Friday, October 12, 2012

Beaded Art Journals -- Step 1


This morning it was time to get off the computer, stop messing with the camera and actually start making something.  Sometime after my son's last birthday I learned that he was rather disappointed that his sisters each got a beaded art journal for their birthdays and he did not.  I had no idea a 7 year old boy would want an art journal, but I should have known he wouldn't want to be left out.  Since his birthday is coming up soon (along with the holiday craft shows) I figured that I should get to work making him one.  I sold all the ones I had at the Summer Bainbridge Island Artist's Studio Tour.  A woman came into my booth and bought them all.  She had bought one last winter at the studio tour and her friends raved about it.  She came back specifically to buy more for all her artist friends and wanted to make sure I would have more again this winter.  I don't want to disappoint her so I started 28 more.  I got as far as cutting the paper and fabric and fusing some of the fabric on.  I ran out of wonder under so I will have to make a trip to town before I can finish the other half.  Probably best anyways since my fingers are a little tender from getting too close to the hot iron as I stretched the fabric around the paper.

The nice part about these journals is that I can work on the beading away from home.  I create a mixture of beads in a little tin and its very easy to transport.  Most of my work either needs the sewing machine or I have the embellishments all laid out and I can't more it until everything is sewn down.  I'm often waiting in the car for the kids to finish their various activities so I figured I better get something productive prepped.  Now I only need to get the beads together (and I better clean the bathrooms a little before company comes over -- hopefully no one will look too close!) and I am all set to go.

7 comments:

Kristin L said...

I'm not surprised that someone bought all your journals -- I've been using the one you gave me and I love it. Everything looks so good in it. :-)

Deborah Boschert said...

I also LOVE my beaded journal. Seriously... LOVE!

Terry Grant said...

Mine sits on my desk and looks at me, saying "When you gonna put something on my pages?" My answer: "When I can come up with something as beautiful as you are!"

Nikki said...

Thank you guys! I am glad that you enjoy them so much.

Diane Lithgow said...

I have just found your blog. What is fabric paper and how do you make it. do you have instructions or can i find them in a book somewhere.

Nikki said...

Diane,

Thank you for stopping by. Fabric paper is decorative paper that has been glued to fabric, with a layer of tissue paper glued on top. It is then painted with transparent paints so the layers shine through. The fabric backing allows it to be stitched without worrying about perforation. I have a brief tutorial here:

http://nikkiwheeler.blogspot.com/2007/08/making-of-leaves.html

I also include a video tutorial as part of my STITCHED workshop. Which you can learn more about here:

https://www.e-junkie.com/ecom/gb.php?ii=1020949&c=ib&aff=193464&cl=161340

Nikki said...

'm not sure how to make the links live in the comments section. The post about making fabric paper is from August 2007, titled Making of Leaves. You can learn about STITCHED simply by clicking on the link in the sidebar. Sorry about that. One of these days I might figure it all out!? Have a great day.