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

2Crafty Chipboard - November Project #3

Hello everyone and welcome to my blog.  So glad you popped in for a visit.

As promised, I am here to share part three of my November reveal for 2Crafty Chipboard.
Having made a gift (The Positivity Journal from my previous two posts) I also had to make a Card as well.  
2Crafty Chipboard used Brushstroke Tree Element Set 1 Card Word Circles Christmas ATC Tiny Hearts and Stars I'm afraid I am a traditionalist when it comes to Christmas.  That means I mainly use green, red and gold in my cards.  With this card though, I have gone a little outside my usual 'square' and used a sheet from Prima's Romance Novel Collection instead of actual Christmas paper. I also indulged myself a little and went a bit grungy!

I added some dry wall tape and some tiny beads to the base of the card.  Some twine and some more beads were also added to the cluster.  Both the large red flower and the smaller white one are available from Meg's Garden.

The Card Word Circle was coloured with red nail polish to start off with but, as it was a little too dark, I went over it with Versa Color Scarlet and a little gold.  The Element Set 1 comes as 3 pieces.  I cut one of the smaller ones in half, glittered it with gold, and then inserted it between the paper layers.

The Brushstroke Tree was coloured firstly with Crushed Olive Distress Ink and then with green acrylic paint.  It was then coated in Crackle Accents.  The cracks are only small but they look quite effective.  The Tiny Stars were simply covered in gold glitter and glued to the tree.

I tried a little experiment with the tree.  I wet the ends of the branches and split the layers a little.  Once it was dry, I added some glue and sprinkled some tiny beads over it.  Not sure if I like the result.  I was hoping it might look a little like candles but don't think it really worked out.  What do you think??  Apart from my little experiment, I do love how the tree looks!

This is the inside of the card.  Here I have again used the Romance Novel papers.  The border was punched with Martha Stewart's 'Floral Vine Deep Edge' punch.

Just a closie of the quote stamp.  I have left the right side mainly blank so I can write the sentiment.

Once the card was finished, I brushed it randomly with some gesso.

I do hope that you like my card and also the Journal I shared in my previous two posts and I also hope you have been inspired to try 2Crafty Chipboard for your own creations. To take a look at the awesome projects created by the other members of the Team.  You can find the link to the blog HERE.   And remember, to find a 2Crafty stockist near you, send an email to salesat2crafty@optusnet.com.au
Thank you so much for visiting and do enjoy the rest of your day. Take care and God Bless.

2Crafty Chipboard - November Project #2

Hi everyone and welcome to my blog.  So happy to see you here.
Well, hubby and I are back home again after the most wonderful holiday in New Zealand.  It was awesome and we were thoroughly spoilt.  So hard to get back into the real world again but lovely to be back with family and friends.  Be warned, I will be boring you with random posts of the photos  over the next few weeks or even months.  Have to get them sorted first and then .... look out!  I will regale you with all the awesome (to me) and awful (to you) details.  LOL!!!
In the meantime, I have some creative things to show you.
This is the second part of my November Project for 2Crafty Chipboard.  In the first chapter I showed the Positivity Journal I created as a gift for a friend of mine and in this post I will show you the Journal pages behind the tags.  First up, a piccie of the front of the book as a reminder ...

I was really pleased how the front of the book turned out.  I cannot always get the look I'm aiming for straight away.  It sometimes takes quite a bit of searching for all the right ingredients, but this time it just came together really easy thanks to that gorgeous 2Crafty 'Ingrid's Frame' chippie.  I really didn't want to give it up but it looked so gorgeous on the front that nothing else was good enough!
Once again I need to warn you that there are a lot of photos but I will just let you scroll through them without any blathering from me.  Well, maybe just a little blather from time to time.  LOL!!

All the chipboard pieces came, of course, from 2Crafty Chipboard.  The piece above is from the 'Funky Arrows' set and the one below is from the 'Funky Heart Swirls'.

All of the vintage images on the tags came from Meg's Garden.   These are from the 'Fashion Prints' Collage Pack.  As my friend loves these types of images, I was so pleased I had them in my stash.  If you'd like to have a look you can find them HERE.

I simply did a little stamping and also some stencil work on the pages.  This chippie is the 'Ornate Buckle'.

There are three pockets created in between the pages that hold larger tags and this is the first of those.  The backs of all the tags, large and small, were left blank as this is where all the journaling will be written.  The fronts of the larger tags can also be written upon.

 

Here is the 'ATC Mask' chippie.

This is the second of the larger tags.

This chippie is the 'Funky Leaf Swirls'.

Didn't get the pressure right on the quote stamp on this page.  It says 'Wake up every morning with the thought that something wonderful is about to happen.'

 Here is the third and last of the large tags.

Here is the 'Heidi's Vines' chippie.

The quote says ' Laugh when you can, Apologize when you should, Let go of what you can't change.'

Last, but certainly not least, is the 'ATC Georgian Frame'.

Here is the book fully opened to the left ...

... and fully opened to the right.

Whew!!!  It's done.  I hope you were able to stick with me to the end.  I'm afraid I did blather on a bit more than I intended so I hope you weren't too bored.
Thank you so much for coming to take a look at the more detailed view of the inside of my little book.  In my last post I did mention that the design of the book came from Kimi Blundell of 'Uniquescrappiness' and she does have a fabulous step by step on how to construct it so, just in case you are interested, I will give you the link again HERE.

To take a look at all the beautiful chipboard designs produced by 2Crafty Chipboard HERE is the link  to the website and, if you'd like to take a look at the gorgeous creations made by my Teamies, you can find the 2Crafty Blog HERE.

and remember, to find a 2Crafty stockist near you, simply send an email 
to salesat2crafty@optusnet.com.au

In the next few days I will share the card I made to go with this book.  Till then, take care everyone and God Bless. oxox