ATC Swap French General Style

I really love taking part in Kimberly's ATC swaps, she is the most wonderful swap hostess and her themes are always great. When I read the theme for the latest ATC swap though, I got a bit worried, because I had no idea what French General style was! So of course I googled and up came all sorts of French Generals, lol, as well as delicious looking country fabrics and lots of fabulous sets of embellishments like cameos and stacked buttons and ribbons. Needless to say, I didn't have a single French General product on hand. But I loved the colour schemes with those gorgeous deep reds, so French, and the soft beiges and sand coloured fabrics, and I thought to myself, being in France I must be able to come up with something, even with my very limited craft supplies.

I started out with a delicate floral design for the background, from an English paper collection, which looked much like a French General fabric. I liked the idea of using a cameo as a focal point and I found a beautiful one on the internet. I used thin strips of antique French ticking in beige and deep red instead of ribbons, and printed out a few little bits and pieces from the French General Jolee collection, fussy cut them and used them as embellishments. I glued some buttons together, found some old French coins and used a tiny little laundry marker tape number for decoration.

I don't often work with reds, but I really like this French General style :-).

Having come across so many great old images of French Generals whilst googling, I just couldn't help myself, I had to include a picture of a French general, lol, and this chap's name sounded so funny -

But at least I just stuck him on the back of the ATC, lol.

And here they are, packaged up and ready to go. Actually, they are being posted as I write, my darling husband has taken them to the post office.

The weather is a bit silly at the moment. Yesterday was the most beautiful Spring day, today it is cold and raining, and there is snow forecast for later on in the week. So whilst I can't get out into the garden to plant up some tubs and pots, I'll catch up with editing photos and preparing some posts. Oh my, I have such beautiful gifts to show you!

But for now, thanks for visiting, and a special big thanks to my new followers, I am so happy you are here.
Toodlepip xxx