We're in the money!

Hello all!  Thank you so much for the lovely comments on my Eileen Hull Nature Journal.

I'm sorry I'm not managing many return visits at the moment... not only am I in the throes of packing for another stint away from home (travelling today, in fact) but my computer keyboard is having severe migraines, so I'm having to limit my time working on it.

Happily, I persuaded it to cooperate for long enough to write this post and schedule it.

You'll only understand today's title if you look very closely...

Underneath all those layers are some extremely mundane money envelopes - a pack of 250 bought for £1 in a Pound Shop at some point in the dim and distant past.  Nothing much to look at initially, but oh, how I enjoyed altering them.












I'm sharing both of these photos of the complete set as I've been flicking back and forth between them, unable to decide which I prefer, for long enough now, and there's still packing to be done, so you can decide for yourselves.

We've shifted from my actual dolls (see them at Pastime With Good Company) to Tim Holtz's new Paper Dolls... there's considerably less time and stress involved with these dolls!

I'm always inspired by the fantastic sets of ATCs created by Maj at m-1309, and these almost-ATC-sized money envelopes (they're actually 4 x 2 and 5/8) arose out of many happy visits to her blog, though they're not specifically based on any one ATC set of hers.

I've just been to take a quick photo of some of the unaltered envelopes, so that you can see the humble beginnings...













I think it's probably around a year since I created the backgrounds - paper scraps, gesso and Ecoline inks dotted on and spritzed with water.

Whatever I had in mind at the time didn't quite come together (I can't remember what or why), so they sat around near the craft table and waited patiently for me to come back and play with them.













When Tim Holtz's Paper Dolls and new Design Tapes turned up, I thought they'd be the perfect addition.















The little strips of Design Tape add lovely detail without being too in-your-face.














I had a joyous time selecting my characters and adding the simple extra layers of embellishments.

It took a while to sort through the hundreds of dolls to find the ones I wanted at matching sizes.













Almost all of the images in the pack of Paper Dolls are there in multiple sizes, so you can pick just the right dimensions to suit your project.

I love the selection of children I've ended up with, so full of character...













... the serious expressions of some of them, even to the point of definite anxiety in the case of the little girl on the left...















... and then this confident chap, happy to look you straight in the eye from his comfortable perch.















I find that the characters tell you stories as you work with them...













... so that choosing the individual Big Chat word stickers to accompany each of them was pretty easy.















I just listened to what they were saying to me...















... and selected the word which seemed to correspond.







I used some bundled thread on each envelope (something Maj often does).  I have quite often done it myself in the past, and always enjoy the effect, but I seem to forget about it.

I've now put a roll of thread in the little box which sits the middle of the craft table right in front of me, and I've got another in the craft supplies ready to go in the suitcase.  Hopefully I'll remember to use it more often in future!

I kept the embellishments simple - a button and a number brad for each of them...
















... and an inky butterfly each.

The butterflies were punched with Tim's large butterfly punch out of a wrinkle-free distress tag.















I used various Distress Inks, chosen to complement the Ecoline inks already in place from a year ago.















It's great fun varying the positioning, so that each one of the set is slightly differently arranged, but balanced in itself.











And it really doesn't take much more time to make four than it would to make one.

(It does require more photos though, in my world...)













I often work in series and sets with tags, but I can't remember doing it at this size before.

I can see this becoming addictive!








You have to look pretty closely now to see the printing from the money envelopes now, but I promise you it is still there.  (Quite why they won't sit all in a straight line is beyond me, but that's children for you.)

Thanks so much for stopping by today.  As soon as I've arrived, settled in and got stuck in to rehearsals in NYC, I hope to be round for some long-neglected visiting.

If you want to know what God thinks of money, just look at the people he gave it to.
Dorothy Parker

I'd like to play along at Frilly and Funkie where the challenge is to Put Your Inking Cap On - making anything without using designer paper.  Quite apart from anything else, that's my favourite challenge theme title ever!
This makes entry number three at Mixed Media World for their Anything Goes with an optional twist of Watercolour theme - and finally, third time lucky, there are Ecoline Watercolour Inks involved
And I hope they're bright enough for That's Crafty Challenges where the theme is Bright!