Sunday 3 May 2015

BLUEBIRDS OF HAPPINESS

Hi and thanks for coming by. For Pixels and Paper this month, we have a delightful image, evoking memories of  the past... a fitting image for Mother's Day, celebrated in Australia next Sunday.


This month I have taken the blue colours inspired by the 'Bluebird of Happiness', the lacy edge on the embroidery and the floral elements and have incorporated these to produce a layout predominantly in shades of blue, white and cream.
My mum loved embroidery and crocheting and I'm fortunate to have items she made. The doily on the hoop in the image also brought back some childhood memories of my first attempts with embroidery... I did a piece that looks remarkably similar to this one!

                          

The photo is of myself as a junior bridesmaid at my sister's wedding. The gift my sister gave me was a double Bluebird of Happiness brooch, which can just be seen on my dress. I still have this piece along with a bracelet, signet ring and locket, which were subsequent gifts from the family for birthdays and Christmas. I gave the page a shabby, distressed look and also used dry embossing techniques on vellum. The velum had a small floral pattern and I used a ball stylus to emboss the reverse side, giving the piece the opaque white raised look that replicated the flocking on the fabric of my dress... a flocked  spotted nylon which was so fashionable in the '60's!
I added a crocheted doily and also an embroidered doily. Flowers were diecut from the same papers I used on the layout as well as from some watercolour paper. The technique I used for this particular paper will be revealed later in the month at Pixels and Paper. All edges were smooshed with Prima chalk edgers.
Pop on over to:pixelsandpaper and check out how the rest of the team has used the inspiration image this month.
Catch you again soon.
Cheers, Di

2 comments:

  1. This is so lovely Di...a great layout for your elements! I love those blue birds from the inspiration too!

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  2. Oh the memories this gave me - yes I had a flocked nylon for my 'best dress', and so many of the elements in the inspiration photo and your page are classic '60's. Wonderful layout Diana, and thanks for the trip down memory lane.
    Blessings
    Maxine

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