Another Swap

I have been making 'pretty' paper ...

... this is made from brown wrapping paper and I followed instructions in Sarah Lawrence's new book called Stitch, Cloth, Shimmer and Shine. It's a lovely book full of inspiring mixed media ideas. As many of you may know Sarah died suddenly last year before the book was published, but it is a great testimony to her and her work.Sarah ran Craftynotions - home of many great products - with her husband.

The paper turned out beautifully and I made this from one sheet of it ...

I backed it with bondaweb and card and another layer of fabric and stitched around the edges to create a book cover. The square and heart motifs were cut from fabric paper (made following Beryl Taylor's instructions in her book Mixed Media Explorations - another brilliant and inspiring artist). I layered them and machine stitched them to the cover and added a few beads to the hearts. The inside pages are a sort of junk journal and I made three signatures and stitched them to the spine by hand. Then I made and added the charm. The book is for a swap so this will be heading off to my swap partner tomorrow.

The photographs don't really do justice to the 'shimmeriness' of the papers so if you want to see them a little closer you may want to check out the video below. You can also have a look at the inside of the journal.