A Book Within a Book

I created a book for my second eldest daughter's birthday. I designed the book to have a hidden book inside.

On the surface the book looks vintage because my daughter loves things old and mysterious. However she also loves pretty things bold and bright and so this became the hidden surprise within.

The ink colours I have used are Stampin'Up's Pumpkin Pie, Rich Razzleberry and Soft Suede. I have coloured the pearl charms using our Stampin' Blends Alcohol Markers.

I created ridges on the spine to give it a more vintage feel.

The gauze is dyed with the dye inks.

My daughter also loves Disney and fairy tales so I decided to write a story about her life in a story format. I used lots of Disney images I printed from my computer.

I dyed some embroidery floss using the dye inks and hand stitched some feather stitch and seed beads throughout the book.

The seam binding is also dyed using the dye inks.

I added an envelope for some extra interest.

The tags all have Scripture printed on them.

My real challenge with this half of the book was to take essentially bright bold colours and make them vintage. The Soft Suede ink helped me to achieve an old look.

When my daughter finished reading the book she flipped the book over to the back cover where she was invited to open the spine.

And so her story continued but in bright bold colours this time.

The images were all water coloured using the dye inks.

An appropriate ending to a beautiful story, don't you think!

I decided to create a box to present her book in and to keep dust off it.

You can't really see it in the photo but the tag actually says Happy Birthday. It is from the "Happy Wishes" stamp set. I stamped Brooke's name using one of our new stamp sets called "Make a Difference".

I love how this gift embodies both the vintage and colourful aspects of my daughter's nature.

A Few of Her Favourite Things

Recently I made a "Favourite Things" Wallet for my eldest daughter.

Inside the wallet I created various pockets and a belly band to house ephemera and embellishments representing some of my daughters favourite things. I love all of them because they all speak of her beautiful character and the awesome young woman she is.

The seam binding ribbon was dyed with the inks.

The pearls on the charm were coloured using our Stampin' Blends Alcohol Markers.

Here are some of the background papers I created for the wallet. They definitely have a bohemian feel to them. The colours I chose are Island Indigo, Bermuda Bay, Elegant Eggplant and Rich Razzleberry.

The Scripture in the background of this background paper was printed from my computer first before adding colour. The stamp is from the "Playful Backgrounds" stamp set.

This is my cover paper. I added texture to my page before colouring by adhering torn used dryer sheets. I added some gold embossing for a touch of richness.

I loved creating this project for my daughter because of the time I spent thinking about her. It caused me to appreciate her even more than I did before. I am so very blessed by my family. It became a very personal gift unique to her and she loved receiving it as much as I loved creating it.