Salvaged Patina Fabric Journal

Hello friends,

I am sharing a project from the Salvaged Patina release today, my mixed media Fabric Book.  This was such a fun project to create!  Lots of Collage Paper, Spray Stain and Distress Paint in the mix, along with Paper Dolls (both Solos and Groups)!  The Fabric Book is compact...or rather, it is just the right amount of space for Paper Dolls and ephemera and not so much space to be overwhelming.  Just my kind of substrate.

Lets start with the book itself...

The idea-ology Fabric Journal is made up of Cover and two, 4 page signatures. In the picture below, you can see the cover on the left and I am folding over one of the signatures.

To make the book I will be showing you today, I am only using the cover and one signature. Can you use the whole book and never take it apart? Of course you can. I just found it easier to unstitch each signature seam, work on the book using only the pages that I wanted.  The second signature will be use at a later time, so there really is no waste.
In the picture below, I have removed one signature from the Fabric Book and laid the two pieces I will use at the bottom of the picture.  I still need to remove the second signature so I can free up the cover.

And here we are...a cover + a large page + a small page, leaving one signature leftover. When I sew the book back together, I am going to switch the pages, placing the small page in between the cover and the large page. No real reason, other than I thought it looked better when turning the pages.

COVER

To begin, I quickly painted the INSIDE of the front cover with a layer of Collage Medium.  This will serve two purposes, it seals the fabric so the Spray Stain (next step) does not soak through and it will make the cover stronger once dry and cured.  

Spray Salvaged Patina Spray Stain right over the wet glue.  NOTE: I tactually urned my surface to spray from the left side to create a fade to the right or center of the book.

I also added Rustic Wilderness and more Salvaged Patina to the page. I did a much better job at spraying slowly/dribbling the Rustic Wilderness ink than I did in my original sample.  I guess 'practice makes perfect' rings true.  You can dry the surface with a heat tool to speed things up.

I love how the Spray Stain looks over the glue, you can still see the fabric and really, once the glue is dry you will be able to feel the texture of the book again.  So cool.

Once the inside of the cover is sprayed, move on to the Collage Paper that will be used to cover the outside of the cover and some of the pages.

Using different techniques to alter Collage Paper

Rip varying sizes of Collage Paper Entomolgy

Use Salvaged Patina Distress Paint to paint the BACKSIDE of any image.  Keep the paint thin, you do not want to overwork the thin Collage Paper.

This is what it will look like on the right side of the paper once dry.  Very cool, right?

Lightly spray with Salvaged Patina Distress Spray Stain. Practice pushing the nozzle down with a scrap paper to test out the spray/splatter pattern before moving to the Collage Paper. Keep some of the papers light (not too much spray) so once you adhere it to the Fabric Journal, you will see the fabric texture through the paper.

On other pieces, add more colors to the mix. If you leave the colors as you sprayed them and dry with a heat tool they will stay dark/deep. For lighter color, pounce over paper with a paper towel before drying.

For the cover and one of the pages, I went heavy on the color. I did pounce to get lighter shades, but added more spray. One thing to take note, was that I sprayed Salvage Patina at the start, then added the other colors and dried with a heat tool. Then I went back and added more Salvaged Patina to a few bare spots. This really brought back the bright blue. So leaving a little white space is good!

Once the Collage Paper is complete, you can start to adhere it to the book. Using the large piece as an example, I covered the entire canvas with Collage Medium making sure to work quickly so it stays wet enough to adhere the ALL the Collage Paper.  Press the paper into the fabric (you must have clean hands) until you can feel that it is adhered to the surface.  Add a layer of Collage Medium over the top - this will seal the paper and make it transparent. Collage paper can be dried with a heat tool so you can move through the book quickly, but it will not be fully dry or "cured" till the next day.  In fact it is always surprising how it changes overnight. The Collage paper portions will feel like oil cloth.

You might notice that I added paper from Backdrops 1 to the back of the large page. I like that the eye has a break from all the sprayed pages. 

Once you are to this stage, get the pages in the order you want and stitch them up the center. Now you are ready to embellish the pages with what ever you wish!

I have kept the inside simple to really show off the Collage Paper, adding just Paper Dolls, Backdrop paper, Clipping stickers (all words) and ephemera from both Field Notes (standard and snippets size), as well as a few cards/tickets from the Ephemera pack, Keepsakes.

The gold paint behind his head is Dina Wakley Acrylic paint in Gilt. This thick body paint is my go-to gold for all my projects. The white dots were made with a POSCA paint pen.

I could have left the alphabet card in the background alone but I decided to add the POSCA pen work to add more visual texture.

I created the pattern on her yellow colored dress - all with Distress Crayons and a Detailer Water brush. The clothing here was colored directly on the surface with the crayon, then rubbed till I got the right transparency of color.  The pattern was added by dotting the surface with the end of the Detailer Water Brush dipped into the crayon color.  If you want to know more about working with Distress Crayons, please refer to this blog post HERE.

The dots made with the POSCA pen add such detail to the clothes!  The faux tweed on his pants was all done with the damp bristles of the water brush and crayon.

Here is where you can see the mix of the two Field Note SKU's. The bird is from the standard size Field Notes and the small pieces, the rose and blue circle are from the Snippets pack.  

I also used crayon to color the bird and the grass - this is most successful if you coat the ephemera with collage medium first, giving the card a slick surface.

The journal cover embellishment is again a mix of small and large.  Large label from Field Notes and small blue label from the Snippets pack.  The button is from the Mini Flair pack and the words from the Clippings Sticker book.  

The twill tie comes with the Fabric Journal.  I sprayed it with Salvaged Patina Spray Stain and water, then dried it with the heat tool.  Once dry, I was able to use Archival ink to stamp the words, "tell your story" on one side of the ribbon, from the Stampers Anonymous Simple Sayings stamp set.

I had already added the Paper Doll on the inside so I could not sew the label directly to the book.  My solution was to stitch the label then glue it to the book with Collage Medium at the top and bottom, allowing the tie to move freely.

I love making little books and this is no exception.  From the spraying, adding the paper, to coloring the Paper Dolls I just love it.  I guess I like the fact that anything goes!  I'm ready to make another one!

Now carry on,

paula

PRODUCTS USED IN PROJECT

Christmas Kits

Hi friends,

I am back from my last teaching trip of the year.  Thank you to all of you who came to a live class this holiday season.  It was fun to see old friends and also nice to meet new people.  In my last class in Florida there were seven new people that came to sew the Fabric Journal.  We had people from New York, Michigan, Wisconsin, Miami, and Orlando!  Now that is heartwarming!

Now on to the news of the day...the remaining Christmas kits have been posted in my ETSY shop, which you can access by clicking HERE or on the ETSY button on the right sidebar of this blog.  There are a limited number of each kit.  Descriptions and prices of each kit can be found in the individual listing.  Thank you for supporting my shop and my little side business of creating kits and teaching.  A little love has been put into every one of them.

Dear Santa...

Christmas Fabric Journal

Winter Wonderland

(trees can be sprayed any color of Distress Stain)

Now it's time to jump into Creativation preparations (that are already happening around here).  I have a few new posts coming and a tutorial on Simon Says Stamp on Sunday so it's going to be busy!  

now carry on,

paula

Petite Journal

Hello Friends,

Today I'm sharing one of my favorite projects from Creativation.  This was a take off from a larger journal I made last year.

This time the size only 4 1/2 x 6" which makes the perfect size for the new Found Relatives that come in three sizes in the pack.  The book is made from heavy canvas covered in Collage Paper. Collage Medium will bind the Collage Paper to the canvas so it appears as oil cloth.  The canvas signatures (pages) are stitched into the book once complete.  I made a long, skinny tube of fabric to wrap around the cover to close it.  The keyhole is from the pack of Keyholes that has been around for many years...an oldie but a goodie!

 The canvas pages are random sizes and each has Eclectic Elements fabric stitched along the outer edge.  This brings color and helps to contain the strings on the raw canvas edge.

 All the paper used in the journal are cards from the new Journal Cards pack (100 cards in 4 sizes).  They make the perfect background for the Found Relatives.

This page was fun because I added some collage paper over the found relatives dress and gave her a butterfly on a string.  I stitched on the cards I could... and some I stapled with the Tiny Attacher.

 I used Distress Crayon to color the Found Relatives.  In larger areas, I use a damp q-tip and in the smaller areas I used a Detailer Water Brush with VERY little water.

 Using the Detailer Water Brush you are able to blend small amounts of color that you could never do with a q-tip.  The numbers are from the Clippings sticker sheet.

 I used Eclectic Elements Craft Thread for the hand stitched XX.  The red label is from eh Classic Label sticker pack (it comes with 4 sheets of red, black, blue and pink stickers).

One of my favorite pages...because it appears so delicate due to the coloring.
FYI:  The flowers throughout the Journal are from the new Layers Botanical pack.  This is a running change (or update) for us so we never know exactly when the product will be flowing into stores.  I will let you know once the new botanicals (which are wonderful btw) can be purchased.  That being said...If you like the ones we have now, with the butterflies and the calling cards...It might be the time to buy a pack before they go away because once they are gone, they are gone.

The halo was created using one of the Classic Label Stickers with the pink edge...cutting it to fit her head.  The inside was colored with Distress Crayon to give a warm glow.  I love the flowers here too...all colored with crayon and the Detailer Water Brush.  I believe I used Fossilized Amber, Evergreen Bough and Aged Mahogany and Peeled Paint...all in very small doses.

 On this page I used a card to create a pocket.  The eyelet in the corner is just for show.

Journaling cards and a Stencil Chip M are all layered onto one large card, then stitched to the canvas across the top.

This Found Relative was so fun to color!  I added the wings and then colored in her entire dress from the buttons, to the flowers, to the hat!

 Here's a little close-up so you can see the flowers better.

 And the last page...I love this Found Relative of the mother and son.  The red coloring around the clippings sticker is more crayon work.

Well I hope you like my little journal.  Like I said, it is a favorite of the things I created for the show because of the size and the ease in putting it together (no wrong way to do it).  I love combining stitching and paper...it's just the best of two worlds that I love.

now carry on,

paula