Goodies From Down Mexico Way

I feel so incredibly blessed to have met so many nice people from Mary Ann's classes,  Full Tilt Boogie and Remains of the Day.   Donna is one of them.   She is not only a very nice person but a very talented one (click on her name to see her artwork).

She sent me these three beautifully decorated envelopes filled with art goodies.    Am I lucky or what.   I feel so blessed to be a part of this wonderful group of artists and friends.

This is the front of the envelopes.

This is the back of the envelopes.

On the left side are pieces of beautiful oil cloth and a bag of gorgeous fibers.   In the center are a lot of pages from an old Montgomery Ward catalog and sitting on top of them are an optical lense, metal frame and a ton of charms.   On the right side is a ton of Mexican ephemera and other items....just wonderful.  

Thanks again Donna, I love and appreciate everything you sent.



SUDOKU GAME BOARD BOOK

This is my third book I have made with an open spine binding for my FTB class.   This time I cut up a Sudoku game board and used it for the covers.   I am pleased with how it came out although it is not perfect but good enough for me. 

It measures about 7" square and is just perfect for a little book to journal/collage/write in.   For the binding tapes, I used black leather pieces and then sewed Cavallini paper tape on top of it.   Then I added some Sudoku wood numbers on the edge for decoration because they are a part of the game.   For a closure I just used a girl's elastic hairband which was the perfect size to hold it all together.   There are seven signatures in it mainly comprised of watercolor, cardstock music sheets and ledger papers.  

The front of the book without the closure.

The front of the book with the elastic closure

The Spine

The Back Cover



 The following pictures are some of the pages in the book.  

Thanks everyone for taking the time to visit my blog and I hope you have a great day.

We Have a Winner

Boy that week went fast.  Thanks for stopping by my blog everyone and entering my giveaway.  

The winner of the Japanese Screw Punch is..........

DRUMROLL PLEASE........

                     
                                     NANCY FRISCH

Who Said:

"I am definitely one of Mary Ann's FTB craft monkeys! Wow is this a great class. I used a nail and the phone book for ROD class thinking I should wait on the screw punch to see if really need one. I really need one! Thanks for you thoughtful giveaway!
Nancy"


Please contact me Nancy via email with your mailing address and I will get your Japanese Screw Punch out to you this week.

A Special Gift

Through my Full Tilt Boogie class, we have a great Full Tilt Boogie Yahoo Group.   It is just one of my favorite groups (along with Remains of the Day one) ever.   I have meant a lot of great people and learned a ton of stuff.....all thanks to Mary Ann Moss of Dispatch From LA.   You can read all about her wonderful classes on her sidebar and if you do, you won't regret it.  

One day I posted to the group about needing some elastic cording with the barbs on them.   Susie responded to me and offered to send me some of her stash but said that she would go looking for some as she is in an area (lucky her....I am so jealous) where she has all the big art stores.   Well it was just incredible how many places she went to searching for this for me but wasn't able to find any so she sent me what she had in her stash.    She went way above and beyond the call of duty on this one.

So, I told her I would send her some of my Vintage Die Cuts that she liked a lot and some vintage papers, etc.   

On Monday, she related that she had mailed me a package and included a "little something" with the elastic cording.  

On Wednesday, I received her package and just about fell over when I opened it up this package of a "little something' and saw this beautiful handmade bag.   And inside it was a bag of ephemera goodness.   I got to thinking when I received this that I was the one who is supposed to be sending a fabulous gift to her for all that she did for me.    Wow....I am still beyond surprised at her unbelievable kindness to me.  

Here is a picture of this beautiful bag Susie made.   As you can see she is a very talented mixed media artist and makes some gorgeous pieces of art.   Click on her name and it will take you to her blog.  

Isn't this just gorgeous.   Wow, I love it.   I am going to make a journal that will match the bag so that I can put the journal inside it. 

And all the ephemera she sent along with some of the elastic cording she sent.   Way too cool.

Thanks Susie.......I love it and it means a lot to me.

Have a great day everyone.



Another FTB Book

This is my second practice book for the Full Tilt Boogie class taught by Mary Ann Moss over at Dispatchfromla.   I just used a children's book which works great to practice on before I try it on my nice Antique Photo Album.    I went into this class thinking I was going to learn how to do three different kinds of books and ended up with learning how to do five and a lot of journaling tips.   I absolutely was crazy about her Remains of the Day Journal which is completely different from this new class but I am even more excited about this class.   And what is really cool about this class is the Yahoo Group that goes with it.   We do swaps, share information and connect with people all over the world.   I have made so many new friends from this group and look forward to making more.

In order to get the straps wide enough for the book, I sewed two pieces of ribbon together and them sewed some decorative tape on top of the ribbon.   And then once I had everything glued down, I glued on some buttons that matched everything perfectly.   I am still thinking about what closure I am going to do for this book but might not do any.   Will have to see how fat it gets after I start journaling in it.    

Here's some pictures of the cover, the binding, the back and a lot of pages that I sewed together using all kinds of leftover items and thrift store finds.    No journaling has been done yet but once I start doing that, I will show what I did.

This is not all of the pages but will give you a random selection of some of them I made.   They are so incredibly fun to sew up and I am sure will be fun to journal on.   You will see that there are a lot of spaces to write on, there are a lot of pockets to put things in and spaces for photos.   If I find I need some more clear space, I will just gesso over something so I can write on it or put more pictures, postcards, etc. on it.   I just used stuff that I had on hand from thrift store trips, some paint chips, some cardstock, vintage papers, telephone message pads, security envelopes, etc. 

If you haven't already, please leave a comment on this post for a chance to win a brand new Japanese Screw Punch.

 

JUST BECAUSE.....GIVEAWAY

I belong to this great group of ladies who are taking Mary Ann's class, Full Tilt Boogie.   We are learning so much and having so much fun.   About a week ago, Mary Ann gave away a Japanesse Screw Punch for one lucky winner and, at the time, I thought that was such a cool thing to do. You can use an awl to punch the holes for the book binding but it really is so much easier to use a Japanese Screw Punch.


After thinking about it for a few days, I thought I needed to do something myself so I purchased a Japanese Screw Punch on my own to give away.    I got it at Bonnie's Best, an online store, which sells a ton of stuff and it is all fantastic.    I am not affiliated with her at all except for the fact that I have gotten some great tools and supplies from her for over 12 years.

The Japanese Screw Punch comes in a neat case and has 7 bits from Size 1.0 to 4.0.   There are fakes out there but this is the real deal.

The only thing you need to do to enter this giveaway for a chance to win a brand new Japanese Screw Punch is leave a comment by July 17th.   I will use the random generator and announce it here on my blog on July 18th.   

Good Luck everyone. 

Boogie On

Well this has been a long time coming but I finally got a book done for my Full Tilt Boogie on-line class with Mary Ann Moss.     This is an incredible class and I highly recommend it.   What's nice about this online class is that you can go at your own pace and the videos are available  for a long time after the initial four weeks of  lessons are presented.     

This is practice book #1  and I have practice book #2 started.        After I do a couple practice books, I will then do my vintage photo album.   Then I will go on to the next style of book.  

In this particular book I used a children's book called Anne of Green Gable from a thrift store.  The binding strips are of fabric.   The pages are a combination of pages I received from my Remains of the Day page swap and some vintage papers I added.   I also added some heavy cardstock pages for the beginning of each signature so I did not have to glue the decorated swap pages together.   There are six signatures.

 I hope you all have a great evening.   We are having monsoon rains and lots of wind.