Glimmer, Shimmer, & Shine

The end of October is fast approching - its hard to believe!!!  Today there is another new challenge over at Elisabeth Bells World.  So that means that I've got something to share.  The challenge theme this month is "Glimmer, Shimmer, & Shine"...  I was debating making a Christmas card, but when I was working on creating a Baby Book, I stood back and took a look, and thought, it would work perfectly.  After all, there is Glimmer, and Shimmer, and so therefore, it does Shine....  Why not use it?  So I photographed it, and thought I'd use it for today's challenge. They just don't make baby books the way that they used to.  17 years ago my son had a Birth - 7 Years baby book, that had all sorts of good stuff to fill out, as they grow.  About a year ago we had some water damage to his baby book, so I did my best to recreate the book.  Lucky for me, many of the pages that I re-typed were still on my computer.  Since I could not find a baby book that I was completely happy with, I thought I would make one of my own, especially for our baby girl, due to arrive in about 5 weeks from now.  What would be cuter than a very special "Elisabeth Bell" themed baby book?  This book is actually a 3 ring binder, and the pages inside are printed and inside clear sheet protectors.  You can see that part below.

 I stamped this darling Stamp from SCACD.  I then scanned and enlarged her, so she would fill up the front of the book.  I colored her with Copic Markers, and added some clear gloss accents to her shoes as well as the flowers in her hair.  I then painted clear gloss on the shash around her waist, and sprinkled some silver glitter over it, for a bit more sparkle.  The silver polka dots on the skirt part of her dress and her headband were created with a silver sharpe marker. 

I know that the papers behind this darling girl appear to be a different shade of pink, but I think it's just the way this photographed.  I assure you that they are the perfect match to the darker hughs of pinks in her dress.  Cameras and lighting seem to do funny things to colors of different textures it seems.  Believe it or not, this books base paper is actually a gift bag that I bought, I needed a nice paper that I wouldn't need to piece together, and larger gift bags are absolutely PERFECT for this exact situation.   The pink bows in the corners, as well as the ribbon used for the buttons, were actually pieces of ribbon that were left over from the party favors at my baby shower.  So I made sure to use those, to make this book even more personal for our baby.   The inside of this book is still a work in progress, but here is a glimpse of one of the pages....  There are lots more, still being worked on.

 The best part about making this book myself, is in the event that this book were to ever be water damaged, I can probably salvage it, or re-create it much more easily.  I like that whenever I need to write something, I can just slide the page out, and write, and then it goes directly back into it's protective sleeve.   So what do you think?  Are you up for the "Glimmer, Shimmer, & Shine" Challenge????  Use any Elisabeth Bell image, and get your Glimmer Going, and submit your entry.  You've got almost a whole month to enter. 

Here are some Challenges that I thought I'd enter this into.

• Stamptacular Sunday Challenge - "No Rules"
• Anything Goes Challenge Blog - "Make Your Own Embellishment"
• Papertake Weekly Challenge - "Fireworks" Use Glitter and Sparkle
• Whimsy Stamps Challenge - "All Things Sparkly"