Tuesday, June 30, 2015

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vegas photo collage image trimmed from an outdated travel guide; oversized pink vintage bauble which used to be a clip-on earring (until i ripped the clip thingie off it with a pair of pliers) found at a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?

9 comments:

  1. How did I know you would ROCK the baubles? And I think LHJ had ulterior motives when he bought you those nice pliers. No more "Honeeeeey, could you please help me with ...". Mmmm-hmmmm. But good tools are always nice to have, so there's that.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Wowza ... bauble-icious for sure ... love it.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I just KNEW you'd be all over the bauble part of this challenge, and you didn't disappoint! Wow Lauren! This is amazing!!

    ReplyDelete
  4. LOVE.
    the clip on earring and feather...awesome...everything = perfect.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Ohhhhhh what a great project and lovely gift for your friend! You have totally inspired me to re-look at what I buy at yard sales! I can totally see using some fancy blingy things on cards!

    ReplyDelete
  6. This is sooo fun! She is going to love it. No biggie, if the photos are with held for investigative purposes, surely she will have ticket stubs, postcards etc to put in here. I love the brick look background and the fun collection of baubles you've used. :)

    ReplyDelete
  7. Gorgeous project and beautiful gift for your friend. My hubby is the scrounger and I reap the trinkets he finds. looking forward to finale post.

    ReplyDelete

the *BEST* part of blogging is the comments, dontcha think? thanks for taking time to leave one! ~♥~