35 years & 48 months...

...that's how old Simon says he will be on Thursday LOL

For some reason he doesn't want folk to know that he only has a year to go until the BIG 4-0...

I really struggled with this card and journal as I knew what I wanted to do but couldn't quite come up with the how.

The card ended up an easel style. I tried to keep this fairly muted in tone with the shades of brown and gold. The John Byars stamp bubbles was lovely to colour in - trusty Copics. "Martha" also put in an appearance - the round the page punches are just soooooooooo useful.
Simon is a keen gardener despite living in a flat. He and his Dad have an allotment and Simon was so proud that last Christmas they managed to have virtually all the veg on the Christmas table - Home grown. I had managed to pick up a book on allotments for him but decided to make him a journal too.
The book is made from two heavy chipboard covers that I covered with brown wrapping paper and then decorated the front with a John Byars stamp. The inside is made of 13 A5 white envelopes that have been covered with patterned paper or coloured card stock.
Each page relates to a month and there is an index card - decorated with some garden peel-offs - the card is for making notes of things for that month.
The pockets will be handy for storing stuff all together in one place.
Using envelopes for the pages provides pockets for additional notes, packets of seeds etc.
I left the facing page fairly plain. Just a stamped image in pale brown...I used an Eco-friendly ink pad (very appropriate, don't you think) from a new range called Paris Trunk. The colour was "Tiara Gold". I thought by leaving a lot of space Simon could add some photos that relate to that time of the year. This way he will have a keepsake of his 'growing year'.

The whole thing is held together with 3 large book-rings decorated with toning ribbons and raffia.

Fingers crossed he likes it.........................