21 Secrets : Go Green with Rae Missigman

I am soooo glad I decided to join 21 Secrets 2013 : 21 different tutors presenting fabulous online instructional videos, 9 months to play, a 63 page printable PDF and a crazy wonderful cheap price - the only downside was choosing which workshop to start.

One of the first to attract my attention was one by Rae Missigman called Go Green : "Transform a simple one dimensional book cover into a beautiful, recycled & re-purposed three-dimensional work of ART". See a preview of the class here.

Sneak preview of my completed cover

Since I am aiming for Completion this year, I decided to give this bookcover some attention

I last shared the book with you in December 2012 - you may remember I had done some work on prepping some pages inside with colour and stitch

Rae's workshop excited me with possibilities for the cover. I love the re-purposing of things and already have a stash of recyclables. Here's how it happened ::  First layer of textures with a few of my own additions to the lesson

Been wanting to get some drywall joint tape ever since I saw this inspiration wednesday video from Donna Downey. Adds yet another yummy texture. Here it is closer up alongside moulding paste through a stencil - delicious

Stage 2 cover

And here's Stage 3 - ready to dress.  Remember to click on the pictures to see more detail

I really like the Tim Holtz butterfly tissue tape on the spine. The other butterflies and flower are serviettes. They blend really well with gel medium, and I love how the colour behind shows through. Lovely to touch as well as look at. Then there was more to add.
Layers of vegetable net bag,

words and fibres (scrim and felt layers above)

a ruffle of recycled painted wipes,

Back cover complete

Front cover complete

The butterfly is a brooch my grandmother gave me about 40 years ago

And I fell in love with my sewing machine all over again

it stitched through the book covers! (I used a leather needle and a very slow stitch)

And here's the cover all done

Now off to look at other classes on offer to put some more colour on the inside pages. Have a lovely weekend 

Art Journal pages

Another couple of pages in my Full Tilt Boogie Journal.
Stage 1:

Stage 2 :

Complete : 

Animals from a card by Jane Ray

Before : 

Gorgeous illustrated woman from a small calendar by Erte

After :

Stitched organza over paper left over from winter calendar pages a couple of years ago, and tape made by me. Loving putting leftover elements to good use.

Indian Wall-Hanging continued

Progress has been slow since I last showed you, but the Indian wall-hanging now looks like this (click on the picture to see it larger)

A few details ::

This was a silk rod that I flattened out, stamped on with metallic paint and then beaded. Below you can see an original silk rod, and the stamped one before beading complete above.

I always keep all the papers that I put excess paint/spray/stamping onto, and I also keep any wipes I use to clean up. Below is a dried, painty wipe, spray basted to a piece of felt.

This is that base combined with a metallic paint image stamped with a lovely borrowed indian foam stamp.

And here it is all stitched and beaded and now attached to the hanging.

This lady is one of the TAP transfers. She's got a wee bit of batting behind to give her a bit of dimension and is edged with indian sari cord and sequins.
I don't really mind that progress is slow for this project. Now to decide what's next...

Top 10 Studio favourites

In March, Jenny from Texterial did a post called Top 10 Studio Favourites.
Thought that would be a fun thing to consider...but I found it REALLY hard, since I love to use so many different things. I decided to start with my obvious top 3, and then added on those things that I can't seem to stop buying at the moment!
1) My wonderful Janome SEWING MACHINE

It's not the top range model, but it does everything I want it to, from fabric piecing and quilting, through paper arts, or any kind of combination of these.

2) FABRIC : Pretty much any kind is fair game - cottons for quilting, sheers for layering and heat-tooling, scrims, sari silks, velvet, felt, lace, and I'd like to try dyeing my own sometime too

3) PAPER : again, pretty much anything : scrapbook, wrapping, watercolour, ephemera, serviettes, tissue, dress patterns, silk, letters, postcards.

Especially enjoy using old books and sheet music at the moment

4) SPRAY INKS

5) STENCILS

These are my latest : Prima mask on the left, and Crafters workshop stencil on the right - this is the 12x12 version of what I showed you here.
6) ACRYLIC PAINTS
Last seen on my gelli plate - with stamps and stencils....

I am lately very interested in Claudine Hellmuth's line.

There are 3 sets of these mini paint sets to try out her 15 original colours which you can mix to get 51 colours.Think these are going on my birthday list.
7) STAMPS

My last stamp purchase above - I'd been looking for lovely words for a while so very excited to have these.
8) MY PEN STASH

9) TAPES

10) OUR COMPUTER for all those inspirational online courses.

I have just caved and purchased 21 Secrets. I just couldn't resist the fabulous price of US$59 for 21 tutors and access for 9 months - that's only NZ$7.50 per month! Go here to register yourself.
So that's my top 10 at the moment...what are your studio favourites?

Slippers, Serviettes and the Mystery Quilt

Daylight savings is over in New Zealand and it's like a switch flipped to cooler weather...luckily I bought some new slippers the other day

- the soles were the main reason for my choice! This is a very quick rubbing with a crayon to a base journal page.

Fun Yes? So what have you got in your closet...
April also brings part 2 of Susan Claire's Chain Reaction Mystery Quilt which I started here. Here's what I've got after the second set of instructions

I got some art journaling time on the weekend. Wanted to create a page to remember our trip away at Easter - these are tickets from the Chiefs vs Blues rugby game and a serviette from the birthday party.

This is the base page in my journal

And here's all of that together as a completed page

I love the translucence of the tissue/serviette. A useful technique for tearing tissue is to outline the area with a paint brush dipped in water

The design tears out easily and blends to the background when you glue with gel medium.