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.

Fabric art wallhanging & images (24)

This wallhanging has really satisfied my love for embellishing, textures and fabrics. For all that might look complex, it definitely took me far less time than making a card, it just seemed to come together without effort. I want to head in this direction more often. 
I was inspired by Ruth Rae, her book 'layered, tattered & stitched' plus several other blogs which pointed me in the right direction. Now that I have made my first one, I do not think I will need to refer to them again.


It is not quite complete as I want to add a couple of fabric tabs with a personal messages for my friend. I have hidden a 'Happy Birthday' message, which I hope she will find if she explores it, so she can hang it up without as a piece of Art without a glaring birthday sentiment.


It measures about 24cms wide by 45cms, 9.5" x 18"....ish


Anyway, I don't know what you think of it, any comments or suggestions very much welcomed :o)

I tea dyed the lace and fabrics

Centre embellishment was a necklace. All buttons are vintage.

Brass top bit, half a sawn off key

Navy blue base, is a hardback book cover

2 organza 'pockets ' containing 'things'

Baptism project/keepsake

I am really disappointed in these photos I took of this, they are very very grainy. That's what happens under low lighting conditions. I've spent weeks making it, and now I am unable to show it at it's best. Oh well, c'est la vie.

Shut up and move on eh?

Some of the graininess of the actual people photographs is because the lady who took them forgot to use zoom, so I had a real job on my hands trying to improve them when they were cropped down so small.

For some reason the text has ended up highlighted, and I cannot get rid of it.

I think I'll give up for tonight and go to bed  lol

The white lace butterfly top left, I took off of a vintage brooch. The top right and bottom left flowers and elements were donated to me by Malikas' parents from the table decorations at the party. (Except for the 2 round pink flowers which I made)

Malikas' parents, (on the right), have a nickname for her: 'Princess' so I added the 'crown' to her photo, and the background, as she was in someone's arms in the original photo. This 'page' is my favourite.

As you can see, I still have not learnt to stamp straight...grrr!

I zigzag stitched the heart shaped photos onto ........Yeah! Wallpaper! cut into hearts.

I do not know if you can see, but the flower centres under the Ladies photo are tiny tiny mother of pearl buttons only about 5mm across which I picked up in a job lot of buttons recently. I do not 'do' cute, as such, but these buttons are definitely 'Cute'

I am not all that good at arranging photos, but obviously these had to be in 'relative' order. Apologies again for the poor photo quality.

The Above is from the afternoon party, I copied some elements that were on the tables. The cake in the shape of a bed is a traditional design for French Baptism cakes. The peachy and cream background of the cake picture I made from paper decorations they had hanging round the walls. The picture frame, is a chipboard oval I made and I wrapped ribbon round it, put an acetate sheet over the photograph.

The Disney elements come from a box of almonds that I was given by them as a souvenir. Bob ate them as I am now allergic to nuts...nuts!  The pink garish 'rose'/flower I made from donated petals that they had spread over the tables.

This project just looks so much better in real life...honestly!

Dyeing, Blackberry way....

There has been a glut of blackberries in the garden. We have already made about 12 jars of jam and there must be about 5kgs of them in the freezer. And still they keep coming. Earlier this year I acquired some fabrics whose texture appealed to me so I had my first go at dyeing pieces of them.....with Blackberries.


They did not turn out as purple as I had hoped, and at first I felt quite disappointed. But having looked at them since I do rather like the colour. I'd describe it as a light fuchsia. I am now thinking of attempting to use Tumeric as a dye. However, I now know that Blackberries are good for creating various pinks and are good for staining saucepans!
In future, I'd like to make more fabric cards or fabric art. I have ordered some fabric manipulation books from Amazon to get me started, and I cannot wait for them to arrive. 
Today, at a car boot/yard sale, I bought 3 rolls of cotton/gauze like fabric in natural colours for a ridiculously cheap price, so I have plenty of fabrics to play around with now. 


More Angel and fairy images to come later today.

Scrap-hat

Not a card, although I am in the middle of making a 'dartboard' card.
The sun has been so hot I wear this hat, but it was plain, it just had a ribbon on it, that was all. So, yes I decided to embellish it with my new found scrapbooking skills. My French neighbour says it looks very 'English Garden Party' which I guess it does.