Make Art Monday!

In the spirit of all the book arts we’ve been looking at this month, I thought I’d experiment with a new way to join pages together.  New to me, anyway!  Tomorrow for Technique Tuesday, I’ll share the method that I used to make this little booklet

Make Art Monday!

Pug Book
I’d like to declare this entire month a time to celebrate book arts in all its many forms: handmade books, altered books, fabric books, journals, scrapbooks, and all other types of books that we can come up with!  Spring is just around the bend now (except here in New England and probably in Alaska too!), and it’s time to gather in some inspiration for the coming months.
I’ll be sharing the work of quite a few book artists with you, but I don’t want to leave out your work!  The more the merrier!  If you would like to …read more

Make Art Monday!

Monoprints are a world of fun to make.  You simply never really know what you’re going to come up with.  You can use them as  backgrounds, tear them up as collage elements, or sometimes even keep them “as is.”
Tomorrow, I’ll outline the simple steps, but in the meantime, gather together your paints, watercolor or stock paper, and prepare a flat surface with freezer, contact, or waxed paper!

Make Art Monday!
Here’s a piece I made when I was a Brownie Scout. I can’t remember if that was first grade or kindergarten, but whichever, I think I’ve developed a bit more skill since then. Don’t worry about how feeble your first attempts are…just keep going. It does get better!

Make Art Monday!
Well, some things just take time
Back in October of last year, I showed you how to make lovely rusted fabric for use in your projects, and promised that I’d come up with one myself…eventually!  So better late than never, I guess.  Tomorrow, I’ll show you the steps to make a little rusted fabric art quilt similar to this one.
My Soul Finds Rest

Make Art Monday!
My Heart
There may not be time for really elaborate projects before Valentine’s Day, but surely you could do one or two of these!
Slightly stuffed fabric hearts – I originally made these for Christmas, but think of the Valentine’s possibilities!
Valentine’s Day jewelry
Green Valentine’s Day cards
Free Patterns for Valentine’s Day crafts
Romantic crafts from junk

Make Art Monday!
Based upon the article, House Books, by Leilani Pierson, in the Nov/Dec 2008 issue of Cloth Paper Scissors.  I decided to use some of the papers that I collected on our trip to Italy, and collage them over maps of the region.  The green fiber ties were from an Italian gift from our daughter.

Make Art Monday 

I’ve made an important discovery: I can’t work when I’m surrounded by a mess.  I used to think that I could, right up until the time that all my creative joy and energy just evaporated.  I didn’t even care when each Make Art Monday rolled around, and that used to be my favorite day of the week.  What happened was that I hadn’t bothered to clean up after any project that I did…just let it all accumulate. 
Some folks love that.  They love the serendipity of having stuff strewn all over so that they’ll see connections they otherwise would …read more

Make Art Monday!
You can whip up a batch of these in no time flat!  They’d be great for your tree, your doorknobs, for gifts, to dress up a wrapped package.  There’s no pattern necessary, no excessive planning…just pull out your fabrics and embellishments today, and tomorrow I’ll show you how easy these are to put together

 There are times when you want a perfect image transfer.  I know that seems almost like heresy coming from me, the queen of the imperfect (and proud of it!) transfer.  Most of the methods that I teach here result in somewhat, shall we say, unpredictable images.  And that’s the beauty of the whole image transfer process.  If you wanted it perfect, you’d just cut it out and stick it down!
However, even I have to admit that there may be times when cutting it out and sticking it down will not give you the look you’re after.  You really do want …read more