it's the last monday of april...

...and i think we might need a few extra lols! 

who's with me?!? 

WAHEY!

yeah, that works for me, thanks.

moving on:

ok, so, am i the only one who wonders if this...

...might by any chance be richard simmons' dog??!

(it could just be the tank top, though!)

and finally:

look out MONTH OF MAY... here we come!!!

♥♥♥

little bundles of crafty kitsch!

i'm proud of every item that's in my etsy shop, but i have to tell you that these little miniature sewing and yarncraft project journals *MIGHT* be my favorites!

 sew far, sew good

(has project chart pages on reverse)

for one thing, they are full of the coolest illustrations i could find in 1970's craft books, 1960's sewing manuals, vintage patterns, old yarn catalogs and magazines, even kids' crafting books... so that every page is unique and fun.

 sew what else is new

(has project chart pages on reverse)

for another thing, i have raided my vast collection of DIABOLICAL PUNS for the (in my opinion!) completely AWESOME titles!

sew what

(has project chart pages on reverse)

each one measures 3.75" x 4.25", has twenty five pages and a spiral binding. the individual listings show additional photos of each book, plus a glimpse of the types of illustrations inside each one, but since every single one is different, and it's IMPOSSIBLE to photo every page of every book, there's sort of a "lucky dip" element to this, which i think makes it even more fun!

an example  of the types of sewing book pages

an example of the types of yarncraft book pages

the first ones i made had vintage goodness on the page fronts and a little chart on the subtle patterned paper page backs to record the details of each project (for whom it was made, what pattern was used, etc) but having given a couple away to friends one of the most helpful bits of feedback i got was that they didn't want to COVER the vintage illustrations with photos of their projects! (which was my original idea of how these volumes would be used.)

an example of the project-chart page backs; the blank ones use the same types of paper, they just don't have a chart!

someone else mentioned that she'd rather use hers to PLAN projects rather than record/show off finished ones. so the later "editions" just have subtly patterned papers on the backs of the pages with no charts or input from me... thus they can be ANYTHING you want them to be from journals, to planning notebooks, to photo albums, to the place you save swatches and record what supplies you own!

thrilling yarns (tan/green)

(has BLANK pages on reverse)

i'm also planning another category called "she's crafty" that will not be dedicated to any single type of project, but rather have a little bit of everything creative (painting, photography, macrame, baking, sewing, knitting, etc, etc)  all in one volume so that they can be used for capturing and recording (or even plotting and planning?!) ANY type of project.

knitty gritty

(has project chart pages on reverse)

and then, i want to make reading journals, as well... plus more travel books... and maybe some little blank books with notebook paper... and... well, i have A LOT of ideas, actually, so i hope you'll stay tuned! :)

thrilling yarns (pink)

(has BLANK pages on reverse)

♥SOLD--thank you!♥

above are the ones i've listed so far, the links beneath each take you to their specific etsy location, or you can see them all together in my shop. there are plenty more to come... and if you'd like a CUSTOM version, please email me and i'll try to tailor it to your needs! ♥

i don't really *LIKE* them...

...but on the plus side, i made TWO! :)

cards, that is; for the current ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ prompt, peace on EARTH(DAY) for which we're making holiday greetings which incorporate a bit of re-using, re-cycling, re-purposing, or "rescue" of discarded items of some sort.

also, each card has TWO re-cycled elements: my very last scrap of lovely woodgrain giftwrap, AND a bit of denim from a discarded pair of jeans that i xyroned onto cardstock*... both of which have been diecut** using a nestie frame and my trusty tim holtz reindeer. then i managed to use nothing but paper scraps, some seriously ANCIENT florals, and a bit of fabric deco tape to trim them up. in fact, the only new/whole/entire thing used here is the 12x12 sheet of kraft patterned cardstock for the card bases.

(recycled: denim fabric and woodgrain giftwrap; patterned paper: tim holtz, + scraps ofbasic grey, pink paislee; florals: petaloo; velvet flower brads: marah johnson; floral fabric tape: romanticpink.com; ink: colorbox; pen: copic multiliner; adhesives: xyron, tombow monorunner) 

here are the things i LOVE about these cards: the denim, generally***; the woodgrain reindeer (!!!); the use of mostly non-holiday products on xmas cards; the combination of deep blue, hot pink, and kraft; and... ummmmmmmmmm... ok, no, that's about it.

...but... seriously, it's *enough*!

the great thing about the JB experience, making one card per week january through november, is that i get 48 shots to try out something BRAND NEW and potentially cool! sometimes i also love the finished product, but i think i actually quite like to have the occasional "meh" result, because it means that i'm straying out of my comfort zone and trying something *different*... which i think is absolutely vital for creative people. ok, no, let me amend that: i think it's absolutely vital for ALL people!

if you've been reading this blog for a while, you'll realize that i just spent an entire post waffling on about something bruce mau managed to sum up several years ago in just six words****, as point three of his incalculably valuable and inspiring "incomplete manifesto for growth". i think i'll just go read that again, actually!

ciao, darlings! ♥

*yes, i know, if i was more fabric savvy i'd use that fusible web stuff; but at some point in a fit of lazy desperation i discovered that for all but the heaviest fabric--and this is quite thin denim--if you just run a piece of heavy cardstock through the xyron and then smooth/burnish the fabric on there really well... it's FINE... and does not involve getting out the iron! score!!! :)
**for the record: the TH (sizzix/steel rule) die went thru the fabric/cardstock combo LIKE BUTTA with just one roll; the nestie needed 4-5 passes and i still had to snip the corner bits with scissors. 
***yeah... you'll be seeing THAT again!
****an imcomplete manifesto for growth, by bruce mau, point 3: PROCESS IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN OUTCOME. (he's *RIGHT* you know!) :)

hello, darlings!

hope you're having the best thursday ever!!!

if not, maybe this will help?!

♥♥♥

i'm covered in "B"s"!!!!!*

because that's the challenge (#49, if you wanna be technical) at shopping our stash this week:  create a card or project that incorporates anything with a B - brads, boys, bugs, blue, banana, bicycle, bear, basket, etc... we're sponsored by bugaboo digital stamps, so if you have some of those, they'd also count! :)

in my case, "B" is for:
"be", blue, butterfly, (digital) brushes**, black background, and BIG***!!!

(digi-stuff: "tropic grunge" paper (recolored) by gretchen thomas, designer digitals; "more overlays" by vera lim designs; real-stuff: foreign text chipboard alpha from my etsy shop; paper: graphic45; ink: stewart superior; adhesives: tombow monorunner, hot glue, sewing machine; other: page from a thai magazine, 3m inkjet transparency, feather butterfly from michaels)

i really like this one! it turned out quite similar to the picture that was in my head, which is always nice, isn't it? and that happens to be one of my favorite quotes from mahatma gandhi, so i use it quite a bit, but always think it looks good. i made a quick digital collage (the black text, the flowers on the central panel, and the black grungy inner frame) and printed it on an inkjet transparency, which i layered over some glossy text paper from a thai magazine.**** then i mounted all of that on the distressed green panel, put the rest of the quote on using my own foreign text alphas, did a bit o'wonky sewing... et voila!

i hope you'll stop by SOS, see the DT's stellar work, and link up your own creation this week! ♥

*sorry, this is only funny if you're an eddie izzard fan! :) 
**ok, technically a digi paper and overlay, printed on a transparency 
***it's 7.25" square--and no, it's not the biggest one i ever made, lol; not even close!
****last year, every time my friends went somewhere exotic, i asked for a local magazine; my friends deborah and steve went to bangkok! 

it's a bird, it's a plane...

...it's a birthday card! 

one of the FASTEST i've ever made, actually, thanks to the fact that the scrap of giftwrap i used in the background was actually sitting on my table, having been leftover from wrapping the gift of our eldest nephew, andrew--the birthday boy!

(glossy black cardstock and black plastic letters: ranger; fabric paper: love elsie; black glitter alphas: making memories; other: comic-inspired giftwrap; ink: steart superior; adhesives: uhu gluestick; tombow monorunner, 3m foam tape, sewing machine)

all i did was add a couple of extra cut-out shapes popped up on foam tape, and of course the strip with the sentiment, and KA-POW! (as they say in the comics) i was done! happy birthday, dear andrew, and many more!!! ♥♥♥

oh sure... *NOW* i go all minimalist!

after two different-- but equally "maximalist"-- passes at amy's gloriously pared down sketch, which i absolutely *LOVED* from last fortnight, we ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ have moved on to prompt #9 for 2012: a little thing we like to call (in honor of this sunday's holiday) PEACE ON EARTH(DAY) in which we are asking you to create a holiday card (or cards?!) which re-use, re-purpose, re-cycle, up-cycle, or in some way "rescue" a bit of... well, SOMETHING... which you'd've either thrown away, or perhaps just overlooked in terms of card-making?

i knew i wanted to punch and re-use an image of the earth i remembered from one of the cards i received last christmas*; i also knew i wanted to re-use the technique i showed earlier this week on the pixie blog, about how to make cool custom die-cut chipboard alphabets from re-cycled cardboard (the "peace" letters below were made out of a 100 calorie pack cookie box!) and vintage paper; i used foreign text to kind of emphasize the "world" aspect. then, when i was choosing papers for the background, i found the green panel, which was actually a bit of the packaging from some florals that i'd saved, and it was the PERFECT size, shape and color, so i managed to work in a third "re-cycled" element, woohoo!

(re-cycled: earth (from a holiday card), green panel (from a bit of packaging), and letters (from foreign text paper and recycled cardboard);  patterned paper: graphic 45, echo park; ribbon: michaels; ink: colorbox; circle punch: ek success; adhesives: tombow monorunner, 3m foam tape, gluedots, sewing machine)

but none of that really answers the MINIMALISM question, does it?! ok, well, see, in the meantime, as i was assembling the bits and bobs i wanted to use on my card, i happened to check in on this week's card-making sketch challenge at two peas, which i discovered about a month ago, it's hosted by kimber mcgray and i've been intending to play along; so imagine my delight as i'm sitting there with a re-cycled card, a re-usable earth and some letters i know will work perfectly on top, and i see THIS:

yeah!!! :) which is not to say that i couldn't have done my *usual* thing and added in a lot more bits until the minimalist sketch became a maximalist card... but somehow, mysteriously, this time, i did not! i can only think that miss amy's and miss stephanie's awesome examples took a couple of weeks to "kick in" and now i finally GOT IT!!! (in my great excitement i forgot to attach the little ribbon tab i'd planned to use up at the top left before sewing enthusiastically several times around the perimeter of the card. sorry. that would've been cool!)

here's a closer shot of the letters, which i've popped up on foam tape for a little extra dimension: 

in the spirit of full disclosure i feel i should mention that the bow is a total cheat: i glued the flat bit of ribbon to the card, tied a separate bow, and stuck it on with glue dots. and no, the little "legs" of the bow didn't just happen to fall perfectly like that, either, i (wo)man-handled them into place and then glue-dotted them, as well. because i think its important to show ribbon who's the boss! :)

so now it just remains for me to invite you to sort through your holiday supplies, your treasured scraps, and maybe even your waste paper basket... and come along to celebrate PEACE ON EARTH(DAY) with us between now and wednesday, may 2nd at ♥JINGLE BELLES♥!

*remember, you needn't use an "earth" image or the word "peace" in your creations... the prompt is just about the recycling aspect; the fact that i've done both is sort of coincidental and i hope it's not confusing! ♥ 


ETA friday morning:  many thanks to the very lovely and uber-talented laurel seabrook for pointing out that this card is a serendipitously perfect fit for her very awesome INSPIRED BY CHALLENGE #20; which is also EARTH DAY related, but in this case involves being "inspired by" (hence the name of the challenge, lol!) this lovely photo. do check out her gorgeous LO and start thinking up what you will do! ♥♥♥

vintage paper is like *CATNIP* to me!

so much so that, whereas ordinarily my eyesight is nothing to write home about, i have been known to focus in, steve-austin-like, upon a collection of old postcards or beautifully patina-ed sheet music from anything up to several city blocks away! ok, not really, but i can usually spot them from across a crowded church hall... and woe betide any fellow rummage sale shopper who disregards my zobmie-like perambulations and gets between me and my chosen love object!

i especially love playing cards and game pieces... like, for example, these:

at some point i realized (ok this could be slightly embarrassing if it wasn't actually also VERY COOL, imo!) that i had enough of such items to assemble full-sized, 52-card DECKS with every single card being different! and thus was the eclectic deck born. :)

of course, in my etsy shop they look more like this:

they come in full size (52+ different cards) and half size (26+) and include everything from playing cards of every shape and size, to foreign language and math flash cards, plus game cards, tarot cards, alphabet cards, vocabulary cards, memory game tokens, carnival tickets, play money... and lots more! by the way, the photo at the top of this post actually shows what's inside this particular packet, in order to give an idea of the contents. but every single deck is different, so like the well-known gumpian box of chocolates, you never know exactly WHAT you're going to get... which, to me, makes them even cooler!

if you'd like to see some things i've created using this sort of ephemera, why not pop over to the pixie blog today, where coincidentally (what are the ODDS??!?!) there's just such a post! whilst there, be sure to scroll down and leave a comment to enter my giveaway, as well! ciao for now, darlings! ♥

just enough stuff ♥GIVEAWAY♥!

i've been having a great time this week on the pixie blog telling you about some of my favorite uses for vintage goodies and talking about the fun stuff that's in my etsy shop, but now i'd like a little help from you... and i'm willing to "pay" for your assistance... sound good?! 

everyone who leaves a comment on this pixie post (<------click that link to go there!) between now and friday night, telling me their favorite vintage item to use for crafting will be entered in a random draw and the prize will be to choose $15 dollars worth of items from my etsy shop, JUST ENOUGH STUFF!

hop on over and check it out!♥

SOS48: april showers

in the northeast US we're currently experiencing unseasonably dry, HOT weather... but this week at shopping our stash the challenge is all about less clement weather. here's carla to tell us all about it:

Challenge 48 

April Showers or  Snow 

 (anything weather/water related) 

umbrella, seahorses, scuba, fishes, seascapes, ponds, oceans, snowflakes, snowfall, snowmen, rainy days, raincoats, rubber boots, rain clouds, clouds, rainbows, ducks 

(hey it makes sense to me lol)

it makes sense to me too, miss carla! there are loads of great ideas to explore there, which is why this was such a fun challenge! here's my card, it's kind of minimalist, don'tcha think? 

(vintage: music chipboard letters from my etsy shop; illustrations from a richard scarrey book; cardstock: ranger glossy black; "rainbow" letters: prehistoric heidi swapp WHITE chipboard that i colored with copics; font: bohemian typewriter; ink: colorbox; adhesives: tombow monorunner, 3m foam tape, sewing machine)

ok, well, it's minimalist for ME, in that it has a plain background, lol! admittedly, this is mostly because i couldn't find a patterned paper i liked and i ran out of time! (yep, sometimes my "process" is that scientific!!!) :)

this card is also on the pixie blog today, as part of a tutorial on how to make custom chipboard letters like the ones that spell out "RAIN"; there are also links to similar alphabet sets i've got for sale in my etsy shop.

in the meantime, be sure to check out what the rest of the SOS gang have done with this fun challenge, and link up your own rainy, snowy, fishy or rainbow creation at shopping our stash between now and next monday night! ♥

my favorite "ingredients"

today on the pixie blog miss kirsty has gractiously allowed me to waffle on a bit about one of my favorite things... adding uniquely beautiful vintage bits and bobs to the "latest and greatest" modern products for completely original cards and artwork!

you may already know that i call my etsy shop "JUST ENOUGH STUFF" because that's what i'd like to provide for my fellow papercrafters: a happy medium between "not enough stuff" (lack of inspiration); and "too much stuff" (overwhelming); and that the first category of items i added over there in september were themed ephemera packs which showcase my favorite--and i think most useful--vintage goodies:  sheet music, foreign text and nature-themed ephemera.

what you may not realize is that i've been collecting and using vintage paper for ages; i love old dictionaries, childrens' books, encyclopedias, sewing patterns, maps, game pieces, magazines, postcards... well, let's just say if it's made of paper, and has a beautiful design or illustrations i either have some, or i want some... or BOTH, lol! :) a few years ago i realized that i had what the awesome miss leslie calls a S.A.B.L.E. situation:  "supplies available beyond life expectancy" (no, SERIOUSLY!) so i started sharing a few bits and bobs with some of my artsy pals. at some point someone said, "you know, you could SELL this stuff" and thus my idea for themed ephemera packs was born!

 sheet music assortments

each pack has a variety of sizes and shapes as well as a cool mixture of paper color, finish and patina; some sheets have lyrics, some have illustrations, there is everything from kids' songs to german hymns to guitar string charts!

foreign text assortments

languages include spanish, french, german, hungarian, icelandic, chinese, japanese, thai, hebrew,  arabic, russian, greek and more; every type of publication from phrase books and dictionaries to cookbooks to childrens' stories and gossip magazines!

nature-themed assortments

i confess to a weakness for vintage illustrations, especially of birds; but these packs have lots of other images and text as well: volcanoes, space, dinosaurs, all types of animals, fish and insects, plants and flowers... publications range from calendars to childrens' encyclopedias to wildlife handbooks of every age imaginable! 

of course, i have lots more ideas... and plennnnnnnnnnnnty more STUFF!!! so i'll be sharing other packs with you in the coming months. i hope you'll stop by my etsy shop to check them out!

ps: last october's BLUE MOON pixie dust paperie kit and last january's MY FUNKY VALENTINE kit both include a bit of vintage sheet music, plus a few other older goodies, along with lots of modern-day fabulousness for your creations, and this is a great way to "get your feet wet" if you're new to the idea of using vintage products. more inspiration from ALL the pixies for great ways to combine old and new things together can be found in the october kit blog posts and the january kit blog posts!

are you sick of seeing travel journals?!

if so, then i am REALLY very sorry indeed, because not only do i have a bunch more to show you, miss kirsty has also let me hijack the pixie dust paperie blog today to talk about my philosophy and process for making those as well!!!

something that *IS* brand new is that the journals are the latest group of items i'll be selling in my etsy shop! i've got six in there right now, and will be making more in the months to come. i'm doing three standard sizes: regular (9.25" x 4.5"--this is the size and shape of nearly all of my personal travel books!) mini (4.5" x 6.5"--great for postcards and photos!) and extra-large (11.5" x 4.75"--this is like my san francisco book) most of them have removable acrylic "over covers" that can be taken off for the duration of one's trip... or permanently if you'd like to do your own decorations!

want to see?

 standard 

measures: 9.5 x 4.25"

great for full-sized brochures and everything else!
(this one has a solid cover with no transparency elements) 

 standard 

measures: 9.5 x 4.25"

here you can see the transparent "over cover"... underneath is chipboard wrapped in a vintage map

 standard 

measures: 9.5 x 4.25"

this one has some of my new custom alphas--chipboard covered in loads of different vintage maps and then die cut--i am IN LOVE with these and will be listing them later this week in my etsy shop!
♥SOLD--thank you!♥

mini 
measures: 4.5 x 6.5"
♥SOLD--thank you!♥

perfect for postcards!

mini 

measures: 4.5 x 6.5"

punch and add standard sized photos!

extra-large 

measures: 4.74 x 11.5"

holds everything *INCLUDING* the kitchen sink!!!
(this one is like my most recent SF book)

i am also willing to make custom journals to your specifications using a mix of vintage and new supplies! feel free to ask me any questions you might have by email (llaurenb @ hotmail [dot] com) or via the comments form below! planning a few more etsy additions this week, so stay tuned, darlings! ♥♥♥

a more "minimalist" card made with amy's lovely sketch?

ummmmmmmmmmm... not so much:

(patterned paper: love elsie, basic grey, creative imaginations doodlebug, sei; chipboard: echo park, cosmo cricket; cardstock heart: fancy pants; rose sticker: american crafts; translucent snowflake stickers, rhinestones and border punch: recollections; tree die: sizzix; belles die: memory box; lace and stick pins: making memories; leaf ribbon: may arts; adhesives: tombow monorunner, 3m foam tape, sewing machine)

i tried. no, seriously! see that broad unaltered expanse of snowflake paper in the background? and the plain, geometric patterned tree? and there's just the one simply punched strip of paper border...

...ok, granted, in the finished card, all of the above are under a serious collage of flowers, snowflakes, sparkly belles, diecuts, rhinestones and leafy ribbon... but when i started out it was just the *three* elegant elements, i swear!!! what can i say? my will to embellish is JUST. TOO. STRONG!!! :) :) :)

once again, i will remind you what amy's tsuruta's magnificently clean and simple sketch looked like:

now you can g'head and show me how this whole "minimalist" thing is done, or you can go as hog-wild with the embellishments as i did! or maybe there's a middle ground somewhere between those two, to which you'd like to stake a claim? whatever you do, i GUARANTEE i will love coming to see it when you link it up at ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ between now and next wednesday, april 18th! have fun, darlings! ♥

fly away with me!

it's time for april's pixie dust paperie challenge, and this month the theme is "fly away with me"! 

your assignment is to create a project that's related in some way to the city of your choice: new york, london, paris, rome... somewhere you've been, or would like to go? the place where you live, or where you grew up? ...it's up to you!  just link it up at this pixie post between now and april 30th for a shot at a $15 gift certificate to the pixie shoppe! i don't think anyone will be too shocked to learn that my project is inspired by san francisco, seeing as how i have just visited that lovely city for the first time:

(photo from a vintage travel book; patterned paper: pink paislee, anna griffin, creative imaginations; transparencies: hambly; foam alphas: american crafts; tape: freckled fawn, bazzill; fabric flowers: prima; glossy black cardstock and plastic alphas: tim holtz/ranger; ink: color box, stewart superior; heart sticker: ek success; adhesives: xyron, tombow monorunner, 3m foam tape, glue dots, uhu gluestick, sewing machine; other: plaing chipboard, book ring, japanese newspaper; digi: photobooth frames #2 by katie pertiet, designer digitals)

i made an extra large travel book this time; whereas i generally make them 9.25 x 4.5" this one is 11.5" by nearly 5"! other than that, i pretty much stuck to my usual routine of making the "bones" of the book--printed pages sandwiched between plain chipboard covers--before the trip; this time, since i knew it was going to be a three-part trip, i also added in some transparencies as dividers:

here are the supplies i took... you can see it's just the basics plus a few clear stamps and an ink pad; in actual fact, i never used the latter; i always think i will get a bit "artsy" on my pages and it never happens, you would think i'd just accept that, eh?!

whilst i was in san francisco (and later carlsbad, ca, followed by las vegas, nv) i spent about 15 minutes each night writing what we did that day, and using the hole punch or stapler to add in the ephemera i was collecting from the places we visited: ticket stubs, postcards, menus, museum badges, bus (and train and cable car!) passes, brochures, stickers, business cards, etc, etc; so that by the time i came home, my book looked like this, and was 90% done! (all i've done since then is decorate the cover, and add a few photos... more on that in a minute!) 

you can also see the three sections are pretty equal; i really love my "dividers"...

...so much so, i thought i'd add in a few more transparencies to hold my photos, which i've mostly formatted into little filmstrips in order to incorporate the most images in the least space... also because some of the pics i really wanted to use were frankly just not all that fabulous, so making them a bit smaller really helped! :)

here you can see what some of the photo pages look like IN the book; i love that you get a glimpse of the things behind them... and of course when you flip the pages over you get a glimpse of the things in *front* of them, which is equally cool!

here's a shot of the back of the book, which basically coordinates with the front:

and finally one of the "stacked" book... which makes me want to flip through it and re-live this awesome trip once again!!!

be sure to stop by the pixie blog to see the amazing projects created by our uber-talented pixie challenge design team!!!

happy birthday, CCCB! ♥

as you know, one of my favorite all-time challenge blogs is city crafter, where my dearest darlings kirsty vittetoe, ros crawford, cheryl nelson and linda robinson provide us with heaping helpings of brilliant ideas and artsy inspiration every single week! so of course i was thrilled to be asked to help them celebrate their second birthday with a super-fun challenge they like to call

C.A.S.E.* ME IF YOU CAN!!!

we can select any project from any of those lovely ladies at any time during the entire 103 previous weeks of awesome challenges. after a whollllllllllllllle lot of scrolling, surfing, drooling and deliberation... (trying to settle on just ONE!!!) ...i chose this gorgeous card of kirsty's from CCCB week #63: 

as you can see, it's totally lovely, and eminiently lift-worthy in its own right, but also it occurred to me that since the challenge that week was to create a project using this awesome sketch by ros... i'd kind of be sneaking in a tribute to a second CCCB designer, wahey! then i  thought--a bit devilishly-- "why stop there?!" maybe i could work in inspiration from the other ladies, too, whilst i was about it? so i also chose a beautiful fairy element on this card of linda's, (not to mention the way she's mounted it atop a super skinny scalloped frame!) and these divine music paper butterflies of cheryl's (specifically the way she has used them alongside text paper) that just blow me away! so i sat for a while, reflecting upon alllllllllllllllll of that amazing inspiration... and then i made THIS: 

you can see i've used loads of elements from kirsty's card: soft colors paired with neutrals, pretty floral elements, plenty of stitching, and the big crinkled ribbon bow anchored with a vintage button; then i've followed ros' sketch quite faithfully; plus i've incorporated the fairies and butterflies from linda and cheryl, respectively! then i added one more little twist of my own to honor the occasion of this challenge:

yes, it's a BIRTHDAY BOOK! i made a template for each month in my favorite graphics program and printed them out on clear labels which i affixed to pieces of coordinating patterned paper which make up the pages of my book:

just mark the names of your friends and family next to day of the month on which their birthday occurs and "voila"-- you'll never be late for a festive occasion again! :)

and now i'd just like to say:

"HAPPY 

2nd 

BIRTHDAY 

CCCB... 

...and many more!" 

i hope you will drop by city crafter to see all of the fabulous birthday-based eye-candy, and read the full details of how you can get a shot at this week's lovely prize by creating your own tribute to any one (or more?!) of these talented ladies!!! ♥!

*i've seen C.A.S.E. defined variously  as "copy and share everything" "copy and selectively edit" and even "copy another scrapper's efforts"... but the basic meaning is, you're attempting a fairly faithful adaptation of someone else's project, while giving them full credit for the idea. (i say "attempting" in that, much like my forays into minimalism, my efforts often have more intention/admiration than exactitude. ah well. it's fun to TRY, though!!!)


supplies used in this project: the base of this is an old 6x8" anna griffin minibook which i have completely re-covered and also replaced the pages; vintage: sheet music, text paper and button; patterned paper: graphic 45, mme, pink paislee, current, dcwv, basic grey; tissue tape: tim holtz; crinkled ribbon: pixie dust paperie; butterfly punch: martha stewart; border punches: recollections; inks: colorbox; adhesives: xyron, uhu gluestick, 3m foam tape, sewing machine.