Children shouldn't run with Scissors

Sandi is the hostess for the Circle of Friends sway this month and she has selected the theme, Children. She asked us to include a phrase, or word somewhere on the piece and that it be 4x6, she plans on binding them somehow.

I had a rough idea of what I wanted to do but life crept up on me and I needed to pound these suckers out fast! So I scaled back, WAY back on my original design and this is what I came up with. For those of you that know me you can see how much I struggled to not go dark with this one. One day I hope to get to re-do it in all its potential creepiness!

I'm still playing with a lot of the techniques in Lisa M. Pace's book Delight in the Details. For this piece I decided to focus on her tips on paper sewing and mix and matching decorative papers. I've already mastered crepe paper but used it a bit differently here. Other things that she frequently does is to use the mini pearls and she has a great section on eyelet boarders. All these concepts she uses on different projects but I decided to toss them all on this one.

I combined 3 different decorative papers (if you count the one with my scissors phrase) sewing them all together. Before sewing the phrase decorative paper on I stamped the tree, which was a little on the dark/creepy side which is why the decorative paper ended up covering most of it up (originally I was going to put it in the lower right hand corner). To make up for that I used a punch to add interest to the bottom. The ribbon running along the crepe paper I hand crinkled and died.

All and all I'm pleased with the way this turned out but like I said I really want to goo full force on the creepy factor, alas that wasn't the theme this month.

I hope the member's of Cirle of Friends enjoy this and I can't wait to get the completed book back!