Up Up and Away..

So much for Bloggers "auto save". I posted this a few weeks back but it didn't post and it sure wasn't saved! I want the option to save manually, which I tried numerous times while writing this originally but it wouldn't allow me. Very annoyed! That's why I haven't come back to it until now.

I finally finished this tin "When I think of you.." for my mum. It was supposed to be a part of her xmas present but it became a birthday pressie instead. I filled it with strips of decorative paper finishing the sentence "I feel proud", "I know I am blessed" etc. Mum seems to have liked it..?

I've been tatting on and off lately, I really enjoy tatting. All but the cross were made simply because they could be. The cross was sent off to Germany for a special friends birthday present, and I made it specifically for her. She loved it which was great! I must get more organised in future though as it too was late.. See a trend happening here?

Mum was home recently and I wanted to make her something special. She is working away now and seems to talk about us a lot so I thought she might like to have a photo for her wallet. How dull! I remembered buying those business card holders some weeks back and knew that it would be a perfect protector that is stillvery pocket sized. So I made a mini book! A true mini book, all hand made. It's about 6x4cm or something crazy like that. I decorated every page with many different elements from paper and silk flowers, stickers, sequins, small pieces of tatting, ribbons and fibres etc. The very last page is a pocket and contains a few individual photos. I only used some stickers on the front page so as there was nothing to be ruined. The whole thing fits neatly into the business card holder. Mum did like this a lot. I really enjoyed making it for her too. Very different to anything else I have done before and a challenge to work on such a small scale.

This green page has written on it "no, it's not paint. it's eczema". People who have seen this photo before think that whatever Jess has in her hands is what has coloured her face. Unfortunately that isn't the case and she is only eating watermelon! Her cheeks used to be covered in eczema and it was really nasty. You can see below a bigger shot of the photo I used. What I found ironic is that when I went to date the back of this page I saw green ink. I remember trying to scrap these photos (there are 2 others taken the same day) I didn't know how. I was at a weekend scrapping event a local lady organised and she said green complimented red and to try it. The green was very plain and I didn't know what to do with it so she gave me her green ink pad to try. I didn't like it and ended up scrapping other photos. I looked up the date on the pages I did that weekend and it was 2 years ago!! Amazing to use that very same piece of paper unknowingly 2 years after my first attempt. I am so glad I finally found a way to scrap this pic as Jessi's eczema is a very big part of her life. I think I really like the green/pink combo!

Jess was about 17mths old in this pic, taken in the play room of the childrens ward of Kalgoorlie Regional Hospital. She looks so angelic sitting atop that slide and I really wanted to capture that innocence. We have plenty of photos from the 3 days we were there but none mean as much to me as this one. The wording says "if ever an angel walked the earth.." and hints at Jessica being that angel. She is to me! I'd never have thought to use such a colourful photo on paper such as brown but I wanted a muted background so the pic took centre stage. I bought the letters ($9.40 for a-z!! ouchies..) and knew they highlighted colours in the photo so just decided to find paper to go with them. Lucky for me it worked as I have to buy all my scrapping stuff out of town and didn't have the pics with me that day. I walked in to buy something to scrap this photo and walked out over $120 later.. oopsies!

This photo of Jessi and I is very recent and I love it!! I really think it looks best in black n white too. This was a BIG step outside my comfort zone as I don't do bright very well and am generally a very monochromatic gal. The paper was a striped sheet which I cut the stripes from and a second complimentary sheet I used to cut out the flowers and make them 3D. Very simple but I think it looks nice. I am lucky enough to know a picture framer and he gives me big bags of the offcuts of the mount board and I used this to mount the photo. Having it higher off the page really worked. I created a book-like effect and wrote a long letter to Jess in there. She's asked me to read her that letter a couple of times, she must like it.