PA 2015 ~Topic 1 Fragile Papers and Sue's Birthday

Hi Everyone,

Well this is only my second post on my new blog which time wise isn't that bad for me LOL!

In short I had to create a new blog as my email provider is no longer compatible with Google, I might be able to gain access to my old blog one day if I sit and take the time to find out how!

Anyway get on with it I hear you say...

Over on the PA Blog they have started the new year off with a bit of a change in proceedings and the first challenge is all about 'fragile papers'.

In May I am going to a coptic stitched journal workshop with the superb France Papillon unfortunately my best bud Sue can't make it to that one so I thought I'd have a go at making one for her birthday.

Having found a You Tube video I cut and folded all the card and papers before Christmas with a view of doing the creative stuff over the holidays...but that never happened!!

So when I saw the PA Blog I thought...now there's an idea...this is the finished front and back covers which I must admit, I was eventually quite pleased with and Sue loved it which is what is was all about :)

Now I did have a few problems on the way though, you know how it when you have an idea of what you want to do but half way through you're thinking Arrrh why did I start this? This was one of them. 

The back cover was no problem; black gesso, some old music paper and tissue paper coloured with sprays once secured, a bit of stenciling with Fresco Little Black Dress...Done!

The front on the other hand.... I decided to use some waxy paper that I 'saved' from a workshop that everyone used on the 'spraying table' so there was all sorts of colours on there so the bit I chose set the tone for the colour combination.

Again, black gesso and I also inked some left over fabric from the same workshop. I applied some Texture Crackle Paste through the same stencil used on the rear and painted over it with some lovely metallic paint, but this didn't work it was too much of a contrast so I dry brushed with little black dress then a wash of Beach Hut. This helped but the black background was still a bit too black so I used the Ellen Vargo 2 set of stamps with turquoise and amethyst... now this worked.

It was now that I realised my mistake; I had been working in portrait but when I came to put it all together I remembered I was going to have the book in landscape view because of the way I had cut the covers and where the neat edges were!

So a quick reworking of the front layout and the back would just have to be the wrong way round! As we all know this is the beauty of hand crafted items...right? Well that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it LOL.

Anyway it took me about hour and half to stitch together with a few checks back to the video but I didn't think that was too bad and it was quite easy once in the groove.

This is the card I made for Sue too

Our treat for Sue's birthday was a crafty session where Sue had got everything organised and we made a lovely canvas with lost of ink and paint and mucky fingers at the end, this is the end result

Now I know Sue will blog soon about this and you can find her HERE.

So that's all a bit long winded but hey ho that's the way it goes sometimes.

Thanks for stopping by and leave a message if you fancy and you can follow me if you like as I feel a bit like Billy no Mates with this new blog LOL.

Happy Craftin

Rebecca