Saturday, November 22, 2008

A charmed collaboration

As many of you know, my best mate Alison has been stuck in hospital for the last 9 months, which is, frankly, a nightmare for her.

A lot of her crafting and forum friends have asked me over the months if there is anything they can do - send a card or a gift etc etc

One of them found a link online to a group of friends who had made a collaborative charm bracelet for one of their number who was also stuck in hospital, and we liked the idea so much we decided to do one for Alison.

Over the past few months a wonderful variety of handmade charms have been falling onto my doormat, and finally here is the finished gift.

It has gone in the post to Alison today (I couldn't deliver it in person as the hospital she is in has an infection doing the rounds at the moment and they have cancelled all visiting :( ), and I hope she loves it, I'm sure she will.



The pic above shows the finished bracelet - you can see a gallery of individual photos of each charm here

Each participant also decorated a 4" x 4" page for me to bind into a book to accompany the bracelet. I stuck a photo of each charm onto the back of the the person who made it's page - and also added their name - so that Alison knows who made what.

Some of the pages were quite bulky, so I wasn't sure how to bind them at first - but a few of them lent themselves to being bound on the right hand side rather than the left, so I went for a gatefold book in the end:

Book closed - held shut with a ribbon:
Close up of right hand side of book cover:
Book open, showing first 2 pages (by Hazel and Sara):
Book standing open:

Thank you SO much to everybody who took part!

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Unbelievable! I really wish that I could have gotten a charm to you..but, well...you know my deal. The book is just as georgous as the charm bracelet. Give my best wishes to Alison!

Veronica said...

Looks fabulous - well done all of you

Love to Alison

Hugs

Vron xx

Anonymous said...

Amazing work and a fab thing to do for a friend x

Anonymous said...

Youve done a wonderful job getting this all organised and making the book which is stunning.I sure Alison will be thrilled when she sees it!

Anonymous said...

The whole think looks stunning, do hope Alison likes our efforts and soon feels better too !!

Kim Mailhot said...

How wonderful ! The book is so gorgeous and obviously filled with love and care ! She will love it !

How horrible that she can't have visitors ! I know you have to protect from viruses etc but man, that must be enough to drive people mad !!!
Hopefully the all clear will come asap !

Take good care of you, Sarah ! Your team is lucky to have a fan like you cheering them on !

Cheers !

Lorraine said...

the charms look great altogether and the book is great ..you have really worked hard on this so thanks from all of us..Alison is going to love this and the positivity she gets from it is going to go a long way to help her.

Cara said...

The finished bracelet and book look fantastic and I'm sure Alison will treasure them and gain srength from knowing she has so many people rooting for her.

Thabks for letting me be a part of such a wonderful gift x

Minxy said...

WOZZER, not only is that just the nicest thing to do for your friend but it's the most fantastic charm bracelet and book. i am sure Alison was totally over the moon with it, i know if i were her i would of been x
I'm wondering if we happened upon the same site as i reciently found a charm collection type blog, and loved it so much i brought the book.
Off now for closer inspection of the charms and inspiration x

Anonymous said...

I was (and am) totally over the moon with both bits of my lovely gift. Arty people are immeasurably kind. Love Alison