Off To Dubai...

Hi All

Hope your all enjoying your festive holidays, now that the mad rush is all over. I know I am. It's so stressful this time of year...all that present buying, I can never think what to buy the male side of the family...Girls are sooo easy to buy for.

This year I had a few extra's....my two son's girlfriend's, and also the adorable daughter of one of the girlfriend's...but they were easy compared to the boys.

You might have read that one of my son's has gone to Dubai for Christmas with his girlfriend Jess, as her Mum lives out there. Well he has now posted some photo's on Facebook...and let me tell you...I wish I was there too. I have a small surprise planned for them when they arrive back in England, but I can't tell you what it is right now.

Now then...The title of this posting...'Off To Dubai' may suggest that I'm soon going on a trip....but this is not really the case...I only wish I was.

Before my my son & co went to visit this far off land, Jess asked me to make a little present for her Mum, which I was glad to do. So I'm travelling in spirit, through my work which is travelling farther than I've ever been myself before.

So here's what I'm showing you today, as it is now a few thousand miles away...

I have made these accordian photo cards before, and love them for that personal touch. The Crate Paper's I used are beautiful. I love the colours, and I found the flowers from Prima to match too. I'm really pleased with how this turned out, and hope Jess's Mum liked it.

I decorated both sides, to make the most of the space. The photo's Jess gave to me were old one's which I had to copy. After changing them to black and white in Photoshop, and cropping them a little, I printed them out. I would normally print them on to photo quality paper, but they did not print well onto this, so I opted for good quality heavy weight copy paper, which the image looked better on strangely enough.

I used a lacing technique, where I tore a 'v' shaped section out of the top patterned layer of paper. The edges of the paper were then inked with a versacolour ink pad and holes were punched in each side of the tear, through which I laced embroidery thread. I then embossed a piece of plain paper with a Cuttlebug embossing folder, and slipped it behind the missing section to give a two layer effect.

The flowers were layered up, with a button for the centre, and placed randomly over the sections of each side.

The heart embelishments were made using stamps from Magnolia. They were coloured by sponging Versacolour ink all over. This one was stamped with an additional flower stamp for interest. Next I covered with Glossy Accents, and a gem was placed in the centre of the stamped flower image and left to set. I love the result....Who say's you always have to use bought embelishments....with a bit of imagination and patience, you can make your own...and best of all they match your colour scheme beautifully.

Thanks you taking the time to look...I'd appreciate your comments if you care to leave any.

Happy Holiday Crafting.