do you think it's ultimately disappointing...

...if the present inside the gift bag is less cool than the bag itself??

actually, i think i am ok this time, because the mother's day present within is a very beautiful garden book from the metropolitan museum of art, and one of the butterfly bouquets i made last week. i hadn't even intended to make a fancy bag for them, but when i was digging around in the family photos for madeline's bulletin board i came across this one, circa 1967, and i thought it'd be pretty cool, assuming i could clean it up a bit.

my intention was, after brightening the image in photoshop, to play with blending modes a bit, add a few decorative layers, and come up with something that was 99% done when i printed it out, so that i could just mat it and be done. that didn't happen. turns out, i went BIGTIME old school, and spent most of the evening adding "real life" layers and textures and embellishments. but i think it was worth it:

the lace (from michaels, which started out white) is hand-dyed with various shades of glimmer mist and radiant rain. the black edges, and the swirls at the corners are a designer digitals' frame, but i stitched over them with the sewing machine. the gorgeous flower is NOT handmade, i just cut it off some of this amazing trim from webster's pages, and added a vintage lucite button. i FINALLY found more of the pale green may arts leaf ribbon* i adore, and to celebrate, i used at least a yard of it here! there are little silvery dragonfly brads from the ink pad in nyc, as well as some old fancy pants rub-ons, and a bit of recollections bling. here's a close-up that gives a better idea:

and lest you think i have wasted all of this work on a bag...the entire decorative panel--photo, lace, etc-- is attached with foam tape and can be removed and hung elsewhere. if my mom doesn't want to do that, i think i might just have to snatch it back!!! :)

♥HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!♥

*when i did this before i got questions, so i will essplain the method to get whirly swirly vines without sewing yourself to the page; it is FIDDLY in the extreme, but not actually difficult: 1. layout the curves of ribbon roughly the way you'd like it to look 2. tack a few leaves in place with teeeeeny gluedots 3. place the paper with the semi-attached ribbon under the foot of your sewing machine 4. carefully, using the hand-crank, sew along the "vine" part of the ribbon

(note: it is impossible to be absolutely precise at this...the ribbon will want to shift and you sort of have to go with it; however, any BIG mistakes can always be covered by a few more leaves that you snip & apply with gluedots!)