Yeah.... It's Show & Tell :)

When my youngest son was in pre-school and kindergarten he was soooooo shy that when it was his group's turn for show and tell he would have an anxiety attack. When I finally figured out that he was always sick on his S&T day the teachers and I had an agreement that he didn't have to participate if he didn't want to. It took a couple of years but he got so every once in a while he would bring something and even show it :)

I finally have decent pictures of the Wedding planner and a few of Annalisa. Our new camera arrived by 'Mule" a couple of days ago so we are learning how to use it. Now I'm not sure if it was something I did when rotating and cropping pictures but every single one of the journal is back on their sides??? :( Hmmm guess I have a project for tomorrow. Oh but the best part is I have new baby pictures and you my friends are just going to have to grin and oh &ah :) That really shouldn't be to hard because he is rather a pretty baby. Humph I think he qualifies as a beautiful baby, but then I would :)

Annalisa is from the trades/working class. So she doesn't have a corseted body. I have a feeling that she is the daughter of the cook and the stable master on a huge country estate. She is a little bit of a thing and is the companion to the Master and Mistress' sickly daughter.

Here she is before we started the ageing process

I removed a cheap looking metal cap and cut back the lining so that the wood stop shows. Now I need to keep an eye out for a cool lamp finial to cover the screw with :)

I decided to age her in stages. The instant coffee and then glace trick would have worked except for our humidity and salt air. I asked Luci once where I might find and old dress form and she told me they just don't exist because they disintegrate after a few years. Remember the old forms are cardboard that are padded and covered. So I decided that turning Annalisa's muslin cover into "oil cloth" was the best way to go. I grabbed LW light cafe colored shoe wax and picked up a tin of the natural color and went to work. I lightly rub on the cafe and then really work in the natural. Then repeat the process. After a couple of time I make sure LW was busy some where else and buff the heck out of Annalisa with his natural boar hair buffing brush :) shhhhh. Well heck it's not like LW spends much time polishing his web sandals, ya know ;)

It's hard to tell by the pictures that there is much change, but the lace collar was the color she started out as. She needs a few more treatments but I wanted to give the material time to absorb the wax. Of course poor Annalisa will never be able to have her Sunday frock on again (the wax will leave grease marks) but at least she won't be attacked by mold, mildew, and various creatures :) Then I think a bit of decoupage on her stand and she should be quite cute.

The journal I think turned out rather well. I tried to honored my daughter's simple no fruu fruu likes but still slipped in a tiny bit of old tatting and a button or two. :) Because this is a working journal and not a coffee table book it needed to withstand being flung in the car, riding on various air planes, taxis, sleeping in motels and hanging out at the multiple water venues she is at on a daily basis. So the tags on the front cover are actually a print of ones done earlier. You will also noticed that I was able to use a few of the 188 Scrabble letters I bought on eBay :)

I started with a cardboard cover 3 ring binder. First I covered all four surfaces with pages from an old novel. Then over that glued the print of the tags, and Artist papers from old Somerset Studio mags. Then applied 3 coats of decoupage medium (watered down white school glue) For the page dividers I collaged prints of the different aspects to a wedding.

The ring at the top left of the page is a picture of the engagement ring. Here is a little better close up

I also punched holes in a couple of plastic pouches glued a couple of pictures on them an put them in with the dividers.

So there ya have it. Now the big Question is finding a "Mule" to take it up to the Northern Lands and post it for me :) Preferably before the wedding :)

And finally here he is Little Cutie Patootie Dylan!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :) :) He is now four months old and already has a drop dead smile!!!

SO that is all for tonight's Show and Tell my Bloglandian friends. And maybe just maybe I'll (well we all know the I'll is really LW ) have the little problem of the side ways pictures figured out by the next Show and Tell :) Have a most audacious day or evening depending on where in Bloglandia you are ;)