Shawana's Struggle - Update

Although I do follow a lot of people I do get to each site eventually and on one site I read a story about a women named Shawana that really pulled on my heart strings. It is on Penny Duncan Creations and I invite you to read it as well, here is part one and part two.
Naturally I just had to do something and in my group someone posted a beautiful book that I just fell in love with. I just had to make one and send it to Shawana. So here is my work in progress of her book. Parts are missing that I will be working on tonight (mainly the mini book that goes inside) but I just wanted to share not only my progress with this book but the story of Shawana and invite you too to please make an extra card and send it to her. The address is posted on Penny's site in part two.
UPDATE: The book is now done. Please scroll down to see the rest of it.
 

Again, I don't have a new camera yet so I appoligise for the fuzzy pictures. 

The 3D embellishment in the upper right corner says, "Inspire."

I didn't realize I never took the book at an angle so you can see that it appears to have pages.

 

I tried to get a better look at the corners, they are done in a crackle paint and match the ribbon.

This is the side the mini book goes in, you are looking at the bottom of the box with the pages.

 The Mini-book

I made my mini book with the seam binding instead of the paper hinges.

Unfortunately these lost the detail when I scanned them, they are really pretty in person. For example the one with the clocks is covered in crackle paint and one of the clocks is actually up off the page a bit...really nice. On the yellowish panel the rose is covered in that liquid glass. It's a bit 3D and so is the butterfly.

COIN ENVELOPE BOOK

I don't know how many times I visited a blog and told the person how fantastic I think their project is and I want to try it someday. Well, the last couple of days I have been slaving over this coin envelope book that I saw when I visited Stephanie's blog. I figured it was a nice project as it wasn't very big. Of course you can make it whatever size you want but for the most part they are small. I have a ton of small papers and I can finally use some of them up on this project as I even have great tags from previous swaps in my drawer and I was going to use them someday but never did yet.  So this is a perfect, quick project for me....right? WRONG! I now have a deep appreciation for all the books out there made from tags or envelopes and can tell you first hand....it would have been easier if I made the book from 12x12 pages!!! (Notice no one warns you about that part.)
I don't have a way to do a video so I had to show you in pictures. The first pictures is how the pages look closed and the second is with the tags for their pages. I didn't go crazy taking shots of this as all the tags have 2 sides decorated and many with a 2nd tag. They can be used for a journal, small picture, ect. Some have little places for small items like movie ticket stubs and maybe one of those coins you squish a penny and make a scene on, or for whatever. You probably can't read the writing so I will tell you what it says. As I said, this was inspired by a video done by Stephanie over there at the Dragonfly Chronicles. (Note the name of her blog....Dragonfly....).

IF there were a secret garden, what would it comprise? Fragrant flowers, a babbling brook, Butterflies? Dragonflies, birds and bees? There would be all of these.  ~Linda Wall Hall

He who plants a garden plants Happiness  ~Chinese Proverb

 

Different flowers look good to different people. ~Chinese Proverb

Butterflies drift in color: illuminating spring

Keep a tree in your heart and perhaps a singing bird will come. ~Chinese Proverb

Rabbit side: Every season brings its own joy. ~Russian Proverb

Flower side: The sun shines upon all alike. ~English Proverb

(Bet you thought I was going to say Chinese Proverb again!)

Turn your face to the sun and the shadows fall behind you ~Maori Proverb

Dragonflies move in graceful unison to the refrain of unheard music.

Remember if you want to see the video and grab a DS  file for her project, head over to the Dragonfly Chronicles or if you would like to try this project yourself you can grab my SVG of the coin envelope. I didn't add one for tags as no matter which program you use I am sure you have a tag. If you have any questions on this or any of my projects, drop me a line. Thanks and bye for now!