Memory Books for a Friend

Ok, it has been some time since my last post, but I have been busy on what turned out to be a mammoth project! I had a small MDF book with metal book rings. I had the idea that for my best friend's 30th birthday, I wanted to make something for her, other than a card. As we have known each other all our lives, I thought a memory book would be fun to put together in a few pages. Several hours and days of photo hunting later, I had found so many memories that I knew I was going to need more space. The few pages I had planned doubled. Then I needed more space again, and so one project became two books in the end!

If I had planned it properly beforehand, I would have certainly used a 12x12 book, but hey, we live and learn... Anyway, here are some of the pages that I made to celebrate 30 years of friendship, dodgy hairstyles, dubious fashion choices and memories of events past. I managed to organise them in some chronological order so that the books made sense, right up to the present day.

All the papers used were from a First Edition paper pad called 'Sweet Owl' along with some matching pain cardstock. The photos were cut using a range of Spellbinder basic shapes and D'Lites dies. All the other phrases, words, flowers and emblems have been using my Cricut Expression. My Cricut was a Godsend for this project, as it gave me pages of elements very quickly and I could manipulate text using the Design Studio. The main cartridges I used were Storybook, Type Candy Font, American Alphabet, Cindy Loo and Cricut Essentials.
I gave the books to my friend at her surprise 30th birthday party and she really liked it. I am sure however that there were a few cringe moments with some of the photos...!
Overall, it was a project that took far longer than I had envisaged, but I really enjoyed making it for a very special friend.

A Lacy Card for a Lady...

This card features one of the new dies from the Californian Collection by Sue Wilson. I have used the die called 'Grenada' to cut an aperture from the left-hand side of some textured ivory cardstock. The same die was used to cut some pink cardstock to sit inside the shape. The card was layered using some pale pink card on an 8x8 card blank, followed by some chocolate brown card. The ivory layer was then mounted on some foam to lift it slightly from the other layers. The pink die-cut was placed back inside the original aperture, now showing the brown under layer. The small centre sentiment comes from the main die set as well, and has been cut in ivory card, stamped with a Hunkydory stamp from the Flutterby Garden plate and slightly embossed (through the die) with a pink ink pad. All the flowers were cut using Tattered Lace Lacy Daisy dies as well as the Ornate Leaves dies. Pearls were added to the centres and corners. I quite like it!