Note Cards for Spring!

I just finished these pretty note cards for spring. They are blank inside and great for writing a personal
note for any occasion.  Happy Easter? Thinking of You? Happy Birthday or Congratulations! They'd even be sweet as a Baby Shower Card. :)

                      Layers of organza lid on top of Misty Fuse on top of parchment paper.

                                 More Misty Fuse and then ribbon floss and paper flowers.

                                    A final top of netting and voila! Handmade fabric.

                                             Cut into squares and apply to note cards.
            Add a stamp or a pretty box with treats inside and you will make somebodies day!

Artist Journal Cover for CBCCD

I was commissioned to make a journal cover for the artist  bios for the Cape Breton Center for Craft and Design. They recently did a make over and decided to group all the biographies together in one place. I have been selling journals there for awhile so they asked me to create something. I thought I'd share with you some of the photos.

This is a pic of the finished piece. 

I started with the logo from the center.

I thought a hand print would be fun and represent the hand made items. 

I created word clouds using Wordle ,  taking text from the Centers web site itself and made transparencies in Photoshop of these and the hand prints.   

I then layered them over a background of various textures and colors with lots of lovely clouds.
And added the title. 

I also designed some sides for the journal which are of course necessary for holding the inside binder,  I used the space to place some quotes from famous artists .
All of the designs were then printed on transfer paper and then ironed on the base fabric.

I fused a layer of organza just as I do with all my journals, it gives a nice effect of shimmer and softening of images.

After the organza I did some machine thread work over the title and logo along with the usual swirls that are so fun to do.

The base fabric I used was a canvas so it was very easy to fray the edges and then paint them.

A second layer of paint with a touch of metallic give the edge a bright finish.

A  pic of the inside finished journal.

The finished front cover.

 And back.

The journal was well received at the center which is always wonderful but the best part was the actual work. I got to try new things, solve various problems and spent far more time on it than I should have when I have so much else to do. But we all do that don't we when we're enjoying ourselves, :))

New Journal Covers

I had alot of fun with the last journal covers I made so when I discovered this new technique I new I had to try some more.

Preview of a finished journal.

Getting ready. Fabric picked [the more colorful the better :) ] ,stiff interfacing,  assorted silk fowers pressed flat, organza and some Misty Fuse.

Layers now all fused together , next fun step choosing thread colors, again the brighter the better and of course varigated !

Flowers are all embellished. I did have to go over one with a brighter color, you never know how threads are going to look till you jump in but the good thing is you can add a layer of another color for brightness if needed.

And here you can see the background all filled in.

Getting the lining all together and the end pieces to hold the journal cover.

Last steps are zigzagging all around and of course adding my labels.

This time I decided to use address books as the filler, everyone can use one of these.

The finished group.

I'm actually kinda late in making this post and all of these pieces have actually sold so

I guess they're a hit and  I'd better get busy and make some more !