18th Birthday Memory Book

My friend quite often orders memory books from me as personalised gifts for special occasions - weddings, christenings, big number birthdays.  I usually do 12 pages plus some insert flaps or tags, and stamp appropriate quotes on some of the pages.

For the cover on this one, I pasted some letters and Tattered Florals onto the card then brayered and painted with various acrylics.  I added some glass bead gel medium to the flower centres, some Neocolour II around the petals, stamped a filmstrip border and stitched the whole thing to another sheet of card for strength.  The gold numbers were stuck on last.

Same treatment for the back cover, without any diecuts.  Then it all went through the Bind It All and I tied various ribbons, twines and fibres to the rings, and added a metal ladybird.

I'm entering this into Artist Trading Post, Alphabet Soup

Simon Says Monday Challenge, No Rules

and Simon Says Wednesday Challenge, Anything Goes

and Our Creative Corner, Tic Tac Toe - any line that goes through the centre, i.e. you must include stamps.  I went for Metal, Stamps, Mediums.  But.  I'm not sure how prescriptive the rules are.  Are you only allowed crackle paint, paste and glaze?  Do you have to use all three mediums?  I also used paint - does that disqualify me?

Instead of fiddling around making boxes for these memory books, I use cotton bags and make a matching tag.

I've been asked to make a male 18th book.  That should be interesting...

The Mixed Media Card Challenge

The Mixed Media Card Challenge is well underway, and this month's theme is home, with an optional element of lace.

I used a stamp that I designed earlier this year, which will be available in 2015.  The background is Distress Inks, overstamped with Versamark and silver-embossed.  The roofs have been washed with Wink of Stella and the eaves with Stickles, although neither show up in the photo.  I added dimension with a diecut tree chopped in half and affixed them to either side of the card and topped the branches with a little more Stickles.  The sentiment is from STAMPlorations.

Check out the challenge details here.  The challenge is open until 11:55 PST on Christmas Day, if you have a little spare time on your hands ;)

I'm entering this into Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Winter Inspiration

ETA: I'm also entering it into Artist Trading Post Exchange - Let's Celebrate:

***********************

Here's a one-layer card made with the same stamp:

Talking of one-layer Christmas cards, Shery has a new blog starting in 2015 covering just that: One Layer Christmas Card Blog - check it out and meet her design team.  (Where does she get all her energy????)

And if you're stuck for what to buy your crafty friends for Christmas, how about a STAMPlorations gift certificate?  Order before 24 December and you get an extra 20% on your value.

A Twofer And A Show & Tell

I meant to post one of the cards below yesterday, but I got sidetracked, so you've got two cards today.  But first, my Show & Tell.  

One of my birthday presents was a Take & Make session at a glass fusion workshop.  I went on the workshop last weekend and chose to make four coasters.  Most of the other students were creating recognisable images (flowers, snowmen, angels, trees, Christmassy stuff) but I just wanted to do random/abstract.  Having got the four coasters ready for firing (or whatever), I had some time to spare so I also made a bowl.  To keep conkers in.  Because conkers are supposed to keep spiders out of the house.  (One spider didn't get the message... maybe I need to refresh the conkers.)  Anyway, yesterday, I went to collect my masterpieces...

I'm really pleased with how they turned out.

Here's a before shot of the bowl.

So, here's card No. 1.

I'm entering this into Festive Friday.  I don't think I've ever entered this challenge before, probably because I don't usually start my Christmas cards till mid-late-November ;)

Here's card No. 2.  The patterned trees are made by creating patterns on a Gelli Plate, then once it's DRY(!!!), pressing sticky tape down over the pattern, burnishing and lifting it off.  The bonus is a clean Gelli Plate - yay!  Then you just die-cut shapes out of the strip.  I saw the video on the Gelli Plate website, but it was Jenny's butterfly that prompted me to have a go.

I'm entering this into Muse, where Therese has provided this lovely inspiration.  Suddenly one tree is a whole forest.

Also entering it into Inkspirational - Shine

Artist Trading Post - Stencil Mania.  (I used a stencil to make the pink dots.)

Less Is More - More Than One Tree

Come back tomorrow for a fabulous blog hop!