Hi friends...
In a previous blog post here, I mentioned that one of my many works in progress was a baby journal for one of favorite friends, Heidi. Well, I finished it...
I loved how it turned out...it's all full of pink and pastels and cream (with a dash of red) and lots of vintage! Heidi gifted me with some gorgeous (and I mean ridiculously gorgeous!) scrap, trim and Victorian calling cards that were her mother's and grandmother's. She said she wasn't sure what to do with them. She's shown them to be before and normally, I don't think I would have accepted them. However, I had just started this journal for her so when she put them in my hands, I knew I could accept them because I had a way to give them back to her, little did she know. :-)
For the covers, I covered chipboard with some very girly vintage wallpaper I had on hand. The gold scrap and star cabochons were from Heidi's mother's collection. The name plate is the back of a calling card.
A view of the journal standing up (I never get tired of this view!)
Here are some of the pages...
For the pages, I had a tablet of brown kraft paper that I bought at Goodwill and so I just used that. The kraft paper was about the weight of brown paper bags.
I left lots of room for Heidi to add journaling and pictures. I also added lots of blank pages so she could add her own keepsakes. Before I started decorating the pages, I first went through my paper stash(es) and pulled out a few vintage baby announcements and cards to use. That was fun! I swooned whenever I came across an old book page that had a grandmother reference!
This isn't actually a picture of Heidi and her granddaughter - but it's somebody's grandmother!
And you can see that I had lots of help when I was taking these pics. That's Bastian's paw and whiskers. :-) This is what I have to deal with all the time...
Heidi is a fellow kitty lover so there are kitty references here and there in the journal. She has a very sweet orange tabby cat named Mr. Frankie Toodles, which has got to be one of the cutest cat names ever! But I digress...back to the journal...
Heidi also gifted me a few old Finnish hymn books that were gorgeous! She knew I was going to "repurpose" them and so I turned right around and used some pages for backgrounds.
For the spine, I wanted it to be flowey and very girlie so I just winged the binding. I used lots of cream silk ribbon and did a criss-cross pattern with lots of dangley ends. It seemed to work and plus I love that when the book is open, it lays flat.
I'll definitely have to recreate this journal technique, but with a different theme. :-)
This is incredible, Michelle! Love it!
Posted by: Dawn D. Sokol | July 12, 2012 at 08:29 PM
Oh my goodness this is amazingly beautiful! What an awesome gift!
Posted by: Michelle LaPoint Rydell | July 12, 2012 at 08:45 PM
Love that silk ribbon binding!
Posted by: Odette | July 15, 2012 at 12:46 PM
OH my gosh, Michelle! It is absolutely beautiful! She is going to cry! Just tellin' ya!
Hugs,
Sheila
Posted by: Sheila | July 16, 2012 at 07:46 PM
Oh, it's so beautiful. What a wonderful, personal gift!
Posted by: Laurie | July 30, 2012 at 08:24 PM
Oh yeah, this book is fabulous! (sorry, just reading this post now, how did I miss it before?!) I'm sure your friend was thrilled to receive it. Love that the baby's name is Louella, my grandmother was named Laurella which was a combination of Laurene and Louella (two other relatives), if I remember correctly.
Posted by: Cynthia | August 24, 2012 at 10:47 AM
This is so unbelievably gorgeous, Michelle. I love how you bound the journal together with the beautiful silk ribbon. Such a sweet and personal gift.
Posted by: cammy | August 29, 2012 at 03:24 PM
ohhh..that was a perfect journal cause it's baby:)) love the shades of pink in it!
Posted by: Mali Gold | October 24, 2012 at 07:41 PM