Coaster Mini Book

Mini books made out of coasters are,
apparently, "the thing" at the moment.
I say this because they were the project of the month
in two of the groups I belong to. Here's mine.
I used beer mats as that's what I had on hand.
Click on any pic to see more detail if you wish.

Altered Box

Recently I organised an altered box swap.
The idea was that we took an empty chocolate box or similar, altered it
and then filled it with embellishments and other art and craft paraphernalia
that we thought our partners would be able to use in their work.
This is the box I made.


I painted it wedgewood blue on the outside and antique copper inside.
I then collaged it with reproduction vintage labels and a sepia lady image
and embellished it with vintage buttons and lace, a cameo,
lock and key, old stamps, tissue tape and an adage ticket.


Then I filled both layers and sent it off across the pond!




I had a lot of fun making this box and deciding what to put inside!

More Fleurs, Mixed Media, Repurposing and some Sewing

Some more lace and ribbon flowers.
I love making these.
I'm still using the lace that I got from Kerri
as part of a swap and she, in turn, got it from goodwill.
It tickles me that all that white lace
That was cast off by someone
has now become so colourful and wanted again.
I still have enough to make two more flowers!


I made this piece some time ago and wasn't very happy with it
but I did learn from doing it.


It's made with Lutradur.
The Lutradur was painted with fabric paint
and then the bird image was printed onto a transparency
and transferred onto the Lutrudur with gel medium.
The page is from an old materia medica.
Did I ever tell you I used to be a homoeopath?
I still have my full library of books.
The image was sewn on to the background
and what's nice about it is that the Lutradur is semi-transparent,
so it allows the text from the page behind to show through
giving a layered look.
Another piece of text was inserted just behind the bird's breast
adding to the layered look.
The whole lot was then attached to a background
of stained and distressed watercolour paper.
Although I'm not really happy with it,
it was good practice and, the transfer itself,
came out well for a first attempt.
The instructions for this piece are in the book,
"Fabulous Fabric Art with Lutradur".
The book includes two sample sheets of Lutradur
and I've used both now.

A few days ago, I decided to repurpose an empty cotton bud container.
I layered different colours of angelina on top of it
to give it a marbled effect
and filled it with buttons.


Then, yesterday I delved into my bag of silk scraps
and sewed this bookmark.


That's it for now. I'm off to do some pressing, but boring, chores. :-(