FINISHED!

Sorry I've not Blogged for ages - it's been A BAD WEEK - not feeling too good, migraines & generally feeling below par - I can hear you thinking "Huh - hangover after the BIG NIGHT OUT more like" but I promise it isn't. (I only had a G & T - more T than G this time, a glass of Champers, and two small glasses of white wine) I didn't even wobble on my sparkly party heels let alone have that glazed expression Mr M has come to know and ridicule!

Any road up the good news is that I've finished THE BOOK - just as well as it's The BGF's birthday on Monday. Here are pics of the cover and the finished project bound and embellished. Needless to say I'm REALLY pleased with it.

So what do you reckon - think she'll like it? I think there are about 40 VERY ENJOYABLE hours work in this project so I'll have to tell her that when she gets fed up of it hanging around I'll have it back. I think I'd cry if it ended up in the recycle-a-tron.

So it's back to everyday scrapping now, I've got five layouts on the go, the problem is I've enjoyed working in small scale so much I'm a bit daunted by 12 x 12! I'm working on the March challenge layout for Butterfly Crafts (Favourite book), must pull my finger out and make some progress on it - so far all I have is a photo! (Mind you that's better than the other four layouts which are all well on towards completion but have no photos at all) I think I'm doing this all wrong...


Got to go as it's Catch Up Thursday with my friend D, our weekly tea and gossip forum. Bye for now...

Oh yes - just in case you wanted to know...

Supplies

Mini Book PaperMania
Cardstock Core'Dinations
Patterned Paper Trimcraft Smirk Collection
Lettering Funky foam die cut with Sizzix Sidekick and Sizzix Slobbery Kiss Dies
Paper flowers Prima (Crazy Daisy, Lily & Halley; Heavenly, Green)
Silk Flowers WH Smith
Felt Flowers American Crafts - Greenhouse
Plastic Flowers American Crafts - Greenhouse
Stamps Trimcraft Smirk Collection; October Afternoon - Home Sweet Home; tiny flower - PaperMania Spring clear stamps
Ink Whispers; Ink it up; PrettyColor
Embossing Powder Ranger
Pens Whispers; Sharpies
Chalks Dovecraft
Acrylic Paint Royal & Langnickel
Brads Dovecraft
Eyelets Dovecraft; PaperMania
Ribbon Trimcraft Smirk Collection; HobbyCraft; Wilkos; Anita's and from stash
Felt Ribbon PaperMania
Tassels, beads From stash
DesireWire DMC
PaperFrills Cut with CraftRobo
Chipboard Tags Trimcraft Smirk Collection; WH Smith
Chipboard Arrows American Crafts - Playhouse
Brads Dovecraft
Eyelets Dovecraft; PaperMania (set with Crop-a-Dile II Big Bite)
Bling PaperMania
Buttons Dress it up
Wooden Heart HobbyCraft
Metal Tag, cardstock bow PaperMania

BIG NIGHT OUT

I'm getting this in early as I have much to do today. It's Mr M's Annual Black Tie Dinner tonight so I'm off to the salon this morning to get a new 'do. Don't know what I'm going to have done so I'll spend a frustrating 1/4 hour looking through the pattern books, only to end up with a different take on my current bob. Of course I've been growing it for about 3 years now (why do fringes grow so fast and the rest not at all (Life's Great Mysteries #43)) so I could pull my usual stunt and go back to short short... but maybe not this time.

Tah Dah... I've finished all the pages for the book and just have the covers to do now, so here are the last pages:

This page is made up from a single sheet of patterned paper which already had two photo frame circles printed on - the larger one made the perfect journaling spot for the quote, whilst the smaller provided a frame for the layered up flower (American Crafts Greenhouse felt and plastic flowers, Prima Crazy Daisy and a flower brad) The bow is a PaperMania embellishment which I think was a freebie on the DoCrafts Creativity mag.

I love the doodling round the scallops on this layout. One of the great things about working in this mini format (rather than the 12 x 12 I usually work in) is that you can use tiny scraps of paper to good effect - the tiny cupcake would have been lost in a large format but adds to the whole in smaller scale.

This is the last page (literally) and I think it's my favourite.

I love the calm muted colours and again the use of the tiny blue heart scraps as tags. My only regret is that I forgot to heat emboss the stamp so it doesn't stand out as much as the previous ones - but I think I can convince myself that it works with the muted tones.

Moonshine Minor has just reminded me that I needed to be on my way by 9.00 so I'm off. (It's NOTHING to do with the fact that he wants to go on Club Penguin of course. Love you little man!)

MORE FRIENDSHIP PAGES

So long since I've been on - but so much crafting done! Been working flat out on the Friendship Book and have a few more pages to show you...

I love the more muted colours in these two layouts and I'm especially pleased with the heat embossing on the stamp - it has really added some dimension to the image.


(Just thought you'd like to know that I am now sitting in cloud of blue as I have actually uploaded the above picture four times and am getting really fed up with the crappy formatting tools on this blog!!!!! Oh for an undo button! Aaaaaargh)

By cutting up the various papers in the stack I've been able to do lots of mixing and matching to find complementary papers that work with each of my colour themed pages. I had originally planned that all the pages would be v. girlie and v. pink, but soon realised that by carefully choosing different co-ordinating parts of the designs and using my favourite paper piecing technique, I could achieve a more varied and interesting look.

I'm really enjoying layering up the embellishments and mixing up the various brands to achieve a detailed look.





(The BGF will love this page as pink and orange are one of her favourite colour combos - doesn't do it for me - but I can have lots of fun teasing her about it!)

When I bind the pages together the two facing pages will use the same colour scheme. You can see here the two "yellow" pages and a "green" page which will go with the rock chick page previously posted. I'm working on the facing page for the good egg quote above and hope to have it finished tonight. (Mr M is working away for the next two days, and as long as I don't get roped in to a movie night with the boys, I should be able to get all the pages completed).



I have also been seriously sidetracked by something I'll tell you about next time... great fun and a real money saver too.

INSOMNIA

A sleepless night - possible cause too much G and not enough T - who knows. Since I'm awake I thought I'd post a picky of the next page for the BGF's book.

Great page for a wannabe rock chick!

Going back to bed now...