The Lace Journey Ends......And Some Art With Friends

Just before the start of the Memorial Day Weekend, I received Marita's luscious lace journal from Elena, and spent a good part of those days working on it.  Marita's is the last one I had to create for, and soon I'll be getting my own back.  I've loved being a part of this group, and fully intend to continue to incorporate fabric and lace into my projects.

Marita's theme included vintage faces, hankies, and the colors ivory, ecru, and black.  In anticipation, I set aside all the elements I thought might work, and selected a focal image.  So when I actually had the book in my hands, putting together my spread came very easily.  Don't you love when that happens?

You can see I had plenty of lace in the right colors; the pocket for the "hankies" is just an oval doily cut in half.  Since I didn't have a hanky that went well with the colors Marita requested, I made a faux one with black and white netting.



 

 

There is a bit of batting under the image to make it puff up.  I went over her headband and earrings with flat backed pearls and crystals; the gold "chains" on the earrings are lines of Ranger's Liquid Pearls.

 

 

 

The back is simply decorated with lace and some beaded trim.

 

 

 

As for the "art with friends" portion of the title.....I recently got together for a play date with Pat and Teri.  After a wonderful Greek dinner we headed for Teri's place where we each brought a project.  Pat was up first, and we received these:

 

 

 

What to do with a wine glass, a paper template, and an electric votive candle?

 

 

 

Pop in the candle, then using the template, cut out a skirt.  I used a gelli plate page that my pal Lillian gave me when we were at Keys4Art in March.  A dab of glue holds it together.  I used decorative scissors when I cut the top and bottom, and a tiny flower punch to make some holes so the light would shine through.  I also added the beaded trim because.....well, because Pat thought it was a great idea, and it was!

 

 

 

Pardon the pun, but Chinese take out food takes on a whole new light when consumed with this little beauty on the table.

 

Teri's project was altering old photos.  She picked up a huge supply at a second hand store.

 



 

 

They do have to be traditionally developed photos, not computer printed ones.  It's all about the coating.  First we submerged them in water for a few minutes, then dried them off, and proceded to scratch and sand them.  On some I altered only sections, on some the whole photo.  It's a very cool way to isolate one area and then create an entirely new picture surrounding it.  After scratching and sanding, we added paint, and then some stamping.  Here are three I've completed.  I like this!

 

 

You can't see the original photo at all on this one:

I left the stones untouched; I think it looks like seagrass

and weeds are growing out of water:

On this one the wall was unaltered, and the cityscape

stamped over it.

 

 

 

My project was a birthday card using the wrapped package from Tim Holtz's Birthday Blueprint set.  I've seen a few very similar cards in the blogosphere, so I'm not taking any credit for the design.  I have no idea who originally came up with the idea of paper piecing, but it sure wasn't me.  Coupled with pop dots, it does make for a wonderfully dimensional card.

 

 

 



 











More Lace

Our Vintage Lace journal group is small; there are only 5 of us, and we've been moving the books along very quickly.  Last week I received Tracy's gorgeous book from Elena, and have managed to not only work on my pages, but finish them.  Tracy's theme is the art of John Willian Waterhouse, and once I found the image I wanted to use, everything else seemed to fall into place.

Here is my double page spread; Tracy will bind it into her book down the middle, between the two rows of buttons.

And closer views of the individual pages.

 

 

I included some beading (pink and bronze seed beads) around the image (which was printed on cotton fabric).

 

 

 

And had the perfect flower in my stash of Prima embellishments.

 

 

 

Some of my antique buttons found a new home too.

 

 

 

The back has to be finished, though not decorated.

 

 

 

I only have one more book to work in, which I should receive some time in March.  If things move along as they have been, my own lace journal should return home to me in April.  Yea!















The Case of the Lace-less Lace Pages

When I'm about to start work on someone's journal, the first thing I normally do is look for a focal image.  Last week I received my friend Sox's gorgeous lace journal; her theme is vintage fashionable ladies.  Scrolling through my files, searching image sites and Pinterest, I found an abundance of beautiful images, but I kept going back to one.  Not a Victorian lady, not an art nouveau beauty, not a Marie Antoinette look alike.  Oddly enough, what my muse was telling me to begin with was a picture of two geishas.  I don't like to argue with my muse (when she's around long enough to actually have an argument with), so I printed the image onto some cotton fabric and then started gathering the other things to go with it.

It soon became clear that lace just didn't feel (or look) right with the asian fabrics and embellishments that were strewn out on my work table.  Hmmmm......the group is called Vintage Lace.  Sox is the leader of the group. When it comes to creating with fabric and lace, she is my inspiration, my mentor, my guru.  What to do?  Well, I wrote her a quick note explaining my little dilema, and she quickly wrote back and told me she had no problem with no lace, and I should just go for it.  Which I did.

NOTE:  The page (entirely made of fabric) is a double spread; when Sox binds it into her covers it will fold down the middle and become one of the signatures in the book. 

So, here is the front:

 

And some details.  I made the little kimono from some asian inspired fabric I bought ages ago in a scrapbook store in Bar Harbor.  Just like paper piecing, except with fabric.  And a sewing machine.  Those are some strands of embroidery floss hanging from the faux asian coin.



 

More of those faux coins, connected with more of that embroidery floss.  I have about 5 pounds of the stuff, and was so happy to actually use some of it.

 



 

The main background fabric (seen below) has a story.  On the last Tim cruise my friend Kyoko from Tokyo brought a bunch of cool things for those of us on the cruise who were about to begin an asian round robin.  Amongst the stash was some vintage kimono fabric.  This background is a bit of that treasure.  Isn't it great to include something in a piece that has a history or at least an interesting story?  

 

Some seed beads to enhance the outfit:

 

I don't know if you can see it in this photo, but this chopstick is decorated with a picture of a geisha, so I thought I'd include it.  It was adhered with a bit of glue to keep it in place and then wrapped with embroidery floss.  I also used the floss and some pony beads in a simple blanket stitch to go all around the piece to finish it off.

 

 

 

This is the back.  We don't have to decorate the backs; they just have to be finished looking.  But I went ahead and added a little something anyway.  BTW, the background is plain muslin that I stamped with permanent ink and then sprayed with some Perfect Pearls mists.

 



 I printed (on cotton) two pages I did in that asian journal group, layered over some fabric someone (and that someone might have actually been Sox) sent me.

 

A little decoration made by stamping and embossing on bamboo tiles:

 

At the very last minute, just before I was going to clean up and put everything away, I remembered I still had some scraps from a beautiful piece of lace that my friend Lee from Australia sent me.  I cut out two of the elements and added them.....just so I could say I used some lace.  Besides, they do work well (I think) there.

 

So, Sox, what is the verdict?  Are you still OK with the (almost) lace-less lace pages?



Another Weekend Surrounded by Lace

Three days, who knows how many snippets of fabric, how many yards of lace and ribbon, buttons and beads, and I actually have my pages for Elena completed.  I'm just loving this Vintage Lace round robin I'm in.  Thanks, Sox, for starting this!

Elena selected Paris as her theme, and after gathering my supplies and a few potential images to print on fabric covered paper, I got down to the fun part.....arranging and rearranging everything.  Sew a little.  Arrange a little.  Sew some more.  Go on a hunt for more "stuff."  More arranging.  More hunting.  More sewing.  And yes, a little bit of glueing too.  I don't have to mail the page out until the 15th of January, but wanted to give myself plenty of time; unlike many of my pals, I do not work well under pressure.

Here is the double spread, followed by each side.

 

 

The interesting thing (well, to me, anyway) is that I did not start out with this cream/pink/green color scheme in mind.  It just kind of evolved.  And I'm loving it, which amazes me because I am so not a pink person.

 

Now a few closeups.

 

I drew an outline of the Eiffel Tower on canvas and then

machine stitched around it and inside it to create this

crazy lopsided thing (that I love in spite of its deformity)

 

 

 

 I've had this image on my computer for years, and something

about it just said "Paris" to me, so I finally got to use it (printed

on some paper backed fabric)

 

 

 Ages ago, someone sent me this piece of fabric as part of a

swap, I think.  The colors and French writing made it a no-

brainer for this project

 

 I myself have never been to Paris, but this quote seems to

sum up what so many others have told me about that city

 

 

 

Some tulle and fabric flowers, fabric scraps and bead trim used here

 

 





Living In A State of Lace

We're just days away from the launch of the newest collaborative art journal, Vintage Lace.  I finally got inspiration for the rest of my page, and solved the problem of the too yellow lace on the back cover.

This is what my unfinished page looked like:

I added to the above, and completed the left side of the page.

 

Remember, my theme is accessories, and I'm calling my page A Night At The Opera, but don't confuse it with the Marx Brothers movie.  It's all about the accessories a woman might wear/bring to the opera, back in the day.  Which day, I don't know.  History isn't my strong suit.  Just call it vintage. 

 

I had created a pocket on the inside front cover, and wasn't sure what I'd put in it.

 

 

 

Inside the pocket there are now four pouches, one for each of the other participants, holding a little gift from me to them.

 

 

 

The inside back cover is where I'm putting the ATCs we all agreed to make for one another, coordinating with our individual themes.  I have already received two, so they are attached.  When my book returns to me I'll insert the remaining two.  What you see here are Sox's and Tracy's ATCs.

 

 

 

This is the back cover with the yellow lace that was bothering me.

 

 

 

My solution was to sew some fabric flowers I made over the lace.  (The fabric was cut with Tim Holtz's Tattered Florals die, and many layers were cut.)  A bit of the offending lace still shows, but it doesn't scream YELLOW at me.  Yes, sometimes colors do shout.  Pretty good problem solver, I think.

 

 

 

I finished the back of my page with (what else?) lace.  I can sew two pages together, back to back, but if the other artists finish their page backs off nicely I will bind each page as a separate signature and just enjoy the lacey backs.  That doesn't have to be decided until my book returns home to me.