ALTERED TEA BOX

My pictures never come out in the order I want them. This is the end view of the tea box. I used an image from the graphic fairy, she has many and shares freely.
This is the finished box. I covered the box with paper first, I cut some flowers out of fabric glued them on ,then added vintage lace, ribbon and the images from Graphic Fairy. I stamped the Eiffle tower and glued it on, added vintage buttons, made singed flowers to finish it, I glued the singed flowers over the fabric flowers I cut out and glued on, this was for dimension,, and it looked much better than the flat fabric flowers.
The original box ( this is really good tea BTW). The reason I came up with this is that everyone is doing match boxes and I thought a box is a box, so why not do a tea box and alter it and make it pretty and fill it with goodies and send it to a friend, or swap with a friend.
Another end view I used dupioni silk on this end and stamped French words, you can see the singed flowers better in this pic. TTFN

Gift journal

Pages, One thing I really like about this style of journal are the pages, you can make them any way you want, out of anything you like. Here I used wallpaper ( the green plaid pocket), sheet music, on the left side is the back of a page that I colored using chalk and stamps. The figures on the right are from a new set of stamps I got on ETST, I really like them.
This is the introductory page, you can see the tag with the Happy Anniversary greeting, it is my daughter and son-in-laws anniversary this is my gift to them. The pictures on the right are mine and I made a collage of them and added it to the back of another page.
This is the cover. I do so love pink with white, it is such a lovely combination, the flowers are those made from singed fabric they turn out so pretty, I don't know who started this craze but they deserve a medal or some recognition. I used an iron on transfer for the image of the Victorian girl. The battenburg lace is from a place mat, I love to re purpose things and re use and up cycle as the new term goes. i used an old piece of broken jewelery and the pink bow is from dupioni silk, and the pink tie is also silk.
You can see all the journal from this picture, I had a wonderful time making it and I am pretty sure my daughter will like it.
Bird nest are one of my favorite things, and have been for many years, I got this one from the Graphic Fairy, she is so generous with her art images. On the left I used a page from the farmers almanac, and a page from a business ledger, I put lace on many of the pages, I have boxes of it and seem to always aaccrue more than I can ever use.

New trade at our Marie style trade group

Pitty my pictures are a bit out of order, any hoo this is our trade tussie mussies in the Marie Style. I made this one for our lovely Marie. I used vintage lace, hand crafted flowers, and made the bead and crystal fringe .
Every tussie must have some goodies, and here are the ones I added, some vintage lace on a painted vintage clothes pin, some vintage flowers, a velvet pansy, the ever famous rayon seam binding everyone is using. A darling mushroom birdie and that was about all I could get to stay in the cone.
This is a better peek at what is in this little tussie. I am anxious to hear is Marie likes it, I hope so because I want to make people happy with what I make, because that makes me happy.
If you would like to join our happy little group join here
http://www.flickr.com/groups/1698630@N20/

Fall color flowers

Flowers flowers every where. My on line art group had a flower exchange, and I got a bit carried away with the flower making. I only need to make 5 flowers but I ended up with dozens. This was a new color way for me, I am usually into the pinks and lavenders and blues, so these yellows and oranges and Autumn reds, were a bit out of my comfort zone, once I got started tho they just kept coming.
Pansies made from wired ribbon of various lengths. Pansies are such fun to make and they turn out just like the real thing only in ribbon. I used the oranges and yellows and added a bit of brown to a couple of them.
These were also a great deal of fun to do, they are the singed material flowers, you cut your shapes from the material, it has to be material that will curl when exposed to heat so you have to experiment and not burn down the house. You hold the petal shapes over a flame, I use a candle and let the petals curl a bit and then you stack the petals together and sew in beads for the center.
The ones in the upper right were crafted from lace, it was an experiment that turned out well. I will make many more of theses for filler flowers.
Roses, my favorite flower, the big one in the lower left is brown, hard to tell from the pictures, I used grosgrain ribbon it was a nice change form the silk and the satin I usually use. I think it gave them more body, I crafted these on buckram and had to do a bit of sewing to anchor them down, but they are nice and flat on the back so they would be great add on's.
Now I have to decide which I am going to send for the Swap with my fellow MAMA members.

French ephemera journal MAMA swap

Our on line art swap group had this French journal swap. My partner was Holly More. This is what I made for her. Above are the center pages, I made the oval frames from card stock and covered them with rayon seam binding and I made the little yellow flowers and the leaves from silk ribbon. I used jeweled brads for the cream colored frame.
I made the pocket on the left from some pretty material and trimmed it with vintage lace and ribbon. The flap on the right folds out and there are some surprises inside.
These are the first pages, a double pocket on the left with a cloth tag and a framed picture of Marie on the right.
Here is the cover, I did some embroidery and added seed beads but they didn't show up in the photo. The flowers are the singed ones that are so popular. I so enjoyed making this for Holly and I know she liked it as she told me she did, that always makes it worth while when your partner likes what you created for them. TTFN

Marie style french journal

The cover made from vintage linens and lace and embroidery. This is a swap with an on line friend Kelly Deal at dreaming of vintage.
Streets of Paris pages, I thought this might be something you would see at the Paris fair. The pocket on the right has a mini album in it for more tags, ephemera, photos, and such it is a double pocket so small tags can be added in the front pocket behind the bike.
Here you see the inside page that set the theme for the journal, a picture of Marie, and the pocket on the left holds a tag with the Eiffel tower on it.
Notice the lovely cut work on the right hand side, it was part of a napkin that was stained and worn, I used the good part to make the page. On the left is another pocket decorated with handcrafted flowers, the pocket holds another mini journal, that makes 2 extra journals in the album.
I wanted it to be pretty for Kelly when she opened the box so I tied a 3" ribbon around the journal and added a pretty rose. And yes she did like it.

Marie style match box

My first match box. When I was invited to join a match box swap on my online art group I had never heard of decorating match boxes. So I thought I best try it out before I joined and had a partner to please with what I sent.


I made a baby one to go inside the mama.I thought for a first effort it turned out well. You can see the one I sent my partner in an earlier post. It is the yellow and blue one. I know it is a bit out of order, but I thought it pretty enough to share.

a close up of the baby match box. I really like it.