Bookmarks L: Retro Blooms

Fifty bookmarks, that's what the "L" in the title means. Well, a few more, because some are pairs or triples. That's a lot of bookmarks. It's still way fewer bookmarks than I've got books, though.

There's nothing particularly 50-ish about this bookmark, except perhaps the colors. I don't really have a good grasp on popular color combos from sixty years ago, but certainly the turquoise seems about right...

But that wasn't the inspiration for this bookmark. It was very simple: I had some new paper. I had a highly unseasonal stamp set. And after some mix-and-matching of the papers to get two that worked together, I had this bookmark. I like how the froggie is slotted on top of the sign -- it seems much more dynamic than simply putting the two pieces of paper next to each other.

I suppose it's somewhere around late spring in the Southern Hemisphere right now, so hey! It's not unseasonal for everyone.

I'm entering this seasonal-depending-on-your-hemisphere bookmark into the following challenges:

• Deep Ocean Challenge #39: Pastel Colors (okay, not the brown, but most of 'em)
• Natalie and Amy's Challenge: Color Me Happy (use your favorite color combo) (at the moment I seem to be pretty into pairing brown with various bluish colors... here it's turquoise!)
• Timeless Tuesday #196: A Project That Makes You Feel Happy (look at that frog, I think he would make anyone feel happy!)
• Divas by Design Challenge 62: Use 2 or More Patterned Papers (Two papers: the flowery background and the brown spotted circle.)
• One Crazy Stamper: Anything Goes

Supplies: (the tape is some of Target's printed paper tape)

Bookmarks XXXIX: Paisley Tea

This bookmark fought me and fought me and I'm not entirely certain I've won. Still, it's hard to lose completely with a bookmark: regardless of its aesthetic appeal, it will certainly be successful at marking my place in a book.

I do not think I ended up making this bookmark out of any of the things I started with. I had visions of cherries and milkshakes and pink, like a pretty vintage ice cream advertisement poster.

Well, I have a cherry background I'm happy with. And I have a cute little milkshake all cut out and pink as you could wish. But the milkshake doesn't work on the background! If I don't back it with something, it blends in. If I do, the backing is awkward and pushes the cherry background into a red muddle. Argh!

So I put that aside, picked up some pretty purple paisley paper and a scrap I've been using to wipe up sprays from my craft mat, and made tea. Pretty pink & purple paisley tea. I whacked at some white lace ribbon with purples and pinks and added that too, to up the vintage quota.

I like the teapot, but I must admit that the teacup is a bit of a muddle: i.e., until I tell you that it is a teacup, it's just this muddled shape. D'you think it would be easier to see if I colored all the teacup parts in with the purple pen? Maybe I'll do that.

(I suppose it's fitting that this distressed piece of paper ends up being part of a tea bookmark -- its first round of distressing, way under all the pinky-purple, was Tea Dye Distress Ink.)

I'm entering this bookmark into the following challenges:

• Speedy Fox and Friends Challenge 129: Photo Inspiration (I took my inspiration from the swirl: swirly paisley, swirly steam, and swirly -- well -- swirls!)
• Flourishes Timeless Tuesday #190: Yummy Treat (I put a lot of honey in my tea. You betcha it's sweet!)
• Fab 'n' Funky Challenge #142: Vintage
• The Crafty Pad #192: Distress It! (that poor originally-white piece of paper has been crumpled, smeared around on my craft pad, soaked, and edged multiple times... it's not just distressed, it's downright harassed!)
• Hiding In My Scrap Room #67: Super Scraps Saturday (the white distressed cardstock is a scrap I've been using to wipe my craft mat after using sprays for a bit)
• Link Up For Pink (It's a dark, rather purple-y pink, and it has nothing to do with Breast Cancer Awareness... but it is pink.)
• Crafty Mess Challenge 19: Anything Goes

Supplies: (purple paisley cardstock is from Recollections/Michaels, and lace is Celebrate It Occasions/Michaels white 7/8")

Bookmarks XXI: Luminarias for Christmas

On my father's side of the family, luminarias are a Christmas Eve tradition. We get a bunch of brown paper sandwich bags and put some sand and a tea-light style candle inside. The sand keeps the bags from blowing over and steadies the candle. Then we line the driveway and the edge of the street with them, two to three feet apart, and light them. As dusk turns to dark, they transform from paper bags into magical glowing lights.

Most of my grandparents' neighborhood also light luminarias on Christmas Eve. Some of them use white bags instead of brown, but in the dark all you can see is the lines of lights... it's beautiful and peaceful and feels so right for Christmas Eve.

I'm told the more correct name for these little bags is "farolitos", and that they were originally lit either to replace more traditional luminaria mini-bonfires or to guide the spirit of the Christ Child. My family calls them luminarias, and we light them because... well, because that's what we do, and because they're beautiful, and because, now that my grandfather is dead, it is a way of remembering him. He was always the impetus behind getting the luminarias out, even when he became so stiff he couldn't really put them out or light them himself.

This week's Timeless Tuesday challenge at the Flourishes blog was "A Pinterest Christmas" -- find an inspiration on Pinterest and make a Christmas creation inspired by it. I chose these beautiful luminaria pictures:

Source: theroamingboomers.com via Marly on Pinterest

Source: google.com via Brooke on Pinterest

Source: romanceandrevolution.tumblr.com via Liana on Pinterest

I made a luminaria bookmark with these inspiring photos. I don't know that most people would think this was a Christmas project, but for me it definitely is.

I actually made a two-sided bookmark this time: one side inspired by the beautiful swirly luminaria display, and the other by a single glowing luminaria. I didn't quite succeed in capturing the same beauty that the photographs captured, but I am still satisfied with it:

It looks acceptably glow-y here, I admit, but that's a happy accident of messing about in Photoshop to try to get the black to look black. It's rather less stunning in person.

Next time I will read some tutorials about how to produce glowing effect first. Also, I'm pretty sure pigment inks are the wrong kind to be playing with for this effect, but I don't have any dye inks -- I do a lot of heat embossing (as you can see on the swirly side of the bookmark), so pigment inks are more useful.

I'm entering this bookmark in the following challenges:

• Timeless Tuesday #186: A Pinterest Christmas
• ABC Christmas: R for Recyling (used a bit of paper bag; luminarias mean Christmas to me)
• Top Tip Tuesday Challenge 85: Recycle It! (used a bit of paper bag)
• That Craft Place: Bling It On (lots of sparkly embossing powder)
• Delightful Challenges: Anything But a Card

Supplies: (brown paper ripped from a brown paper bag)