Home, Sweet Home for Frilly and Funkie

Hi everyone and welcome. Over at the Frilly and Funkie Challenge blog we are embracing the Spring season and all it brings. It's Sara Emily's turn to host and she's called the challenge 'Home, Sweet Home'. Whether your house is grand or modest, neat or messy, there's no place like home. Houses get bought and sold, but home stays with you forever. For this challenge, she would like to see how you interpret what home means to you on your vintage or shabby chic project.

As ever, the Design Team will choose their top four picks, with the winner being invited to join us in a Guest DT spot at Frilly and Funkie and the next three will receive Top 3 badges to display on their blogs. Everyone who enters and follows the rules will be entered into the draw to have the chance to win a $25 spending spree at The Funkie Junkie Boutique.

My DT project for this challenge is of course a new book, and this one is perfect for use as an address book. As soon as I saw the theme Wendy Vecchi's Front Door Art sprang to mind and turns out it's a perfect fit for the front of Eileen Hull's Notebook. This one welcomes visitors with beautiful coordinating plant pots.

Here's how it came together. In the tutorial shared over on the Frilly and Funkie Challenge blog HERE I showed how to create a driftwood inspired effect using Dina Wakley Media Acrylic Paints on mount board. Having die cut some gift boxes I was left with the waste which were too good to bin. So having cut them into smaller strips I embossed them with an older Tim Holtz embossing folder (his Lumber 3D Texture Fades folder would be ideal for this). The raised areas were then highlighted by swiping Wendy Vecchi's Acorn Archival Ink across them before being glued in place over an Eileen Hull Designs Notebook cover.

There is a Mat Minis set that coordinates with the Front Door Art stamp set, so once the leaves on this plant were painted with Lime Acrylic Paint and the pot piece covered in Carnation Red Embossing Powder, the matching stamps could be used with black archival ink to add the details.

The same process was used with the larger pot, this time covered in Tea Rose Embossing Powder before being stamped.

For the flower stem and leaves I used a combination of Olive, Evergreen and Ruby Acrylic Paints before over-stamping them.

For the door I used a mix of Mineral and Sand Acrylic Paints to coordinate with the faux wood planks. There's also a separate lock piece as part of the Mat Minis set which was covered with Ancient Acrylic Paint. A drop of Watering Can Enamel Accents made for the perfect door nob.

Finally I took the word HOME from the Mat Minis set Words and covered it with Leaf Green Embossing Powder.

Before adding the door and plants to the front cover I drew around the inside of the door stencil to work out where to place it. This also gave me the chance to add strips of Wendy's Washi so that they could be seen peeking out from behind the door. With the door, flowers/plants and word glued in place all that was left was to add some burlap ribbon and lace along the spine and attach some tea stained papers inside.

Here are a couple of close ups of the finished book;

For now that's my take on the theme 'Home, Sweet Home' for the current Frilly and Funkie challenge. My talented team mates have created lots more amazing projects for this challenge so make sure you hop on over and check them out HERE. And remember to link up your own shabby chic or vintage projects to be in with a chance of winning one of the fabulous prizes.

All the products used to create this notebook are available from The Funkie Junkie Boutique and are listed/linked below.

Thanks for visiting,
Jenny xxx

Eileen Hull Designs Sizzix ScoreBoards L Die - Notebook
Studio 490 Wendy Vecchi Stamp Set - Front Door Art
Studio 490 Wendy Vecchi Mat Minis - Words and Front Door Art
Wendy Vecchi Embossing Powders - Tea Rose, Carnation Red, Leaf Green
Wendy Vecchi MAKE ART Washi Assortment 1
Wendy Vecchi Archival Ink - Acorn
Dina Wakley Media Acrylic Paints - Mineral, Sand, Evergreen, Olive, Lime, Ruby, Ancient