On my desk Wednesday

Hi everyone

Have finished a journal cover, a photo album cover (both purple and cream color theme) and a masquerade mask for a Year 12 formal in RED!.  Will post finished projects soon.  Have been very busy on the home front with work and lots of upcoming family events.
Have some more projects on the back burner as well as a revamp of my Craft Studio! - Constantly changes, depending on my project, but need a lot more space.  I am very lucky to have a dedicated room, albeit small as I know a lot of people have to work around dining room tables and little nooks

WEDDING ALBUM FOR JESS

Hi all

My young hairdresser, Jess, is getting married in a week's tomorrow!.  She is a fabulous hairdresser and I always walk away from Dextress Hair Face and Body at Murrumba Downs feeling refreshed, and sometimes with a completely new look in colour or style, given my level of confidence in their ability.

Although Jess and I had discussed her upcoming wedding, I did not ask too many questions which may fall into the 'surprise' category. However, I wanted to make something special for her so I phoned the salon owner, Becc and  was able to glean that the dress will be nude/ivory and the touch of colour, aqua.  That is all I needed to get my creative thoughts flowing.  I used an image by 'Designs Galore' for the front cover

I enjoy  'starting from scratch' with an idea and a colour theme and look forward to the end result once I have sorted and found the 'perfect' fabrics/lace and embellishments I want to use.  In this instance I opted for a small 7"x7" D ring album with 6.5" x 6.5" top loading photo pages to be inserted.  This is obviously not going to be the main album, really a keepsake gift with the added advantage of being able to add small items from the wedding, and store in the lace pockets on the inside and back covers. I really enjoyed making this lovely album and was happy with the outcome.  Fortunately, Jess really liked it too.

Finished album

Wrapped and ready 

View from bottom when wrapped - showing the layers of shabby chic

Close up of the image

First page of album - handmade heart on raw ivory silk and canvas

Close up - Printed onto canvas using dark grey font

close up of left hand side top

back of album (showing up very dark in this photo unfortunately)

Inside front cover - pocket made with a pre-ruched wide ribbon

Close up of flower on front

 close up of tassel and flower

'DREAM' SIGN MAKEOVER

I was visiting my favourite brick and mortar store, Bella Paperie and saw this beautiful sign.  Was very eager to get it home and up on my Craft Studio wall

It looked very nice leaning up against my embellishment storage area

Found the 'perfect place' for the sign and hung on the wall

As I am not looking to repaint the room any time soon, I thought it looked a bit lost

So I took it down, pondered a little, and decided to highlight with Faber Castell markers

At this point, I decided to add some flower vines (Prima I think) so attached them to Dream with hot glue and then continued to add colour with my pens

I then highlighted the edges of the letters with a grey shadow and decided to rehang on the wall

Was quite happy with this for a couple of weeks, but still felt it was 'lost' on the wall.

When I was working on my craft mat I liked the background colour with Dream on the top, so decided to mount Dream onto a canvas (92cms x 46cms)

I bought some Kaisercraft wrapping paper to cover the canvas thinking it would be the correct colour I wanted to achieve as my background

and experimented with placement etc

Used Express-it tape to adhere the paper to the canvas

The paper is a lovely colour with a subtle floral pattern, but was still not quite the colour I was trying to achieve, 

so out came the fabric . . . 

This was the colour I was looking for.  I 'think' the fabric is a georgette. Very light - and looked 'just right' over the top of the paper and it gives a lovely texture to an otherwise flat background.

I added the fabric to the canvas with my staple gun using 8mm staples

I added some little butterflies (Pink Paislee - Hope Chest range)

and coloured the centre pearls with Copic marker R21 to blend more with my theme

Side view of finished 'make-over'

I attached Dream to the covered canvas with some brads and re-coloured them with Copic Marker BG11. I secured to the back of the canvas with some hot glue where the brads came through, and also sewed some string through the top scrolls to secure more firmly

Close up view of finished canvas

Added some brads (cut off the backs first) to the corners of the canvas with hot glue to finish the project

The canvas is now on the wall looking beautiful and no longer 'lost'

Unfortunately was unable to get a photo of the true colour of the finished project as the photo was taken in the

afternoon with the sun streaming through the window

M.I.A.

Looking forward to the Easter Break so I can enjoy time at my craft desk. Am really looking forward to completing a journal for myself.

Hope everyone has a safe and Happy Easter.

JOURNALS - ON MY DESK

I have another journal cover project started and this time, will take more step/by/step photos.  In case you are interested, you only need basic skills for machine sewing, and any hand sewing is very easy.   Fabric glue is great to use for lace and other small bits and pieces and I use Helmar's 450 glue for heavier embellishments.

I enjoy all the research and sorting my stash for any new project, and really love it when everything comes together beautifully, as have all of my journals so far. It helps to have a person in mind, but not necessary, but is has assisted me with colour and image selection. 

My 'on the desk' journal cover is for me, so the journey will be very interesting indeed.  Will keep you posted.