One Lucky Day

I wish I could have gotten to go to Paris with Paula, but it just wasn't my turn to get to go this time.  It got me thinking about the time I was able to go to Paris and since that is the running theme this week..... 

Steve and Donna Smylie (originators of 7gypsies) and I were invited to teach at a big scrapbooking event in the UK.  We were also right in the middle of doing the book

 "7gypsies in Paris."  

 Steve was overseeing this book, it was to include not only the creative projects, but they were layered with artwork, sketches, pages of printed vellum and multiple fold outs and interactive pieces.  

(Steve's sketching inside the little fold out book shown above)

It also included cute and clever little stories, comments, quotes and sayings.  The cover of the book was debossed to look like an old book cover.  Usually my favorite part of the books we have done were the creative projects, but for this book it was all the details and whimsy that came out of Steve's head.  It almost didn't matter what the projects were, with all the creative layers he put into the book design...he is an amazing artist!

I was the only artist working on that book that hadn't been to Paris.  Steve and Donna felt it was important that I have that experience to make the project more authentic, and I certainly wasn't going to argue with that!  So, it was decided that since we were going to be that close we would make the trip and spend several days in Paris.  

This is where we stayed....

 The Smylie's had a connection and we got to stay at the Paris Mariott right on the Champs-Elysees.  It was unbelievable, we would have never been able to afford such luxury!  

I was curious and looked up the going rate today, it would be in the range of $700 - $1400 a night....so nice to have good connections!

Seeing Paris with the Smylie's as tour guides was incredible.  Their insight and knowledge of all the places to eat, see and experience were amazing.  We road the metro and hiked and hiked and hiked.  I loved all the museums, the flea markets and even a couple of Donna's favorite, lesser known shops that she would go to for inspiration in creating 7g product.  Thank you Smylie's for the wonderful memory!

After we got home we had to get on with getting the 7gypsies in Paris book finished.  One of my favorite projects in the book were these "mini" projects that were all created from vintage postcards, most purchased at the flea market in  Paris.  The thought was that I would put them all in a shadowbox as remembrance of our trip.  

This one, I sewed a gusset between two postcards to make a little bag and rolled all my receipts from purchases in Paris and put them inside along with tags and ephemera gathered while there.  

Here's few more up close.....

 Postcards as covers to make a mini book

The Laduree...loved that place!  The logo from the napkin was decoupaged to the postcard.  I like that it was sheer enough to still see the writing on the postcard.

 ....more ephemera from Laduree

Little bits from the trip....

All the maps and tickets I saved slipped under the twill stitched to the postcard.

One of the sketches Steve did....I managed to get to keep this one.

The book has been long out of print, so I checked out Amazon to see if it was still available.  

I found some used copies for sale from $11 - $82.....that's quite a price range!  I got a kick out of some of the sellers commenting that the owner of the book had written their name and on the first page, and in the margins.  So funny, as those were actually part of the printing...along with what appears to be a water mark stain on the inside cover....all part of the fun of this book!

I hadn't planned on doing this, but talking about our fun little book, I thought it might be fun to give one away.  If you would like a chance to win a copy of the 7gypsies in Paris, please leave a comment.  Be sure to post by Monday at midnight.  we will announce the winner on Tuesday morning when Paula tells us about her fun at the Paris Flea Market.

Here's to memories of Paris!

deb