Wednesday, October 3, 2012

Wow Fabric in an Altered Book


Lesson 16 from Elizabeth's Altered Book tutorial is due.  It is all about adding fabric to the books and includes fabric dyeing, resists, cloth beads and other embellishments. This series has been way more work than I ever thought but I am happy I have done as much as I have and I'm even happier that I like this book. I think we are nearing the end and I'm looking forward to going through each page, adding the necessary continuity to the various pages and putting it all in place and fixing a nice cover for it.  A finished project!  shh, I mustn't jinx that motivation!

I have dyed and painted on fabrics before.


So for this project I mostly wanted to use fabric that was already available for the book.  I just freehand cut or sliced cotton fabric, most of which I have dyed.  I had a momentary thought of making a leaf stamp for a background layer but I'm realizing I like simple.


I gessoed the page remembering to incorporate the page beside it.  I just used acrylic folk paint which I watered down and kinda blended to try to match the green on the left hand page.  I dabbed the brush in and around the green areas.  Snoopy hasn't figured too prominently in the book but I have saved bits of the gang here and there.  The ducky ribbon did not work on the preceding page so I peeled it off and used the gel medium to try to get it on the tornado page. lol  hmm, I might have trimmed it this second time. ?  Dare I rip again???


I need to work on my tree shape but the beauty of using fabric or even paper strips is you can play, position and remove more effectively than you can with brush strokes!


This trunk needed more height but I ran out of page and I need to loose the hour glass shape!  lol  It is all glued down with gel medium and this one is Golden Soft Gel (Semi Gloss).

The idea for this came from a colour wheel made from pencil crayon points I saw during this past week.  I also have somewhere an old kindergarten art page master that uses a basic tree shape and you added construction paper leaves.  If I find it I think I'll clone it as it could be a stencil, a mask, a ???.  And it is not hour glass shaped but more vase shaped.  Now what if...

I'm sure my fellow Needle and Thread workers have lots more good ideas.

14 comments:

Patti said...

Eek! This is going to be so gorgeous when you are done!

Createology said...

I love your tree with its shape and colorful leaves. You put so much work and detail into your altered pages and they are lovely. You will have many great hours of looking at your book and reflecting on all that you have learned and accomplished. Falling into Autumn Bliss...

BJ said...

Wonderful tree, now why didn't I think of that? Perhaps I'm saving it for the cover (shhhhhh). Love how you have incorporated the colour wheel - so pleasing to the eye. BJ
PS I'd love to know HOW you intend to fit ALL your spare pages back into your book. I'd need 3 books for mine - LOL

Dawn said...

Elle this is fabulous, I love your tree and the fabric leaves, sooo clever. I also love the way you have left some of the original page peeping through, it works so so well.
Hugs x x x x

Craftymoose Crafts said...

Your tree is awesome! SO smart to use the color wheel and it blends very well with the facing page! It is going to be fun to page through our books at the end!

Dandelion and Daisy said...

Very NICE! I like the tree trunk, it looks sturdy, and the fall appropriate colors in your leaves.

Susan J Barker said...

you're right tree trunks are straighter on the bottom, you could disguise the bottom by adding a pile of leaves so instead of taking away you could add more!

Mary Ann Tate said...

I like it:) Except it reminds me of fall and I've been avoiding that because you know what comes next:(

Leanne said...

I love your tree!

Sam said...

I like the shape of the tree, I don't find it to be too hour glass at all. It reminds me of the big cotton wood trees back home.

HollyM said...

I like your tree shape as well. You will have a real treasure when it's done. I know, shhhhh.

Bleubeard and Elizabeth said...

This tree is perfect. After all, no two trees are shaped the same. I love how you brought the color of the pages together, AND used the color wheel. Remember this page when we do a wrap-up. It's very important and I'm sure I'll be using it (with your permission of course) as an excellent example of more than one technique. Very nicely done. I'm super impressed!! LATE, but impressed!!

paulaexuk said...

Fabulous and so much work and detail in it. Great use of a lot of the lessons, love it!

M-R Charbonneau said...

I think the shape of your tree is perfect, Ellen. They come in all shapes and sizes. I really like that colour wheel idea with the leaves -- very fun!