The Dollshouse Collector

Hello all, and a warm welcome to a snowy Words and Pictures today (for the second time, if you've already seen this)...

I'm sharing with you one of the gifts I made for my mother's birthday at the weekend.  It's a small book of words and pictures (surprise, surprise!) about dollshouses.

Some of you may know my mother as Cestina, and have visited her blog about creating a museum in the Czech Republic out of her dollshouse collection.

So as soon as I saw the amazing Our Dollies images from Nicecrane Designs, I knew it was a perfect fit to make something for her with.












Well, almost a perfect fit... Cestina is a big fan of the neutral projects (she's not so keen on my recent turquoise kick), and the images were all very brightly coloured.  So I decided to see whether I could alter them in my photo software and happily ended up with all the images in a gentle sepia.












I hope the lovely Ignacio of Nicecrane won't mind that I've altered his images, but it's good news for fans of neutrals to know that the option exists, I think!











I used my new Tim Holtz Cabinet Card die (happy find in the Christmas sales - I used the mini-version to make my Good Old Days project, which Cestina requested - demanded, perhaps, is a better word - as another birthday present) to cut the pages from chipboard.

To start with, I gave all of them a couple of coats of gesso and white acrylic paint.







For the front cover, I used the Tim Holtz book cover stamp (love this stamp), edged it with Vintage Photo Distress embossing powder for a textured look, and added some highlights with Treasure Gold in White Fire.











The Idea-ology flowers and bookplate also got a little touch of White Fire, and I used the Hero Arts alphabet stamps to stamp the title.












Ah yes, the title is the title of the poem by Jacob Polley which forms the "words" element of the book.  It was found by a friend of ours (amazing Andrea who shares her musings at Eclectic Meandering) who wrote it in Cestina's Christmas card this year, so I borrowed it for this project.

Fortuitously (since I didn't check before I started) the poem has four verses (the whole thing is at the foot of the post as today's quote), so that meant one for each page for the four images I'd chosen to use.



And since my printer is playing up at the moment - I'd had to beg another friend to print the images for me! - I'd've been really scuppered if I'd suddenly needed another picture!

The inner pages were all stamped with my favourite Stampology flower corner, and inked with Vintage Photo, and on each of the the poem pages, I added one of the tiny chipboard windows from Retro Café Art and did some doodling by hand in the remaining space.






For the picture pages, I layered up inked paper doilies, frayed cheesecloth, and the beautiful Memory Box die, Madera Corner, cut from some Basic Grey paper from the Serenade collection.













I tried to get the Madera Corner into a different place on each layout, which meant working out where it caused least obstruction to the picture underneath in each image.









I added corners from the ATC and Corners die to all of the verses and pictures, to look as though they're held in place in an album, and I used some Idea-ology bead chain to "bind" the book.

Nearly there... this is the last verse!  (And don't forget you can click on the photo if you'd like a closer view.)

For a finishing touch, I added some brown gingham ribbon to the bead chain at the front.

As you can see, I had to clear the snow off my favourite tree in order to take the pictures today!

I hope you've enjoyed having a look at my mother's birthday book...  I was so happy to find such perfect pictures for a dollshouse collector.

You can go direct to Our Dollies here, or hop over to Nicecrane Designs for a browse of all the amazing images - there are so many wonderful sets, you're bound to be able to find something appropriate to make cards or gifts for even your most particular friends!  And they really are great value.

Thank you so much for taking the time to stop by today - I so appreciate your visits and your feedback, and though I've been a bit behind with my visiting in the last couple of days, I'm hoping to get back on track as the week goes on, so with luck I'll see you again soon!

I'm entering this in the following:

At Simon Says Stamp and Show they're asking the question What Are You Known For?  Well, very long posts, for one thing... but as much as anything else, I hope it's the combining of words and pictures (hence the blog title), and I guess most people who visit would also recognise the shabby chic vintage look, the distressing and stamping, Vintage Photo Distress Ink overload... and also many of my favourite projects have been handmade books of one kind or another - so this is a pretty good example of all that!

Ah, go on then, a third and final entry for Frilly and Funkie's challenge to Follow Your Muse (see all of the above!!)

At Anything But A Card they've asked us to Tie It Up... in another adventure in "book-binding", I've got the chain tying my pages together as well as the ribbon bows decorating it 

And Out of a Hat Creations want us to show off our Most Useful Stamp - the Stampology Autumn Leaves floral silhouette gets rolled out here at Words and Pictures time and again to add that little touch of magic... it simply delights me!
At Vintage Stamping Challenges the challenge is Vintage, and I'm making this a second entry there

Doll's House by Jacob Polley

A table set with tiny plates,
the chairs around a paper fire:
diminishment has simplified
the aims and objects of desire,
while blinder faith must still provide
the mincemeat in the wooden cakes,

the creaking stair and wind outside.
For you have held your breath to peer
along the shelves of depthless books
lining a room where nothing's read;
and now, effortlessly giant, look
up to the eaves and in at the beds.

Be brave. To live is not to fear
despite the scale of what's at stake.
Two children lie in matchbox cribs.
Next door a couple, stiff as pegs,
are tucked together, rib to rib,
the bedsheets bound around their legs.

What happens if you turn away?
Every god has asked the same,
crouched at a sideboard, just in case
sudden little laughter shakes
a heaven like an empty house
where not a plate nor day will break.