TA DAAA!!!

Drum rolling and loud cheering - at last I have finished! The book has taken so much longer than I planned - but then I didn't plan on having so many mistakes to correct.
This is a photo taken after the glue had dried and the book was unclamped - it would not open very far.....grrrrrr. I rang a friend to give me some advice - her suggestion was to cut out the caught bits, then paint the back of the end paper and treat it as an extra leaf - then add an extra piece glued across the centre.

This is how it has ended up - I used 70 gsm lutradur as it is so thin and was going to stamp with black paint, but felt the images were too blurry so used rubons instead - thank goodness for scrapbooking shops.

I have attached the envelope and invitation to us. Nat made all the invitations herself. There is a brad at the top holding 3 pages together and they just swivel out. Bill was horrified it was in a black envelope, but I rather like the effect. Amazingly, you can now buy wedding stamps at no extra cost.

Here is the finished book. I laid out the yarns and tacked them is place with some handstitching, then went over everything with machining to hold it firmly.

I attached the beads and metal hearts to the spine - you can probably see more detail by clicking on any of the images.

Then I made a box to enclose everything. I pasted silver tissue paper over the inside of the box.

For the outside of the box I pasted white tissue paper, which I painted over with black acrylic paint. When it was dry I used a stencil brush and lightly brushed all over with silver rub and buff, then rubbed it down hard with a soft rag. I know this is usually only used to highlight the raised areas but I wanted to put a layer of silver over the black. The ornament to finish it off is a tile made from model magic, painted with black acrylic paint, then highlighted with white. I glued this onto a sparkly fabric square and glued the lot onto the top of the box. I know I hate Spotlight, but there I found a fabulous adhesive - CraftSmart UltraGlue - a superthick highbuilding PVA. The instructions say it can hold materials on a vertical surface and I believe them. For my overseas readers I am sorry I can't tell you much more, but they do have a website www.craftsmart.com.au

So, here is the book in the finished box! Next time I know what not to do, but I could probably find different things to make mistakes about. I think Nat and Stuart will like the book and I won't tell anybody about the repaired bits!

Now I am off to bed. Hopefully I shall have time to catch up on reading some blogs in the next few days, I feel deprived.