Personal Presents

Through a love of sewing, I have acquired bagfuls of fabrics and buttons over the years, some fabrics i've cut into squares ready to make a quilt out of! Now that I am studying at University, the time for making quilts doesn't come my way often so I began using the fabrics in a different way.
A lovely friend of mine had her birthday the other day and being an artist, she leads an extremely eventful life, meeting wonderful people and visiting beautiful places. Consequently, she has very short amounts of time on her hands but loads of amazing mementoes so I made her a scrapbook- vintage style.
Scrapbooking is really easy and being a very personal project, there is no right or wrong way of doing it. Essentially, a beautiful book is required or an extremely plain one so that you can decorate the front. Whichever you decide upon, make sure that the pages inside are of good quality paper. Paperchase or Pen to Paper have good selections of books if you struggle to find something suitable.
On the first page of my friend's scrapbook, I embroidered a piece of gorgeous vintage fabric (4x4 inch square) with her initials. Use good quality embroidery silks for this as normal thread doesn't have the same effect. This I glued onto the page with two additional, smaller squares of fabric, (2x2 inch) a scattering of vintage buttons and some feathers to add detail. Upon the second page, I used a double spread to get her started. I selected some of her favourite pictures and stuck them on alongside some pressed flowers, train tickets from Berlin (a place she & I love), a couple of small fabric squares and a few more vintage buttons. To add a burst of colour, I found a beautiful piece of green ribbon, tied it into a chunky bow and cut the ends into upside down 'V's before sticking in place with PVA glue.
On the following pages, I left them blank, just sticking down two of the smaller squares of fabric in a corner of the page with a couple of buttons to add a bit of interest to the pages she fills herself.
It really is very easy and an enjoyable way of making a present for a special friend. It takes a lot of time and persistence but it pays off when you see how much they love it! x