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Sunday, February 13, 2011

Valentine day gift from Grandkids to their Mommy!

Well, this gift has taken me a whole month, and right up until 2 am of Valentine's Day to finish. It has been a labor of love! I wanted to make something special that could be from the grandkids to their Mom. They assisted by allowing me to use their photos, and letting me trace their hands. I have shown them each page as I created this book/card so they would know what was up with it all. I had to find time ot sew it when my DIL was either not home, or in bed!!! It was tricky!
FRONT COVER:

I was happy with the whole project except, as it turns out, the FRONT cover! Darn it all. The front cover uses heavy paper/cardboard elements. The rest of the book is felt, and fabric and sewn into place. I am leaving it at this point because I am out of time. It is still a really wonderful peice, and I think she will be amazed and very happy!

I used two sheets of felt to make each "page". This way I could sew elements on each side and then I sewed them together using a blanket stitch (except one page, which was a straight stitch). Each page sort of just came to me as I went along.

All pages are hand embroidered except the last two, when I switched to free sewing using the machine. It is a much finer line, and actually I could not get it to show up at all on the red page, as you will see when you get to the page...
THESE ARE THE LAST TWO PAGES:

My 2011 came out weirdly!!!

The last page (pink) showed the writing just fine, but not that red page...no way...it would not cooperate!

I enjoyed crafting each page...especially the "LOVE MUNKY" page. Wondering why I spelled it this way? For space, of course! Plus it was CUTE! There are little heart charms on each munky, and some green sequins sewn into the tree for leaves too.


The other page, which came out of my mind and thin air, was the "Bound by Love" page, where I sewed a big red heart and stuffed it. I put MOMMY on the heart, and the kids hands are holding it, and it is bound to their hands by a red cord. I had to use rows of ribbon to sew behind the fingers of the hands, because it needed structure to be able to hold the heart. That was tricky and had to be all pinned together to hold in place as I hand stitched it all.


I had all of these elements in my house already, which was ultra amazing and wonderful...(except a few felt hearts, and the star buttons on the "Super Stars" page). This makes it feel very special to me since it was made from all the stuff I had been attracted to when I had originally bought or found them.


I bound the pages together with some Valentine fabric I had. My Mom had made a dress for my daughter when she was in 1st grade with it...and she is 21 now!!!

The "Tresures of my Heart" page started with a big zentangle heart I drew out. I included on section of zebra print, as she loves animal prints. I sewed it down with a covering of photo sheet plastic over top to protect it. Then I hand cut all the white letters out and glued them down. I did not like that, so I decided to make it look more treasure-like I would hand sew all of those various colored beads on top. Then I stitched the black line going under all the words and I think it looks kinda like a treasure map!


I found a beautiful poem by Charles Swain called "Home Is Where There's One To Love Us". I printed it out on pink paper, and glued it onto white to frame it out, then added a few heart stickers. I stuck it inside the book for her to find.


Here is the poem, if you care to read it:

Home Is Where There's One To Love Us

Home's not mearly roof and room-

It needs something to endear it;

Home is where the heart can bloom,

Where there's some kind lip to cheer it!


What is home with none to meet,

None to welcome, none to greet us?

Home is sweet-and only sweet-

When there's one we love to meet us!

~Charles Swain
________________________________________
Hope everyone has a wonderful Valentine's Day!
xoxo- Julie

17 comments:

Candice Suter.....Sweetstuff said...

This is soooo wonderful! She is going to love it! How great of you to do this for the kids! I love all the pages and the 2011 does not look weird!

Mary said...

That is just such a wonderful gift. What a great Grandma and Mom-in-love you are!!

Bobbie Lynn said...

What a sweet and beautiful gift. Love the felt and those monkeys are adorable. That is a book that I would keep close by and look at often. Happy Valentine's Day!

Teri said...

Oh Julie, this is ABSOLUTELY FABULOUS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
WOW! FABULOUS!!!

Dandelion and Daisy said...

What a beautiful gift! Altered books, like yours, are truly a gift of love because there is so much of YOU and your heart and soul in a gift like that. I like the idea of using felt for the pages. I like to use fabric in collage, even tho' I don't very often (I need a new sewing machine)! Thanks for visiting my blog and hope you will come back again.

Lynn Cohen said...

ABSOLUTELY STUPENDOUS JULIE!
From front cover to last. Each stitch full of love. What a lucky DIL...so sweet. Perfect for Valentine's Day. Happy Day ♥

Amber Von Felts said...

WOWEE! That really was a labor of love! I hope she enjoys it, it is really fantastic! Happy V-Day!

marianne said...

Oh wow Julie what a work of art and lots of love you have created with your grandkids for their Mom!!!!!!
Awesome!
How did she react?!
You are a sweetheart!
♥Happy Valentine's Day♥

Lisa at Greenbow said...

Love is oozing out of the book you made Julie. I know your DIL will love this as she loves you. Happy Valentines Day to you too.

Judi said...

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY JULIE *hugs*
I hope you had a really special one.
I love the book you put together with your grandchildren. It is adorable and so special because of everything about them and what they helped you with....love the hands holding the heart.

I bet their mother loved it! How sweet Julie....*hugs*
Judi

Unknown said...

This is so special!
Hope you had a nice day yesterday. I was on the way home from Malaysia to Australia yesterday (7.5 hours flight), so I totally forgot about Valentine'd day :(. Haha, I guess my husband forgot too! But it's the same every year!

Anonymous said...

That is awesome Julie!
I think the monkeys are my favorite!

walk2write said...

Your DIL will treasure it forever! I can just imagine her big smile when she first saw it. I wish we were neighbors. Maybe some of your creativity would find its way into my house:)

Snippety Gibbet said...

I saw these and thought of you: http://ubercrafter.blogspot.com/2011/02/organizing-needlefelting-and-app.html Living stones? Have you ever seen them. They look like succulents to me. jj

Deepa Gopal said...

So very BEAUTIFUL!!!! It must be great to receive such a lovely gift.You've put a great effort. Awesome, Julie:)

Caca said...

I love this idea. I especially like how the big hand and the small hand are placed together.

Serena Lewis said...

This gift is such a beautiful treasure....it will be cherished for sure!