Think Like A Queen whydontcha?

This is my first layout using the Acme kit from Gauche Alchemy, and it seems to have brought out my superior, regal side!

I thought it might be interesting to share with you how I built up the layers into the finished page, so here goes:

• I love to use patterned papers for my background and, as coral and teal are two of my favourite shades, I couldn't wait to use the amazing 'Botanical Bliss' paper from Tinkering Ink.
• I loved the 'queen' and 'ring' images - from a sheet of definitions from a vintage kids' book - and liked the way the colours in the Queen's dress echoed in the backing paper. Now I had to think of a way to make 'queenliness' the theme of the page ... and I remembered the photo of me wearing a new dress on my birthday. And as the dress is peacock green silk with bronze devore scroll designs on it, a serious dress for me, I reckoned I have every right to look that haughty and celebrate it too ;).
• Then comes my most anticipated point in pulling a layout together ... selecting which decorative bits and bobs within the kit colour co-ordinated with my dress and the papers, including: the fabric across the bottom; the wine bottle label beneath my photo; the rather stately Burlesque dancer from a Playboy magazine and then the strip of what I thought was formica edging but what Amy tells me is non-slip stuff you stick to the bottom of your bath![down the far right].

Yes, you heard right, my kit contained a combination of vintage girlie mag pages and DIY store treasures!!! And that's precisley what puts the Alchemy into the name [as for the Gauche part ...well, they recruited me didn't they? And I'm more than capable of fulfilling that part every now and again!].

• Finally I picked out the green and blue enamelled earring along with the gold leaf-shaped pendant to add a little decadence and a level of be-jewelled-ness befitting of my self-acclaimed royal status!

• In addition to the kit contents all of the soft-'furnishings', the ribbons, trims and flower, [which again, matches the Queen's dress. Oh, how I never cease to get excited when I detect a colour match!!!] were from my own stash. As was was the crown upon which I wrote my title "Think like a Queen. A Queen is not afraid to fail. Failure is another steping stone to greatness" which is a quotation from Oprah Winfrey.

A touch of coral and gold, some lace, a new dress, a little of Oprah's wisdom ... how can I fail to think like a Queen with all that going on ... now where did I leave my lady-in-waiting ......

Think of 'ACME' ...

...and what picture do you get in your head?

Something like this? Me too! I think of Wyle E Coyote trying all manner of weird and wonderful products from the Acme Corporation in his attempt to catch Roadrunner in the Looney Tunes cartoons! But think again because there's a new coyote in town ... and ... and I'm getting my analogies all tangled up! Allow me to explain. The Gauche Alchemy girls have decided to upgrade me from being their 'Designer at Large' for Autum 08 - to a permanent team member where I'll be designing with [and here's where the explanation bit really kicks in] their Acme kits!! I'll hand over to Amy to describe exactly what one of these is:

"What is an Acme kit, you ask? Well, it’s a kit full of various great stuff that hasn’t found it’s way into any of our monthly themed kits. It’s a little bit of anything and everything. We’ll be offering them for sale soon. In the meantime, keep in mind we will make one for anyone who requests one and gives us a price range to work with. How cool is that?"

Well actually ... it's this cool:
After it's long trek from sunny Arizona to still-pitch-black-when-I-get up England my pizza box of vintage goodness arrived just in time for my recent birthday. And it's wonderful!

If you've ever wanted to get any of your men-folk interested in your crafting I'd recommend you invest in a Gauche Alchemy kit. Both my partner and my Dad have spent time scrutinising many of the weird and wonderful items of ephemera that Heather and Amy pack into their kits. All I could hear was their exclamations of: 'I remember those board game pieces'! 'Hah! A match-book!' and 'What's that?'.

It was also full of lovely squares of fabric, 12x12 papers and jewel-y 'bits' and bobs, my favourites being:
1. a chunky vintage watch-face which my genius of a sister suggested would make a great helmet for a little fabric doll - imagine a little face peeking out from behind there!! Too cute!
2. and one wonderfully tactile and entirely adorable domino piece. [Domino pieces can be adorable - I've decided].
So what more could a girl ask for? You get a box of pretties which also keeps the boys quiet for a while???! Perfection!

Watch this space for future Acme projects ... that Roadrunner had better watch his step!