Fabric Friendship album & thank you card

I thought you might like to see the packaging I made for the Friendship book. I used oven paper and a vintage French embroidery magazine, all sewn together as a wrapper. I stuck some cut out words all over it.


Then I tied it up with some plaited braid I made out of all the scraps I had left over from making the book.


This time I made a tag too, again with paper and fabrics and other bits and pieces.
You can get the general idea of the size of the book by the photo of me holding it in my hand.

The other day, someone did me a favour so I made this quick thank you card, took me all of 20 minutes! Which makes a change!

Friendship fabric book now finished!!

Hoorah, the cover was finally done today, so thats it, I'm done! It has taken me about a month to complete the whole thing but I have enjoyed every minute of it. I did not rush it, only a couple of hours a day, sometimes more sometimes less, I just went with my 'mood'


The closure is a glass bead which I removed today and placed a brass keyhole thingy on it and then sewed the  glass 'button' back on. I wrapped fine copper wire around the Sun ornament, placed it onto a flower I made ages ago as the colours were right, then onto a horrid gold sequinned star which has nice fibre and gold sequins bursting out of the edges, then a couple of white feathers and an odd bit of fabric left over from making the closure. Oh yes, and added 2 blue roses with a bit of bronze coloured mica painted on.


The 3 little roses type flowers I made by twisting odd bits of fabric and organza that were left over, still have'nt got the hang of this method yet.


The spine: I photographed the word 'Friendship' from my Dictionary, photoshopped it then sewed it over with bronze organza, which I then edged with some  lace. Topped off with a couple of antique style brads.
And, that is about it.
Tomorrow I am going to make some fancy wrapping for it before I post it to my friend on Monday.


The whole 'book' is quite sparkly, which really does not show on the photos. These latest photos, I messed around with alot, blurs, textures, masks thanks to an inspiring site: Kim Klassen  Great and really simple tutorials on creating these effects. I am still surfing her site. Some PS sites with tutorials are not very relevant I find but most of Kims tutorials are things we'd all like to do with our photos.

Friendship book page H & cover

Still not finished! The H page is done, which did ot photograph very well, but you get the idea.
For the cover I used some sumptuous raw silk beaded fabric. I think its bridal fabric. I love bridal fabrics, why dont they make them in different colours?  In order to move it away from the bridal look I drew on it with coloured fabric pens and coloured in some of the pearls. The closure I made from gold raw silk, its padded and I machined over the top and added some blue embroidery. That is not a button by the way, it is from a disassembled Christmas decoration lol.


And no it is not finished. I want to add some embellishments to the front, probably ribbons and another upcycled jewellery piece in the center. 
The weather has been fabulous today so I have been doing things outside instead of crafting indoors. Hopefully I shall get it completed tonight. I already have some ideas for wrapping it up in fabrics and 'stuff'


By the way the H page in particular and the closure was my very first attempt ever at embroidery.

Friendship album page 'S' and Feline CRF

The S page revolves around black, silver and white. I used embossing powders on the letter S, in silver so that was my start point for the 'colours'.
The background paper is handmade, not by me, swirls of greys white and blacks. The 'left' side metal pars are composed of old necklace parts. Both pages contain vintage Chantilly lace. There's also a square of Black velvet under the 'S'.
The last page 'H' I have started to compose, but I dont think I will be able to get it completed for a couple of days as my Cat has taken a turn for the worse, he has CRF, need to get him to the vets quickly, and spend time with him as he has become very clingy. It saddens me so much to see him so poorly, I have to concentrate on getting him reasonably normal again. He was diagnosed 4 years ago, so between us, we have done well to keep him fairly well up to now.
If you have a Cat with CRF, you'll understand. I found a great website for info: http://www.felinecrf.org

Fabric Album 3 pages done

It is New Years Eve, and I cannot believe that my last posting was December 17th, prior to Christmas, ages and ages ago!
So I thought I'd better start showing what I have been doing all this time.
For a long time I have wanted to make one of those vintage tattered fabric albums or book. Only one way....get on with it.
This one is not yet complete, I have only finished 3 pages of 6. It is going to be a friendship book for someone I have known for many many years. She and her family visited in 2010 and I did not realise just how much I missed her company, I have'nt seen her since moving to France in 2004.


The idea is to make a page for each letter of her name, 5 pages plus the cover.
Today I am going to show you the first page.


T is for Turquoise, Time and Treasure

Another get well...book/album this time

Well, here we are, another first attempt at making an album or book, whichever it is classed as. Also my first attempt at stamping having purchased several used stamps, which in this case I used on the front of the envelope. Actually, this card is for the same neighbour, the man I made the 70th card for last week! So he's not doing bad, 2 cards in less than a week.
Anyway, he has just had some minor but important surgery, so an ideal opportunity to make another card! The theme as such is to encourage a very active man to sit still for a month, which he has to do, and which he is going to find very difficult! (Is he not Evelyne????) So it seems that  this card has ended up being rather humourous in content.
Really he is a 'Dog' lover hence the picture on the front. However no other animals have perfected relaxing like cats, thus pictures of cats in various relaxed positions. The overall message to him is:  "look at the pictures of how the grand masters of the art of relaxation do it and learn from them"

All the pages inside can be seen on the 'various' page plus the stamped envelope