Teeny Tiny Twinchie Books

My latest book project has come about courtesy of Sonja's swap over on Milliandes. She loves recycling so that is the theme for this book.

I wanted to try something new so I spent some time going through my books and opted for a Jacob's ladder style with 3 sections. It looks straight forward, but my is it fiddly! 

For my recycle theme I chose "natural and man-made", I use alot of both types of materials so have lots of both stashed away. I keep a jar by my sewing machine that I put my cut threads in and thought this was the perfect time to use a few. Liquitex make a very versatile, and fun, medium especially for pouring. It dries clear and flexible and is perfect for so many projects (I also use it for all my collage, gluing and waterproofing) I laid out several layers of threads and poured the medium over until the piece was thick enough and fully soaked. Then left it to dry overnight. It will peel very nicely off glass and smooth plastic!

While it was drying I gathered some other suitable bits and bobs, and one material I was determined to use was a lovely piece of recycled plastic from my friend Carmina. It is fused plastic bags.. and so versatile.

Here's how one side turned out... the threads hardened beautifully, and although it is flexible the threads and small size render it quite robust. The fused plastics were folded and reheated to double the thickness, but I still needed 2 layers to make the page. I added some elements symbolic of nature and technology to balance the theme. 

Add a little handmade paper and a band from leftover bits and there you have it, a complete recycled booklet. 

I doubt I'll attempt a tutorial for the book, it's quite a fiddly exercise, and with more pages it would be even harder to portray... so I'll leave you to have a look online, or try a copy Alisa Golden's Handmade Books which is what I followed. I might take a deep breath and try a longer one! Just not today...

Making paper gift bags...

Wow! I've done it again... I seem to spend less and less on the internet as weeks go by... probably not a bad thing, but even so, it's making it hard to catch up.

Following on, and continuing to redo my studio I've repackaged all my jewellery and accessories with  newly designed cards and bags. I hadn't realised how much stock I still had, so it was good to see it all out at once again. They're all done now so I needed something nice to send them off in, and being fed up with those bulk-buy plastic bags I decided to make my own. So much fun, and you really get into a routine when you are doing 30-40 at a time.

Here's how they turned out- I've created 3 lots so far, each with a different paper; brown parcel paper, crafting magazine and a big glossy arty magazine.

These are the brown paper bags... I've added a tutorial in the How To- Crafts section.  I've added printed labels, and now my own design "recycle" tags. They are so simple to make I shan't be buying another bag again! And if you use different size magazines you can get different sized bags. I recommend gluing 2 glossy sheets together to make a large gift bag and keep the pages upright. They look great if you coordinate your magazines/paper to your stock...

here's a few... using a papercraft mag, and  a glossy art mag....

Double-spread  papercrafting mag, and my own tags....

And single glossy pages

Have a look at the tutorial and have a go... you'll enjoy how easy they are, and it'll save you an arm and leg in future pressie wrapping! If you're like me you'll have been saving all your gift-wrap from years passed so here's a chance to use some of that up!

17-17-17

I've just finished my entry into Trine's journal in our 17-17-17 Round Robin. ("host" deleted site)

Details are over in my 17 A-17 J-17 M page. This is the second journal I've added to in this RR. It's always so difficult getting started, but the journals so far have been beautifully made and designed so having them a little while helps to get the imagination flowing...

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