ePlay Challenge - Fabric!

Welcome to the June ePlay challenge!! This month we are inviting you to play with fabric!

If you are anything like me I have TONS of scrap fabric laying around. Everything from silk to denim to brocade. I was actually inspired by denim to create this challenge but when it came time to do the project I found this fabulous brocade scrap the my mother in law had recently given to me for my scrappy purposes and it was perfect. 

I have been wanting to have an art journal but I want one big enough to really play in. I decided I needed to make my own and this is what came of it.

The cover needed a little something so I used some Wendy Vecchi embossing paste in black through a Prima stencil and highlighted with some inka gold.

This is the silver metallic Wendy paste with quite a few drops of forrest moss Distress ink and a drop of peeled paint. I should have added more green as the green is very pale...but this was my first attempt at mixing so I learn.

Here is my step by step tutorial for creating my art journal (total cost $6.40):

1. Take a pad of Bristol or Water color paper and carefully remove all of the sheets. (I used a 40% off coupon and spent $6.40)

2.Add a few pieces of artistic paper, tags, smaller papers...anything you want for interest.

3. Gather no more than 4 pieces of paper together and fold in half. Crease with a bone folder. These are  called your signatures. Your book will be made up of multiple signatures.

4. Use a centering ruler to make marks at the center and one at each end...about 1/2 inch in from the edge. These will be for your holes.

5. Using an awl and a squishy pad (this is the technical term) punch holes in your signature at the marks. Make sure they are right along your creased fold.

6. Using a large needle (mine is a leather working needle) and waxed thread to sew, sew your individual signatures at the binding.

7. Then sew the signatures together and clip the book together.

(visual of clips)

8.Take your glue and paint a thick coat along the binding of the signatures.

9. While that dries, take your book covers (I repurposed an old dictionary that I bought at a flea market) and measure out the fabric leave enough room in between for your book innards. This will depend on how many signatures you have.

10. Use your glue and adhere the fabric to the flat surface first being sure to burnish as you go.

11. Adhere the edges around the inside of the covers.

12. Use a piece of your paper to attach the signatures to the cover. If you look close you can see the yellow...I used the cover to the paper pad. Adhere one side to the signature and the other side to the cover. Burnish well and leave something heavy overnight for the entire thing to dry. Do the same for the back cover. 

and voila! I wanted to keep it somewhat flat so it was easy to open so I didn't add a whole bunch to the front. Also, the fabric I chose is very busy too.

So what can you do with fabric? Let's see! Add your blog to the linky tool at the bottom and show us what you can do with fabric. You may just win a little something to spend in the eP store!!

Good luck!

{{hugs}}

Andiepants

V is for Veil ~ altered Dictionary spread

Hello everyone! It's Bonnie here today to show you an altered dictionary spread which also just happens to fit this month's ePlay Challenge theme, Stencilling. I do hope that I run out of letters before my book explodes. It's been such a fun project though...might have to do another. Anyway, today's entry is V for Veil. I began with gessoed pages and the main pages adhered to the ones next to them for strength. To lay down some colour, I added Dried Marigold, Scattered Straw, and Worn Lipstick Distress inks with an applicator tool. The colour was intensified, particularly around the edges as well as the definition, with Watermelon, Butter Cream, and Mango gelatos blended with a dry finger.

The next layers were vintage sheet music, sewing pattern tissue, and torn scraps of patterned paper. All were adhered with gel medium which was also spread on top. It helps to make the vintage papers less fragile. Punched circles or semi-circles of patterned paper were inked around with Worn Lipstick Distress ink and adhered to the spread along with doily pieces. Washi tape was used to create a frame around the edges and bits of drywall mesh were added randomly for texture and shine.

More gelato was smudged over some of these paper layers in order to embed them into the background and create more layering and depth. Stencilling was applied with white gesso pounced through TCW's Mini Tiny Circles and with black gesso through TH's Splatters stencil.

A sweet little Fancy Pants bag from the Collecting Moments line was adhered to the right hand page and a black tag with some stencilling and a quote was slipped inside. The blue circle was folded in half and adhered to the top edge to bring a little blue to that side.

The focal image is from The East Wind and is called Lucy Loo Delivering Love Letter. I coloured Lucy and her furry friend with Prismacolor pencils, fussy cut them, and matted them in black both to strengthen the skinny bits and to make them more visible against the busy background. Lucy was popped up on foam tape before she was adhered to the left side.

A Pink Paislee flower with a metal center helped anchor or ground her. Black butterflies with white gel pen dots and silver bead bodies were scattered to create a visual triangle helping with flow. Half pearls were adhered to opposite corners and tiny punched butterflies were also added to the mix. Sweet little sequins were Glossy Accented to the mesh...love the shine and colour they bring to the piece. Again, I used the three groups (triangle) positioning.

The quote was computer generated except for the word, Love, which was added with sparkly stickers so that it would stand out from the other words. The tiny words scattered about are Idea-ology Remnant Rubs. Pieces of leftover die cut rolled flowers were used as a border in ...wait for it...three places. Before adding the final touches, white gesso was applied here and there with my trusty finger just to knock back some of the colours or patterns and blend the layers a little more. A little doodling with black pen, an Idea-ology Alpha Part V, and an Adage ticket edged in Vintage Photo Distress ink finished off the spread.

Thanks so much for visiting today. I hope you gained a little inspiration and are ready to dive into our ePlay Stencilling challenge. We would love to have you play along.

Bonnie

here are the links to some of the products I used:

Liquitex Acrylic Gesso	Dina Wakely Media Gesso - Black	Distress Ink Pad - Vintage Photo	Distress Ink Pad - Scattered Straw
Distress Ink Pad - Dried Marigold	Distress Ink Pad - Worn Lipstick	Faber Castell - Gelatos - Yellow Colors	Faber Castell - Gelatos - Tropical
TCW 6x6 Template - Tiny Circles	Tim Holtz Layering Stencil - Splatters	Fancy Pants - Collecting Moments - Decorative Bags	Idea-ology - Tim Holtz - Remnant Rubs - Words
Findings - Alpha Parts, Ransom	Inkssesentials - Glossy Accents 2 oz.	Scotch Foam Mounting Tape

The Bee's knees ~ Altered book cover

Hello ePers. It's Bonnie here today. I had finished the inside spreads in my bee-themed altered child's board book a few weeks ago but hadn't found the time to alter the front and back covers to complete the project. I made up my mind to make the time this week. I already have my ideas percolating for the next board book or two so I wanted to finish this one.

I started by tearing up pages from an old thrift store book with French text. The pieces were random in size and shape and I layered them onto the covers using Matte Medium and overlapping until the entire surface was covered. Once dry the text papers were sprayed with three Art Anthology colours: Glorious, Paprika, and Timeless. The book was tipped at different angles so that drips and runs occurred. Butterscotch, Butter Cream, and lemon gelatos were scuffed onto the covers and spread with a finger. The butterscotch was used around the edges. Walnut Brown Big Brush pen was also used on the edges to frame the covers.

Jet Black Archival ink was sponged through TCW's Mini Reversed Chicken Wire stencil onto the now coloured text. White gesso was pounced through TCW's Well Rounded stencil and picked up some of the colours of the sprays softening the effect. More of the Paprika spray was spritzed through TCW's Mini Punchinella stencil and then it was flipped over to get the reverse imprint.

Stampotique's medium and tiny bees were stamped onto white cardstock and the yellow was coloured in with Mustard Seed and Spiced Marmalade Distress markers before the bees were fussy cut...yes even those tiny ones :)

The bee skep and honey label were printed from my computer files and the skep was matted in brown cardstock to allow it to show up and have greater visual weight. Scraps of striped paper were cut into fishtail flags and matted with the same brown before being adhered to the covers with Scor tape. Bits of diamond and scalloped borders were added to both pages and doodled on with white gel pen.

The lettering is a mix of Ransom Alpha Parts, Alpha Tiles, and small black sticker letters. Again, white dots were added for detail and to make them more noticeable. The quote comes from TH Classics 16 stamp set. A few of the Remnant Rubs Elements images were added to the piece: the crown on the bee at the bottom, the pointing hand and word fly, and the pen nib. White circles were punched from cardstock, inked with Black Soot Distress ink, and scattered around the pages. A spiral stamp was added to a few and they were outlined with both a Stabilo graphite pencil and black pen. Other elements were shaded in the same way to create depth.

To embed some of the collage pieces into the background and create more layers, black gesso was stamped in rings onto the covers using a bottle top, White gesso was again used to add more texture and embed pieces when it was pounced through TCW's Mini Punchinella stencil. By stencilling on both the background and the collage elements in the same area, it joins them into one layer and gives you less of a "stuck-on" look to your mixed media art.

The final two details were to add the bee charm beside the word Bee's and to add the washi tape to the spine using additional glue.

Thanks for hanging out with me today. I'm happy to have completed my bee book and to have had you here to share the experience. Until next time, take care and I do hope you make time to get messy and play. Remember, a new ePlay challenge has started...Wood.

Bonnie

Here are links to the eP store for some of the products I used:

Tim Holtz Distress MarkersSet of 37 with ContainerGifts with purchase	Art Anthology - Coloration Color Spray - Paprika	Art Anthology - Coloration Color Spray - Glorious	Art Anthology - Coloration Color Spray - Timeless
Tim Holtz (Stampers Anonymous) Classics 16	Claudine Hellmuth Studio-Multi-Medium Matte	Faber Castell - Gelatos - Yellow Colors	Faber Castell - Gelatos - Neutral Colors
Faber Castell - Big Brush Pens - Neutral	TCW 6x6 Template - Mini Chicken Wire Reversed	TCW - 6x6 Well Rounded Stencil	Scor Tape -1/4"wide x 27 yds long (double sided)
Findings - Alpha Parts, Ransom	Idea-ology - Remnant Rubs - Elements	Distress Ink Pad - Black Soot	Stabilo All Pencil - Graphite
Liquitex Acrylic Gesso	Claudine Hellmuth Studio - Black Gesso	Uni-Ball White Gel Pen	Archival Ink - Jet Black Ink Pad