Super fast bookmarks

When I was cutting up the card as the inserts for my rainbow book  I ended up with lots of thin strips left over.... never one to throw away....

There's recycling... and hoarding... I do both... much to hubby's annoyance... but I found a use for the strips...

How simple to make; punch holes, fit eyelet, cut wool then doodle on each one... I now have a supply of bookmarks for RAAKs (Random Acts of Arty Kindness/ Happy Mail)... it's a shame UK postage has just doubled! There's a few birthdays this month...

Shrinkie name tags

Having made paper fabric for the birthday card bases I wanted a little pressie as an addition. I love Shrinkies- a plastic that you draw and colour then heat. It shrinks to half the original size but becomes 8 times thicker- it's fun to watch it curl and wriggle!

They are perfect for those of us that love doodling- just draw on the back and colour in... then heat till they shrink.

Here are a few of the little tags...

I hope they arrive safely... I haven't heard yet..

Fabric paper shoes...

May was fun for my birthday card swaps... I made paper fabric using napkins, tissue, wool, leaves and a few other things... I shall be making more! And silk paper too very shortly!

As a by-product I ended up with some transfer dyed silk, and one of my swaps themes was "Shoes" this month. So I quite fancied the idea of making a sneaker type card complete with eyelets and laces...

I over-sewed traditional seams and added a tongue. The whole thing backed on felt and blanket stitched the edge. I'm quite happy with this, it turned out really cute. I might have to do some more shoes...

May's Heart Page

Well, I have been slack!! I made this 2 days after our prompt, but didn't really like it and wanted to work on it some more... but you know what- I've had a really negative month, not inspired, not focused and certainly not producing, so adding to it went right out the window. Oh well... it doesn't happen very often, I'm usually full on creative so perhaps I needed this lull.

So here it is... it didn't go so well- I redid the foil several times, and in the end I put modelling paste under it too. It'll do, but not my favourite one so far...

Looking forward to June's prompt, hoping that will turn out better.

Bookmaking Adventure...

More books.... we have a fair coming up at our local cat sanctuary... so I thought I'd make a few topical sketchbooks, in my usual manner with beaded signatures. Instead of using my collaged textiles I bought preprinted fabric and wadding for the fronts...

I printed one of my doodles on the end page to give the owner something to do if they are bored!

Paper fabric and birthday cards...

Paper fabric? I've not tried it before, but as I'm doing alot of mixed media and textile work lately, it seemed only fitting that I give it a go... creating a material stronger than paper alone by collaging layers onto a fabric base.

What fun! I didn't have any muslin for the base, so I used some ponge silk, which would have it's own benefits/ downsides mentioned later.

I gathered up a collection of tissue papers, leaf skeletons, napkins, string, quilling strips etc. Next came ripping, tearing  and  cutting random shapes.

The idea of fabric paper is to have the benefit of pattern/texture and flexibility of paper, but with the added strength of a material base. Using a 40/60 pva/water mix lay out the material on a plastic sheet and wet it down. Adding papers and the other materials in layers, I built it up until I was happy with it, then overlaid with a white tissue paper. I made four with different themes; nature, butterflies, trees and funky. I also sprayed alcohol inks throughout the process... I could have tried glitter, angelina, sequins... or any number of other items!

I laid them out to dry in the sun, but they seemed to firm up even more over the next couple of days.

They turned out quite well for the first batch- I'd like to get a more flexible piece next time, maybe a texture gel will be more forgiving?

When I began to cut out for the birthday cards I found that the silk hadn't stuck very well, so I began to peel it away. Luckily it came away clean, leaving the paper layer intact. However, it did have one suprise, as the glue had seeped into the inks on the papers in some cases it had spread through to the silk, so I had loose, blended image transfers. I shall be trying this again! with specific images. Both the alcohol inks and the sharpies used on some of the papers transfered really well.

One of the projects I wanted this paper fabric for is my Birthday cards swap... I had 7 to make this month. I cut the standard 6 x 4" with various patterned scissors. I planned to work on the elements again as I'd just cut out the set in lino, so I embossed them onto handmade papers and highlighted them with inks. Adding ribbon, brads, and printing "happy birthday" on leaves finishes them off nicely. I also made a name tag on frosted shrinkies for each recipient.

Here they are complete...

I also had a quick play for a bookmark swap and came up with these little treasures...