Every room is the craft room

I think you would laugh if you looked around my house today: the dining room table is strewn with ephemera, there are two sewing projects in the family room, there is a computer project on the kitchen table, and the guest bedroom bed is literally covered with my laces and trims.  You would think I didn't have an entire room devoted to my creations, but I do!  The thing is, I never work in there.  (Who's with me on this?)

Anyway, the dining room table project is my current passion: I'm putting together pages for one of the Silver Bella swaps I'm doing.  I have to do 15 pages, and while they can all be different, I had a goal to make mine similar.  You are to start off with a 7" x 11" page, and fold it in half to make four 7" x 5.5" pages.

Here's what I've come up with for the first one.  It's the only one I've completed so far -- my first try. (Note: I don't consider this a spoiler for the swap, because this is only one of 15 pages I'm doing and I'm not going to show you any more than this...until afterward!)

One page is sort of a "fashion" theme.

The reverse is embellished with sewing-type items.  We were encouraged to include blank spaces for the recipient to journal, etc.

This page has a royal/king/queen/fairy tale theme going.

I included embellishments like a storybook page from a Primer, an antique doily, and this really great cigar label.

Here's the back of that page; I wanted an extra section so I added this piece of sculpted wallpaper, which I inked and decorated, and backed it with other beautiful vintage wallpaper.  When you open it, it reveals the little bag.

It's really not quite complete, because I also plan to create a decorated tag to go into the bag.

Vintage ribbon and a piece of Dresden foil.

I've also left plenty of room for the recipient to place photos and other keepsakes in the book.  Also, I had a very hard time covering up the blue pages of that beautiful 1858 ledger I bought in Virginia!  That's the best part of the Silver Bella swaps, I think: I'm forcing myself to go all out and use all of my best stuff -- the stuff I usually want to hoard.

Now...I just need to make 14 more!