Books, books and more books

Last week I was away with five friends on a Play Away. We had a fabuous time, and are doing it again next year. Each of us led a half day session, and the general theme was books. Annie showed us how to make silk paper, that we painted and added some stamping and decoration to, these were folded into books. Turquoise was the colour I chose as usual.
Mary showed us how to make an accordian book with pelmet vilene, which we had inked up the day before. We made some embellishments by cutting up snippets of yarn and fabrics and placed them between organza and bondaweb. We then used the heat gun on them and the organza burnt away. These we placed on our books and hand stitched them on. We made ties with pelmet vilene, which we stitched. Oh dear turquoise again.
The next book was made out of friendly plastic, led by Liz of Friendly plastic fame. These were very tiny, and the only one I managed to finish was put together with organza, green this time. My project was the same as the fabric tags in my previous post. This time I did a blue one, only because Neet had the turquoise one, and if Neet hadn't had that one, Adrienne would have.
The two non book themes were etched copper metal led by Adrienne, and clay beads led by Neet. I hadn't tried either of these, and enjoyed doing something entirely different. I really enjoyed the Skinner blend and mica shift with the clay, and must do some more. I made some buttons as well, and as they are turquoise, I am bound to use them.

Fabric postcards in white

I made these for a swap I am hosting, and used the same method as the fabric tags. I find it quite difficult to work in white, but once I had started there was no stopping me.

Last of the fabric tags, I think

Here are the last three colours. I struggled with the yellow one, as I have very little in that colour, the red was fun, and the purple a bit more difficult to find purple bits. The yellow looks more orange, as my camera seems to not like yellow either. I painted the pelmet vilene first, and then machine stitched the scraps of fabric, yarns etc on with a free machine stitch.
I might try to do a black one, not sure if I would have enough bits.

Fabric tags

Here are the next set of colours, white which was quite difficult, as I had very little in white, and blue and turquoise, which poised no problem at all. Yellow, and purple might prove to be impossible for the next ones. Please don't hold your breath on those two. Red I think I can manage, so will do that one first.

Time ATCs

Back onto the ATCs for a change, and as time fitted in with two swaps I made a lot of them. I also made some other art for another swap ( odd shaped art) Some of the backgrounds are embossed with folders and some with embossing powder, some inked and stamped. There are clock and cog embellishments on all of them. These were cut out on my big shot, and coloured or embossed. I really enjoyed doing these, and they are well ahead of the swap deadline.

Fabric tags

After making a fabric texture tag for a swap, I couldn't stop making them. I thought I would make one in every colour. Here are the first of them. They are on painted pelmet vilene, with bits and pieces sewn on with the machine. The bits consist of fabric, yarns, net, organza, glittery fibres and fabrics, anything that fits the colour and can be sewn down. I embellished with beads at the end, and added cords made on the machine. I also cut out some lutrador shapes on the die cutter, and painted them to match. I put eyelets in some of them.
The next ones ready to be sewn are white, blue and turquoise.

12 days of Christmas swap.

For the last three years I have been in a swap where we make 12 presents ( all the same) for the other participants. We each receive 12 different ones in return. It's very interesting to see what the others make. This year all the work was brilliant, and there are some really useful things. I made glasses cases, which can also be used as a scissor case.
I felted a piece of calico with wool tops, placed some yarn bits, and shiny fibres, and then covered the whole thing with organza. I then machined over the top with straight and fancy stitches. I zapped the whole thing with the heat gun, and cut it into the required shape. I lined the front and back which is made from patterned fabric, and assembled the whole case.