As some of you know, I've recently relocated back to the UK from Canada and while the transition and settling has been tiring, I timed it right as I'm back in the UK just as Mothering Sunday as Mothers Day is known here arrives.
In the UK and Ireland, the annual day to celebrate motherhood is on the 4th sunday in Lent so that is why it is different to the rest of the world.
Being a mother is one of the things that has changed my life so much - some days are awesome and some days are terrible but I would not swap it for the moon.
As I've just moved, all my belongings are stuck on a ship in a port somewhere so I am very limited for supplies so I took up a challenge based on space and supplies. Currently, I have to work on a kitchen table, so I had to have my layouts made and cleared up between dinnertime and bedtime - 4 hours. I decided to only use one of the gorgeous 6x6 Stella & Rose paper pads, 3 of the metal charm packs, a pair of scissors & a trimmer and some adhesive and 3 sheets of cardstock.
This meant that I had no flowers and no ribbon so I had to be creative and these are the results.
these are your standard hand cut circles, i distressed the edges by hand and used some foam adhesive to layer them up. I made sure the photo overlapped the seam of the two 6 x 6 sheets so it looks like one continuous piece.
This is a layout that I had an idea and went for it but the end result while nice is not like it was in my head. I cut strips and curled them to make the spirals. I then made paper bows and used one as the center. This is the layout for Ian's Mum so I have all 3 grandchildren on it but only can show my children hence the blurring.
This one is about how some parts of motherhood are hidden and treated as invisible - the exhaustion, the depression, the constant balancing act, possible lack of support or understanding. But most of all the fact that motherhood is a tough job but for most of us we wouldn't trade it for anything.
I made the flower by starting the same way as the spirals but them I flattened them and stuck them to a circle of paper in a spiral to make paper versions of those popular fabric rosette flowers. I used the backing of the charms - the 'trinkets' one has some hidden journaling on it and then I used the 'bits & pieces' one I used as part of the title as as a visible journal tag.
Here are some of the flower details:
I made a quick and easy multi-use card with what was left over. I hand folded the strips, and tore the edges to give it some dimension. the twine is actually the thread used to hold the charms to the backing card.
At the end of the night, I ended up 3 layouts and a card with 4 sheets of paper and 3 charms which I will make into a card soon. So I hope I have inspired you to create with the minimum of supplies to make pages to celebrate and commemorate motherhood.
