Surprise!

I usually don't post on Sundays, but I can't wait to share this...I've been scrappy!

I'm rather excited to share these pages : )  This was from my mom's birthday in 2005...so lemme tell you the story.  Mom taught me how to cross stitch when I was 8, and since she's got a bit of a thing for peacocks, she always told me how she wished she could find a cross stitch pattern for a peacock with its tail fanned out.  For some reason, there are *lots* of patterns with the tail down, which makes no sense to me but whatever.  So while perusing a British cross stitch magazine one day, I came across a picture of this beautiful peacock stitching, but it was from a past issue.  It took me 4 months of stalking eBay before I found the back issue of the magazine, and then I had to stitch like the wind since I knew I wanted to have it framed in time for Mom's birthday.  I even had to quit going to the gym for about 6 weeks so I would have more time in the evenings to work on it.

So in June of that year, hubs and I went home to Texas for my brother's wedding (we lived in North Carolina at the time) and I was able to sneak down to the local cross stitch and framing shop and pick a frame for the finished peacock.  There's a wonderful couple that does all our cross stitch framing for us, they're the grandparents of a guy I went to high school with, and even though they've retired they still do some framing for select customers like Mom and me.  So anyway, this was when they still had the shop, and they were happy to be in on the secret for Mom's birthday.  When the day arrived, my new sister-in-law Adrienne managed to get her out to the shop none the wiser by some ruse, and then when Mom went in to the store, the finished framed peacock was brought out as a big surprise.  I'd left a letter with the shop owners to give to Mom as well, and then you can see in the upper left corner how she's calling me on her cellphone : )

So about the pages...I stamped the feathers on Island Indigo cardstock with Versamark and embossed with clear EP; I thought it would be more subtle than it is but I still like the way it looks.  And the dot on the i was really tiny and got flicked off to who knows where when I tried to peel it up from the Big Shot cutting platform, so I actually ended up using the inside part from the letter e instead.  It worked.

Yay for two more scrapbook pages done!  I'm at 54 non-baby-book scrapbook pages done for the year, so I'm gonna have to hustle to get to my goal of 100 pages.  I think I can, I think I can...

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies:
Stamps:  Fine Feathers
Ink:  Versamark
Paper:  Night of Navy, Island Indigo, Bermuda Bay, So Saffron, Whisper White
Accessories:  clear EP, Funky Brush Sizzlits alphabet by Sizzix