Vintage Valentine...

Hello Everyone!

Happy Friday!

I'm here to share with you today a design team project I've created showcasing the lovely Mabel's Diary by Ephemera's Vintage Garden.  If you haven't already visited the beautiful digital collections of Debbie-Anne, you are missing out on some gorgeous nostalgic and vintage papers and ephemera!

And, the beauty is that you print them yourself at home!

The beautiful Mabel's Diary is configured to use as a planner, junk journal or diary type project.  

That being said, I'm a little different than many of the design team as I love using these products for a wide variety of other creations....so, it's my job to try to inspire you to branch out a little and try something new with your printables.  

My first project is a Vintage Valentine Pocket Letter.  

I have a friend in Ontario who I love trading pocket letters with...and I thought it would be nice to surprise her with a Valentine themed letter...and as I paged through my Mabel's Diary print outs, I soon found that it had all the elements I was needing.  

Allow me to take you on a little tour of my creation...and I've even included a quick video for you as well...(now don't be too harsh as I haven't done many videos in the past, but hope to become better at it and create more in the future.)

Let's begin...

As you can see, I've done a lot of fussy cutting in this project.  I will be the first to admit that I love fussy cutting...I love to cut and fit pieces together, creating something beautiful!  While you may be saying that this is only a pocket letter and won't have taken much time...I can assure you that  I spent as much time on this piece as I do on a complex and detailed card. 

Each of the cards in the pocket letter have had their edges inked with a VersaColor Pine Cone Ink to give them a further look of being aged.  I've fussy cut elements from within the digital collection and adhered them to various cards within the pocket letter to add interest and detail.  I've cut the image of the lady up in the corner to make sure that she could be assembled in two of the pockets so she would be standing in the background.  I've used the same technique with the birds in the bottom, however the embellishing on the top of the pockets has hidden part of it.  

I decided that I really wanted this pocket letter to have some dimension, so I've used pop dots on every piece you see adhered to the outside.  

Here's a closer look at the top of the letter...(sorry it's not the best photo...the day I took these photos I just didn't have good lighting and for some reason the focus seems off.)

I've fussy cut all of the roses from the Mabel's Diary Collection.  The two roses in the corner I've aged using Distress Inks -  Vintage Photo and Antique Linen...and of course a little Pine Cone Ink.  I've fussy cut the ribbon banners, as well as the sentiment from the collection as well.  The cameo style sticker in the corner is a 3D sticker from a vintage assembly that I found at the Dollar Tree.  

Moving along to the bottom of the pocket letter...

I chose one of the lovely ladies from the printables that looked like she was just waiting for her Valenine beau.  I've aged her with a bit of ink as well and have fussy cut the heart shape beside her from one of the ephemera printables.  

Now, the whole idea of a pocket letter is to correspond with a pen pal and to include a few gifts in the back of the pockets.  I believe that the back of your pocket letter should always be as beautiful as the front.  So, because I neglected to think about printing these pages double sided, I cut a second set of cards and adhered them with a good paper glue to one another.  

The back looks like this...

Here's a peek at some of the gift ideas that I've included in this creation...

...some fussy cut ephemera pieces, some vintage style 3D stickers, a few flowers and pearls as well as some punched flower shapes created from scraps left over after cutting the pocket letter cards...

...a few tabs from the collection, more ephemera pieces, a small rose card also available in the collection...

So much fun to create and fill with goodies!

I've also included a video tour for you on my YouTube channel should you be interested!
 

I hope you've enjoyed your tour of my first Mabel's Diary project.  There will be more released throughout the next month...so stay tuned!  Also, be sure to stop by the Ephemera's Vintage Garden store where this collection is currently on sale for a limited time!  I'd love to see how you choose to use this collection.  

Until next time...