To Give or Not to Give? That is the Question!

  

I have this really weird issue with things I've made.  If I sit down to make something for a gift for someone, I have no problem parting with it, but if it is something that I made and then thought about giving it away, I can't seem to part from it so easily. So the first person I really met and talked to here in Idaho, happens to be a Stampin' Up consultant.  I jumped at the chance to go to a class on a Saturday morning, and didn't really care what we made.  I just had to have adult conversation and time out of the house!

The project we made was an "altered book" made out of paper.  yes it's all made from paper, no book was injured in this project.  Oh, before I forget, here's the my new friend, Deann's Blog.  Here's the direct link to the Faux Altered Book.

I thought this was beautiful when she first showed me and I think I was just going to put it on my shelf or something.  then during the class, she mentioned that she was going to give it as a gift to her mother.  Well, that got me to thinking that maybe I should give it to my Mom too, who happened to have a birthday the following week.  Being a procrastinator, I hadn't thought about what to do yet.

OK, so this book did say Happy Birthday all over, I don't know why I thought I should keep it.

There are so many layers to this book - a little envelope on the inside with brads and twine to tie it shut.  I just put a little note to have a happy birthday in there.

The pocket all closed up!  It is so adorable.  I can't believe how many layers of stamps and papers this had.  I definitely never think to go this far - but I love how it turned out.

So now, what to put in there for my Mom's birthday.  I just love to make things for people, so I thought I'd stick with it.

This was the easiest project ever, but cute!  I glued a couple of buttons on a tack with hot glue and tada!  I made vintage looking push pins!  I cut a piece of a box from the many boxes around here to stick them in while in the mail.

Sorry for the bad picture here - I had already mailed it when I realized the picture wasn't so great!  I don't know about you, but I always like to see all the sides of how people do these things!

I had to show you the pins in the book, because I am so attached to this book that I didn't want to give it away!  Isn't that weird?  Anyway, you know that this really was a special gift, since I was so reluctant to give up the book.

I also made some flower pins to go with the book. Here is a felt one that I made on our trip here.  I thought I'd get dozens of felt hair baretts and pins made on our 24 hour trip, but I'm not sure what happened to the time!

Just a peak of the back side so you get the idea.  The leaves don't look so dimensional, but I did give them a little tuck.

A blue rosette with a feather - I always think of blue with my Mom, as she has blue eyes.

A triple rosette with vintage buttons on it.  Kind of springy, don't you think?  Oh - if you like any of the pins, please let me know - I would love to do special orders for people.  I can make these in either pins or hair clips.  

I stayed on the cardboard theme (which I think I may continue with my Etsy shop too.  It was nice for shipping, because they didn't move around at all.)

Put it in a gift bag and then boxed it up for the mail!  My Mom, by the way, raved about the book.  She wondered if I really made it? lol

Check out all those blogs I love to link up to in the right column and don't forget to give me your comments below.  I love to hear that you are out there!