From Me To You :)

Hello!


It's been a while, and I have been busy making things, just not had a chance to upload any!  The weather has finally caught up with the season and it's made it much better for photography.  I have now taken photo's of all the cards and things I have been making over the last week or so and will endeavour to post them all on here in the near future :)

This is something totally different for me.  A dear friend of mine has just moved house and she's not been having the greatest time lately, so I wanted to give her something as a house warming present and something that would (hopefully!) cheer her up a bit. 

Her favourite poem is The Mask of Anarchy by Percy Bysshe Shelley.  I hadn't read it before, but I reckon I could probably recite it word for word now - all 92 verses!  Not that that's a bad thing, I really enjoyed it and I'm so glad I read it as it's still so relevant.

Along with being a gift, I am also entering this into this month's challenge over at WOW! Embossing Powder.  Their challenge is to create anything but a card.


So, without further, here are some photo's;

The first picture is the box I made to put the booklet (I don't know what else to call it?!) in.  It fastens underneath the label so that there are no ugly joins :)  I used my new WOW! embossing powders that were sent to me as my prize for winning their challenge last month - they are awesome! I have been embossing everything lately! (more than usual!)  For this I used Verdigris and Metallic Copper - they turned out even better than I expected :)

Like I said, there are 92 verses to this poem so I'm not going to bore you by showing you every page.  Here are the first few verses and then the final verse (as this is my favourite!)

It's probably not very easy to read in these photographs, and for that I apologise.  I hope you can get the gist though?

I think it's pretty self explanatory as to how I put it all together, however if anyone has any questions then just let me know as I'm more than happy to answer them :)

I think, all in all, this took about three days to complete - which I don't think is too bad?!  Obviously I didn't get them all right first time, in fact, there are some verses I must have written out four or five times, but it was surprisingly therapeutic and I enjoyed every minute :)  I really hope my friend likes it, that is the most important thing!

Anyway guys, thanks for stopping by as always and I'd love to know what you think as this is, like I said, something very different for me :)

Edited to add:  If you would like to see ALL of the pages and more photographs, they are in my SCS gallery - the poor moderators!

Supplies
Card:      Paper Mill Direct - Off White, Turquoise, Dark Brown, Ivory Linen.  Gold Mirror
Stamps:  Waltzingmouse - Big Day Additions, Flourishes - Scallops and Dots; Verve - Glad Tidings
Ink:         VersaColor - Gold, Evergreen; TH Distress Ink - Vintage Photo
Other:     WOW! embossing powder - Metallic Copper, Verdigris; 2" binder rings; Spellbinders
               Labels 1 and Labels 18; pearls

Viva La Verve, August Week 2

Hello!
I would like to start off by thanking everyone who leaves such wonderful comments on my blog and SCS Gallery, they are really appreciated and encourage me to continue and better myself.  I would like to say a special thank you to Michelle for her kind words, they really meant a lot to me as I really was daunted by entering this challenge :) 

I have finally got around to photographing my card for Week 2 of the Viva La Verve Challenge!  I made this in the week but the weather has just been so appalling here and I've been holding out for maybe a little sun to shine through my window, but alas, just rain!  I was getting impatient and decided that I didn't want to wait for the elusive English summer sun any longer, so I've had to take my photo in the gloom!  I apologise for this in advance.!  I don't have a light box or anything fancy like that - living here it really ought to have been one of the first things I invested in huh?!  It pains me to buy things like that though, I'd rather spend money on stamps!

Because of the lack of lighting the colours don't show quite true, although I have tried to adjust it a little.  You'll just have to take my word on the colours!  (If the sun comes out then I'll take some better photo's to replace these.)

Here is Andrea's sketch for this week.  I knew it was going to be a good'un when I found out Andrea was in charge!  I just love everything she does!  I check her blog pretty much every day and almost always find something new a amazing to look at!  Although our styles are poles apart (hers is awesome, mine not so much!) I really enjoy soaking up her vintage, shabby chic-ness and all the femininity.  If you have never visited Andrea's blog (then I can only conclude that you live under a rock?!) then I suggest you get yourself over there right now - you have no idea what you're missing!  You can imagine how pleased I was when Andrea commented on my Week 1 entry in my SCS Gallery!  Aaaaah!  I was starstruck!

and here is my take on the sketch; (remember to forgive the lighting!)

those are soft green stripes!

Now, I made this card and looked at it for quite a while.  I really wasn't sure about, although it is growing on me!  I was going to say that it's not 'me', but it must be because I made it right?!  There's something about this Viva La Verve challenge that's making me go all 'vintage-y', but in my own CAS way of course!

I don't have any dies, as I mentioned before, so I was hunting high and low for something oval that I could use as a template.  I couldn't find a single thing!  However, on the end of my desk was my other half's bottle of aftershave.  It was kind of oval so I thought I'd use that!  I quite like the shape actually!  Having only a small stash of supplies makes you more resourceful don't you think?!  (Might just be me then!)
A while ago I was experimenting with things and came up with that antique-y script piece of card.  I dabbed some Antique Linen and Vintage Photo Distress Ink onto an acrylic block,spritzed with water and then pressed a piece of card onto it to make the background.  Once it dried I stamped the script in VersaColor Charcoal and then 'damask' in SU! Basic Black.  I was quite pleased with how it turned out and then had no idea how I was going to use it!!!  I decided it was high time it made it's debut and where better than at Viva La Verve!  It's matted on a distressed piece of card that was created with Vintage Photo Distress Ink.

The butterflies were a gift from a friend of my Mum's, Jackie.  I met Jackie when I recently went 'home' to visit the family.  She has a much larger collection of tools, punches, stamps - everything - than I do!  I really love the Martha Stewart Monarch butterfly punch and guess what, Jackie has it!  She had a load of the butterflies punched out in white and coloured card and was kind enough to give me a load of them!  Something else I've been dying to use!  Thanks Jackie!!  The top butterfly was one of the white ones but I inked it in Antique Linen and added some gold glitter to the wings.

Anyways, I think that's more than enough of my ramblings - I must keep these posts shorter so as not to bore everyone to tears! 

Thanks for staying with me, have a great Sunday!

Supplies:
Card:      White 220gsm; Create & Craft Ivory Linen 200gsm; ColorBase Pastel Card in Chamois
                    170gsm; Harlequin wallpaper Anoushka collection - II0023 Jolie Stripe (background)
Stamps:  SU! Bliss; SU! En Francais; Debbi Moore Birthday Definition
Inks:       Distress Inks - Antique Linen, Vintage Photo; VersaColor - Charcoal; SU! - Basic Black
Others:   Ribbon; MS monarch butterflies; rhinestones; glitter