Today's Art for Craft Sale

I have been working on various things today for the craft sale I am participating in on March 24th.

It is a spring craft sale, so I figured I should make some spring art.

1st Spring canvas

2nd Spring canvas

1st altered wooden box - crackle painted then decorated

 

2nd altered wooden box - crackle painted then decorated

Botanical Prints on Old Dictionary Pages

More recent artwork

I printed some botanical prints right to 2 dictionary pages that I had glued to some paper.

Then I coloured them in with markers & pencil crayons.

Lace Victorian Journal

This is what I have been working on the past little while.

My Mother in-law had given me a lot of lace she had left over from when she used to sew wedding gowns and such. I also already had a lot of lace ribbons etc that I wanted to use.

So this is what i came up with. I had previously made a journal from scratch, here.

I started by cutting the pages to size, since I was using canvas boards as the front & back covers. I then dyed the pages with tea - this probably took the greatest amount of time. I've shown some here so you can see the variations in the pages.

Click any image to enlarge.

I covered the canvas boards and spine in a cream coloured fabric I had. (Sorry forgot to take a pic of this step)

I did my best to reflatten the pages under a huge pile of books over night. They didn't get perfectly flat, but I think this gives them character.

I then created a hole template, punched holes, stitched the signatures (groups of pages) together, glued spine & added binding fabric using the technique in this video.

I glued a ruffled lace ribbon around the front cover edge. I also covered the spine & back cover in a pc of lace.

 

In between all these steps, I cut out a pc of muslin the same size as the front cover and started designing the cover.

I glued a pc of muslin to a pc of paper and printed the image of the young girl right to the muslin. I then gathered bits and pcs of lace and ribbon I wanted to use on the cover. I posted a pic on twitter asking for advice and/or suggestions, all thought it looked good as is, so I then started gluing down my design.

I then glued the binding fabrics to the inside covers of the journal.

I then realized I had forgotten a closure for the journal and glued down 2 ribbons as closure ties. And the final step was to add end pages to the front & back covers.

The final product. I used 10 different laces, 3 ribbons, 2 appliques and a pearl :)

I am thinking to sell this on my Etsy shop (not yet open) but have no clue how much to price it for. It is 5x7 inches in size. Can any of my readers with Etsy shops give me a clue? What would you pay for it?

Although I thoroughly enjoyed making this, it is long and tedious. I am thinking instead to just make fabric & lace covers for hard-bound store bought journals, that way the person can reuse the covers once the journal is full. Thoughts?

New hair do

I recently purchased a WagJag.com deal where I got a wash, cut, style, full colour & 20 foil highlights for $55.

Without the deal, this all would have cost me $190. I did have to pay tip and taxes ($7.15)

So I went yesterday to get my hair done - the last time I had it cut was last March, with a different WagJag deal :)

I was really due for a cut though and I hadn't coloured it in awhile either, so I had various shades of blonde & brown & grey happening.

Here is me before heading out yesterday morning.

Showing you the lovely grey

And here is me after - I am happy with the colour but I think the layers could have been cut a tad shorter - they keep swinging into my face.

Craft Space Clean Up

Well the clutter in my craft/art area got so bad that I barely had any room to art - see for yourself.

So after a few hours of sorting, tossing and rearranging, this is what I have ended up with.

 I hope to get a lot of arting done this coming week :)

From the depths of my craft room closet

So today I was looking for something in my craft/sewingroom/office closet.
I unearthed a box I haven't looked in since I moved into this house over 4 yrs ago - I proceeded to waste the entire rest of the day going through all the nostalgia I found :)

Old school photos, old diaries, old love letters from boyfriends I haven't heard from in 30 years, and art - art I did many many moons ago. Most I had either forgotten about or thought I had lost.

For your viewing pleasure...(click any photo to enlarge)

A pencil sketch from a magazine 1990

 A sketch of my roommate Mary-Lou around 1991

Watercolour of a bouquet of flowers I had - don't recall the year

 

Painting from a book cover - year unknown

 Watercolour of Frodo I did for an art class - around 1986

 Pen & ink rose 1989

 Look I was doing zentangles before it even had a name!

 Something for art class

 Pencil sketch of a tree (no it is not broccoli) for art class

 

 Watercolour of a silk bouquet I had

 Watercolour of a potted plant

 Watercolur of Indian corn

Pen & ink chairs for art class

 

 Watercolour sketch for art class