To France, with some Blog candy

What a title, huh?  Well, I have a wonderful friend, who is traveling to France at the end of the month.  She is going on a religious mission.  How fabulous, huh?  And I thought that I would celebrate her journey with some Blog candy!  

My friend and I, are meeting next week, @ a local tea room, to have tea, give her a chance to catch her breath, and to say 'farewell'.  I know that this mission is really important to her, and I don't want her to forget to journal about it.  So, I made her a journal to take on her trip.  

Last week, I purchased this wonderful vintage, nostalgia pattern paper, with this project in mind.  But, I was lacking a layout, a sketch, an idea on how to put this together.  So, I heading over to the Retro Sketches challenge blog, to see what they had to work with.  Oh my!  Look at this sketch:

Doesn't it look like fun?  Very easy to work with.  And it gives you a chance to embellish!  So, that is what I did!  Here is my altered spiral notebook!

I made the cover of the spiral notebook out of crumb cake card stock, then layered my pattern papers onto it.  I actually used my sewing machine to add some stitching.  I thought that this would give this journal a 'home-y' feel.    I found  this beautiful crochet trim that I just HAD to add.  I love the openness of the knit.  I wanted to add some text to the front of the spiral notebook that had relevance and meaning.  So I stamped, 'remember this moment, cherish this story, celebrate this life' to the front of the spiral notebook.  Because I do want her to remember her trip, and look back on her journey with pride.  I think what she is doing is very adventurous.   

I added some trinkets to the spiral of this journal.  I added a clear bauble, a hand-made FRANCE tag.  I also strung a key with some hand-dyed spun sugar seam binding.  I attached a cross with a scrap piece of aqua silk seam binding.  I clipped a 'C' monogram to the top spiral.  I also made a ribbon book mark, so she won't loose her place when writing about her adventures.  I hope she likes this little notebook.   Thank you for looking.  Now, for the Blog Candy.  Leave a comment here, with this post and tell me: the name of the stamp set, and the it's maker, concerning the text that I stamped on the lower right corner of the cover.  If you are correct, and your name is selected, I will mail you a few yards of my favorite ribbon and seam binding.  However, due to postal rates, my blog candy is open to U.S. residence only.  This blog candy give away will remain open till Friday June 15th @ midnight CST.   Sorry.  I hope that you have a chance to play along with a challenge this week.