Bookmark Memories Suitcase

Hello! Another new week and a new challenge at Simon Says Stamp and Show. This week is all about inspiration: be inspired by your favourite artist, by a book, a quote, or perhaps a song. I believe that inspiration is every where, you just need to keep an eye out for it. The DT pieces are absolutely stunning this week, so you really don't want to miss checking them all out.

I was planning something else for this week, but stumbled across a little pile of vintage bookmarks (Victorian Scraps) when I was cleaning my desk and immediately knew I wanted to make a little suitcase to store them in, and a mini-book with my memories and photos. As a child, I loved Victorian Scraps, we called them bookmarks, and collected them and traded with my sister and friends. I sorted them in different orders and kept them in special books. The pile I found on my desk came from a box I got long ago from an old relative, so these are really old. Some of them have writing on the back, where children wrote their name as they traded them. I didn't want them to go missing in the mess on my desk.

The suitcase was made with Eileen Hull's Sizziz Suitcase Bag die, which is an XL die, so you need the extended cutting pads to use it, but it works perfectly in a Big Shot or Vagabond (I had questions in the past about whether this was a Big Shot Pro die or not, and it is not). If you want to see more examples, I did a suitcase tutorial here, and also used it here and here.

I first adhered two papers from Graphic 45 French Country and Secret Garden collections to mat board with multi-medium. After the medium had dry, the suitcase was die cut from these pieces, so the papers and the board were cut at the same time, making the project quick to assemble. Both these Graphic 45 paper collections are so pretty, and they were perfect for my vintage project.

There is a picket fence die cut from natural-sticky back canvas behind the children on each side of the suitcase.

For a border, I swept the Ranger Emboss-It dabber around the edges and embossed with Stampendous Aged Silver powder. The title was stamped with Hero Arts letter stamps, translating to 'bookmarks'.

I die cut a whole bunch of flowers from Core'dinations cardstock and old book paper, using the Tattered Flower Garland and the 3-D Fringed Flower dies. The kraft-core and colour-core flowers were sanded and all the flowers were inked with Gathered Twigs. I layered them to make both large and small flowers, placed a brad through the layers and scrunched them up a bit. Finally, I added some Platinum Stickles here and there, which reminded me of the vintage glitter you sometimes find on Victorian Scraps, you can even spot some of it on this photo to the right.

Another of the flowers, and some leaves also from the Tattered Flower Garland die.

I like to decorate all the sides of a 3-D project and the Studio Calico Potty People were the perfect size, and also fits since many of my Victorian Scraps were of people. Here you can see that the patterned paper was stamped here and there with a script stamp and Gathered Twigs ink.

The other side of the suitcase. I couldn't help to add some of Tim Holtz Chit Chat stickers, I add these to lots of projects nowadays.

On the inside of the suitcase, I used this sweet Graphic 45 French Country paper, and some brown script stamping.

I used patterned papers from both French Country and Secret Garden to cut pages (9 pages) for a small mini-book for the inside, binding it with a piece of twine. These are three of my collection books.

Here you can see the mini-book and some of the Victorian Scraps that are now stored in the suitcase together with the little book.

I had taken some photos of a few of the pages in collection books and added them to the mini-book.

I printed my journaling on three of the pages in the mini-book. I am glad to have documented my memories about this and I suppose it is no wonder that I loved these pretty papers as a child, considering how much I love paper now. I traded these a lot with my sister and friends, and there was one particular image that my sister had, and which was rare. She managed to hold on to it, even after very persuasive trading attempts from me, I could never get her to part with that particular image.

I hope you will join us this week, and remember to tell us who or what inspired you. As always, our sponsor Simon Says Stamp gives a $50 gift voucher to one random participant.

Thank you for the visit! Have a great week!

Anna-Karin

Supplies:
Dies: Sizzix: Suitcase Bag, On the Fence, Tattered Flower Garland, 3-D Fringed Flower
Surfaces: Graphic 45 French Country 8 x 8 and 6 x6 paper pads, Secret Garden 6 x 6 paper pad; Claudine Hellmuth natural sticky-back canvas; Core'dinations Tim Holtz Kraft-Core and Distress Color-Core cardstock; Sizzix Little Sizzles mat board; old book paper
Stamps: Hero Arts: Basic Lowercase Letters, 19th Century French Script
Ink: Distress Ink: Antique Linen, Vintage Photo, Gathered Twigs; Ranger Emboss-It dabber
Embossing powder: Stampendous Aged Silver Embossing Enamel
Stickles: Ranger Platinum Stickles
Embellishments: Tim Holtz Idea-ology Chit Chat stickers; Studio Calico wood veneer shapes: Potty People, Birds
Adhesive: Claudine Hellmuth matte multi-medium