Tulip Bookmark

Today it's my son's 15th Birthday.  It's obviously a great day for him but it's always really special for me too as he was my first child and as corny as it sounds, it just feels like I had him yesterday.  I can't believe I'm a Mum to a 15 year old!  ( Sure all you Mum's out there know exactly what I mean!!)

His birthday list is very short this year which means he only has a couple of gifts to open and the remainder of his budget he is saving.  This is great as he has money for things he may want later in the year but it's not much fun getting an envelope of cash is it? 


However, the one thing he did want was a bookmark.   

He is an avid reader and his mulberry paper bookmark we bought in Thailand some years ago is almost worn out.   

He saw a really cool one make from recycled electronic boards at the Natural History Museum but it was a bit chunky to sit nicely in a book.  So, he asked me to make him one.

I did a class at the weekend at the Stamp Attic with Kate Crane which was fab.  She got us drawing and to my surprise, I found I could draw better than I thought. So I decided to base the bookmark on 'Tulip' who is Max's rabbit which he has had since he was a tiny baby and which has been his favourite soft toy his whole life.

Tulip has always been the special toy and he has travelled the world with us.

My regret is not knowing this in advance as I would have loved to have thought to take photos of him on our travels as it would have made a great album.

I created my background using dylusions inks and stencils.  Added some stamping and painty bits & pieces before covering most of it up!!!  My rabbit was drawn and cut out and painted using distress inks.

I wrote a note from Tulip on the back which will amuse Max and then I ran it through my Zyron machine to protect it and make it last a bot longer!  I punched a hole so I could add the tassel and it's all ready.

I've yet to make his card and cake so better press on!!

Have a great day ...


 I am going to enter this bookmark into FSC Challenge 'Sentimental'.  When I popped by and saw their challenge, I thought this must be meant to be as it couldn't really get more sentimental for me (it nearly made my cry writing the note on the back as it brought back all the times he was a little boy!!) Oh ... I think I need to 'man-up'!!

x

Thankyou

Well, first off a big THANKYOU to Avril for thinking of my and my little blog and nominating me for this award.  She is one of my fellow DT members at TioT and it's really touching when someone thinks of you and tries to help you.  

This award is designed for blogs that have less than 200 followers.  Once the award has been accepted, the idea is to pay it forward to 5 other blogs that you like to read and follow and hopefully encourage others to visit, read and follow them too.

To accept the award, you have to ...

• Thank the person who gave it to you and link back to their blog
• Post the award on your blog
• Give the award to 5 others Bloggers with less than 200 followers and leave a comments on their blogs telling them they've been nominted.

I have just realised that most of the people I follow have over 200 followers so I couldn't nominate them, which has been a bit of an eye opener for me!  I probably need to post more often but I often make things that aren't linked to a challenge so it's hard to see how anyone will see them so I don't post them.  I think I'll just post them anyway and see how it goes!!  

Anyway, I am nominated the following 3 people (hope that's allowed?).  They all make lovely things so I hope you take a few minutes to pop over to them and consider becoming one of their followers.

Suze
Kaz
Cathy


Alexa 

x

Balloons

Our challenge for this next fortnight at TioT is Inventors, Inventions and/or Steampunk.  

I have a fascination with hot air balloons and so this challenge allowed me to go to town with lots of different ones floating about in the sky.

I started by stamping my card with some keys and my dream stamp to create the background.  I converted a photograph taken on my recent trip to Cornwall into monochrome and then downloaded my hot air balloons from the Dover Book of Old Transportation onto a sheet of acetate.  I coloured the balloons with Sharpie pens and used Helmar 450 to fix my acetate to my image.

The large balloon was stamped and coloured with pencils and I used some red crystals to highlight the strings.  The rosette was cut using an alterations die to which a couple of cogs and ribbons were added.

Check out the rest of the TioT DT entries as they are really inspirational and will hopefully get your creativity fired up to join in the fun!!

Genuinely Jane Studios are our sponsors for this challenge and they are very kindly giving a Gift Certificate of $25.00 to the monthly winner.  

Remember you can only enter your work into 5 challenges including ours if you want to be in with a chance to win the prize.

Genuinely Jane Studios produces dozens of different styles of natural birch wood albums and mini-albums for scrapbookers, mixed media artists and altered artists. We also offer complimentary products including paints, inks, adhesives, glitters and much, much more.

Have a great week ... the sun is shining here in Poole and the sky is blue so maybe the summer is finally here?!!

x

I am entering this into the Colour Challenge at SSSS  as kindly suggested by Terry!