Art Journal remake

A while back my good friend Elizabeth sent me one of her wonderful sewn art journals as a birthday gift.

You can see the first set of signatures here and the second set here.

She lamented over and over about how much she hated the cover she made for mine. She even told me that I should try and fix it.

I love the inside covers as much as she did but the covers were over-sized. We talked about how I might be able to salvage the insides while doing the remake.

Time passed...I did nothing.

But now I'm really wanting to start a journal so I figured I'd better listen to Elizabeth and refit the cover.

I carefully cut the "spine" from the rest of the cover salvaging as much as humanly possible of the gorgeous inside fabric.

Since I seem to have a thing for denim, it seemed the natural choice for a scrappy cover.

 

 As you can see I used Elizabeth fun hand-dyed fabric with pen pockets on the front inside cover.















And her even more impressive bird mono-print with pocket on the back cover.













I made a flower from the lace to cover the sewing of the closure strap and added a vintage button for interest. 

Now time to get writing...

Friday Freebie

Since it's been such a slow week in the art department...I'd like to offer you two images this week.

Both are wonderful vintage postcards that make great backgrounds or accents in your artwork.

Enjoy!

(click each image to enlarge)

Suede pouch

 I am very behind here in blogland...
 

Last Saturday evening I made this suede pouch to hang from my belt at the Renaissance Festival the next day.


I had already sewn a backpack but with the temperatures sounding on the cool side I figured I'd be wearing a shawl over my costume. If I had a backpack on I'd be sporting a "hunchback of Notre Dame" look.

So a belt pouch was in order....

I had a magnetic purse closure in my sewing basket so that worked out very well.  I used a scrap of suede to cover the ugly metal backing.


We had a good time with the kids at the festival. Such a different experience than going with another couple. 

***I once again have to apologize for the poorly lit photos. Seems every time I want to photograph something it's raining!!***

Friday Freebie

I think this photo is really neat...haven't figured out an art application for it as of yet but I like it anyway.


I call it " The Gathering Tree".


Enjoy!

Suede backpack

You may remember a while back I used a suede jacket to make a book.  I still had lots of suede left waiting for inspiration to strike.

As the old saying goes...Necessity is the mother of invention....

I needed a bag of some sort to carry at the Renaissance Festival this weekend that would look a bit more like a bag from that period.  After seeing the crazy expensive prices of the beautiful tooled leather belt pouches I knew I needed to come up with my own design.  I'd already spent too much on my new bodice... Did I mention how much we love the Renaissance Festival!! 

I must apologize for the poorly lit photos...it is a very dark and rainy day here but I just couldn't wait any longer to share...

Baby Shower Gift

My next door neighbors are expecting their first child so I decided to make them a diaper cake. I received one at the baby shower my co-workers threw for me and thought it was really a cute idea.
Her shower is today so I can finally show my creation. The wrapped package behind the cake is the second set of diapers that came in the jumbo box.

A couple of ATC's

Notice the mistranslation on the fortune... it  made me laugh. Of course I didn't notice until AFTER I glued it down.

Friday Freebie

This week I'd like to share a couple of vintage postcards.

I've used similar images in countless ways in my artwork. Feel free to use them in your artwork as well!

Busy week..and nothing to show for it...yet...

The week has just slipped away... Some how I thought when the kids went back to school I'd have a ton of time to devote to art. HMMM...maybe I'm just playing catch-up with all the things I've put off for the majority of the summer.

I have worked on our vacation scrapbook a little but since I don't share photos of my kids on my blog...I'm not going to share the pages....sorry.  I've also made a couple of birthday cards and a gift that I will share on Sunday afternoon. I know that the recipient reads my blog so I don't dare post until then...no peeking! You know who you are!!!

Friday Freebie

Friday rolls around so quickly these days....

This week I'd like to share an image of a sweet little boy. Just look at the cute little sailor suit. I chose this image since I had just made my sailor theme uniform dress for the Dress-up Project.
This is an image I used in a past swap.

As always this image is free for use in your artwork...
(click image to enlarge)

Tag Tuesday on Thursday

When I saw the Tag Tuesday Challenge theme of butterflies this week I was amazed. The night before I'd just created a tag...a shape I rarely use...with a butterfly as the focal image. It was kismet.

Be sure to check out the other participant tags over at Kard Krazy.

September Dress

Last month some of my visitors from the Dress-up Project thought the idea of recreating my flag twirler uniform was a good idea. Funny because it was just something I thought on a whim ...not a really great plan in my head. So, I dug out the picture and gave it a whirl...or maybe that should be a twirl.

Most high school mascots are named for birds or tough, scary animals. Or maybe warriors.
Not us...
We were the Skippers. Yeah...I know...
Oh, watch out!!  Here come those big, bad  Skippers!  It was a nautical thing that was much more relevant about 50 or so years prior. Although I'm sure it was chosen as an elitist thing. Bunch of snobs....but I digress.




Anyway...we had a sailor theme for our uniforms. I did manage the sailor collar but didn't even attempt to make a sailor hat or the white gloves.



I'm  pretty happy with the result.



 

What do you think compared to the real deal...?

Never mind the "woodsy-the-owl glasses".  Good grief...keep in mind it was the 80's after all.

Make sure to visit the Alice and Camilla blog to see the rest of the September dresses.


                                                                     Homecoming 1988