i believe in fairies

Are you following along on the authentique & maya road promo? then you're in the right place!

after you check out the inspiration here on the authentique paper blog today, be sure to head on over to the Maya Road blog to find out what the talented members of the maya road design team have created.

today's project was inspired by my fascination with "the world of arrietty" and my love of fairies. 

i believe, do you?

i started with the 3x3 canvas coaster album from maya road and a collection of glimmer mists.

the fairies were created with different papers from authentique and chipboard dress forms from maya road. each fairy is dressed from a different paper collection.

there is a tiny bit of crackle paint and ink on each dress form base and head.

and many "missing" items from my house have magically appeared here in this mini book ...  

keepsake fairy is dressed with "carefree" paper and her wings used 

chunky elements embossing powder.

we can never find our keys at our house... 

stitching fairy created a dress with a bit of my "delightful" paper.

just like a true "borrrower", little bits and pieces from my craft drawer, 

including some of my maya road "sew cute" minis have appeared here.

spring fairy has faux grass, maya road leaf trinket pins and flocked wings. 

she borrowed her dress material from a sheet of my "free bird" nest.

seaside fairy is dressed with glittering wings to go with her "splendid" dress. 

in her travels she has gathered shells and ocean treasures. 

knick knack fairy "borrowed" all of our watch gears. 

she's obsessed with time, and with my "splendid" paper.

i hope this tiny book has inspired you with big ideas. be sure to stop by the authentique and maya road pages today, and visit tomorrow for more authentique inspiration!

do not fear the minibook...

or should we...

a gypsy commented on my "pretty little things" minibook post and said that she had always been afraid of minibooks. i found this intriguing... what could she be afraid of exactly... paper cuts? pointy objects hidden in the pockets?

but then i started to think about it and she's right! minibooks are frightening! sure they look small and innocent, sitting there on the shelf all pretty and proud. but how do you start one, and once started how do you know when to stop!? what if you just keep making page after page until the minibook becomes the size of a phone book? then again no one uses those but they keep showing up on our doorsteps so maybe we should be afraid of them instead.

and then i thought maybe the scary part is, what do you do with a minibook when it's done? i have to admit i have a small army of minibooks in my crafty corner. they're beautiful, and quirky, and so perfect by themselves that i've never actually put anything in them. now i wonder if this makes them angry... like one day i'm going to look over at the crafty corner and the minibooks will all have set themselves out on my table...neatly arranged...like a crop circle...or that scary "blair witch" symbol. a silent paper protest to being made but never used.

i think i need to sleep with my light on...and with a craft knife...

Play Fair Minibook

i proudly present my first design team project. the challenging thing about this was getting a box of paper and embellishments. period. now you would think that having an open field would make it easy but no! faced with wide open choices, it took me some time to settle down and choose a project - minibook. then i needed to find a cohesive theme - i'm very high concept and firmly believe that everything should tell a good story not just be pretty things lumped together.

so here it is, the "play fair" minibook. made of the glitz "love games" paper line and many of their embelishments, it has lots of little special features. zipper ribbon flowers and a secret heart made from maya road's zipper ribbon. fold outs, hidded pages and a minibook in the minibook. flowers made from paper, acrylic, crepe paper and zippers. a custom charm and spinner game! so many details!

Inaugural Blog

For my very first blog I wanted to make sure I had something really special. Here's my newest project - my "Wickedly Minibook". Inspired by Wicked, both the musical and the novel, it features a lot of techniques. Metal embossing, alcohol inks, stamping, distressing, all combine to represent the Witch's life of random bits and scraps of life. The minibook tucks into the Witch's boot - a tranformed paper mache boot I've had for years but have never known what to make of it.