Maggie's Message...

It's a convoluted story to how I came to alter this book - I'll explain more in a future post but I bought this book about a year ago and never had the courage to alter it... But today I was feeling brave and decided to bring along my Studio 490 stamps as Dutch Courage! 

This is Maggie's Message - the book plate says it was awarded to 'Dora' in 1911...

With my craft knife I scored a frame about 3cm from the edges and then proceeded to rip the centre of the pages out (I scored a cross in the centre of each page so it was easy to do) I allowed the pages to build up naturally at the edges to create texture. 

I left the last page uncut as it was adverts for other books and I rather liked it and I covered it in a layer of Tumbled Glass Distress Stain. The inner pages were treated to a little Vintage Photo Distress Ink and the top page was stamped with a script stamp in Sepia Archival Ink and then covered in Peeled Paint Distress Ink. I added a couple of stamps in Jet Black Archival Ink to the frame.

The bottle was stamped on heat resistant acetate with Jet Black Archival Ink. The label, and bottle top were stamped on a spare book page and inked with Antique Linen Distress Stain and Brushed Corduroy Distress Ink. I added a little Glossy Accents on the star and I tucked the bottle into the back of the book. 

The stem and leaves were inked with Peeled Paint Distress Ink and tucked behind the bottle (with a spot of Glossy Accents to keep them in place!) The flower was inked with Milled Lavender and Victorian Velvet Distress Stains and I added a washer and brad for the centre. The banner was die cut and inked as the bottle with a sentiment. 

This was my first, but definitely not last, altered book - but as it was my first I would love to know what you think! I thought I would offer it for scrutiny in this week's Simon Says Stamp and Show as the theme is Anything Goes!

 

Christmas Robin

This week, I decided to make a card that could be repeated quite easily if you were the type of crafter that like to make lots of the same kind of card for Christmas. There are lots of ready-made card templates on the market with pre-cut apertures and this would fit really well with one of those.  Typically, I didn’t have any so I cut the hole myself! 

I used the flourish stamp from the rather fabulous Sam Poole designed Stylish Christmas 1 set in both Fired Brick and Pine Needles Distress Ink. I like it when they cross over so it really becomes a 'background' so there's no need to be very tidy! Then I placed the robin stamp in the aperture where it would go when finished and then stamped the sentiment on the inside of the card (through the aperture) - this is the easiest way of ensuring the sentiment is where you want it to be. 

I also stamped two of the circles at the end of the stamp on the inside of the card as a guide to where I'd need to write below when signing that card, that way my handwriting doesn't become an unintentional part of the design! The robin was stamped in Jet Black Archival Ink on heat resistant acetate and dried with my heat gun - don't be tempted to use Distress Ink on acetate - you'll end up with a really blobby finish that doesn't dry - can you tell I've made that mistake before?! I edged the card with Fired Brick (outside edges) and Pine Needles (inside edges) and placed the acetate to the reverse of the front of the card.I like the idea of the sentiment being on the inside of the card, yet visible on the outside, so I'm off to experiment a little more! Gabrielle x

Two tags

For my latest Creative Expressions DT piece I wanted to make a tag with a difference and decided to make two! The first layer is acetate with the typewriter from the really versatile Vintage Typewriter. I stamped it with Jet Black Archival Ink and set it with my heat gun - do be careful that your acetate is heat resistant! The second tag is white card swiped through several different brown Distress Stains. To do this I stamp the stains onto a craft sheet next to each 

other and then mist them with water and the smooch the tag right through it - you can do this several times, building up the colour each time. Then, in Old Paper Distress Ink, I stamped 'A note for you' randomly. I then laid the acetate over the the top of the second tag and worked 

out where the final sentiment needed to go. I stamped that in Vintage Photo Distress Ink and also edged the tag in Vintage Photo. I made a shrink typewriter and added some of this really wonderful twine. Thank you for stopping by! Gabrielle x