Fabric Paper Postcard

The second swap in Stitches Coven is to make a postcard using homemade fabric or fabric paper. I chose to use the fabric paper. The paper was made by using a Jaycloth as the bottom layer, then placed pieces of gift wrap over it with watered down white school glue. Then I added some tissue paper that I had previously coloured over the top. Normally the tissue is plain white and the colours added afterwards.

I cut the paper to 4"X6" for the postcard size then cut additional strips, and punched out three circles.I attached paper flowers and beads to the circles with invisible thread. I took the two strips and stamped them with some Mica Magic inkpads to add a wee bit of contrast.

I added some batting to the 4"X6" piece and stitched it in squares on my sewing machine. I then took the two strips and attached some ribbon behind and sewed the pieces to the ribbon. I attached the strips to the postcard with some Wonder-Under making sure the ends were tucked in well. I then sewed the little circle flowers to the postcard.

I cut a piece of fabric the same size as the postcard and attached it to the back with Wonder-Under and then sewed around the whole piece with my tiny serger.

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Heart Swap

I signed up for a swap on Art-Ventures where we are required to make a decorated heart. I started with the heart I had done for the Julia Andrus Book Study - Corrosive Effects. I wanted to brighten it up a bit and added some Siren Smooch Ink over the surface.

I had some little heart pieces with beads on wire, that I had not used and decided to do the faux sea glass ( Julia Andrus-Paper Transformed) on the hearts. I used pigment inks on each one then added clear embossing powder. I rubbed them with perfect medium and applied Pearlex powders, then clear embossing powder, heated them and sprayed with water to pit the surface. I wound this around the heart.

I dug out some little flower shaped beads and added a "gem" to each one and glued them on the heart. I took a picture of a little girl (sorry can't credit the site as this image is from my computer which is in the shop for repair) and cut it down to fit under the heart. I coated it with Judikins MicroGlaze which protects the image from water.

I attached some dangly beads to the bottom, then cut out a piece of cardstock in the heart shape and adhered it to the back.

Fabric Postcard

I recently joined a new group that is doing different things with fabric and are currently running a fabric postcard swap.

I have not sewn in years and just got my sewing machine repaired. To be honest, I think I need to relearn how to use all the fancy stitches and bells and whistles!! I also don't have a great variety of fabrics at the moment so I had to use what I had on hand.

I started by sewing a few different pieces of fabric together than added a glittery organza type fabric over the top and stitched some fibres over this.  I took some pieces of fancy lace items and coloured them with fabric paint and sewed them on. I then attached some little roses on by hand. The edge looked a bit raggedy so I attached some trim around it. Still not 100% pleased with it.

Took time today to figure out how to thread my Singer Tiny Serger; bit frustrating but finally figured it out thanks to the step by step pictures in the booklet that came with it. As I was not happy with the edging on the piece I took my tiny serger and went around the edges and think it looks a lot better now. At least I am much happier with the look of it.

Mini Memory for Chris

The final recipient for the Mini Memory swap on DCI is Chris. Her theme was Wings, and colours were shades of purple & silver/gold.

I had bought some items at the art supply store, one being a box type item that I thought would work perfectly.

I started by creating a background paper piece with Brilliance inks in shades of purple, gold and silver with a swirly stamp, cut it to size and glued it inside the box. I painted the box edge with gold acrylic paint and added some corner pieces which have butterflies on them that I coloured with Alcohol ink.

I printed off an image of a little baby girl with some books, and made it 3-d to stand out, and added some glossy accents to the book pieces. On the first attempt I had coloured a peice of a clear ruler, a domino and a little flower piece and attached them to the bottom. Added the word Wings at the top and then placed a butterfly behind the little girl. This was what it originally looked like.

Well, I was not completely happy with it so added some golden acrylic gold mica flakes around the edges and being impatient used my heat gun to dry it. Bad mistake!! I melted the ruler in the process, and as a result had to come up with something else.

I removed all the embellishments at the bottom. I stamped some flowers in Pearlescent Lavendar Brilliance several times and made some small roses, touched them up with some silver and some glitter and placed them on the bottom underneath the little girl. I also added more glitter to the butterfly wings. The mistake turned out to be a good thing as I am much happier with the final outcome.

Mini Memory for Vickie

Vickie is the person chosen for May's Mini Memory on DCI. Her theme is Wings and colours are Purple and Lime Green.

I started with a back cover of an old book and removed the paper from it. I painted it with gesso then added dimension with a stencil and molding paste. I painted over it with green and purple acrylic paints and added iridescent violet over the purple section.

I found the little arch thing at the dollar store and since it was silver, I coloured it with Pinata` ink in a purple colour.  I did the same thing with the scabble pieces to spell out FLY.

I took some purple prima flowers and added brads with green dots on them to the centres, twirled some wire to simulate vines and glued them to the board. I had some left over paper which was a piece of a magazine column that I had stamped on with Versamark, gessoed, dried,  then coloured using a Colorbox stylus and purple stamp pad. I put this behind  the little arch piece then glued it to the board.

The little bird is from Magenta and it is painted with purple acrylic, crackle medium and lime acrylic paint. The final touch was a little gem for the eye.

I have stencils ......

The latest technique we are doing in CCSwaps is using stencils. I had all kinds of ideas, but decided to use them in the traditional way.

I took a piece of cardstock and placed a large wall stencil over the top and applied Brilliance inks. I then stamped a word stamp with Brilliance Pearlescent Beige. The butterfly is a rub-on.

I took  a 12'x12" piece of cardstock and folded it to make a stationery holder. With another stencil I stenciled some pansies on small pieces of cardstock and again stamped the word stamp with the Brilllinace ink and added some punched circles for the centre of the flowers. I attached these to the bottom folds

I added some cording to close the folder and placed the large stenciled cardstock piece on the front cover. Unfortunately, I was not thinking and the cover piece started to rip from the pressure of the cord. Rather than starting all over again, I tried various thing to reinforce the area, and finally settled on cutting a little light weight key in half and gluing it on with the cording coming through it.

On the inside, I placed some stationery and some envelopes. Some of the envelopes are decorated, but I can't take credit for them as they were some I received many years ago in swap.

D is for

We are continuing on with the Alphabet series and this time it is D. I chose distressing ink, dimension, dictionary words and Dream as my theme.

Lacking for any better ideas I decided on making a notebook. I started with the front cover and took a piece of cardstock and did direct-to-paper with the colorbox stylus and distress inks. I then stamped the image from Third Coast Rubber Stamps with Versafine inks. I masked it and stamped the wings (Tim Holtz) first with Brilliance sky blue then overstamped with Mica Magic gold. I left the mask in place and stamped the Dream background stamp with versafine ink.

I stamped a stars with gold mica magic. I had stamped a word stamp at the top left but did not like the effect so took some sequin waste and gold paint to cover it.

The word dream is done with chipboard letters from the dollar store embossed,  some stamped into while hot and one is covered with silver tape that I embossed in my Cuttlebug and coloured wih alcohol ink.

For the inside cover I took another piece of cardstock and covered it with dictionary words and covered it with an acrylic paint wash and edged the sides with copper acrylic paint. I  then added stamped images (Tim Holtz) and the quote stamp (Quietfire Designs). The little girl image is a piece I had in my stash for years, and it was from a magazine ad for collectors plates.

The back is just covered with some scrapbook paper that looks a bit aged and distressed.