art swap

This is an art journal that I made as part of an art swap organised by KiwiCarole at Madness and Mess blog. I filled the journal with many different types of paper and card. The idea was that every page would be a starter prompt for a journaling diary or art journal and would inspire the artist that used the journal.

The cover is another "fabric paper" creation from serviettes. Then there are layers of chiffon and paper and a computer printed image on silk fabric that I did from a photograph of an angel I took at a cemetery and a scan of a painted background that I did. All stitched together with my trusty sewing machine (broke a needle doing this!)



This shows the inside cover and the letter that I wrote to the swap partner explaining my creation. It folds up and goes in the pouch on the inside cover.



This is the back cover made from a vintage board game.

These are a selection of pages from inside the book. Some were scrapbooking papers, some were vintage book pages, some drawing paper and card, old ledger paper, canvas paper...

I was worried that I was making something by hand and then I would never see it again overseas somewhere, so I made an exact duplicate of it at the same time. So I sent one away on my swap and then I kept the other myself. Now I don't know whether to use it or keep it as it is!

music satchel

I promised more art, and here it is! My sister is an opera singer and she said last year that she was trying to find a satchel type bag that she could carry her music in to work. She was having trouble finding something that wasn't either the wrong shape or too boring looking. So I hunted and hunted for a modern looking satchel (which was hard to find, I might add!) and then I added an artwork to the front of it to make it different!

The satchel turned out to be a fairly cheap one from a stationery shop. It was perfect with its large blank front panel.

The artwork is handmade "fabric paper" - I have seen this technique in "Cloth, Paper, Scissors" magazine and in Beryl Taylor's wonderful book "Mixed Media Explorations". It is a process of building up paper with PVA glue on a fabric background. I used a plain fabric in the background and then layered sheet music, serviettes, and images on card and paper with PVA glue. The servittes are wonderful because they go quite transparent with the glue and you get different layers showing through from underneath.

This image was from a glossy magazine. I blended it in by gluing serviettes over the edges of the paper. I chose her because I loved the glowing colours of her outfit, and her classical pose.

This image is of L'Opera in Paris (quite suitable for an opera singer's bag!!) and it was a reproduction image that was a giveaway in a "Somerset Studio" magazine.

Once I was happy with the layers I had built up, I took to the art with my sewing machine! I picked some plain and some fancy stitches and sewed around the images (to help make sure they didn't dislodge later) and around the whole artwork to frame it and secure the edges. Please don't look too closely at the sewing because I am NO seamstress! I love that I can finally make use of my sewing machine in mixed media artwork. Sometimes I go crazy with it, and I don't worry at all that the sewing is terrible!!

I gave this to my sister for Christmas and she was over the moon with it! I hope that it hasn't fallen apart yet!!!!