Little Pink Studio: My take on someone else's beautiful tutorial

Hello, sorry to be blogging this late this evening, but between sneezes and sniffles, I am moving a little slow. I had hoped it was just bad allergies, but no such luck, I have a lovely cold. Better than the flu though, right?! For today's Tuesday tutorial, I am actually sharing my take on someone else's beautiful tutorial. Early in November, Suzanne Duda posted this stunning tutorial and it immediately went onto my "must do this now" list. I collect these same little vintage purses and had actually had the thought to create a mini book to fit inside, but never thought to cut the purse apart and make it the book! This post is photo heavy, but there were just so many detals...

I cut open my purse the same way Suzanne did, but I made my pages from heavy canvas and lots of vintage and antique lace, hand dyed lace appliques, and bit of fabric. I made this journal for my Mom, and since it was a gift, I created the pages as backgrounds, as I wasn't sure what direction she would take it.

Here are some of my pages.

On the left hand side of this page, I glued in an old doily and left a flap on the side to create an extra mini page.

For the page on the left, I created a little flap so that Mom could slide some tags in. The tags are also covered with old lace and netting.

Some up close details.

I embellished the little pocket on the inside flap of the purse and put more tags in it. All of the lace appliques were hand dyed by me.

Instead of drilling holes into the purse and adding signatures the way Suzanne did, I kept my pages separate and tied them all to the inside of the book with some silk ribbon. I did this for a couple of reasons, first, I couldn't find my vintage hole punch, and that's the only punch I have that would be strong enough to punch through the purse. (it will create holes in just about anything!) But also when I make books/journals, especially small ones, I like to keep my pages separate until finished with them as it's just easier to work on them that way.

And once all of the pages were tucked inside, my journal would not quite snap closed anymore so I tied several layers of silk ribbon around it. Funny, I dyed the silk ribbon myself, but it ended up being almost the exact color of the champagne silk ribbon I used to carry in the shop.

I'm itching to make myself a little book like this now. I'm thinking it would be perfect for the glamorous photos of old film stars..but it would also make a gorgeous album full of wedding and bridal portraits, don't you think? Good thing I have a few more of these little vintage purses in my stash!

I'd love to know if you make one too! (or if you already have based on Suzanne's tutorial!)

Happy creating, Cerri