Wedding Journal Revealed

 Now the bride and groom have seen the journal and are on their honeymoon in Copenhagen I can let you see the journal I created for them.  They are hoping to put photos and other keepsakes in it.  The theme was pink roses with other cottage garden flowers playing a supporting role.

 They also love vintage so I tea dyed the pages and included lots of vintage images, most of which I had used on their wedding invites.  The hard part was not over decorating it to allow them to customise and add to it to make it theirs.  I can so easily get carried away, lol.

Some of the lace that I used to make little pockets was off cuts from her dress, to make it more personal. The groom is a musician so I used music sheets throughout, mostly love songs, although there is one, nearer the back of the album where the words are 'I married a wife, she's the plague of my life' but knowing them I knew they would find it funny.

The brides mum found old postcards of the Guildhall, Leicester, where the ceremony was held so I placed them in the pockets so they could see them.

I raided my rather extensive napkin stash for roses and vintage style images, these red roses being opposite a song entitled 'My love is like a red, red rose'.

 This vintage postcard was in my collection but I just had to give it to them as it was addressed to someone with the same name as the bride.

 This fabric used to be an embroidered linen napkin, old and stained but this portion of it was sound.

This atc was part of my initial designs for the couple's wedding invitations.

The journal was constructed using an old teaching manual and here you can see part of it's spine together with a napkin that the bride gave me.  The bride is a teacher so it seemed right to use this book.

I used the same stamps in the journal that I used on the wrapping paper and then a friend kindly lent me her roses stamps so I could add more variety to the images.

Billyboy Studio Assistant was carrying out a bit of quality control , checking the inside back cover for sitability, yes, he was comfy on there until I picked him up.

The pages are all tied in so more or less pages can be used if required.  I just adore frayed edges.
I hope I haven't bored you with too many pages, there are more but they are less decorated so that it gives the happy couple more room to personalise their journal.

And here they are on their wedding day, a perfect day, full of love, warmth and friendship.  I will long remember it.  Many congratulations to you both and I can't wait to see the journal full to overflowing with memories of your special day xx

(I'll pop the whole run through of the journal on my Flickr - see side bar, just in case you're interested)

My Little Billyboy is 3 Today

This afternoon little Billyboy is out for the count, chilling on the bed, catching some ZZZZZZ's

But this is very unusual for this terribly naughty, but absolutely adored little fella.  I had a text last week from a friend and neighbour that Billyboy had paid her a visit and snaffled her corned beef sandwich, luckily she loves him as well.  He's always up to mischief.  His latest trick is to jump on the radiator in the bathroom so he can reach the light pull and play with it, batting it against the wall.  I suppose it does look like a cat toy.

Here he was 'helping' me photograph the hush, hush journal.  He's a super boy, full of personality.  Happy 3rd Birthday my sweetie!

Journal Under Wraps

 Quite literally!  I've finished the wedding journal for my friend.  Only two more days till the wedding.

 I was bemoaning my memory at not remembering to get any wrapping paper and then had a flash of inspiration - I am surrounded by paper in my studio and my friend once saw a journal I made, sewing papers together to make the pages and loved it so......

I made the wrapping paper out of love songs as Mr is a musician, an old teaching manual as Mrs is a teacher and an old gardening encyclopedia as the wedding theme is flowers. I stitched them together randomly and then overstamped with flowers. 

When Mr and Mrs have opened their journal I'll share it with you but for the time being it's under wraps :)

Made My First Clutch Bag

I'm off to a wedding next week and needed a bag to match my dress.  So off I went, pulling out fabrics from my stash, reading lots of books on bags and finally getting some free time to get on with it.

 I used the Elegance Pleated Clutch pattern from Sue Kim's book Bags: the modern classics, (I've popped a link to it on my Goodreads Box on the right hand bar).  I had a large piece from Laura Ashley back in the nineties,with a self pattern, for the exterior and then used 3 toning pieces from a Harlequin sample book to make the lining.

My button box gave up this lovely big wooden button and then a pearly one placed on top.  It was fun to make and even though it was rated a 2 button bag for difficulty, it was really easy.  I hope to make some more to match other outfits.  The book contains some great patterns and as I have a friends birthday coming up soon I might well tackle another pattern.

Now I just need some good weather so the wedding can go off without us all getting wet!

Floral Abundance Continues

 Floral abundance continues sounds so much better than the wet season shows no signs of stopping!  June has been a washout and July is following in it's soggy footsteps.

Last week came the heaviest rains I had ever seen, at some points you couldn't see more than a few feet in front of you, it was that heavy.  Hail stones fell like ice cubes from the sky.

 But my little garden continues to flower it's heart out, despite the rain beating it down

 Jasmine, now scents the air with it's heady perfume

 and I continue to delight in the different shapes, textures and hues of pink, white, blue and purple.

Maybe the weather will change soon?

Making Journals

 Long time no blogging, but I've been busy, honest, making journals and here is just a little peak at the front cover of one of them.

And here is Billy 'helping' me with a special journal, hush, don't tell anyone, it's a secret for now :)