Sunday 29 December 2013

Mini Album - Travel - Part 2

Good Morning

Still loving the holidays - so many things to do!!  Moving on to Part 2 of my Travel Mini Album using Kaisercraft's Check In Paper Pad - did you like it so far?  This is the second half.....




























Inside the back cover, in the pocket I placed a little zip-lock bag full of goodies to be added to the pages if desired.  The "tags" I hung off the binder are black embossed stamped images from a Stampin' Up set.  When we gave the Mini Album to the Teacher (who had been on a holiday to Italy and France earlier in the year) was so excited - she had Show and Tell with the other Teachers and was going home to put her Ticket Stubs and mementos in her Album!

Have a fantastic day!
Shell
xox 

Saturday 28 December 2013

Mini Album - Travel


Good Morning,

Hope you are all still enjoying the Festive Season....

Here is my Travel Mini - I am really excited to show it to you!  I made the album itself using my Zutter and black pages.  The papers I used to create the Mini are from a 12x12 Kaisercraft Pad called Check In.




I created lots of interesting features on every page - pockets, flaps, open out/up/down tags, removable photo/journalling mats etc.


























The colours in this paper pack were great to work with - reds, purples and lots of neutral colours. This is only the first half of the album, I will show you the next half soon.

Enjoy
Shell
xox

Thursday 26 December 2013

Creating with BaRb Blog-Stampin'up-The Open Sea-Altered notebook/day journal

The Open Sea-Altered notebook/day journal
Hello

 

I have often found when travelling, that it really helps to carry a small notebook/journal to jot down routes, times, locations etc, and to have somewhere to tuck in brochures, tickets, etc.
I covered a small notebook with open sea paper, made a pocket inside the cover, some tags for pageholders, and various clips etc. to hold items in place. I added an elastic to hold the book closed.
The cover was embellished with stamped images from The open sea set, which were matted to card, then taped flat to the front cover.
The whole journal is small enough to fit into a handbag or pocket.
Enjoy,
BaRb

Merry Christmas

Hello Everyone

To all those people in our part of the world, we hope you had a really enjoyable Christmas day.

To the rest of the world have a wonderful Christmas .

BaRb and ShEll

Monday 23 December 2013

Dusty Attic - Dreamcatcher

Good morning and here's hoping you had good dreams....

I have always had a fascination for Dreamcatchers - my Son has a couple in his room - they just always seems so calming.  Before I started this blog, I looked up Dreamcatchers on Wikipedia and here are some parts of their meaning:

"Two spider webs were usually hung on the hoop, and it was said that they "caught any harm that might be in the air as a spider's web catches and holds whatever comes in contact with it." "Only good dreams would be allowed to filter through… Bad dreams would stay in the net, disappearing with the light of day." Good dreams would pass through and slide down the feathers to the sleeper. The feathers placed at the bottom of the dreamcatcher also had meaning. It meant breath, or air, it is essential for life. If an owl feather was used, it means wisdom, which was a woman's feather."

Beautiful hey....  Many Native Americans feel that Dreamcatchers have been over-commercialised - in this world I guess what isn't??

I fell in love with Dusty Attic's Dreamcatcher and I knew straightaway what I would make with it....


      

I bought a canvas and painted it with black Gesso and then I watered down some gold paint and dribbled it down the canvas.  I did say down the canvas - I then decided that the Dreamcatcher got 'lost' in the gold at the top so I turned my canvas upsidedown and was happy... even though my dribbled gold now goes up!  Painted my Dreamcatcher - the photo shows it not yet finished, added a gold charm in the middle with a green glitter brad.



I played around with different ideas for the canvas - ended up spritzing it, added a leaf vine with roses, a double layered die-cut steampunk butterfly, ribbon, lace and chain.



After I glued the Dreamcatcher in place - I added detail to the feathers, some rhinestones, perfect pearls on the strands to represent beads and I painted some glitter paint onto the hoop.  It was a little difficult to take a great photo - because of the spritz on the canvas and the metallic paint on the green leaves!  I then added the word "Dream" to finish off.



The hoops of the Dreamcatchers were generally made from willow and they were decorated with everyday findings - feathers, arrow heads, beads etc.  What a beautiful tradition...

One of my Dad's sayings is "Keep your Nightmares in the Stable" - 
maybe we just needed a Dreamcatcher!

They say if you have a good day - you will have good dreams -
in that case....
Have a great Day...
Shell
xox