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.

My elegent french pouch swap, with Bobbi Ann

This is what I saw when I opened the box, how very special. And look at the pretty ribbon flowers, love the purples.
Another layer, more beautiful ribbon flowers and some fabulous beaded flowers, love them, I have never seen any like them.
These are some of my favorite things. the reflection of the flash didn't cooperate, and some you cant see. Those in the back are the pouch fabrics, so pretty and shiny. I am going to have so much fun putting it all together.
This is everything, 16 fun filled packages of yummie goodies. Way more than need to do our assigned project.
And this is the box they came in I am feeling very special. I so enjoyed this part of the swap, the exchange of the materials to make our own, elegant french pouch, to hold what ever treasures we want to put in it. Thank you Bobbi Ann this is a keeper as they say. :)

Match box swap with MAMA group.

My online art group had a match box swap. I haven't heard of this before, you take a large match box and make it beautiful with ribbon, lace, and all kinds of ephemera and pretty things. Then you fill it with goodies and swap with your partner. This is what I made for my partner Caroline, her favorite color is yellow so I did my best to yellow it up, with blue as the accent color.
I also made the baby box to go with it and filled it with vintage buttons. I should have taken more pictures but for some reason I didn't This is her blog and I think you will like what you see if you go there as she is quite an accomplished artist, and she has much better pictures than I have of what I sent her. http://www.cmoh.blogspot.com/ You can also see what she sent me as she has posted it on her blog It was very imaginative, and I love the coaches.