Paula's Cowgirl pages

We have reached the last month of the TipTopJournal exchange. Here we swap not the actual albums but only the pages every month with our designated partner. And this last month my partner is Paula and her album is dedicated to Cowgirls.

I already knew that I did not have many things to do with this theme so I ordered the Cowgirls collage sheet from Alphastamps some time ago and when I started to hunt through my stash I discovered I had other ephemera to do with the theme. She also wanted to see denim and I found an old denim dress which had become all soft with wear and as I can't remember wearing it for at least 2 years I put the scissors into it and made a background with this layered with wadding (batting).

I also made a fabric/paper collage using calico (muslin), thinned PVA glue, cowgirl images (all from Alphastamps) and paper napkins with American homesteads, cow patterns and denim pocket image.

This was cut to size for both pages and for the first page I did not add much else as the page seemed to be happy just as it was. I sewed on a transparency ( no idea where I got this one originally?)) which reads Home Sweet Home on the Range. I also added some stars underneath the image and the word Rodeo at the bottom.

For the facing page I added a strip of denim topped with a thin leather strap on the left hand side of the page as well as the image repeated, sewn on and beaded. The final touch was the self-adhesive Ride'em cowboy sticker at the top left.

I have to say I'm so pleased it's Monday and the start of a new week as last week does not rank as a very good one in many respects and I'm hoping this week will be an improvement!!

Judy's Alice pages

We're almost coming to the end of the TipTopJournal swap, only this and one more month to go. My partner this month is Judy who has managed to come up with the most original theme for her album, which we all refer to jokingly as Alice on Speed. Seriously, she advises us to consult Jefferson Airplane's lyrics while making art for her album. I had a look at the full text and selected 2 sentences on which to base my 2 pages.

As per usual I started by making a fabric/paper collage using a very strange mix of ingredients. Some vintage music and text but mainly napkins formed the backbone. Among the napkins I used were ones with parasols, vintage menu with knves and spones, flowers and finally one featuring cupcakes. All somehow said Alice in Wonderland to me and I was really pleased with how the collage looked when I had finished. The background was made with a lime green velvet which was heavily machine quilted to which I stitched the collage with satin stitching. It did not need a lot more but I found some die-cut Alice images (available from Alphastamps) and to the first page I added a small looking Alice, looking at the Cheshire cat. Her size also looks minute compared to the spoon, and I added the text: Call Alice When she was just small.

I liked the collage for the facing page even better, with the music, mouse, rabbit and flower images and to this I added the text: Remember what the dormouse said.

I always knew I would love working on Judy's album and indeed I had great fun with these pages!

Dream pages for Angie

My partner for this month Journal pages exchange on the TipTopJournal Yahoo group is Angie. She has no theme or colour choice for her album so the choice was entirely mine. I started by having a look at my fabric stash and doing some sighing about its chaotic state. My copy of the Studios issue of Quilting Arts magazine arrived today and compared to those oh so organized places mine simply looks like a total tip. Actually it is a tip!! As soon as I try to clear one thing something else catches my attention and away I go, creating more mess. It must be a build in design fault in me.

But it does mean I discover new "old" treasures almost on a daily base. Today it was the fabric which became the background for both of Angie's pages. It's a lovely soft green with a woven pattern of leaves and flowers. I can even remember that I bought it in a beautiful shop in Amsterdam which sells reproductions of old fabrics imported by the Dutch East India Company. Here is the website: Dutch Quilts.

I layered up this fabric with wadding (batting in US) and covered it in a wavy machine stitch. Then cut it 2 8x8 pieces from it for the pages. The first page (see above) sets the theme of Dreaming which just arrived in my head, together with butterflies. As to me butterflies are like our dream carriers. I added a quarter section of a vintage hankie to the page (from Lost Art Creations) and sewed on an image of a dreaming lovely (from an Artchix fabric sheet, now sadly discontinued). She was given 2 copper German Scrap wings (Artchix) .I added two butterfly faux postage (also from Artchix). I found the lovely text: I have spread my dreams under your feet; Tread softly, because you tread on my dreams.

Finally I used a Monarch butterfly stamp from Alphastamps and stamped it 3 times on a transparency, using blue Staz-On and sewed on the resulting images as shown.

I beaded around the image, the wings and the butterfly postage with size 11 seed beads in blue and green.

The facing page is for Angie too, of course, but also for the monthly Lost Art Creations challenge in which we are given a free image to download and we then make a piece of art with it. You will have to be a member of the LostArtCreations Yahoo group to play. I loved the beautiful woman we were given this month and printed her onto glossy photo paper so I could use her. As background around her head I added an image of a machine embroidered piece I made ages ago. It was inspired by a picture of a gazania. For a quilt I made (Gazania Galore) I scanned in the finished embroidery, changed its colours many times and printed it out on fabric. The one I used on Angie's page was one of the left-overs and colourwise seemed to fit the page so well. I sewed this on and also the lady, using a small zigzag stitch for her. I added the Dream word (from a commercial fabric), a vintage blue velvet flower (also Lost Art Creations) as well as a self-adhesive butterfly. I then added beads to the centre of the flower, around the Dream word and as a radiating halo on the gazania print-out.

Camelot spread for Terrie

I've finished my spread for Terrie in our TipTopJournals group. Terrie's album has the theme of Avelon, The Round Table, Kind Arthur, Camelot etc. You've got the idea by now. As I'm the one who determines which artists swap with each other each month, I had a bit of advance notice that Terrie would be coming next. So when I was at the Peebles second-hand book sale at the beginning of this month and discovered an extremely dilapidated children's book with a cover which looked like the mice had given it a good go but which was about King Arthur I added it to my pile. .

I set to work and made a fabric collage in the usual way (as posted on earlier blogs) and used torn pages as well as torn bits of the cover in my collage. From the resulting collage I cut 2 8x8" pieces and for page 1 I added gold trim (after all, these were quite regal pages) to 2 of the sides. I also adorned the page with a fabric image from the Pre-Raphaelite Women sheet from Alphastamps which I surrounded with a ribbon (also Alphastamps) and size 11 gold seed beads. The 3 gold artbits and the red rose in the bottom left corner are from LostArtCreations (Terrie's own shop!)

The other page has the title for the entire spread which is: The Queen in Peril and I've added the queen herself in the shape of a fabric image (Caroline Otero sheet from Alphastamps). I adorned the Queen with many jewels i.e. beads. The little queen image, part of the collage, received a gold crown (LostArtCreations). This page was also embellished with the same trim at the bottom so that the 2 pages run into each other when they are side by side.

An ATC for Alphastamps February Lottery and pages for Abby's Gypsy album

As an antidote to the windy and wet conditions here in Macbiehill I have made a very sunny ATC for the Lottery on the Alphastamps Yahoo group. When you win this lottery you get to receive all the submitted ATCs so fingers crossed!

For the background I used a piece of their new oilcloth fabric, to be precise the turquoise one with the oranges. This stuff is really gorgeous. It's meant to be used for wipeable items such as tablecloths for both inside and out, beach bags, tablemats etc. and the ones Alphastamps has in their stock come from Mexico and are ever so bright and cheerful. I layered the piece I had cut to ATC size up with white felt by stitching around the perimeter. Use larger stitches than usual and a walking foot if you have one. Stitch a bit slower than you usually do and things should be fine. I used a size 90 machine needle.

I glued on an Alphastamps image which came with their free gift sheet in Spring 2007 of a Mexican looking lady, holding a bottle (more cheer!) and a headcovering featuring oranges too. To this I added an orange artificial feather and the text The Broad Sunshine of Life.

I also finished my pages for Abby's TipTopJournal which has the theme Gypsies. Abby has invented an entire imaginary world for her Gypsies and I tried and incorporate as much of this information as I could on the pages. The background I used was the fabric/paper collage I used for my May Journal Quilt last year as it was so bright and cheerful and featured several images very suited to the Gypsy theme, such as people singing and dancing and playing the flute.

I printed out the scanned in collage onto canvas. I learned this from Abby so I wanted to use this on her pages. The Gypsy girl images come from collage sheets from LostArtCreations. The text was also printed onto canvas and stitched on. I added the beading and and the Life sticker as well as the rose on one of the Gypsy images. I'm really quite pleased by these, very cheerful and sunny looking pages.

Back cover for my Romance and Roses album

I've finally managed to finish the back cover for my Romance and Roses album. This is my own album for the TipTopJournal project. In this project we each choose a theme and/or colours for our album, made our own front and back covers and then every month we pair up with another artist and make a spread (i.e. 2 facing pages) for each other. We are already on our 4th pairing and only now has my back cover materialized.

Most of us use the same album, the 7Gypsy 8 x 8 one with 5 rings as binding which makes things a lot easier. It also saves a fortune on postage, not having to mail the actual albums. I haven't yet had the courage to add up what my ArtisticJourneyinColor project cost me in postage but I do know it was a lot!! I did enjoy seeing all the albums pass through my hands but I do think just exchanging pages makes these journals much more feasible!!

Anyway, the page is mounted on a rose fabric background (from Cabbage Patch fabrics). The text and the roses are from a paper/fabric collage I made specially for this album and which also features on the front cover. My titlepage which hasn't been made yet either, will also use parts of this collage. In the centre is a fabric image from the Lovers sheet by Alphastamps. This is my absolute favourite among all their sheets and that is saying something as I truely love them all.

I added the quotation from a quotation book and antiqued it with pink and silver rub-on and finally beaded around the edges of both the quotation and the centre image. I also added a already beaded fringe to the bottom edge by sewing.

Pheew, another thing off my mind and my list!

Lenna's Nest Pages

I'm really on a roll now, working on my To Do list like a fiend. Fortunately the weather is dismal, so no need to venture outside anymore than is strictly necessary. We also resisted the urge to drive 8 miles just to get a newspaper (that is our nearest newsagent!) in order to keep that carbon footprint down. So I finished off the pages for Lenna, one of the TipTopJournal artists. Remember, every month we make one page for another artist in the group who in their turn makes a spread for us.

Lenna has just moved house so she decided the theme for her album would be birds, nests and nesting. Another very enticing theme and I found some lovely batiks to help me play and make some nests for her.

On the left page I went to town with a gorgeous green batik, which I layered up with wadding (batting in US) and I quilted it allover with a decorate stitch on my sewing machine (Bernina 440) featuring leaves. I used gold thread to do this to tone in with the pattern on the fabric. I added one of my favourite images in paper from Artchix's Garden Collection collage sheets. It has a beautiful landscape in the background and a fluffy bird talking to a beautiful girl. I added egg transparencies (also Artchix) to the top and 2 different nests found in my fabric stash. They are raw edge appliqued. Then added the text: My House, a Nest, which yet again are from Artchix as is the nest charm. All this was added to the page with double sided tape as well as zigzag machine stitching, in gold.

For the facing page I made a foundation pieced bird (I think it's a cardinal), using the fabric from page 1 for the body of the bird. I choose a gentle blue batik for the background as I knew I was going to stamp around the edges. I added borders to the bird block and stamped images of birds, nests, and greenery around the border, using a pale green fabric inkpad (Versacraft). The stamps are from the Birds and Nest box (so delightful) which I obtained from Alphastamps. As I first learned about stamping on fabric from Lenna, this seemed SO appropriate!

I then added gold stitching in the ditch as the quilting on the page (after again layering with wadding). Added two eggs at the bottom from one fabric and another blue egg from another fabric from my collection. The text Spring Song also came from one of these fabrics. I beaded around one of the stamped images at the top, added a beaded eye to the bird, and sewed on the lovely ribbon as well as the paper text: Every bird likes its own nest best, which was further adorned with Glossy Accents.

These were fun pages to make and I hope Lenna likes them too.

Sepia and White pages for Debby's Album

These pages have been in the pipeline for quite some time. I started collecting white and sepia items as soon as I knew Debby had chosed this as her theme colours for her album in our TipTopJournals Round Robin. Working without colour is really hard for me so I knew I had to pay special attention!

She also loves all things vintage so I used some of my collection of vintage images to illustrate the story I've tried to tell with these pages.

On page 1 is an actual cabinet card which I found in a yummy 2nd hand bookshop locally. I made holes into the 4 corners using my Crop-a-Dile and used brads from Artchix to attach it to the background, which is a pre-quilted white fabric I received from Peggy, another of the TipTopArtists as a gift some time ago. Doesn't the boy look lovely in his grown-up suit. He grew up to be an outback, however, as can be seen in the fabric image on the top right which he is pictured with his gun. I printed Destination on a transparency and sewed it down with machine. The outback figure is mounted onto a piece of vintage lace which was first sewn onto the background. Finally I added sepia coloured lace at the bottom and some vintage buttons alongside him. The flower trims (bought during a visit to a hugely tempting habedashery shop in Utrecht, The Netherlands) were attached with buttons and I also beaded around the edges of the outback figure.

For the second page I used the same background and again mounted vintage lace onto the centre of the page with machine. I added the vintage butterfly shaped lace on top by machine and beaded on top of it. I added the image of our outback with his mother, which I had printed out onto canvas. I added beads around this as well as well as a flowertrim as before. I added the quotation from Vincent van Gogh (I think this was a gift from Lenna!) and the Vellum piece about dress goods (from Altered Pages). To unite the 2 pages I also used the sepia lace on the bottom of this page.

Finally I sewed both pages onto the paper pages of the 8x8 7Gypsies album we're all using by machine using zig-zig stitch and at the same time couching down a sepia wool yarn. I made holed, again with my Crop-o-Dile (I do LOVE this machine!) so Debby can add the pages to her album the minute she receives them in the mail!

Despite the fact that I miss colour I have to admit that using a reduced colour scheme gives a lot of unity to these pages!

Masquerade pages for Caryl

I have been a veritable whirling dervish today as you can see but I have been working on these pages for a while. It's another month in our TipTopJournals project where we make a spread every month for another artist who in turn makes a spread for our album. We only send the spread which saves us all a lot in postage as sending albums has proved to be a very expensive pastime.

This month I was my turn to make art for Caryl Hoobler who had chosen Masquerade as the theme for her album (why did I not think of this?? It's such a great idea!). Her one proviso was that the background had to be in Black and White. So I got out my (rather extensive, I admit it) collection of Black + White fabrics , choose the one I wanted to use, and cut 2 8x8 pieces from it. These I layered up with wadding (batting in US) and machine stitched on the lines to hold it all together. The pieces looked rather stark and I wanted to tone them down somewhat, so as an experiment I covered both in watered down gesso. Worked wonderfully well and did exactly what I needed from it. I also added quite a bit of Art Sparkle.

On the first page I added masks cut out from my (yes you guessed it, also large) collection of mask fabrics. I ironed Bond-a-Web (Wonder-Under in US) onto the back and then cut out various masks, removed the paper backing and ironed the masks onto the Black + White background. I then also stitched them down, using gold metallic thread. I added a transparency made by stamping an Alphstamps stamp (from their Costume section) onto a transparent sheet with Staz-On). This was also stitched on. I beaded around the eyes in every mask and also added star shaped sequins, held down with a gold size 11 seed bead. I added a paper quotation which reads: Innocence itself sometimes hath need of a mask. The whole piece was then stitched onto a paper background with gold satin stitch.

On the facing page I added a piece of a gold looking vintage trim (from a Belgium convent via Ebay) which I stitched down with gold thread, and I also added another mask, as described above. I added a vintage image which I had discovered in one of my treasured finds from a second-hand book shop. This one was in support of King Albert (of Belgium) during the First World War to raise money to help his civilian population. Published way before 1923 and so in the public domain (which means you can use the text and/or images without having to worry about copyright). I had printed this out onto canvas (my latest find thanks to Abby Lazar!). I surrounded this masked picture with a gold trim. It really sparkles but does not show so much on the scan. I added the words, also printed on canvas. Again I beaded the eyes of the mask and added some star sequins to this page as well.

They are going to Caryl on Monday and I will be a bit sad to see them go. But she really likes them so I know they will be going to such a good home! And of course Caryl is working on my Romance and Roses pages. Can't wait to see them!

Those were the Days spreads for Peggy

Today I finally finished my spreads for Peggy which have been in the pipeline for quite some time but as I've been teaching etc. they kept being put on the backburner. Today was the day though, despite insurance hassles and some lovely phonecalls with Helen, in which we managed to prevent a double booking incident. I think this was a wonderful example of synchronicity about which I am reading a book at the moment (Soul Moments by Phil Cousineau), which in itself was of course co-incidence in its finest form!

Back to my spreads for Peggy. She selected A Song to Remember as the theme for her TipTopJournal and we could all use our favourite song to illustrate. It was a difficult choice as I love so many songs but this one has been of pivotal importance in my life so it simply had to be The One. It is: Those were the Days, by Mary Hopkins. If you're not familiar with the text, Google it! But a tavern figures largely. The main leitmotif for me has always been to live your life in such a way that you won't regret anything when you look back on it.

I made my fabric/paper collage for this one using music notes and French text in the background followed by a layer of taverna themed napkins. Needless to say there are many of these (I seem to have them all too!!) and in the end a French bistro/bar and a Greek taverna were the main ones I used. This collage turned out amazingly well. So well in fact that I had some trouble making the first cut into it. But I have scanned it first so the image is in my computer to use in future projects.

I added the text on the first page as well as a stamped transparency of a face and for the second page I found a transparency of a nostalgic looking lady (from Victorian Images sheet by Altered Pages) with a rose in her hair which followed exactly (more serendipity!!) in the line of the roses on the collage. As you can see below, the two pages run into each other, an effect I really like and which hopefully will look good in Peggy's album!

Romance and Roses Album and Purple Inchies

I've finally decided that my cover for my Romance and Roses album is definitely finished and have put it in the ringbound journal (8x8 7Gypsies) and spend some time adding a selection of fibers and yarns to the rings.

I had a long and hard brainstorming session about what my subject will be and I know this one is closely related to my Red Passion album which is still travelling around in our ArtisticJourneyinColor group. But it is quite simply a subject I never tire off and I just know my wonderful TipTop artists will add a new dimension to this album which is softer and sweeter than the red hot passion one. There is an overview above on which you can see the fibers and a detail view of the front cover below.

I made a fabric/paper collage of which I still have a lot left to use for a spread, and the back cover. I appliqued this to a vintage looking rose fabric (although I actually bought it new from Cabbage Patch Fabrics). I printed out the title Romance and Roses in a suitable romantic font and in pink onto a cotton fabric sheet and positioned the words as shown. Finally I added an ornament, which I discovered purely by chance in a garden centre. No idea what its use is actually meant to be but it looked like it had been made for this album so I received pride of place on the cover. It's very 3D and also quite heavy so I hope the glue I used (tiling glue) will hold it in position. This album will stay at home with me and I will simply add the spreads as they come in every month so it won't be getting a lot of wear and tear.

I also finally finished my own Purple Inchies, made for the purple inchie swap I'm hosting on the ATcards site. It was getting late in the day and I was working on my Journal Quilt for October which also has a purple background. So I just made a bit more and used this for the inchies. It's a velvet fabric which has been machine stitched, cut to 1" size and then I added a tiny little purple postage stamp to it and a 1" piece of watercolour paper to the back which I stitched to the inchies, so I could add my name. These inchie swaps are huge but also an awful lot of fun!

Start date of the TipTopJournals

Today is the start date of a new project, TipTopJournals. Together with 9 other artists (see the list of names + links at the right) we will be making art spreads for each other, matching up with a different artist every month. I had been hoping to show you the front page for my own album which has the theme: Romance and Roses, but helas, I fell victim to an awful migraine yesterday and it had to be postponed. Have started work on it today and as soon as it's finished I will show it here.
I've paired up with Peggy for this month. Her theme is A Song to Remember and I think I have more or less decided which song I'm going to illustrate in my first spread. It was quite difficult as there are so many songs I love.

I so enjoyed my first Round Robin project (ArtisticJourneyinColor), which in fact inspired me to start this blog back in December last year and although that one is not quite finished yet (I still have to work on Lisa's Crown album, which is here at the moment) Debby and I got our heads together and came up with this one. The albums will stay at home with each artist and only the spreads we make will be mailed out so at least we won't have to worry about Atlantic travel when things come and go in my direction. Everyone else is either in the US or Canada.

I'll label all relevant posts for this project with the TipTopJournals label so they will be easy to find!