Try It Out Tuesday : Adding The Cover

If you remember from last Thursday's post, I had finished off the cover, and looked at a different way of attaching it.  The journals I am working with have soft covers, but good quality paper, so I wanted to make them a little more robust, and hopefully, much more attractive, so decided to make the cover a permanent feature of the journal.  I did that by putting a layer of fusible on the back of the cover.  I peeled off the backing and wrapped the cover round the book, fusible side down, exactly as I wanted it to sit, tucking the flaps in at either side.  I then put a piece of greaseproof paper over the cover to protect it, and pressed both sides with a warm iron (just follow the directions for your fusible if you're not sure).   I then opened the book, and did the same with the flaps, just to make sure they were securely attached.

Looking at the journal (above), I decided it was a little long, top and bottom, as it overlapped the edges of the book. For purely aesthetic reasons (the cover is strong enough to hold the book as it is, without any further change, I thought about how to change it.   I did not want to fold the flap in, as the corners would have been far too thick.  Instead, as the Lutradur won't fray, I cut a slit in the top cover and bottom cover, over the spine, opened the book and cut along the inside edge of the journal.  The slit in the spine area just made it easier to cut.  That produced a final book that looks like this:

I wanted a journal that suggested a garden...and here it is.  I hope you'll try this little project!  Share a photo with us if you do, and tell us what your theme was.  If enough journal photographs arrive, I'll create a separate page here on the blog to show them off!

We're going to stay with the theme of books for a while... if there is anything you would particularly like to see featured here, please let me know.

Tip Of The Week

Think outside the box.  Just because it's a photograph printed on fabric, in this case, Lutradur XL, it doesn't mean that it has to be hung as an image.  This bag features a manipulated photograph of a section of rock, taken at Hunstanton, my favourite Norfolk beach.  'Sunny Hunny', or just Hunny, as it's known locally, has amazing cliffs (follow the link and scroll down to see an image). 

I have lined the bag with black Lutradur, which is really closer to grey; a pure black would have been too dark, but this is perfect.  I'm now considering how to finish the edges, and what sort of fastening to use.  I found this beautiful string of agates, which go beautifully with the colours of the bag.  Or perhaps a piece of driftwood  as a fastening...?  I haven't decided yet.  I am, however, very pleased with it at this stage.  Now to see what sort of fascinator might go with it... I haven't used lutradur in a fascinator yet, so watch this space!

Try It Out Thursday : Journal Covers (Decoration)

On Tuesday's blog, we made the basic cover for a soft bound notebook.  Now, we're going on to embellish it a bit, before we cover the book itself.  The painted colours were quite strong, so I wanted something that would stand out.  And I started with a button, a lovely pink button, which I put in the middle of the cover and thought...yeah.. that's the centre for a flower.  Not any old flower, either, but a daisy.  So, I went to find some fabric, thinking that I really wanted something yellowy, and found some white fabric with an abstract daisy print (I bought it some time ago, and have never used it; it's now on the pile to be used sooner rather than later...). 

I cut a piece of the fabric roughly the same size as the front cover of the book, and ironed on some fusible.  I put the button roughly in the middle of the paper coated fabric, so that I could see the scale that the petals needed to be drawn at, and drew a freehand daisy shape onto it.  With each petal, I started at the button, and returned to the button, drawing round it slightly before making the next petal.  You might want to practice this on a piece of paper, first.When taking a photograph for the blog, I discovered that you couldn't make out the pattern, so inked it on with a marker pen.  This proved to be a mistake, as you will see. 

The original drawing, just using a ballpoint.

Inked in with marker pen for visibility.

AAARGH... See those blue marks?

 I had forgotten that I had been working on a soft surface (my ironing board).  As a result, when I used the ballpoint pen on the fusible backing paper, it had torn, slightly.  When I then inked up the design so you could see it, the ink travelled on the greaseproof paper, and got onto the cloth, mostly around the middle.  The button doesn't cover it enough, and it looks truly out of place.  Next time, I'll use a pencil for this task!  Right now, though, I need to think about what to do to camouflage the rogue marks. 

I fused the flower shape onto the front section of the cover, overlapping the petals at either side (if you click on the image directly above, you will be able to see the fold lines that indicate where the flap is on the right hand side, and the centre of the cover on the left.  That makes the design much livelier, as you will see in a moment.  I then stitched round the petals using straight stitch.  I did that to ensure that the stress of opening and closing the book would not unstick the flower.  I used straight stitch, instead of the zig zag stitch you might have expected because I like rough edge applique, but also because the flower shape is quite delicate; zig zag, even in white, would have detracted from the fresh look of the piece.  The stitching is barely noticeable, which for me, in this particular design, is what I was aiming for.

I then went on a hunt in my studios for something to camouflage the blue dots.  I found a small piece of scrap silk paper, which I had used on a hat project, and cut a freehand circle larger than the button.  That worked very nicely, and pulled the whole piece together.  We assume that mistakes are Bad Things; I prefer to look at them as opportunities...this certainly proved to be the case here.  I stitched the button to the silk paper circle, to create a single unit (much easier to handle than trying to add two separate elements at once, or separately), and then stitched the button in place.  Success!

Before I assembled the journal, which is now nearly finished (above), it struck me that I wanted to make the covers for these paper bound journals permanent.  The original covers are relatively flimsy, much less so than the Lutradur XL.  So, I devised a different way of finishing these journals, compared to the quick and easy version I have already showed you.   We'll look at that on Tuesday.  Meantime, happy sewing!

Photo Friday : March Challenge

As today is the last day for submissions for the March Challenge, I thought I would show you my attempt.  There's still just time to submit a piece... you know you want to!

I started by manipulating the image a little more than I had before.  Then, I printed it out on Bertha, my large scale Epson printer, on Lutradur XL.  I then carved into it with a soldering iron.  I hadn't intended to cut all the way through the cloth, but it seemed to work best that way, so I carved enough away to strengthen the idea that these were flints (in fact, they're not; the original photo was of an asphalt pot hole.  As a result, the piece is called Asphalt Dreams).

I decided not to add any stitch at all, as I felt it would be a distraction.  The piece varies depending on what colour the underlying surface is.  The first of the detail shots is on a pine table; the second on navy blue.

I'm planning to frame this piece so that it can be hung away from the wall, to explore the shadows it creates.  Another option is to put it in a light box, but that could prove to be prohibitively expensive, as I'm planning a series of similar works and would want them all framed in a similar way.

I've received one entry for this Challenge; I hope to receive a few more today.  Then I'll share them at the weekend and you can vote for your favourite; the winner will receive a small prize.