Today is my in-laws 50th wedding Anniversary..................50 years, WOW!!!! I think that is absolutely incredible in this day and age. They really are an amasing couple and a true inspiration to me as my mom was unfortunate enough to have to suffer through 2 BAD marriages so my in-laws have now restored my faith in matrimony......
We're having a family get together for them tomorrow to celebrate so I though I'd make them a card they could keep to commemorate the occasion. I used a copy of a pic I've used before in a LO I did for them. It's my absolute favourite wedding pic of them. They looks so natural and happy. My FIL is staring at my MIL with such adoration in this pic......

They have 4 sons, my hubby being the youngest. So for the inside of the card I used some pp's to create 4 framed blocks, 1 for each of their sons to write a message from their respective families. I really hope they like this and I thought it would be something more personal to keep than some store-bought card.

~ A fathers love ~

This is one the sweetest pics I have of my DH and little Matthew. You know what it's like in those early days with a new baby when no-one gets sleep and when mom or dad usually fall asleep before baby does when putting them down..........
I just LOVE all the new Prima papers, they're absolutely gorgeous and were perfect for this photograph.

Again I couldn't help myself, I just had to make at least one bloom myself so for this LO I chose the Organza flower by Alicia Thommas on the Sew4home website. Here's the link
http://sew4home.com/projects/fabric-art-a-accents/541-organza-flower-tutorial
These are so easy to make. I must admit I was a little nervous working with fabric and flames but it was a lot easier than I expected. I chose pieces of fabric that co-ordinated with the colours from the Prima pp's. I was really happy with the end result.

Here is a close-up of the braided vine I made myself for this LO. I've posted the tutorial below. I wanted to do something different that would add to the natural earthy feel of the pp's. Again, I colour co-ordinated the hemp cord with the pp's. I also misted the blooms and added some cinamon stickles. the flourishes were also hand made using liquid pearls.

This pretty butterfly is from Kay's etsy shop. Her butterflies are my favourites. the details work is just exsquisite and absolutely faultless.

TFL!

TUTORIAL ~ Braided vine~

What you need

1. 3 pieces of hemp cord (or alternate) about 1 metre (yard) long each

2. Loose roses/blooms of your choice. If you don't have loose then undo a vine as I did

3. Loose leaves or again undo a vine

4. Mist/stickles to embellish

5. Double sided tape

To start, knot the 3 pieces of cord together on one end and begin braiding. I used 2 pieces of brown and 1 piece green cord in my project. This is what's so great about this, you can colour co-ord to match your LO exactly.

Continue braiding until you reach the required length. For this project I used the full yard length to make the ring.






I undid a vine I got from Kay's fabulous etsy shop (hope you can forgive me Kay). The colour of the roses matched my pp's exactly and I also didn't have any loose leaves in my stash so this vine was perfect for what I needed. I misted the roses with some tattered angel glimmer mist to age the blooms a bit (excuse the background, I use a recycling bag to mist against).



Next, thread your blooms and leaves through the cord at regular intervals. What I did is thread the wire through the cord, wrap it around the braid to secure the bloom and the cut off any excess wire. Here is a close-up of the back of the vine to show how the bloom and leaves were secured.




This is what the finished braided vine looks like. You can add as many or a few blooms and leaves as you choose.





To finish off wrap some double sided tape around the braid just before the knot. Once you've secured the braid with the tape you can cut the knot off to allow the braid to lie smoothly against the page.

I ran some thin doubled sided tape along the back end of the braid and then slowly applied it to the LO. This gave me full control of the braid and shape I needed. There are endless possibilities with this so have fun creating your own unique braided vine. Here's what it looks like on the LO

How do you prep for a LO? Here's how I do.....

I sometimes wonder how other scrappers plan a LO and how they go about setting up and selecting their papers and embellies......... It can sometimes take me longer to plan a LO than to actually put it together. It was especially stressful before my darling husband gave me a gift of a custom made scrapping cupboard. Having 3 young kids at home meant that I always had to pack up all my scrapping goodies when I was done. I could never leave things over-night and come back to a LO the next day for fear of my munchkins getting their little greesy paws on my precious scrapping goodies. But now with my great new flip top desk, which I designed myself, I can work on a LO as long as I need to because once I'm done for the day I simply close up the desk and no-one can see or touch my mess........YEAH!!!!

Here's the desk with the top open. As you can see it's about 2.5inch deep with a top that closes up to hide all the mess underneath. I also put a cork board up so I can pin up several embellishment options while I'm in the planning process. I keep all my tools in the top drawer, all gems, thread, beads, and metal embellies in the 2nd drawer. I also have drawer for all my stamps and then one drawer is just for scraps/leftover papers so they're close at hand when required.

This is a side view of the entire unit. There are cupboards above the desk as well as a great walk-in corner units that I've packed all my albums and embellies in. there is also some display shelves along the one side of the unit that I keep pics of the kids and my wedding. There is also a flourescent light above the desk which I love because now I can work late at night without straining my eyes in dim lighting which is the problem I used to have.

This is the inside of the corner unit. I have all my old Photograph albums in here too so I can easily browse through them when I'm in the mood to scrap an old photograph. I also still put any pics I'm not up to scrapping in regular albums. That was until my hubby bought me this great digital frame. Now I only print pics I want to scrap,the rest get put onto the digi frame.

The printed boxes house various embellies which are now easily accessible.

As you may have noticed, I have a flower fetish!!!! I LOVE flowers and consiously have to stop myself from buying more until I've used up at least half of my existing stash. I bought these cheap "sweet jars" from the plastic factory shop and sorted all my flowers by colour.

I also have tons of other plastic containers filled with all sorts of embellies. From butterflies sorted by colour to punches and other small tools. i have my mists, liquid pearls and stickles easily accessible too.

When the contractors were making the cupboard I asked them to install several rows of hooks in the corner cupboard which I use to hang all my ribbon from. It's all colour coded so now it's so easy to pick out a piece of ribbon for a LO. Once selected I simply cut the length required from the end without even having to remove the ribbon from the hook.

Now that you've glimsed my "scrap room" here's what my desk looks like when I'm in the planning process.......