Here is the last of the series, with a thoroughly gruesome poem snippet. Heh.
Supplies:
I lovelovelove the way the lace paper turned out. I may have to go looking for more of that.
I can’t seem to decide if it’s “postcard” or “post card.” Ah well.
This is the card that went well, start to finish. Everything did what I expected it to do. Minor miracle, that.
I spent yesterday taping three videos at once. I would put the first card aside to dry, then film a bit on the next one. I thought editing would be a nightmare, but it ended up being pretty easy to separate them, and it was a lot of fun.
This is the first card I worked on, and also the last, because it gave me problems. So at the very end, you get to see what my work table looked like after I’d finished all three.
These are made with the extra board from the Raven card. Other than the lace, which is from my stash, here are the supplies:
Once it finally got unmuddied, I really liked this card. Hope y’all enjoy my little series.
It’s done! And I was really bad about taking pics of the process on the last two. Boo.
Here’s the “haunted” flag. Stamp by Rubber Stamps of America.
Now that I think of it, the doodles should have been windy and snakey. But oh well, I like it as is.
Here’s the “eerie” flag, stamp by Hampton Art, from Rare Oddities 2:
I started out wanting to match the charms to the flag, but the only owl charm I have is cartoony, so no dice. I really wanted to use the wolf, anyway.
And there they are together:
I think it looks pretty impressive. I puzzled over what to use to connect them. I didn’t have any ribbon that worked well enough. Finally, I used some of the fabric from the “Scary” flag. I think it’s just right. This may be one of my favorite projects ever.
Next I started on the adorable batty, using an old Studio G stamp.
Oh, these doodles are so much better. The bat gets a little Lumiere. I’ll be spreading that love around.
A gold moon, and little purple dots on the doodling.
Blue-violet beads go on many of the little buds.
Scary goes on, then some bugle beads. Yeah, they’re crooked. I’m okay with that.
And naturally, a little bat charm from my stash. This one went pretty quickly, and I felt like I had a clearer direction than usual. Two more to go!
Mistakes were made.
So I figured I could do the rest of the flags in a production line.
Don’t worry. That’s not the part that went wrong.
I started on the candle flag (Inkadinkado, Nevermore). It was the doodle. It had boxes and colored dots of different sizes and it was obnoxious and clown-like. I hated it, and I’m only a little sorry I didn’t take pictures. I knew it had gone horribly wrong, and I forgot about the camera as I got involved in fixing things.
Lots of paint followed. At first, I put in blocks of black, covering some of the dots. Nope, that was worse. Then I covered almost everything in black, then added a layer of pearl (this is all Lumiere). That was better. Then three more coats of pearl covered everything. Then more paint. More! More!
I even re-painted the lace because the contrast was off. Some of the blocks and dots are still visible, but now they add texture rather than making me think of tiny, overcrowded cars.
This one is a bit different from the others. Lots more shimmer with the paint. I skipped adding beads, because it had enough shine, and parts of the lace are bead-like. It went from something I hated to something I loved. I think I need more Lumiere paints, because they are a blast.
I subscribe to quite a few magazines. They are great motivation. My method: I have a Post-It flag dispenser on the ledge of the tub. I go through the magazines, marking things I’d like to try. Then I copy the first page of the article and put it in a notebook, making sure the issue is somewhere on the page. The magazine is stored neatly in date order, so I can choose something from the notebook, and grab the appropriate magazine.
I mention all this, because I picked something from the notebook tonight. This mini trinket quilt is inspired by Vesna Taneva-Miller, and was featured in the Summer 2015 issue of Sew Somerset.
For this project, I’m going to use upcycled shrink plastic–#6 plastic from a takeout container. Rock N Roll is one of my favorite sushi rolls. It’s deep fried. Don’t judge.
I cut out the best piece of plastic, gave it a good sanding on one side, and stamped on the sanded side. The spell book is from Inkadinkado’s Nevermore set. I often leave the pressed symbols from the container in, as I like to show where the material came from.
Next, the image is lightly colored with pencils. You don’t want to add too much color, as it will become very concentrated when the plastic shrinks.
A 1/8″ is used to make stitching holes around the image. A couple of these got very small, and had to be opened with one of my tiny diamond files. Not much to be done about that.
All shrunk. See what I mean about color concentration?
Time to choose fabric! Muslin, tulle, a very soft fleesish (it’s a word because I say so) thing, and some lace scraps.
I used a machine to go around the layers several times with black thread. Red embroidery thread attached the spell book.
I’ve been wanting to use those silver beads forever. Along with the red delicas, they are nice accents.
Muslin backing is added once all the embellishment is done. Because of those nifty corner beads, I had to hand-sew. And since I was hand-sewing, hey, why not add some jute?
Mind you, I had to do this twice, because I cannot sew a straight line. The second time, fusible interfacing kept everything in place.
Eyelets were set in the upper corners (because I found a Crop-A-Dile for half price at Tuesday Morning!), and binding tape used to make an over-the-head necklace.
The only thing I would do differently is use a shaped stamp, like a pumpkin or skull, so it was more immediately recognizable. This thing is tiny, and if someone wanted to see what it was, they’d so be up in my face. Overall, though, I loved the process, and I think the result is fabulous.
It’s a video!
Not entirely happy with the postcard, but it’s not terrible. Also, never photograph an orange card against an orange background. Duh.
After making the log book for the Screaming Grimoire, I wanted to try another book with French binding. Got the sophomore blues a bit, but I still had fun.
I started by cutting some 9×12″ drawing paper in half, as I only wanted a little book. Creased, folded, and nested, I ended up with four signatures of four sheets each, making a total of 64 pages. Now they get pressed under a brick for a day.
Then I had to do math. Luckily, it was easy. I wanted to start my stitch holes ½” from the ends, then I needed four more holes to make six. The final four ended up an inch apart. Yes, I had to use a calculator. Shut. Up. So why the Scrabble board? I’d bought a few at thrift stores and garage sales to get the tiles. The extra game boards came in handy for building a punching cradle, and boy am I glad I did–though mine is simpler than the one linked. It makes the hole punching so much easier. Here you see the template I made, sitting over the signature that’s getting punched.
My cover paper is another thrift store find. Very pretty handmade paper new in the roll for $1.50. I win. It was a bit thin for this application, so I saturated both sides with matte varnish and let it dry. Didn’t make it a lot stronger, but good enough to fold.
Though as it turns out, not strong enough to punch. I ended up putting a strip of book tape on the bit to be punched. It will barely show when the book is finished.
Stitching the first signature to the back cover with some pretty blue hemp. It’s waxed, but I run it through Thread Magic anyway, because tangles suck. That big paper thing in the background is a paper-covered brick, to keep the pages in place while you stitch.
All stitched. A little sloppy, as you can see when you look up instructions for French binding. I didn’t realize it at the time, but one of my kettle stitches was loose, so the book was also kinda loose. Sad face.
Next, I put down some wax paper and glued the spine. Then I move the book back on the paper so no extra glue is touching, fold the paper over, and the brick goes on top to press everything for several hours.
So how this fold goes: you lay it down like it’s another page–that’s your endpaper. Leave a little skosh room that you’ll trim later, and crease and fold at the spine. Stitching happens after that. Once stitched, you fold the cover forward then back again, and trim the endpapers. The actual cover is those two pieces of folded paper….
….and that bit left on the end gets glued down to cover the spine.
Next, decorate the cover! I’ve been on a tissue kick, so I ran some different tissues through a die cutter, and made a little cemetery scene. Pieces were attached with matte medium, and the whole front cover got a coat afterward.
This was as much fun as making the first book. Of course I want to try it again, and actually get the stitching tight!
WELCOME TO HALLOWVEMBER!
Debi at Easel and Quill is also playing along, so follow us both for Halloweenie goodness all month!
The first project is something I’d been working on for a while, and with all the crap this month, finally sent off in the nick of time last week. It is a box for a friend’s Halloween letterboxing event, and since it was yesterday, I can share the work without creating spoilers.
This is an altered book box. I picked up the book at Ross or Tuesday Morning–I just remember I got a good price. It was covered with twee Paris-themed stuff. Incidentally, I freakin’ hate twee Paris-themed stuff.
The surface treatment will be familiar to folks who followed along last year, though this time I used tissue paper rather than bog roll. It’s a slightly different effect, but much faster. The pentagram and skulls I hammered together in my smithy. Just kidding. The pentagram is actually layers of washi tape, with a flat embellishment for rivets. The skulls are from a bag o’ skulls I got…erm…either at Dollar Tree or Spirit Halloween. It was a while ago, and I picked them up because you never know when you’re going to need a bag of skulls. They were treated with VerDay paint and patina, which I bought a few months ago. I decided this was a good excuse to use them.
On the coffins, I used the whole VerDay set, even mixing some colors. So. Much. Fun. I adore the one with the hat, where I used iron paint. I can’t show you the inside of the boxes, but four of them contain hand-carved stamps of various magical artifacts (like the Kris of Kross, that allows you to jump to any location), and two contain…surprises. I’m gonna guess at least one of the surprise boxes comes back dented from being tossed across the room. Heh.
Part of letterboxing is that each box has a logbook, where you can impress your signature stamp. The Spousal Unit helped me pretty up some paper, and I put it together with a French binding.
Sometimes, I can’t keep myself from the pretty paper at the art store. Not sorry–this made a beautiful cover, along with a shiny skull that’s hard to photograph.
This whole project was a blast from start to finish. I got to play with new paints, and use a new bookbinding stitch. Good stuff.
BONUS!
My friend Godda sent me this video to kick off Hallowvember. I’m sharing it despite the egregious misuse of “everyday.”
