Christmas with the 'Gentleman Collection' Papers for Meg's Garden

Hello everyone and welcome to my blog.  So pleased you dropped by.

I have finally started making my Christmas Cards.  Yes, I know, I have started them way too late, but my life has been a bit hectic over the last couple of months and hubby and I have been away on the most wonderful holiday as well so I haven't really cottoned onto the fact that Christmas is just around the corner.  Oh My Gosh!!!  Did I just say that!!  Yikes!!  I really do have to pull the proverbial finger out!!
 Anyway, back to the business at hand (before I totally freak out LOL!) I'm here to share a couple of Christmas cards that have been made with some sheets from Meg's Garden's 'Gentleman Collection' and I really love how they have turned out.  You all know that it is not necessary to use dedicated Christmas paper to make your Christmas cards.  For me, it's more about the colour and texture than it is about the designs so I decided that the 'Gentleman Collection' papers would be perfect.

Card No. 1

I did use a small piece of Christmas paper from Kaisercraft underneath but the top layer is 'A Gentleman's Auto' 12" x 12".  Did a tiny bit of spraying with watered down Distress Ink in 'Peeled Paint' and 'Pine Needles'.

Used some fabulous 2Crafty Chipboard  (Element Set 1, Card Word Circles - Christmas and Mini Reindeers) and a die cut  from Memory Box.  The lovely lace is also available from Meg's Garden.  

Love that gorgeous deep red bloom.  Meg's Garden has some beautiful flowers available in her shop but you should check it out on a regular basis as the stock does change from time to time.   To the cluster I added some die cut leaves, berries, gauze, the lace of course and some bits of twine as well.  

The inside was also decorated with the same paper.  Heat embossed the edges with gold and I created a pocket on the left hand side to hold some gift vouchers.  The right hand side was left blank so I could write the sentiment.

Card No. 2
This one is very similar to the first.  The sheet used here is 'Gentleman' 12" x 12" and I've just added some different colours and different embellishments.

Spread some crackle around on this one and inked it with 'Fired Brick' DI.  The tags are a freebie received with a crafting magazine.

Used the same type of flower and lace in the cluster but this time I added some dodo wire and different berries as well as a piece of  gold mesh and some die cuts.

The inside was decorated the same again just with different colours and different stamps and I've added a small piece of dry wall tape as well.

There you have it!!  My 'Gentleman Collection' Christmas cards.  As I said before, I am really pleased with how these cards turned out so I will be making all of my cards this year in the same manner.  I will be posting those up over the next few weeks so I hope you will pop back here to take a look.  In the meantime why not take a look at all the amazing creations from my Teamies over at the Meg's Garden Blog.  You can find it HERE.   To take a look at all the fabulous products Meg has in her online store, click HERE.

Meg's Garden products used
'Gentleman's Auto' 12 x 12
'Gentleman' 12 x 12
Dodo Wire
Lace 1.6cm white

Thank you so much for visiting and enjoy the rest of your day.
Take care and God Bless.

Marg oxox

The 'French Garden' Book for Meg's Garden

Hello everyone and welcome to my blog!  So nice of you to drop by.
I would like to share with you my project using Meg's Garden's very latest Kit,  the French Garden Book Kit.  These papers were designed by Denise Boddey and, if you're into shabby chic, you will absolutely love them.  The colours are so pretty and there are lots of images for fussy cutting as well.  The Kit is available to purchase as both a download and a fully printed version, whichever best suits your needs.  
To give you some inspiration, the DT have been challenged to each create a Book with this Kit and here is my version.  The design for the pages came from Kathy Orta's "My Design Mini'.   She makes the most wonderful albums and has the most innovative designs, I love her work.  HERE is the link to the YouTube video.

All the papers used for this book were edged with Gathered Twigs Distress Ink.

The Title is a 2Crafty Chipboard piece which was coloured with Distress Ink and then brushed with multi matte medium and randomly sprinkled with clear glitter.

The large flowers below are all available from Meg's Garden, as is the gorgeous piece of lace.  The small flowers and the pearls came from my stash.  I also tucked a little gauze in amongst my blooms.

Instead of Texture Paste which can be a little expensive to buy, I use Multi-Purpose Filler which is available at Hardware stores and costs only a few dollars for a 500gm Tub.  I really love it because it is exactly the right consistency and it holds the shape beautifully as you can see below.

Before we go any further I must warn you that this will be a huge post.  There are only 4 page sets, as you can see , but there are quite a few fold outs, pockets and tags etc. to show you so there will be a lot of photos.

Here are the first 2 pages.
Page 1 (the inside front cover) has a butterfly, some small tags and the Queen of Spades which were all fussy cut from the Kit's ephemera.  The 'Queen' was mounted on card stock and attached to the bottom flap.  This flap opens down ...

... to reveal a photo mat and journaling spot ...

... and the top flap opens 'up' to, again, reveal another photo mat and journaling spot.  I have used a magnet behind the card to keep the flaps closed.
 The lace and the washi tape are, of course, available from Meg's Garden.

Here is the page fully opened.

Page 2 is a half page, and here I have done a little stamping for extra interest and added some more washi tape.     

 This page opens up to reveal more photo mats with the same stamp and washi tape.  The stamps I have used in this Album are Kaisercraft's 'Script' and 'Arty' Stamps.  The little white and red butterfly is also from the Kit's ephemera.

Pages 3 and 4.  Of course page 3 is the back of page 2 and it has ...

... two pockets edged with the Sevington Border die from Memory Box ...

... and two tags.  The bottom of these tags fold up when placed back in the pockets.

Page 4 has a belly band which can be used to hold tags or photos and, when you untie the ribbon the page opens up to reveal ...

... more photo mats that are suitable for larger photos.

Pages 5 and 6.

Page 5 has a pocket and tag.  The paper on the pocket is from the 'Damask Garden Collection' which is another range of papers designed by Denise.  I felt it fitted in very nicely with the 'French Garden' papers.  The strip at the top of the tag was edged with Martha Stewart's Floral Vine Deep Edge   Border Punch.

Page 6 is another photo mat.  Isn't the paper beautiful??  If you wanted to you could fussy cut the flowers and leaves and simply use them as embellishments.

Pages 7 and 8.
I do hope you're still with us folks, we're nearly finished.

Page 7 is a pocket ...

... which is held closed by a magnet (also available from Meg's Garden) and holds a tag.

Page 8 is another half page that ties with a ribbon.

... which opens up to reveal (surprise, surprise!!) some photo mats ... and opens out again to reveal ...

... (bigger surprise!!  LOL!!) more photo mats, one of which has a belly band made from a bit of ribbon from Meg's 'Camel Bundle' and the other has some fussy cut tags and tickets from the ephemera pages!!

Pages 9 and 10.

Page 9 is plain and simple, just a photo mat or journaling spot.

Page 10 has a pocket ...

... cut into the paper to hold ...

... a small booklet for photos which was simply bound with some black raffia from the Camel Bundle.  Here I have again used the Floral Vine border punch and also added a fussy cut butterfly from the ephemera sheets.

Finally (Yayy!!) the back cover which was left fairly plain.   I simply repeated the ribbon and pearl trim from the front and also added a metal trinket.

As I said at the beginning, not many pages, but lots of surfaces for photos, journaling and anything else you may think of.

I do hope you have enjoyed seeing my 'French Garden' Album.  I didn't make it as shabby chic as I had intended to but I'm sure you can see the potential.  I hope I have inspired you to try this Book Kit for yourself.  It is gorgeous to work with and there are lots of elements to this Kit which I didn't even use in my book.  To take a look at the full Kit HERE is the link.

Meg's Garden Products used
French Garden Book Kit
Blue & Cream Damask Garden 12 x 12 Sheet
Lace - 2 cm
Lace - 1.6 cm
Ivory Primula
Primrose Posy - cream
Small  white roses - 2 cm
Ribbon and raffia from Camel Bundle
Music notes Washi Tape
Vintage Trinkets - Round Filigree Large
Magnetic Discs

Thank you so much for visiting and do enjoy the rest of your day.
Take care and God Bless.
oxox Marg

The Sherlock Book by Watson for Meg's Garden

Hello everyone and welcome to my blog.  So pleased you came for a visit.
I am here to show you what I have created with Kerry-Jean Watson's awesome Sherlock Book Kit.  This fabulous Kit is available from Meg's Garden as either a fully printed version or a digital download that you can print for yourself.  HERE is the link to see the video of the Book Kit.

I am basically a card maker and I was in need of a Crafting Diary to keep track of Birthdays and Anniversaries, etc. and also Design Team Deadlines, and so that is what I decided to make with my Kit.  Yes, I do have all that information on my computer, but there is nothing like having it all on hand in a pretty book is there??

For the front cover I did some stamping and stenciling and splashed a little paint around as well before adding the embellies.  Most of the embellishments you can see came from Meg's Garden.  You can purchase some fantastic 'bundles' that contain beads, ribbons, metal embellies ... everything you could possibly need to beautifully embellish your Kit, and they come in an assortment of colours too!!
The film strip frame came from my stash and the photos inside it are actually photos of some of my past projects for Meg's Garden. The quote was found on the net.  I wanted to incorporate some craft quotes into this book so you will see the odd one or two scattered around on different pages.  

The tabs you can see peeking out from the side of the book are part of the Kit.  I simply wrote the months on by hand and then glued them to the edge of the journal pages.

The book measures 5.75" x 7.75" and all the pages were distressed and inked with Gathered Twigs Distress Ink and then glued to sheets of Kraft Cardstock.  Punched some holes with my Crop-adile and bound it together with seam binding.  The binding  was also coloured with Distress Ink in Gathered Twigs and Walnut Stain.  

Here's a closie of the charms ...

... and another of the quote and the flower cluster.

I wanted this book to be more than just a Diary.  I also want to use it as an ideas journal so I made a couple of small booklets and some tags in order to record things like interesting sketches, color palettes and great techniques.
Making the booklet was very simple.   I just cut some kraft cardstock and some  plain sheets of paper to the size I wanted, folded them in half and then simply punched two holes in the crease and pulled some twine through and tied it with a bow.   I then covered the front of each booklet with some of the paper and used a fancy paper clip to keep them closed.

Following are some shots of the embellished pages or you can just go straight down  to the end of this post for a walk through video which was made by Kerry-Jean Watson the creator of this awesome Kit.  I don't make videos as I don't have the equipment and I am so pleased that Kerry-Jean offered to do one for me.  Thank you KJ ... you rock!!  

... and this is the back of the book.  The gorgeous stains you can see are actually on the paper itself.  The only changes I made here was to distress and ink the edges ... Looooovee  those stains!!

Here is the walk-through video!!

I do hope you like my little Diary and that I have inspired you to get one for yourself!!  Why not pop over to the Meg's Garden Blog and see what my Teamies created with this awesome Kit.  You will be amazed by the variety!!
HERE is the link to the blog and HERE is the link to the Shop!

Meg's Garden Products used:
The Sherlock Book Kit
Camel Bundle
Sage Burlap Ribbon
Seam Binding

Thank you so much for visiting and I hope you enjoy the rest of your day!
Take care and God Bless.