Our Guest Designer - Donna Billek

It is time to welcome our Guest Designer for this challenge and she is another familiar face.  Please say hello to Donna Billek of Inkysplatters.  Donna was the Design Team's top choice for the Floral Infatuation challenge.

"Thank you to the Frilly & Funkie Blog Design Team members for inviting me to join them as a guest designer! I’m thrilled to be joining everyone again! As some of you may know, I live in the beautiful state of Colorado with my English gentleman of a husband and our five (rescue) cats. I almost never have my craft room to myself and thankfully my craft table is standing height as there are usually piles of fur curled up in the sunshine, sunning themselves in the window, sleeping right at the back of my feet, or at my feet waiting for a piece of ribbon to fall so they can play with it! My craft room is a great way for me to leave my “day job” as a prosecutor."

"For this challenge we have to look to good old fashioned books for inspiration. Since I’m an English major, the list of potential books that I could choose from is long! Despite all of the technology around us, I still prefer a good paper bound book over reading on my IPad! To introduce to you to this challenge I decided to pick one of the books that I read while we were on vacation – The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton.

As a caveat – I don’t want to spoil the plot so I’ve limited the summary of the book and briefly described the imagery that inspired the project. The book is set in 17th century Amsterdam and the season for the book is mid-October to mid-January. The story is seemingly controlled by a ghost of a character – the miniaturist. When the husband of the main character purchases her a doll’s house as a wedding gift, she engages the services of a miniaturist to create the pieces for the house. Each miniature piece that arrives has its own twist in the story of the family. The miniaturist seemingly forecasts the family’s future – everything from wealth, love, forgiveness, and perseverance. The story of The Miniaturist holds many secrets.

My husband and I visited Amsterdam a couple of years ago and stayed at a hotel and wandered around in the very area discussed in the book so it had a specific effect on how I viewed the imagery in the book. The book involves a shipment of sugar that needs to sold and hints of a sugar “shortage” in Amsterdam because the burgomasters control everything in the city; the ebbs and flows of the wealth of the families in the story; and the different tragedies that become them. And, for some of the families, a new beginning. The imagery in the book involving sugar and marzipan (the paler version of colors); the descriptions of the canals and life under the Dutch East India Company in “old” Amsterdam (the grey shades, the red for the color of the burgomaster coats, and the gold and copper to show wealth); the beauty of women and the various ways of how they love those near them (the dress form); the descriptions of the snow and cold of winter (the gray shades); and the layers of a family’s story and history unbeknownst to those outside of the family home (the layered paper) all inspired my project.

I hope everyone enjoys this challenge! I look forward to seeing all of your projects and reading how the book you chose inspired you!

Happy Reading and Happy Crafting to all of you!

Donna"

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Check out all the details of Donna's wonderful project by clicking here to be taken to her blog and then we hope you will come on back and share your literature inspired project with us. The Author, Author challenge is open until October 18th at 11:55 pm EST so you have lots of time to create and enter.