Mini Tea Bag Journals

Hello again,

I was on such a roll the other day, playing with tea bags for the Artful Evidence blog challenge, that I decided to make a couple of mini tea bag journals, just for the fun of it.

Here are a couple of flick-through pictures of the completed journals. Actually quite a few photographs, so why not grab a cuppa and enjoy.....

   These are the front covers of the mini journals..... both were tea dyed, edged in Vintage Photo  
   Distress Ink and stitched together down the LHS. The mini on the right, the Calligraphy Journal,
   has machine stitching all round the edge of the cover, and a metal button glued to the centre with
   Glossy Accents, once the stem had been snipped off with wire cutters.

    A close up of the cover for the Gilded Letters mini shows off a little of the tea dying.

    This is the first page of the Gilded Letters mini. A tiny stitched pocket, decorated with tea dyed
    bandage and a computer generated word added to a scrap of card and again edged in Vintage Photo
    DI. I used both Glossy Accents and double sided tape to hold this in place.

    These are the two tiny tags inside the pocket.  Again tea dyed paper, stitched, stamped and edged in
    Vintage Photo DI. The stamped letter was from a background stamp (an Alias Grace stamp, I
    think).  As  you can see they are joined together with a jump ring holding a small key charm.

    Pages two and three have journaling spots which also double as tag pockets.... As you can see I
    finished off my stitching with a tiny tea dyed heart.

    The next page is another journaling pocket, with a tiny tag inside a stitched pocket on the
    adjoining page. The lace trim (rather wonkily stitched on!) was from my stash.

    This is the tiny tag inside that pocket;  Indenture paper with a stamped scrap of tea dyed paper, this
    time using a stamp from Stamping Ups Tiny Tag stamp set.  Again the tag is machine stitched all
    round, with a touch of lace trim stitched to the bottom.

    More journaling pockets on the next couple of pages. I was so pleased how the tea dying came out
    on this parchment paper.

    One more journaling pocket and more tea splotches on the back inside cover for good measure.

    Finally the back cover..... I fell in love with this calligraphy quote when I saw it. So appropriate for
    heralding in the Spring.





Ok, moving on to the second mini, the Calligraphy mini.
This is the first page; a pocket on the front inside cover and a small stitched pocket on the first page with a couple of tags.

    The pocket is decorated with a small strip of tea dyed bandage, layered with tea dyed vellum and a
    bit of lace trim stitched onto the pocket front.

  

   This is the little tag inside the pocket...... A piece of music sheet, backed with tea dyed paper and

   machine stitched around the edge. It's layered up with a scrap of dyed vellum,  dyed and stamped 

   paper with a touch of lace time. 

    The next page is another stitched pocket and tiny tag.  The pocket front was decorated in the same
    way as the previous pocket but this time I included a bit of tea dyed tracing paper to the layering.

    And the tag inside this pocket...........

My next page was slightly different..... simply a stitched piece of lace.

   Yet another stitched pocket for the next page.... this time I edged the pocket with a small strip of
    text stamped ribbon and, using the background alphabet stamp again, I  stamped a single initial
    onto the pocket front in Vintage Photo DI. That colour was a perfect match with the natural stains
    on the bag from the tea.

    A close up of the tiny tag inside the pocket..... indenture paper overlaid with a couple of tickets.

    I love working with indenture paper both in my art and at work and the piece I chose for this tag
    was especially gorgeous as it was indented or de-embossed on the back.......

    And finally, the back of this mini with it's tag inserts......


I hope you enjoyed seeing these little mini journals as much as I did making them. In retrospect, I could have made life easier for myself by choosing square tea bags rather than round, but that's all that was to hand and who needs easy!  Also, going through them now, they seem a little stark so I think I will add some random stamping to some of the pages.

Thanks so much for letting me share my post with you. Please feel free to leave a comment, if you'd like to. It's always lovely to hear from you.

Happy crafting,

Carol. xx

France Papillon: Altered Art Journal

I wanted to share, albeit a little belated,  a project that derived from a couple of France Papillon workshops I went to at AFTH last month.  I say “derived” because it wasn’t quite the intended end result from the workshops!

The first workshop was a coptic bound art journal and the second, called Witches & Apothecaries, was a grungy apothecary’s shelf, complete with tiny bottles filled with potions and spells…. both absolutely gorgeous. Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures of my final projects but if you click on the AFTH link:  http://www.afth.co.uk/france-papillon-workshops---august-2015-693-c.asp   you can see how gorgeous they were.

France's workshops were totally amazing: 101 techniques and products to try and it goes without saying, meeting and being taught by France.  How France had the patience to teach copic binding to a class of 20 women ( including some left handers too) I do not know…lol.

But the end results were not quite me.  The Finnabair elements on the art journal were a tad too distressed and rusted for my liking, and whilst the apothecary’s shelf was adorable it wasn’t something to hang in my craft room. Soooooo I set about altering the front cover of the art journal using the background or backboard from the apothecary’s shelf and stashing away the rusted 

Finnabair embellishments for another day. This is the end result……

 I love it....... There's so much texture on the covers. 

This is a view of the back, which was stamped with one of France's Stamportique designs. I think it's called distressed paint but don't quote me on that. Either way, I couldn't resist it and I've been using it non stop on my art journal pages ever since.

This is the front cover;  layered up with inked and stamped papers and canvas.

Then with plaster and dyed calico or perhaps muslin.

On top of those layers went a distressed clock part and a decorative metal circle embellishments (both Finnabair I think) and standard, every day, common ol'garden washer which France had pre-rusted for us. Can you see the tiny signature heart? France taught us how to make these during the workshop but it's a closed secret. You have to take one of her workshops to find out how they’re made…adorable aren’t they?

For me the colour of rusted metal and tiny blood red hearts are synonymous of France, who I’ve watch work her magic with her JOM posts for ever.  Every time I walk past my "revised" art journal it reminds me of her… it just feels soooooooo France. 

Here are a few more pictures…….

I decided I wanted to add one of the Ranger Word Bands to the front cover but in retrospect I wish I'd done this with a couple of rusted brads now. C'est la Vie.

To pick up the blood red colour of the little heart I added seam binding coloured with Distress Ink.

I absolutely love the texture of all those layers on the front cover now, especially the coloured muslin and the subtle simmer and stamping on both the back and front base covers.

Inside the journal is just plain watercolour paper.... pristine and ready for creativity!!!!

Hope you like my journal and France isn’t peeved by the amalgamation  of her workshop projects… oh, and if you’re wondering what happened to all the little potions and spells bottles from the Witches & Apothecaries wall hanging, well they're snug and happy on my printer’s tray configuration shelf.

Happy crafting and thank you for taking a peek at my post.

Carol. x