Wallflower Dreams for Simon Says Stamp

Hello all!  Monday again, and time for another project in my month in the Designer Spotlight at the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge.

I'm afraid there's not much going on other than these Designer Spotlight projects, though I do hope you'll come and celebrate my fourth blog birthday with me.  But now it's time for the new theme for this week...

We're playing with Patterned Paper this week.  Like many crafters, I have a large stash of beautiful papers - much-loved, often-stroked and sighed over, but seldom used in my crafting.  Last week's Travel Journal was the exception rather than the rule.  But it's great to be nudged into using them so I got out my Tim Holtz Wallflower Paper Stash - one of my absolute favourites - and created this mini-album.

You've seen variations on this construction here at Words and Pictures before (you may remember The Business of Men).  All those lovely pocket pages are less glamorous than they might appear... the basic structure is made out of empty toilet rolls.





I did have a "before" of them all squashed flat and ready to be covered but it seems to have disappeared so you're just going to have to believe me!  And I'm sorry but you'll need your cups of coffee/glasses of wine at the ready for another photo-heavy journey I'm afraid.













I had to create the binding and covers for my toilet roll pages, and I did that using strong kraft card folded to hold the pages with another piece of the same card folded around that as the base of the covers.














I then cut some really sturdy card for the front and back and glued it all together to give the album some real strength and heft.













Then came the lovely business of choosing papers to cover it all.  Since each toilet roll pocket has a tab cut to go inside it, you have lots and lots of surfaces to deal with.  Here are the inserts - one side...












... and the other.  These papers are from the brilliant pages at the back of the stash where there are ATC-sized pieces ready to go.  Since the inserts are pretty much exactly ATC-sized, that made life pretty simple!

Since I wanted each open page spread to have some continuity I had to pay attention to my fronts and backs.  And the inner covers needed to match the respective first and last pages.







But let's not get ahead of ourselves.  First, I'll show you the cover, and then we'll make our way through the album.

The cover has one of Tim Holtz's Idea-ology Timepieces, altered with Pitch Black alcohol ink and Treasure Gold in Florentine.





I also added one of my much-loved WordBands and a vintage pen nib over some sticky-backed linen ribbon (I think the new Textile Surfaces would probably be very similar), which I think has the right sort of elegance to go with this beautiful paper.

That linen ribbon goes all the way around to the back.















It's all one piece of paper, it's just that the design on that particular page changes around here which I rather love.

Now, to the inside...













So let us meet the first of our women, chosen for their "off-camera" looks - not a direct gaze, but each looking at or towards something out of our sight.

You can probably guess how much the continuity from the inside front cover pleases me here!

The dreamy look in her eye seemed to fit the words.












The collages are essentially very simple - there's the Photobooth photo, a punched butterfly or two, a couple of paper snippets, and various love letters, postcards or envelopes cut from the incredibly useful Idea-ology Pocket Cards.














Next page has the butterfly motif in the backing paper, and a slightly different atmosphere though the collaging follows the same pattern.














And since we now have a double page spread, there's a small echoing collage on the opposite side.

There's a slightly forced quality to this woman's smile, I think.  Those teeth look slightly gritted... perhaps with determination to keep moving forward, or perhaps she just shares my wariness of photographs being taken.

The next page is warmer and more colourful, with an optimistic young woman looking forward to whatever is ahead.













I even yielded to pink(ish) butterflies.   (Well, I have been embracing pink lately...)













Oh, each collage has a couple of metal elements too... I forgot about those in the list above.

There's the odd Philosophy Tag or Muse Token, some skeleton leaves.  Most of the metal was in the Antique Brass finish, the golden toned one, but I added some Florentine Treasure Gold for an extra warm glow.













I love this woman with the gentle gaze in her eye and the determined look to her lips!














The papers here were in very delicate neutral tones, but you'll see I did a bit of Peeled Paint Distress Stain shading around the elements.  I think it helps draw the eye in, and it also ties the pages together.















She's clearly been receiving a lot of love letters lately, and I think she's definitely ready to follow her heart.

I'm particularly fond of the woman on the final page - there's a light in her eyes which makes me think she'd be fun to have a conversation with.













She's got a keyhole from the Locket Keys set as her metal element, and a Purchaser's Receipt tucked away - what's she keeping hidden?















Here she is with the inside back cover opened out, also with a bit of Peeled Paint added to make it tone in better.

Another thing I forgot... each page has a strip of "lace", cut with the Lace Thinlits dies out of other papers from the Wallflower stash.















Oh, except one of them is cut with the Vintage Lace Decorative Strip Die.  The snippet had been sitting around on my craft table for months so I thought it was time it was pressed into service.







The words for each woman are Small Talk stickers, of course... strong affirmations to go with these strong women.

Can you tell I'm not up to my usual post-writing self? .  Sorry I keep forgetting things, and I'm sorry if it's not as coherent as usual... there's just too much going on at the moment!

All the page and insert edges are inked with Frayed Burlap - a colour which tones with these papers just perfectly.

I didn't particularly pay attention to which insert went with which page...















It's only on this one that I made a conscious effort to get the pink tab inside the pinkish-toned page.














It's a happy accident that we discover what (or should I say who) might have put the smile on the face of our final woman!














The File Tabs on each of the inserts come in a nickel silver finish originally, so I spent some time with PaperArtsy Fresco Finish Paints in Old Gold, White Fire and Little Black Dress to change them to a more brass/gold look.













The final touch was to add some Florentine Treasure Gold, helping them tone in with the other metal accents in the album.








So I think I've covered everything... though given how much I forgot on the way, there's bound to be something I've left out.  I know they're very long posts at the moment, but since it's only one a week, I'm hoping you'll forgive me.

I hope my Patterned Paper mini-album will inspire you to come along and play this week at the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge.  If you're in need of more inspiration just check out the amazing projects from the Design Team, and the usual generous prize voucher from Simon Says Stamp should add the final nudge if you're still reluctant to break into that paper stash!

Thanks so much for stopping by today.  Believe it or not, I'm back in NYC this week, so I'll try to do some visiting in between workshops.  Hope to see you soon!

Maybe she was a wallflower.  There was no shame in that.  Especially if one enjoyed being a wallflower.
From The Secrets of Sir Richard Kenworthy by Julia Quinn