Stitch and Slash pillow and cosmetic bag

I took a class at Craftsy, and made this pillow and bag for my sister for Christmas.
It takes four layers of fabric, stitched with a design, then slashed according to the areas you would like to have displayed.
This was a fun class, but difficult, which is a good thing!

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Leather and Lace bag

I have enjoyed making this bag so much!
I love the soft feel of the leather, and combined with the lace and crochet, well, I just had to indulge.

This bag can be found on my Etsy site.

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DashAbout Upholstery fabric Bag

Here is another of my folded bags.....I used upholstery material for this one, and a long zipper (one that I knew I would never use in a garment!) for the bag strap. I like to wear this bag messenger style - no falling off the shoulders.
I fold these bags to result in two compartments, with an additional pocket on the side to access without opening the purse (I put my notebook and pen in there).
The organza trim is a neat 2-inch piece with metals, sequins, and beads.
I made the shabby flower with cotton, and pleated the same fabric for the frill under the lace trim.
These are quick enough to make just when I get tired of the previous bag!

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5 Handmade sketch art journals

It is ages since I posted, but I have been busy making art of one kind or another.
I have made some leather purses, and also some sketch journals.
Here is a sampling of the journals:

 

 

 

These covers were made with heavy book board, with page variety.



I have detailed descriptions on my Etsy...these were a pleasure to put together!
I will post a couple of my purses very soon.

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LIVE Fabric Book

I jut finished making pages for a fabric book, which I will soon be binding.

Some of the background fabrics are dropcloths for my painting....mostly canvas.

I further embellished the fabric sheets, with painting, stitching, and addional fabrics, dryer sheets, art- used baby wipes, laces, molding pastes and more. Layers and layers.

Some pages were felted, then free-motion stitched.

 A bracelet along the right side of this front page. The star was edged with glitter glue paint.
Chiffons and cottons are layered and stitched.

The centre is molding paste on a piece of upholstery fabric, painted with lumieres.

 More cotton and chiffons.

 The centre is a rubber stamp on fabric, then layered with more cottons shapes.

Here are a few pieces of baby wipes, used for wiping up paint, and cleaning brushes.
Also a piece of a glittery gold and black doily.

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AB Group Golden @ 13 Olympics

The Yahoo group Altered Books has a challenge for the Olympics plus celebrating our 13th anniversary. This is simply a collage, and I thoroughly enjoyed putting it together in my LARGE book.

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Create and Shine Wallhanging

Here is a wallhanging made with fabric and plaster gauze (the very centre of it) - I have such a fab time with this product! Painting it with Lumieres - lots of layers! This is a mixed media piece with a variety of techniques.

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Plaster gauze journal cover

Here I altered the cover of this purchased journal, again using molding paste and caulking. Then Lumieres. There is also some round pieces of cardboard under the paste, as well as Plaster gauze. I love playing with these products!

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Handmade books

Here are two small books I made using caulking and paints for the covers. The butterfly is a chipboard piece. I went through my stash of papers and cards which I used for doing samples, techniques, and experiments and came up with quite a bit that I could use for the pages in these two journals. They were fun to make:

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Garden Journal page

I was playing with layering paper napkins, and added a cool 'oldie' crayon box.

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Art quilt - portrait

I have been working on this fun raw-edge portrait for awhile now. It depicts how I feel some days!

All fabric pieced and free-motion stitched.

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Art Journal Pages

Well, I have been doing art on a daily basis, sometimes quite involved, other times just making a background or two...splashing some watercolours around - you know the drill.
I made a book using sheets of columnar papers, folded into signatures which had covers of cardstock.
This is one of those pages, a purple sheet of cardstock - face painted with acrylics, hair and extras are pencil and markers.

Here are a few pages from one of my altered books:

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A Little Birdie told me

I had started this page a year ago, playing with gesso, acrylic and watercolor backgrounds.
I then drew a woman's face, glued down parts of a garden napkin, and finished it up.
Sometimes I don't finish a page for ages, as I love to make backgrounds...and have lots in my books, just waiting for the perfect image or whatever it calls for.

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Altered Art Journals

 These spreads were finished recently - just having fun with paints, stencils and rubber stamps (and anything that gets in the way whilst I am altering!)

These images are from an old French textbook. Watercolor background, plus some anaglypta wallpaper, a few stickers and background stencils.

A soft ghosty image of a little girl, rubber stamps, stickers, and watercolors. Here I used Portfolios and some Gelatos. yummy!

This spread holds a myriad of technique pieces, collaged. Just playing around with paints, stamps, embossing powder (top left)

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GPP Street Team Crusade #61

This is #61 of Michelle Ward’s GPP Street Team’s Crusades – Restraining Order: Practice minimalism.

This is usually quite a difficult task for me – it never looks finished, so I add more and more until I am satisfied.
However, I forced myself - this was a great challenge, and I just sat looking at my page after it was done, and made myself stop. That is an actual round tea bag, over which I used molding paste on a brass stencil teapot and cup. For the background I applied Golden's fibre paste and acrylic ground for pastels. When dry I rubbed in the soft pastels.
Did I do right by it? You be the judge.

Thank you so much, Michelle, for all that you have done to get us going in so many different directions. I look forward to joining in again after you regroup.

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Create a memory

This is a page inspired by a favorite uncle of mine - an avid golfer who enjoyed his cigars. Yes, I can still smell the wonderful aromas of that tobacco! Memories ~~~~

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Art Journal pages

These are recent pages done randomly - as in using up my stash of materials. I do enjoy just working without a theme or idea...very freeing!

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Altered Books Group TIP-IN Swap

For the group swap I decided on Woven Pages as my technique, and made 10 pages, all different. It would be difficult to made two the same!

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Small leather journal

I have been following Shirley's Three Part tutorial for making/binding a journal - she has a wonderful website that you might like to take a look at. Super instructions! Thank you, Shirley.
I made a small book using a variety of papers - scrap and watercolor leftovers, with a leather cover. The ornament is made with cardboard and metal pieces glued to a drink coaster, covered with aluminum tape, and painted with Lumieres.

You can see my end-papers here, first time for me!

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Jungle Cat Journal

I just finished up making this journal which has a variety of papers for writing or drawing, along with some vintage papers from my collection. The cover is heavy fabric with a jungle print, lined with vinyl and hand-bound.
I am really enjoying making these books - whether paper or fabric based.

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Christmas Card Book

I was watching Jellibellie on YouTube, making an album out of her greeting cards, and thought 'What a great way to store those cards.' I will be making one for my birthday cards as well.
Here is my rendition:

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