May's Memory Book Page

Today I am sharing May's flip-flap memory book pages for our Dreamees monthly group swap.  

I try to use as many Dreamees products where possible to comply with the swap but more importantly, it's about having fun creating. 

With these pages, I picked a sewing theme and carried it all the way through and as always, it's so easy to mix your Dreamees collections, old and new to get the most out of them instead of leaving them redundant in the draw.

I really like this Festive Fretwork flower die set, they are perfect as Christmas flowers and make beautiful all-year-round blooms too with their textured petals on the larger dies.

The Dreamees did a sewing stamp and cd collection some time ago which I have made good use of in my project and still find their cds come in very handy from time to time, especially for themed papers and toppers, like this little fob watch which I printed onto one of their papers.

I wanted to create lots of different textures on these pages. On here I used that cute little mouse stamp from Autumn days looking up at the calendar from the perfect planners stamp set.

I have created the sentiment plaque using Debbi Moore's metal magic, which works on a similar basis as an embossing powder. Once the powder has melted, it can be stamped into and then sets like an embellishment.

The page concertinas out with some mini pieces of inspiration on each side, each made to look as if they have been stitched 

I have used the basket from their endless possibilities set with air dry clay for my basket of felt flowers. Being a sewing theme I also made good use of my stitching tool and some embroidery thread.  I know my swap partner has dogs so I have added a stamped image of this cute little pup under the recipe sentiment.

For a different texture, I used film and fibers, on my tangled treat butterfly and this accompanied my usual ATC card that I always add with my book pages.

On the flip side of the concertina page, I have stamped some bees buzzing around some honeycomb which I have made using a little air dry clay again from one of their stamps. Air-dry clay is really light so works well for added texture in these projects. 

I find Das clay from The Works/Hobbycraft is pretty good for small pieces like this. It's inexpensive and once opened if you keep it in an airtight box with a baby wipe inside it extends the life of your clay.

On the reverse side of the pages, I have gone for a more vintage shabby vibe.

I found a template for the button card and covered it with Dreamees papers. The buttons were made using a die by Tattered Lace and it has proved to be a very handy embellishment for projects but lots of your little stamps can be made into embellishment too, like the pins, needles, and scissors that I have used all over this project, with the help of glossy accent!

I've used a small piece of corrugated cardboard as a base for my stamped mannequin. This has been dry brushed with gesso before adding a small piece of rice paper to one corner. With one of the Dreamees little book of textures, I stenciled some white texture mousse for interest. Once dry, I went over it with a little white pearl drops.

The little flowers were from one of their CDs and I have also added glossy accent to the stamped image of the sewing machine.

For the pockets that I created on the next page, I found these little Toppers on one of the Dreamees CDs which I printed onto some of their patterned paper and then backed onto cardstock ready to embellish.

I had forgotten that Hayley Bignall had also created some digi images on some of her CDs and here this little daisy came in very handy on the jar. With a little background stamping on the postcard they just needed a little bling in the shape of stickles glitter glue.

A few inspirational quotes on the back of my tags to finish on. All those little odd pieces of ribbon and lace have been ideal for this project. I am still using my stash of mixed ribbon and lace that I bought from a charity shop pre- covid. I have certainly put my lucky find to good use.

This is a lovely group project swap to be part of especially as I can pick it up and keep adding to it over the course of the month until I am happy that I have done enough with it.

Have a great day, whatever you have planned for yourself

Happy crafting

April Memory Book Page

Today I am sharing April's flip-flap memory book pages from the monthly group swap that I have been involved in.

I try to use as many Dreamees products where possible to comply with the swap but more importantly, it's about having fun creating. 

There's a bit of a bunny theme going on here and I kind of enjoy creating a scene when using my little critter stamps as its so easy to mix and match lots of your sets to work together.

For these book pages I was working with a black and another colour of choice, so I decided to go with the Dreamees sensational sepia paper pad throughout.

One of the design papers created the backdrop for the scene of  "the carrot hunt" for my Easter bunnies

On the adjacent page a portrait of the golden bunny nestled in some die cut fretwork frill flowers. I decided to use some of Debbi Moore's metal magic for the bunny and a couple of the sentiments. This is amazing stuff. It works very much like an embossing powder except you stamp into it when it has reached its melting point. It sets like an embellishment in about 20 minutes. Also, this stuff lasts ages.

On the reverse side of my book page I have gone for a creativity theme.

The mdf dream catcher has been painted with black gesso and then covered with sparkly black embossing powder. On the background, I used texture paste through a brick stencil and then spritzed it with a Pretty Gets Gritty pearl spray in toffee, also adding some to the paper roses.

On my last page, I chose one of the Dreamees recipe stamps and created some artist easels with inspirational quotes.

Finally, I added some ATC cards, which always complete my book pages, one made with Dreamees stamps and the other using the Just Fly digi stamp by Vera Lane Studios.

Have a great day, whatever you have planned for yourself

Happy crafting

Gothic Book Box

I have finally finished my gothic book box which has been a work in progress project and I'm really pleased with how this one turned out.

All the inspiration for this project was taken from Sue Andrews - Magik Graphics mixed media live Facebook group.

I chose this beautiful image of the Midnight Roses CD by Magik Graphics, which decided the colourways for my box.

I used Pebeo high density modeling paste through one of Stamperia's stencils.  This texture paste is nice and smooth and leaves a great defined texture to your project but I would have preferred it in a jar rather than in a tube. It did dry pretty quickly but as I'm a slow crafter I normally leave things to dry overnight anyway.

The book box was given a coating of black gesso except for the inner edges which I painted in buff acrylic paint to look like pages, adding some texture to mimic the edges of the pages. My new favourite paint is the Finnibair metallics range. It's difficult to capture the true colour and shimmer in a picture but for this project, I picked plum, which was the closest to the colours in the image.  I dry brushed the colour, leaving some of the black to show through.

I think the gilding wax always finishes a project off and really highlights all that texture on your project.  I also used the alchemy tag moulds by Stamperia to create the tag and some of the embellishments for my box using air dried clay.

I knew those broken chains that I kept would come in handy one day. Attached to one of the tags that I had made, it was a perfect hanging embellishment. This was attached with a little leatherette cord, inside the top of the box. This is why as crafters we keep all these random little bits and pieces.

I can get a  bit carried away when I have a pot of gilding wax in my hands. Even the brass butterfly and key had touch of wax to lift them and the rose paper flower just didn't look right with its green stem, so that had to go too.

This now sits in my bedroom.  I don't keep many things that I make as I am so used to making for others and a lot of my own craft projects tend to sit on the back burner with the garden ones being the ones that do eventually get finished as that is where I tend to spend a lot of time.

As I am stepping away from making as many cards now, I'm hoping to focus more on some mixed media projects

Have a great day, whatever you have planned for yourself

Happy crafting

added to:  The River of Creativity Challenge  (Shoutout for May challenge)

March Memory Book page

I have another memory book page to share with you, which is part of a monthly group craft swap project that I have signed up for this year.

The aim is to use as many Dreamees products where possible but more importantly to have fun creating. 

I've used our usual 6x6 inch kraft card base which we are all using for our "flip flap book" page swaps, so that after all the swaps are complete, these book pages will fit into the spine that we have been shown how to make.

I have used the ray of sunshine paper pad for this month's theme. They may not be a spring flower but they certainly give the burst of hello yellow sunshine & smiles that we all need after emerging from those winter blues.

Behind the shutters, I've also added a poem for March and used my dies for the cascading blooms, and made some fleurs foam crocuses on a bed of moss.

The really small pearls are ideal for these projects but I have been using my Stickles glitter glue a lot more as they are so versatile and come in so many great colours.

I found these little windmills on one of the Dreamees older cds but as I wanted the paper to match my project, I just printed the originals off and drew around them onto the paper pad before cutting them out. I have a few windmills in my garden and they are certainly working hard today!

Talking of winter blues, ironically I have gone for the Sapphire Dreams paper pad for the other side of the book page. Another really pretty paper pad and I was thinking of colours that my swap partner had not yet had in her book yet, so this was my choice.

For the first part of the page, I kept it very simple on the outside with just a pretty envelope.  The second part of this page was quite personal to my partner, as it was in memory to her beloved dog that she had recently lost. I added a little poem for Treacle alongside the stamped topper.

"When tomorrow starts without me,

don't think we're far apart,

for each time you think of me,

I'm right inside your heart....."

Using a little mdf embroidery hoop from an old Dreamees kit that I had, I painted it and made a  memory hoop, adding a little mdf feather, which I also painted with gesso and then top coated with some Dylon iridescent pearl drops that I found in my stash. The hoop actually shimmers with the gold mica flecks in the cobalt blue sparkle reinker but it doesn't show in the picture. The picture of Treacle is double sided and attached by a jewellry finding.

Inside the envelope, I made a large decorated tag, adding some little flowers which I have also made to co-ordinate and finished off with a recipe of happiness stamp.

These flip flap book pages have been really enjoyable to make and I have received some beautiful book pages in return.

Have a great day, whatever you have planned for yourself

Happy crafting

Februarys Memory Book Page

I have another memory book page to share with you, which is part of a monthly group craft swap project that I have signed up to for this year.

The aim is to use as many Dreamees products where possible but more importantly to have fun creating. 

I've used our usual 6x6 inch kraft card base which we are all using for our "flip flap book" page swaps, so that after all the swaps are complete, these book pages will fit into the spine that Carol Bignall has shown us how to make.

For the first side, I've used papers from the Rose Garden paper pad and a selection of dies. In the lattice pocket, I made a decorated tag in its own matching decorated string envelope.

I found a template for the string envelope online, which I think will be very handy to use with my patterned papers for other projects.  Using a small piece of heavyweight kraft card, I created lots of layers for my shabby chic tag mixing in some lace, ribbon and die-cut embellishments.

These sentiment recipe stamps are a really nice touch in projects like this.

I also like making embellishments out of stamps and this retired stamp was one of the Dreamees very early stamps. I thought that it would make a sweet little hanging embellishment so added some glossy accent for some texture and a glitter pen around the heart.

A stamped sentiment on the reverse of my little mug

I found a poem for the winter month of February which I added under the first flap and used the rest of the cute little mice from the Autumn Days stamp set, placing them in the barrel from another set.

At the base of the second flap, I popped in an ATC card which was created using one of these cute stamps from their mushroom house stamp set.

I also added another ATC card using one of the Kokeshi doll digi stamps from Vera Lane's digi stamp collection for this month's swap.

On the reverse side of the book page I used the Dreamees Aquamarine paper pad

I created an acetate frame for my stamped flowers using the loops and lace oval die and had to keep in mind not to add too much dimension as it was going in a book.

The butterflies have been heat embossed onto the same pretty design paper and then attached to a stamped/heat embossed piece of grey vellum film strip.

I have traced over various areas of the book page with a shimmer pen to add a little twinkle here and there and bring out some of the lovely colours in the design papers.

This is the only project that I have made a craft commitment to this year and have been enjoying being part of it.  I have a month to complete these projects which is great because I can pace myself and plan these small projects out and although I have cut back on all my crafting now, it's important that I still continue to do the things that I enjoy.

I have already received two gorgeous memory book pages from my swap partners for my "flip flap" memory book and love how each page is so unique and beautifully put together and that is what is so great about these projects, every page will be different.

Have a great day, whatever you have planned for yourself

Happy crafting

Tickled Pink Memory Book Page

A new ongoing group project to share today -  a book page for a Flip Flap memory book which I am making as a group craft swap every month.

All our books will be made out of the same 6 x 6 inch Kraft card base as a starting point and to use Dreamees products where possible.

The preference I had from my partner for the first page of our book page was pink and a rainbow for the cover if possible.  As I didn't have any stamps or toppers or anything that I could adapt, I remembered a wonderful little fabrics & trimmings shop that I often like to browse around when I'm in the area and picked up this rainbow applique in one of their many baskets of goodies. I couldn't believe my luck when I saw it.

The pink satin ribbon will be used to fasten her book at the end. I've also sent my partner another piece of ribbon to attach when she has all the pieces of her book from her swap partners over the coming months so that it matches.

On the mdf dreamcatcher embellishment, I first coloured with a Dreamees dinky inky reinker in treasure and then topped up with gold gilding wax. For the feathers, I used mica powders.

On the reverse of my book page, I picked another set of pink papers to coordinate and chose a family tree theme, adding the sentiment:-

Family:- Where life begins & love never ends

Inside the die cut lacy heart which I folded, I added some  stamped bunnies  and another

sentiment. 

"Behind you, all your memories, 

 Before you, all your dreams, 

 Around you, all who love you, 

 Within you all you need"

I had to add some ATC cards so chose one of my favourite digi stamps by Vera Lane Studios - Kokeshi dolls and for the other ATC I chose the Dreamees Cute Bun stamp as this was a Dreamees project.

For the hearts in my Family Tree, I used the centres from one of the Loops & Lace flower dies, which are really handy if you want little die-cut hearts.

Just in case extra hearts were needed to add to the family tree, I made a little envelope to tuck in the pot under the tree. The pot being a milk churn stamp that I cut in half.

I really enjoyed making this as I could pick it up and do a little bit at a time over the course of the month and this is the sort of thing I really enjoy anyway.

Everyone's pages will be different which is what is great about it too and I am already looking forward to the next one.

Have a great day, whatever you have planned.

Happy crafting