A Lovely, lovely Christmas Surprise!!

Hello lovely people and thank you for dropping by at this busy time of the year.

I did think my previous post was going to be my last before Christmas, but today I got a lovely surprise which I simply had to share.

I have been very blessed to have come to know a lot of very talented people out there in blog land and, quite a lot of them I have come to call my friend.  Some, I have even been lucky enough to meet personally but others I have never met and probably (unless I am extremely lucky) never will.  Well, this morning in the post I received the loveliest surprise from one of those friends who lives on the other side of the world and whom I, unfortunately, will most likely never meet.

I received a Christmas card from Astrid Maclean and I am over the moon.  Astrid and I, through a set of circumstances I won't go into here, did exchange cards last year but, as she is away from home over Christmas and as she is an extremely busy lady, I really didn't think it would happen this year so, to my extreme dismay, I didn't actually make one for her and then, this morning, I received this gorgeous card from her.   

I am always amazed at Astrid's art.  She has a wonderful eye for colour and composition and the techniques she uses to make her projects are brilliant.

I love the embossing and the way she blends the different colours so beautifully.

Love the heart with that little twine bow.  Such a lot of work went into this card, these photos really don't do it justice.  

Absolutely stunning work!!

Thank you, so much Astrid!!  It was such a lovely surprise to receive in the mail this morning.  Your card is divine and I will treasure this forever.
I have a box where I keep all my most special cards.  Some were made by my children when they were little and some were made by my grandchildren and also some from special friends (Astrid's card from last year is in this box), some of whom are no longer with us.  Every once in a while I get my box down and sit quietly to look at them all and remember when I received them.  After I finish displaying this card (which will probably be for a very long time) it will go into this box as well.
I am so sorry that I didn't reciprocate this year Astrid, but I will definitely correct that mistake for next year.  I wish you and your family a very Merry Christmas and a really lovely holiday with lots and lots of hugs and kisses for you from your grandchildren.  Blessings to you all.

For anyone who doesn't know Astrid, her blog is Astrid's Artistic Efforts and you can find it HERE.  I urge you to go and take a look, her work is amazing!!

A very Merry Christmas to all my lovely followers and visitors too.
Thank you so much for dropping by and enjoy the rest of your day.

Take care and God Bless

oxox Marg

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