Making Books

I have been having fun learning how to make books and tuning into Diana Trout's Longstitch online course.  Above you can see one of the books I made using some fabric paper which I made too and then below is a close up.  I made the fabric paper using calico cotton, diluted PVA then a napkin, more PVA and then a vintage dress pattern and a final layer of PVA.  It's addictive, that's for sure, this making fabric paper!!

I am also addicted to using gold metallic thread at the moment so I added some wonderful fabric autumn leaves and sewed over them in the gold thread.

Here is the gorgeous long stitch binding - I used hemp yarn which I waxed myself using beeswax

Here's the back side above.

And here is the woven long stitch bound book, again made with fabric paper, this time torn in strips and  woven together.  The other side is below.

I'm just loving this technique.  Fabric paper can be made with anything, napkins, old wrapping paper, sweetie papers etc.  I have some drying in the dining room at the moment which is made with old maps.  This is destined for a journal for my son-in-law who is a geography teacher!

The Collage Box

As a little girl I used to love swaps!  As I didn't have any brothers or sisters, it meant I relied on friends or school to be able to swap things. I remember having treasure boxes of 'jewels' and cards that I would swap with others and it wouldn't stop there, there were dolls clothes, my clothes, accessories etc.  What fun!  So when I discovered Lawendula I was very happy indeed.  I have participated in one paper swap already (photos to come hopefully as my swap partner has had a few problems so it hasn't arrived yet) and I also signed up for Collage Box 3.  It arrived this week and had all these lovely collage snippets inside.

The instructions were to take 12 or up to 20 snippets out and put the same number back out of your own supply and then make a collage with the goodies.  Here are my chosen snippets.

Here are the snippets I put into the box for others:

And here is the collage I made in my art journal:

Besides the collage elements I used a colourwash spray in teal and gold and some acrylic teal paint, having prepped the pages with white gesso to start.

This second page picks up my thoughts about all the suffering and tragedy our brothers and sisters are facing in Japan and my hopes and prayers for each one.

Blue skies and Creative Every Day

It was such a beautiful day on Sunday that we took ourselves off to the woods. Such blue blue skies and bright sunshine.

And there was just enough time when we got back for me to pop upstairs to my desk to finish off some art journal pages

Lots of script things going on here - on fabric and on paper/tape.

on this one I used a few rubber stamps and some water soluable crayons which I love

And this one had pockets and roses - still unfinished as a page I think so I'll go back to it another day.  Shortly after doing this I came down with a nasty infection which meant hot water bottles, blankets and the sofa plus a course of antibiotics.  It has quite knocked me out!