Hello readers!
I hope you are all enjoying this holiday season with friends, family, and good food! As we say goodbye to 2014 and welcome in a brand new year, I am especially grateful for my super supportive friends, my lovely family, my amazing grandparents (who survived a devastating house fire in mid-December and are starting a new chapter of their lives), stitches being removed early (allowing me to eat delicious Christmas baking I thought I’d miss out on!), and, of course, for books!
My family knows me oh so well and gifted me with a the classic novel Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery this Christmas. I have never read Anne of Green Gables (how un-Canadian of me!), so I’m excited to read it. What makes this book particularly special? My mom found me an edition with a cover designed by Anna Bond, co-founder and Chief Creative Officer of Rifle Paper Co., a beautiful stationary and gift company that I’m currently obsessed with.
Bond designed four book covers for Puffin’s In Bloom collaboration, including Anne of Green Gables, Little Women, Heidi, and A Little Princess.
Mom picked my new copy of Anne of Green Gables up at Anthropologie at Polo Park. You can also find Rifle Paper Co. products at all of my favourite stores, including Chapters, Pineridge Hollow, and Tiny Feast in the Exchange District. I purchased my 2015 calendar at Chapters and my iPhone case at Pineridge Hollow. Like I said, I’m quite obsessed with Rifle Paper Co. designs!
Rifle Paper Co. products can be a little pricey so our crafty friend Martha Stewart has provided us with a way to get our very own Rifle Paper Co. designed bags at an economical price – how, you ask? In the December 2014 edition of Martha Stewart Living, Bond provides a design template for painting leather clutches/purses/pouches based on a bag she painted for herself during Fashion Week. You can find the step-by-step instructions here. Because I am enjoying a glorious amount of free time, I decided to craft my Saturday away and here are the pretty results!
If you decide that you want your very own Rifle Paper Co. designed bag, too, I recommend using a bag with a smooth, leather(like) surface. The bag I used had a pebbled texture that made tracing the pattern with transfer paper a little tricky. Depending on the surface you decide to paint on, you may have to do multiple coats of paint – I did two coats of each colour, with one hour of drying time between coats. If you use the Sharpie paint pen (highly recommended!), allow the paint a minimum of 24-hours to dry.
Happy reading and happy crafting, friends!
-Katrina
Resources:
Martha Stewart Crafts Multi-Surface Satin Paint in Summer Haze and Wild Blueberry (purchased at Michaels)
Sharpie oil-based metallic paint marker in Gold (purchased at Michaels)
Transfer paper in White (purchased at Michaels)
Fine paintbrush (found in a random kitchen drawer – score!)
Black clutch (free from Shoppers DrugMart – the perfect bag to experiment on)
Literally, Katrina 
One response to “Anne of Green Gables and other pretty things”
You will love Anne of Green Gables. I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve re-read her story and the rest of the books in that series. I have all of them and you are welcome to borrow them anytime.
LikeLiked by 1 person