Fat Book Pages - 6

Hand painted/stamped fabric, dyed lace, beaded trim, embroidery.

Hand painted/stamped fabric, embroidery and beads.

Hand painted/stamped fabric. The ATC's are from Australia, the work of  a fellow blogger at Bimbimbie. She regularly shows photos of birds, ones that we never see here in the UK.

Hand painted/stamped fabric, handmade clay buttons, embroidery.

Hand painted/stamped fabric, screen prints.

Hand painted/stamped fabric, sheer fabric layers, embroidery, clay flower. When I made the clay shape I put in holes so that I could sew it to fabric.

The Colour Purple [Pages 20 -22]

Page 20 - Background - painted, stamped, decorated layered papers, stitched edges.

Card discs, mini buttons. Reindeer are from  a paper napkin. Tag, one side butterfly stickers, the side musical note stickers. Purchased handmade paper with metallic gold decoration, beads on each side, paper flower.

Rows of hearts and flower are from a napkin. Gems. Small sample of digitally printed fabric, my design. Decorative machine stitching.

Page 21 - Background - painted, stamped, decorated layered papers, stitched edges.

Painted wooden butterflies.

Recycled postcard [layer of] text added. Postage stamp. Wooden painted flower and bead.

Page 22 - Background - painted, stamped, decorated layered papers, stitched edges.

Beaded trim, dyed lace, handmade washi tape.

Three handmade buttons [shrink plastic]. Ribbon, dyed lace, beads, paper flower.

Click on the images to enlarge.

Purple Art Buttons and Papers

Altered buttons, art buttons - if you would like to make some check out my art buttons page.

I used art work, recycled envelopes [painted], recycled address book [painted], recycled book page [painted]. I like the square ones the most which was originally a painted doodle.

More purple background papers.

Art Buttons and Embroidered Pendant

I did these a while ago but never got round to putting them on the blog.

More art buttons, not for wearing [check out 'art buttons' in the labels list for details].

The green, blue and black and white ones were done with clear buttons.

I made the cards they are on by using images which I altered, from the Graphics Fairy. 

click on images to enlarge

Another embroidered mini pendant - layers, dyed lace, embroidery on one side and art work with some embroidery on the other side.

Non of the above are listed in my shop but if anyone is interested in purchasing let me know.

TAST 22 and Dandelions

Take a stitch Tuesday - the stitch this week is knotted cretan stitch. I use the regular cretan stitch a lot but I've never done the knotted version before. I think you can get away without being too neat with this stitch, so it suits my style [messy]. I have used the stitch to couch down dyed laces and a piece of hand made felt. I thought it would be nice to include a bead as I stitched each knot, which I did, but I didn't like it so I took that row out. I used thin thread so that the needle would go through the bead, I probably should have stitched with thick thread and then put on the beads afterwards, but I decided to leave it. The buttons are also hand crafted, made from recycled buttons. 

Click on images to enlarge

It was a lovely day last Saturday and it was my birthday so hubby and  went for a walk around the woods at Causey Arch in County Durham. There were lots of dandelions to photograph.

Art Buttons and New Store

More buttons - this time I have used images from The Graphics Fairy

The images have been reduced in size

My article in Cloth Paper Scissors about the making of buttons like these

This week I have opened up a new store at Zazzle. If there is anything that you like on my website that you would like to see printed on something for sale at Zazzle, please let me know and I will see if it is possible.

See my store at Zazzle

More Art Buttons

I had a session of making more art buttons, and used some of the clear buttons I received from Sherry which I mentioned yesterday. I have an article in the present issue of Cloth Paper Scissors on how to make/alter buttons like these. They are offering free trial issues if you have never seen the magazine before. 

For the buttons above I used a clear button and a laser print, some old designs I had on the computer.

The pink and green ones below are artwork [prints with scored foam and ink pad], also clear buttons.

These were an ink jet print, a square labyrinth I also had on the computer and I used clear buttons.

The spotted one was a cardboard domino [from a cracker maybe?], the other a laser print, both with clear buttons.

The sheep are an inkjet print on clear buttons - part of a design for fabric

These below were made a little differently to the above. They are also made with a laser print but the white paper is removed just leaving the black toner ink. These were not covered in the article so I will explain here. Use buttons that are pale or clear as the ink will not show up on dark buttons. Glue the right side of the art work and the flat side of the button and press together firmly. Let it dry completely. To remove the paper, place the button on a cutting mat and score around the button with a bradawl. I find it works best if the bradawl is dipped in water first, just to dampen it, but not soaking. Tear off the excess paper. Lightly dampen the paper all over the button with your finger and gently rub off with a thumb. The paper should come off but leave the toner ink on the button. If you rub too hard the ink will come off too, so be gentle. Let the button dry and repeat the process if it looks like the paper as reappeared. Use an emery board to smooth any loose bits of paper around the edge. Use the bradawl on a cutting mat to poke through the stitching holes, both sides. You could apply a top coat or two of acrylic wax to the surface if the ink is on the top of the button but I have not done this on the clear ones below as the ink is on the underside of the button. 

I used coloured buttons for the ones below and the inside of recycled envelopes [these particular ones were from a blogging friend Doreen in Australia] There is a slight fault on the green one - this is because I didn't put the glue on properly.