Handmade Notebook from Scratch with English Rose Garden Collection

Hi Meg's Garden Lovers! 

I'm Mabel and I'm back this time round with a handmade notebook that I made from scratch.

The notebook is measuring 4.5 x 6 inches tall with a book spine of 1.5 inches thick. I simply cut 2 pieces of 4.5 x 6 inches chipboards and a 1.5 x 6 inches chipboard for the book spine. 

I choose Meg's Garden's A Bouquet of Roses (P6429) patterned paper from the English Rose Garden Collection as the book cover. All I did was to glue down the chipboards, leaving a small gap in between each chipboard such that I have the space allowance to fold it later. If my description is too vague for you, you can check out a video tutorial HERE! I finished my book cover by using Roses and Lace (P6428) from the same collection in the inner side. 

This is a notebook that I wished to carry it around with me, hence I did not want the front of the cover to be bulky and delicate. I chose to embellish my book cover simply with a round doily as well as some laces.

Moving onto the inserts of the notebook, I had stack of white printing papers measuring 8.25 x 5.75 inches. You need not follow my measurements! I would suggest you choosing the measurements of your inserts and preparing them as your first step. Book cover can be prepared after the inserts are done. 

I grab 5 sheets of papers and fold them into half, forming a signature (a group of pages). I made 6 signatures, washi-taping the folds and started binding.

I'm doing French link bookbinding with hemp cord. As the strings are thicker, it's harder to bind. I would suggest beginners to start with waxed threads. The process might be slightly complicated, hence you can check out the link HERE for more information.

After my inserts are done, I simply glued down the last page to attach the pages to the book cover. I started embellishing the first page by fussy cutting from the French Garden Collection. 

List of Supplies Used

Meg's Garden

English Rose Collection A Bouquet of Roses (P6429)

English Rose Collection Roses and Lace (P6428)

The French Garden Papercrafter Mini Pack (20122)

Paper Lace Doilies Circle 15

Puffy Paper Flowers (puffies)

Small Roses Ivory 1cm (ivory 1)

That's all for this blogpost. 

Thanks for reading! :)

Mixed Media Canvas by Mabel Sim

Hi! Mabel here and I'm making a Mixed Media Canvas today.

I'm using Café au Lait Papercrafter Pack (20126) for this entire canvas. I simply fussy cut of the ephemera as well as distressing the edges of the papers with my Prima Marketing distressor. I also used Twinkling H20s from ColourArte for the watercolours you see. For my sentiments, I used Kaisercraft's Azure from Blue Bay collection.

List of Supplies 

Meg's Garden

Puffy Paper Flowers (puffies)

Café au Lait Papercrafter Pack (20126)

Diving Sparrow (m0090)

Ivory Pearls (iv pearls)

Princess Cut Filigree (h100)

That's all for this post!

Thanks for reading! :)

A Lovely Rose Romance Mixed Media Layout by Mabel Sim

Hi fellow scrappers!

It's my turn today to share with you a mixed media layout I did with Meg's Garden Supplies. The full list of supplies can be found at the bottom of this post.

Supplies Used

Meg's Garden:

English Rose Garden Collection Cut & Create P6434

English Rose Garden Roses and Flowers P6431

English Rose Garden Leaves and Foliage P6430

Paper Lace Doilies

Childhood Memories Mixed Media Layout by Mabel Sim

Hi Guys!

This is Mabel here with my first blog post for Meg's Garden Design Team. I'm from Singapore, a small island country in Southeast Asia. Most of my projects involve Mixed Media and today I have a Mixed Media layout tutorial for you using Meg's Garden products from the English Rose Garden Collection.

I picked Paisley & Roses (P6432) as my layout base. I also really love the flourishes on Meg's Garden name card! So I decided to not waste it and fussy-cut out the flourishes for embellishment later.

I also picked out a couple of Meg's Garden products I wanted to use for embellishment later. I have the vintage rose tag cut out from Cut & Create (P6434) which I snipped it into half to make full use of this beautiful tag for layering. I also fussy-cut out the frame from Vintage Ornate Tags 1036.

I briefly arranged my embellishments and photos to determine the area I would like my mediums to go onto. 

I primed the patterned paper beforehand with clear gesso. I used 13arts Ayeeda Matte Coral and Lemon paints as well as Tim Holtz Distress Stain Spray in Tattered Rose and Milled Lavender to create the area I want to embellish later on. 

I wanted to bring out different textures and effects and stamping is a very good way to achieve visual texture effects. I used Prima Marketing stamps from Cigar Box Secrets Collections as well as Finnabair clear stamps with my Black Stazon ink pad. I chose Stazon as its permanent and the ink will not run when I use it more mediums on top of it. 

I continued to bring out more texture for the background by going over my stencils with modelling paste. I used Tattered Grid stencils from 13arts as well as Prima Marketing's stencil. 

While the modelling paste was still wet, I poured on some mica flakes from 13arts to create some sparkle! 

I also added Gold Glitter paint from 13arts as well as creating some splatter with diluted black gesso.

This is one of the trick I love to use when I need to stick alphabet stickers. I placed them on a ruler so I can gauge the length of the entire word, I can also shift them around easily to see where they fit better. Once I'm happy with the placement, I simply tilt my ruler and gently rubbed in those 'open' areas so they stick to the background.

And after embellishing my layout, this is the final look!

I diecut some leaves from Prima Marketing dies. I also tucked some laces as layering for added effect. 

Meg's Garden has got a wide variety of flowers to choose from. I used some of the mulberry papers flowers as they're awesome for altering. 

As mulberry papers are porous, inks can spread easily with water. So I just dipped my brush into Tim Holtz's Milled Lavender Stain Spray and brushed onto the flower near to the stamen. I then wet the areas I want the colours to spread to with water so the ink will flow. This creates a very natural looking flower. :)

More close ups looks of the layout!

That's all for my tutorial! Thanks for reading!

Hope you're feeling inspired by my tutorial. 

Please click on the link below to see more of this beautiful collection. 

To view more of my projects over at my blog, please click on the link below.