An Engagement Book

Hi
I made this little book as a gift.  My nephew from Sydney is marrying a beautiful Irish girl in October. They visited in June for her to meet the family in Adelaide & we had a beautiful lunch at The Lane Vineyard in the Adelaide Hills where most of us live.
Hope you like it.

The basic book:
Accordion Book Kit - hard cover is 6" sq; 6 pages 12.5cm sq
3 sheets of cardstock - beige, light grey & medium grey
Cover - Milled Mulberry (Jaipur silver on white) w white fabric flower
Charms, ribbons, frame & corners, German Scrap, lace & lace embellishment
Patterned paper - GCD Studios - Sweet Surrender Collection
Charcoal chalk distress ink

The front of the book is padded under the paper with packing foam (you could use felt, fabric, tissues)

Page 1 - the table is set - what a fabulous pic looking out to the Lane Vineyard

Page 2 has a pocket for the menu tag, some words about the day tag & some pics. Charms & ribbons on the tags, a lace embellishment on the front of the pocket

Page 3 for pics & some German Scrap flourishes

Page 4 is a little book embellished with words, ribbons & a stick pin

The book opens to some pics & words. It is lined with patterned paper

Page 5 adds a little humour to the book. The entree oysters were so fresh that they still had live moluscs on them - hence 'The Uninvited Guests'

Page 6 ends the book with a pocket which holds more pics

I really enjoyed making this book

HINT: When making an accordion book - finish the book entirely before adding the ribbon to tie it & the covers - this will give you the depth of the book for the finishing ribbon tie. The ribbon sits between the pages & the covers (you an wrap the ribbon more than once). Make sure you allow enough ribbon at the left of the book for the depth of the book.

More little books to come

Love them

Meg

Doilies are not just for Cards

Hi
Some more ideas for doilies:

Baskets made from paper lace strips - you can make them as large or as small as you want and as fancy as you want. Email for instructions

An envelope made from a square doily - large or small. Fold along the plain centre square with the good side out

Heart doily placed back to back to make a tussie. Thread the ribbon through the doilies starting at the top leaving enough to hang & tie a ribbon

Another doily envelope

Make a gift bag - round doily with embellishment by Denise Ann

Denise Ann's use of a round doily as an embellishment on a gorgeous card using papers from the French Garden Collection

Small square doily used by Denise Ann as a background for embellishment

Denise Ann's take on tags & doilies

A very unique use of a round doily. It is coloured pink & tucked into a bird cage as a background to some gorgeous flowers & fairies. Well done Tammy Roberts.

Bye for now

Just finishing up my Engagement Book. Will take pics & load

Meg

Colouring Doilies

Hi

I received the latest issue of Somerset Studio Sep/Oct 2011 today & wanted to share one of the articles with you - it is done by Michelle Ward  (blog at michelleward.typepad.com). She shares some of her colouring techniques

1. Row 1:   painted red, painted black & turquoise, used as a mask with black acrylic paint on craft paper, mask with black turquoise spray paint
2. Row 2:   painted with acrylic, used as mask with turquoise paint on kraft paper, painted black & silver, covered with gesso then dry brushed with turquoise acrylic
3. Row 3:   plain white doily, dyed with coffee, small edge dyed with coffee, used as mask with white paint on craft paper

Her recipe for coffee stained doilies:  brush doily carefully with instant coffee & let dry overnight.

I found these really interesting & hope you do as well

Currently working on some little books & these will be up on the blog this week

Bye for now

Meg



Latest News

Hi

Have been really busy getting the new Collections up on the web site.  Denise Ann has 2 new Collections.

•  The 1st is the Discover & Remember Collection of papers which were designed specifically for a CoverMount on  Scrapbook Ideas Issue #9  on sale 7th September.

  Denise Ann has 2 scrapbook projects in that issue.  Because the CoverMount requires A4, we have done 2 sizes of papers in this Collection - A4 as well as 12x12 with a 4x12 strip.  There is also a  fabulous Discover & remember Mini Paper pack with squares & labels.
• A Vintage Christmas - this Collection of 12 papers will be a CoverMount on Simply Cards Issue #37 on sale 9th November.  The CoverMount is a 6x6" paper pad with 36 leaves - 3 copies of 12 papers.  The web site papers are our traditional 12x12" with a 4x12" strip.  There are also 2 Cardmaker packs available.  Denise Ann has 5 fabulous cards in that issue.

Christmas is always a special time of the year & this year is no different - Denise Ann's Collection allows for scrapbook pages, cards, off the page projects & more.

The papers are all done & available now - next on the agenda are Christmas Ephemera Packs designed specifically for the new Collection.

Bye for now till next time

Meg

Watercolour Perennials

Hi

This afternoon I started out with a sheet of the new Watercolour Perennials Collage Paper, a box of ribbons, stick pins, cardstock, charms & more goodies - these are the results.

The 1st project is a card using pale sage green cardstock. The fold is not centred - this allows lace & pearls down the inside right side to show. I cut out the large image with the Primulas (Primula from the Latin primus meaning first - first to open in Spring), added some dimension with green paper leaves & then embellished with pink organza ribbon & a silver heart charm.

The inside of the card uses the same image but a smaller version from the 4x12 strip. This is mounted on a heart doily (new to the shop) with a pink double sided satin ribbon bow, a filigree charm, a heart charm & a torn distressed saying. 

The 2nd project is also a card which also uses both the larger & the smaller images of Penstomen flowers on a pale grey cardstock. The front of the card pic is mounted on pale pink cardstock.  A violet bow using 2 different ribbons completes the simplicity of this card. Another pic shows the front with a gorgeous blue bead.

The inside of the card is also very simple & is embellished with a butterfly charm

The 3rd project is a tag using pale sage green cardstock, a heart doily & a small image of Phlox. The tag is done using:

A Pin of Jewels with a pink bead & pink organza ribbon

Same Pin of Jewels with a green bead & blue organza ribbon

Both the organza ribbons are tied in double bows - this is a great effect when using a thin organza ribbon.

You could also do the inside of the cards with a pocket & a tag.

This paper lends itself to using many different ideas.

What's next on the list:

Currently working on the Christmas Shop - should be done in the next 2 weeks.

Projects on the list are using the Accordion Book Kit - possibly an Alice, a Lavender & Lace or maybe a Travel Book.  Possibly all 3. We will see

Bye for now

Meg

Some More Doily Ideas

Hi Ladies
I love taking classes & try to expand my square as much as I can.  On Saturday morning I took a class with Steph Devlin - she is a brilliant Colourist & is on the DT of  Prima, Webster Pages & more.

The subject of the Class was 'White + One'. Steph chose Lilac.  On this page there are 2 10cm doilies used as embellishments - they were then themselves embellished. The pics are not showing the background as white. My mother as a young girl is the featured photo.

Another class we did a while ago was a Wedding Double Spread - also using doilies- this time the 25cm square doilies were used as a background. Steph loves to use doiles (also so much easier than using a border punch) & I really love the way she uses them.

The second page shows how the design can be used for Heritage (my paternal grandparents) & for a modern approach, me sipping champagne.

The next examples are of 2 cards, also done in a class with Belinda, using the Once Upon a Springtime papers from Graphic 45.
The first card was a 3-fold using the Frames from the Collection with acetate. The front page used a strip from a 10cm doily as an embellishment under the green braid

The second card was a multi step with a strip from the same round doily to accentuate the right side of the front of the card. You could also have used some strip doily in place of the punched border at the bottom of the front of the card.

Now to work on my new Spring Flower papers - as you can see they did not get done over the weekend - the weather was too good to stay indoors
Bye for now
Meg

Ready for Spring?

Hi
I am certainly ready for Spring & the birds in my garden are really tired of skating on my bird bath.
Just to get us into Spring, I thought that the best way would be to do some flower papers so I hunted for images & found this perfect watercolour of Primulas.

The inspiration of the Primulas image, in such beautiful delicate shades of pinks & blues,  inspired the creation of 6 new papers.
I have also found a new source for some fabulous fabric flowers - they are perfect for the very delicate projects I could imagine.

The only things missing were some new laces; finding those - mission accomplished.
Now to send the new files to the printer & I will be ready to create - have put aside time over the weekend to play.
Come back & see what I have done; also pop over to www.megsgarden.com to see the new products & get ready for Spring.
Bye for now
Meg