Collage Lady

As you may have noticed, I’ve got very behind with my Life Book 2013 classes. So I thought this week was time to rectify the situation and try to catch up a little! Rather than go back to where I got stuck, I thought I’d start with this weeks lesson from Joann Loftus and then move backwards in time!

I created the background using 3 layers of journaling, white gesso, an acrylic paint wash and a variety of stencils. Joann gave us the template for the lady silhouette which I covered in a collage of torn magazine images and stuck to the background using sticky pads. I added die-cut butterflies coloured using Twinkling H2O’s and a silver marker pen and added highlights and shadows using white paint pens and Pitt Artist pens. I really enjoyed the lesson and love how my lady turned out!

Recycled Packaging!

We seem to have bought a lot of books just lately, acquiring as a by-product lots of those cardboard sleeves that books come wrapped in. So when I looked at Kate Crane’s 21 Secrets 2013 Class and saw that it was about trying out lots of different techniques, I thought the book packaging would make an excellent base for these projects.

For the first project I started off using spray inks and stencils. Because I sprayed them directly onto the cardboard, the colour was not as bright as I was hoping for. I could have painted over with gesso and started again but I decided to go with it and see what happened. Next I added acrylic paint using a variety of stencils, bottle tops, cards and stamps (including one of my home made foam stamps). I decorated a “dinner money” envelope with strips of old scanned artwork and stitched it to the board then added some ribbon and some more stamping. Lastly I added some cut out quotations to the envelope, and stuck one of them to the card.

For the second project I started off with some old sheet music which I glued to the cardboard. I covered this with acrylic paint, then used a selection of hand made foam stamps to create more interest. I finished it off with a collage of a painted stamped image and a die cut butterfly joined using a tiny split pin, and a quotation which I outlined using a Pitt artist pen.

Four more projects to go – this is fun – I’m off to do some more. See you later!

Hand Made Art Journal

Phew! – I finally finished my latest project, a hand made art journal!

I started out by following Joanne Sharpe’s class in 21 Secrets 2013. As usual, I didn’t quite follow the instructions! Joanne taught us six embroidery stitches to use on our panels – I used three of them plus two of my own. Our design was supposed to be all embroidery, but I got rather carried away with using Twinkling H2O’s to colour my shapes! While I was busy painting and embroidering my panel, I got a newsletter from Effy Wild which gave me a link to her free Bookbinding course. Well, I had to watch it didn’t I! As a result, the journal I made is a combination of Joanne’s and Effy’s classes with a few of my own little quirks thrown in for good measure.

I drew the design for my book panel on some scrap paper then traced it onto calico using a homemade light box (a desk light pointed up through my glass topped coffee table) and a Pitt Artist Pen. I coloured it using a mixture of Twinkling H2O’s over clear gesso and embroidery stitches.

After I chose the fabric for my book cover I sat and hand tacked my wadding sandwich together so that it didn’t move about too much when I machine stitched it. I don’t know anything about quilting, but the wadding I bought was really thick, so the only way to make it manageable was to ‘quilt’ it! – I’m sure it’s not the right way to quilt, but I think it turned out alright.

Next came the pages for the journal. I started off with five signatures of watercolour paper but decided that wasn’t enough. So I added another six signatures of assorted handmade paper in a variety of sizes. I now had a small problem. Neither of the binding methods suggested would work with my enormous pile of signatures. To make matters even worse I decided to add some spacers between the signatures to allow room for expansion. My spine measured 1.5″ deep! I decided the only thing to do was to sew the signatures together in traditional binding style then somehow attach them to the cover afterwards.

I knew how I wanted the finished book to look, but had no idea how to achieve it. Once the signatures were sewn together it was easier to see what I had to do, but the technicalities of it baffled me for a while. After a lot of head scratching I decided the only way to do it would be to sew each signature into the spine individually – no mean feat with them all sewn together! But I did it, and I got the stitching to look the way I wanted it to!! Now I just have to decide what I’m going to use the journal for!