it's vegas, baby!

ok, technically, this week's challenge at shopping our stash is called, "baubles, buttons and bows" and we want to see-- ok, frankly, you should already have guessed this-- baubles and/or buttons and/or bows. i went with baubles. which is not that unusual for me. i mean, we all know that if i were a bird, i'd be a magpie; but in this case it really was absolutely necessary, because i was making the cover of a souvenir birthday book, for my friend barb, who will be celebrating her *60th birthday* next weekend, in las vegas!

vegas photo collage image trimmed from an outdated travel guide; oversized pink vintage bauble which used to be a clip-on earring (until i ripped the clip thingie off it with a pair of pliers) found at a rummage sale; glitter paper and velvet paper: doodlebug; transparency: hambly; little paper flags: heidi swapp and basic grey; stick pins: making memories and little yellow bicycle; "party" button: october afternoon; florals and scalloppy bling border: recollections; feather (because you really can't say something has an authentic vegas vibe if there are NO FEATHERS, am i right?!) from my stash; ink: stewart superior; adhesives: elmers brand gluetape runner, gluedots, low temp hot glue gun, sewing machine

i know, i know, technically, what happens in vegas stays in vegas, and it's important to destroy the more incriminating photos. but i figure there will be at least some wholesome moments, involving cake and presents and her kids, which she might like to print out and put in a really cool book full of vintage papers, fun patterns and festive transparencies, so i've got her covered!!! :)

i realize it's sometimes hard to figure out what i've done, exactly, when i alter things, so luckily for once i actually remembered to take a picture of my embellishments before i started:

you can see that my two store-bought florals already had gem centers, but they were A) kind of  dinky and B) not at all birthday-related, so i decided to swap out. i used a badge for the smaller one, and a really cool vintage earring (aka BAUBLE!) i found at a rummage sale for the other. it had a clip on the back, as you can see, so i used pliers to pry it apart and then wire cutters to trim it up. under ordinary circumstances, i would've handed this job off to jeff, but recently he found me a pair of excellent spring-loaded cutters at home depot, which make snipping through fairly strong metal about the same effort as cutting paper, even with my weak carpals, so i was able to do it on my own. here's what i had afterwards:

and yes, i am a bit psyched that i still have one whole earring and that cool silver filigree backing thingie to use on a future bling-encrusted project! :)

i was hoping to show the entire book today, but i'm still tinkering a bit with the finishing touches on the pages; plus... this is already a pretty long post, isn't it? so rather than rush, i've elected to come back later in the week with the dramatic conclusion! :) meanwhile, there are loads of fabulously inspiring "baubles, buttons and bows" projects at SOS; why not hop over and enjoy those right now?