Creating stitched embellishments for art journals

I had a bit of a play day recently making stitched embellishments to add to my books for June and July. I thought it would be useful to gather all my ideas here for our collective future use.

My new favourite thing is to free-motion machine stitch over organza and a layer of paper as seen HERE

I start with organza, laying it over a large print book page and stitch around found words I like on the page. Then fill in the gaps with shapes and cut apart

This organza is actually orange and the colour is much truer below. Doing found words this way may be my new favourite thing!

You could also use sheet music or some other text page - in fact any other paper - you just won't have that found word option. 

Free-motion machine stitch over inky paper and tear out as you see HERE

and this one is on watercolour paper - other shapes could easily look cool on watercolour scraps

I also tried a few circles that I can glue a word or other embellishment onto later

Making small tags is always fun though they will cover more of a page of course.

It also occurred to me that I could use some of my acetate shapes more easily in my work by stitching them to scrap inky backgrounds... (these are all on watercolour paper)

All of my examples have been done with the machine but you could use hand stitching instead or as an addition....and I like using black thread, but I also love the gold above and think purple goes with everything 💜

All of these options mean that I can add stitch to my journals but glue them in without having to worry about stitching showing through on the back side of the page. Naturally when I have some more time I will also be having a play with adding sari and organza ribbons and other fabric scraps. The possibilities are endless....

Can't wait to use these and show you how they look within my book pages.

Making papers inspired by Free classes

Kellee Wynne has created a Virtual Art Summit featuring 17 talented artists HERE. You can join for no charge but they are accepting donations to help create more programs like this and keep them available to everyone at no cost when they need it most. Last Day to register is April 30th, but Kellee has extended the watch time until May 31st.

Roben-Marie Smith is taking part creating collage papers. Here are some samples before she teaches the lesson.

I decided to work on 2 recycled magazine pages and also a couple of watercolour papers for my Autumn Advent Journal (will turn that into a link when do my last post about that). Because you are just playing you don't have to worry about the final outcome and you can tear into smaller pieces to apply as personal collage in your work. Keep it loose. No judgment. Keep turning your paper for a different perspective. The hardest part was waiting for the paint to dry on a cold day...and the no judgement part when in progress. In fact - taking a photo made me feel better about these papers and I probably could have stopped there.

I think one of my "blocks" was that I was trying to keep the watercolour pages in the right colour-way for my Autumn Journal which is not my usual happy colour place. So then I added some different colours on the pure play paper and felt happier. And then added more stencil marks = much more me. Being reminded of that Autumn palette led to the use of dark brown as a different dark. And then I decided some tissue or teabag transparent collage would be fun. You could just keep going but I'm there for now and feeling happy that I can move forward with these in a number of different ways eg. by adding collage and white pen marks to lighten. These are my finished play magazine papers to tear for collage for future projects:

I can see some really cool pieces that will happen once torn smaller - eg. that bottom left corner of the bottom piece. Scrummy and unexpected colour combo for me.
And I'll link here to show you how these watercolour background  pages for my Autumn Journal turned into spreads. These are pretty messy to be honest, but I'm not worried because I know how to salvage the beauty and cover up what I don't like.

If you enjoy Roben-Marie's lesson she has lots of inspiration on her blog - including her teabag #100DayProject - and also offers 2 FREE Journal workshops : Transitions Journal HERE

and Urban Journal Remix HERE.

I also came across this FREE offering from Jeanne Oliver which I thought would be fun to investigate after playing with Roben-Marie's technique.

Completely not my colour palette but interesting to see ideas of media and mark making tools. Hope this inspires you to have a play too.

Klimt in the Garden Mixed Media Collage Box

Recently I had a Play Day with a couple of creative friends. We always have such fun together : we can rely on great food, lots of inspiration sharing, and good solid time spent on a creative project. This time it was my choice, and I've long wanted to create a collage box inspired by Anne Brooke's lovely work. We traveled to my friend's house and then started the day with fortifying coffee and cake

I had picked the theme of Klimt in the Garden because I adore Klimt and already had an image of Mother and Child AND a gorgeous serviette of The Kiss. I wasn't sure if the Mother and child image was some kind of transfer and hoped it was a TAP (transfer artist paper) so tried ironing it down....didn't work so either too old or a different print! But decided I could just fuse it to my background with vliesofix and did that with the top layer of my serviette as well. 

Then it was time to stitch our base wallpaper squares together for the box shape. Mine are 6" in size

Then I began to narrow down my gatherings

It's really fun to add things like polymer clay and paper castings made on play days in the past

and I'm so lucky to have such a delicious collection of paper serviettes, sari ribbon and scrim to add to the more usual collection of fabric and paper

Because I had my focal images early on, it was quite quick to make decisions about what should be added 

LOVE this with stitch added. You can click on any photo to see it larger.

There were a lot more options to be trialed after this

and I was carefully supervised ;-)

I was very happy with where I got to by the end of the day

We all have our own style and it's really fun to see our different interpretations of the same project here together. Click on any photo to see it larger.

Once home it was time to continue working alone. I began with The Kiss

I added metallic thread swirls, some small beads, and a Polymer clay heart and it was quickly complete. I also added the star fabric for a bit of extra interest, but mainly to overlap down into the base of the box so it's not just plain underneath.

I had already chosen a Polymer clay word for The Mother and Child, and had a piece of paper casting that finished this side off perfectly. 

I hadn't gone very far with the tree when I finished the play day

I knew this would be the side to have some kind of button closure for the top and I'd initially  played a bit with this button idea

but it was quite large and once home I added a special piece of fabric for sky and found a smaller button. Then I decided that repeating elements would add unity to the box, so I added Klimt-like swirls in metallic thread to the tree and I found a use for one of my butterfly buttons, as well as adding some more of that lovely gold sari ribbon. 

Then it was time to turn my attention to the butterflies side and top. 

This green butterfly is a lovely paper serviette - top layer glued down and then stitched around. The design below it is another piece of serviette but the floral is a piece of fabric. The blue buttterfly below is cut from fabric and has a different piece of serviette behind it. This is truly a mixed media piece. I really enjoyed stitching with metallic thread.

I was a bit uninspired what to do next until I had a brainwave in the shower one morning about adding some of my lovely crusty tyvek beads and stamping with gold paint. Once I found the beads and saw their colours, I knew immediately how they would be used and I love how the beads add dimension to the butterflies' bodies

I'd known early on that I was going to use the polymer clay word with the green butterfly, but wasn't sure what else...decided to go back go some of my original play with elements (a great reason to take photos of your process - see photo nearer the top of the post) and remembered I wanted to use scrim and sari ribbon which eventually overlapped above but led me to rediscover and use that textured mesh as the perfect element here

My blue butterfly is on the top of my box so needed a closure and nothing too heavy. I thought about my favourite art journal elements and realised I needed some lovely found words to fill in the gaps

Although you won't see it unless you specially look, I decided to add a bit of extra stitching for interest on the base

Then I added fabric lining and another row of outer stitching and I was ready to sew the sides of my box together. 

I love how this project turned out ♥ 

Which side do you like best?