A Blank Slate

Hello! Hope you are having a restful weekend. I had a migraine today, which forced me to lie down a lot of the day, but I suppose, in a way, that's good. But I did take some photos this afternoon of something I have been wanting to show you but had to finish first! I finally did the writing in it last night and am excited to show you.

It's my own Silver Bella 2008 book! I saved special bits and bobs from the event and set aside vintage goodies that worked with the theme. I am a girl who likes the idea of scrapbooks but has always been dissatisfied by the end result when I have made them in the traditional way. But this was a different story! This is "my thing" and every page was simple, fun and turned out better than I'd imagined. Now that's my kind of project! I want to add some photos of my friends and I in our prom dresses, too, which I only just remembered right now as I was typing...need to do that.

Before I show you the book I made, I want to tell you about the "base" book I used. If you have followed my blog for awhile, you know that I make fabric heirloom books from scratch. They don't look much like this...they are larger, for one, and they are "quilted." This is a simple little 8" x 7" canvas book that I am happy to tell you I am going to be selling from my etsy shoppe. I am delighted with how they work. I can easily sew both fabric and paper to the pages using my sewing machine. It's a "doable" size, too, so if you're like me and get overwhelmed with big blank books, you'll be happy with this fact, as well. You can find these blank books HERE.

So here is what I made with my blank book!

I covered the outside cover with a really sweet, vintage-looking netting. I made the cover design as a separate piece, hand-stitching a photo printed on fabric to this yummy quilted scrap and then adding some vintage pretties here and there. Then I sewed the whole piece to the front cover of the book.

Inside I sewed vintage wallpaper, scrapbook paper and even a piece of muslin to the pages as writing surfaces. I was delighted that I was able to pretty easily write on the muslin with a ballpoint pen! I incorporated vintage wallpaper, muslin scraps from a bag Andrea gave me with my name stamped on it, sketches of dresses by Natasha, a beautiful photo that Jennifer gave all the Bellas and even my ticket for the vendor faire the night of the "prom." I added a little "friend" card I bought on etsy from oneripepeach. It was so fun to finally put all these pieces together! I added in some vintage photos of girls in prom dresses and other sorts of dresses, too, which I have started collecting and can't get enough of. You'll notice that I used a lot of the "decorative" stitches on my sewing machine. I love doing this, especially when sewing on paper.

So that's it! I hope you feel inspired to make something that chronicles a special event, memory or even dreams for the future. If you don't like working in a medium, DON'T! Pick a medium that you LOVE, that makes your heart beat faster when you think about it and that you enjoy every step of. And if you don't know what that medium is, experiment a little! Look up "altered art" on etsy or even Google. Pick up one of the many Somerset magazines in the bookstore or online.

There are as many different ways to create something as there are people in the world, so find what works for YOU!

Have fun PLAYING!

Love,

Cheryl