Matchbox for a Dear Friend

I am supposed to be making a card for an old friend who is very ill but we all know that I don't actually 'do' cards and I didn't want to send her a 'get well' card as I know she isn't going to. :(  So as the matchbox templates were sitting on the side of my desk I thought I would have a play and see what happened.  I have added the Tim Holtz birdcage to the front and cut out the piece behind it so that you can look inside the box.

Lots of pretty bits for a lovely lady who always had her make-up done and her clothes looking very nice, who always had time to sit with an awkward teenager and talk about anything and everything, who bought me my first bottle of 'proper' perfume.  I hope she likes it.

Little Book of Secrets - Vintage Sewing

So at last the second of the little books of secrets has arrived at it's destination in the UK!!  Yay!!

Lynne's chosen theme was vintage sewing... so I hope I have covered both ideas.

I did encounter a certain fatness problem once I started to decorate all the signatures!

As you can see.... but I think the effect is vintagey fatness of a good sort!!

I used lots of sewing themed stamps and did some embossing.

I got my sewing machine out and did lots of sewing on the pages.

Made an extended flap page with sewing themed pictures.

Added some Maya Road chipboard sewing pieces.

Made some slide in tags to go under the velvet ribbons.

Some lace frames and embossed stamping.

Made a couple of pocket pages and added some tags.

Lots of lace from Saudi Arabia.

More lace and some vintage pattern downloads.

A pull down tab with silver embossed dress form image and a pocket page.

The pocket was supposed ;) to look like a paper pattern holder.

and inside are some patterns stamped onto brown tissue paper to represent patterns.

More stamping and embossing...

My Grandmother's favourite quote.

This is the base with the four drawers filled with sewing bits and bobs.  I hope Lynne like it.

Sometimes you should just...

leave stuff alone!!  I was shopping last week in Mr Price in Dahran Mall... (now, any South Africans reading this are going to be hopping up and down saying 'They have Mr Price in Saudi Arabia'?) and found these photo frames... I certainly would not have paid the full asking price for them but as they had reduced stickers and were now pretty cheap-ish, I figured they might be good for a bit of tarting up!!

This is the way they came... I think they were trying for a vintage type effect...

So this is it after a couple of coats of paint and some gold and as you can see... I had company in scraproom today...

OK... so I think this where I should have just stopped....

but I didn't.... LOL