across the page and attached it to little gold brads, which were to be the ‘drawing pins’ (thumb tacks) which held the bakers twine in place.  Once I was happy with where the bakers twine was place on the page, I then glued it in place with some Anita’s crafting glue.  (It’s white when you put it on, but dries clear).

I then cut out some little white ‘flags’ – from some thin cotton sheeting – basically the same weight as light weight shirt cotton,  –  which I then glued to the bakers twine and made Bunting!

I glued a little white doily  to the centre of the page and while that was drying I made a little dream ‘diorama’ out of an old tin which I’d got when I purchased some ink powder.  I’d saved the tin, not knowing what for, but knowing that it would come in useful one day.  (I am SUCH a ‘crafter’).  😀

A couple of years ago I’d seen a picture of a little tin which was a tree ornament.  It looked so pretty that it had stuck in my memory.  When I decided what I wanted to use to fill that central space on page one – but something which would also ‘begin’ my scrapbook and give a taste of what was to come   – the word ‘dream’ came to mind and so did the ornament.  And that’s where the basic idea began.

The cover of the album is basically a mix of greens with a contrast of pink and white polka dot all put together in a  (kind of) patchwork, – and with butterflies flying in various places on top of it all.

So the tin had to be complimentary to the cover, and since butterflies were going to be putting in an appearance further into the scrapbook then it was natural that they should be on the first page too!  So I began with a scrap of pink polka dot paper, which I hand cut into a round to fit into the base of the tin.  I then used some white glue, and glued some flower soft, in a mix of pink, green and white, into the bottom quarter of the tin.  I wrote ‘dream’ on some paper and distressed it a little, then cut it into a banner and back it with some green card.

Thankfully I have a selection of butterfly stamps, some of them are really teeny tiny – so they worked perfectly with the tin and it’s lid.  Just the right size in fact.  The one inside the tin I stamped in an emerald green colour, but then coloured it in with a lovely fresh spring green.

But the butterflies which are outside of the tin, flying free (so to speak) I stamped using a grey memento ink (I think I used ‘silver’ actually) – and didn’t colour those, because I wanted them to look delicate, and pale to match the white of the whole page.  I added some glue ‘squiggles’ and sprinkled some ultra fine glitter onto it – to sort of represent the flight path of the butterflies as they flew.

Pale silvery butterflies.

 

I glued down the lid using a little hot glue, and covering two of the pale butterflies, so that they looked liked they’d flown under the lid.

But I did have one slight worry.  If the album, at some point in the future, had something heavy put on top of it, then I worried that the metal rim of the open tin might just puncture the plastic cover I’d put on the front of the album.  If it didn’t puncture it – it might mark it permanently and it would then spoil the look.  So I had to come up with an idea to solve that problem – just in case it ever did happen!  (That’s me.  I have to have a plan for everything  in case something bad happens.  If it does, then I have a plan.  If it doesn’t then that’s great – but at least I had a plan! lol).

I got out the trusty hot glue gun again, and sorted through my white buttons to find some which had a vintage feel about them.  I knew I needed to be careful about choosing the right ones – because the wrong buttons could spoil the whole thing.

Buttons found – I squidged a generous (but not a huge glob!) amount of glue onto the back of a button and carefully placed it on the rim on the tin, holding it there for a few seconds while the glue began to set.  Then I did the next one.  Then the next.  Then … and so on until I’d glue four buttons, in descending sizes, on one side, and one further button on the opposite side of the rim of the tin.  I left them over-night to see if they would do what I wanted them to do.

The following day I put my hand flat palm down, on top of the rim to see if, when I pressed, they stayed in place.  They did.  I then knew that these buttons would spread the weight of anything pressing down on the top of the album and so wouldn’t damage the plastic on the cover.  Yay!  I love it when a plan comes together!

I wrapped some rayon seam binding around the outside of the tin, in a fabulous warm olive-green colour, and then finally added a little rich, royal purple polka-dot bow to one side.  The finishing touch.   I loved the scrapbook already – and I’d only just began!

Page One  was ‘finished’.  I stood back and looked at it.  It was perfect.  It looked vintage.  It had a friendly feel about it.  It spoke of a promise which I knew was to follow in the pages, so far unmade, but I knew the plans I had for those pages. 

Yes, this was going to be a scrapbook I loved.  I could feel it.

 I know that Scrapbooking is a fairly new type of photograph/memory saving way of doing things to the UK.  Here in the UK we’re more used to photograph albums which we buy and pop our photographs into.  But in the last few years Scrapbooking has taken off and it’s becoming more popular.

So .. do you scrapbook?  And if you do … do you blog about your pages?  If so, please leave me a comment and put a link to your scrapbooking page or to your blog in general, because I’d love to come and see your scrapbooks, and I’ve no doubt that others who visit this page would love to visit your blog too!

Have a truly lovely rest of your day!