Sunday, April 5, 2015

Vintage Embroidery Sampler





Having been inspired by the design team's makes for the April challenge "Through the Looking Glass" at A Vintage Journey, I decided to give this a go.  I was especially intrigued by Jenny's aged mirror , Anne's spectacles, and Alison's bottles - so clearly I was going to use acetate somehow!

I started by creating a faux leather cover, but not in brown. It is spring after all, and I have had enough of brown!  :-)  I envisioned instead a delicate white kid leather, tinged with blue and pink.  Not sure where that came from, but I went with it!

I made faux white leather by taking heavy white card stock, spritzing heavily with Ranger's Ink Refresher (or glycerin for those of you who can find it in your area), and crumpling the paper, then straightening out.  This was repeated several times on the same piece of paper to get a very supple, leathery product.



The blue and pink colors were added by wiping the leathered paper through a mix of Weathered Wood and Spun Sugar Distress Paints, along with a heavy dosing of Picket Fence Distress Paint, all thoroughly sprayed with water.









Now to the acetate bit.  I wanted an aged look, so I painted a piece of old packaging with Clear Rock Candy crackle, and once dry, pounced it with Mushroom and Silver Mixative alcohol inks.



Love the crackle.  I envisioned this piece as the first page in the sampler..... which I would make along the lines of Brenda's wonderful card.








I created some pages from heavy white card stock, aging both sides with the technique I learned from Laura Bomber, and which has become one of my favorite paper treatments.  I used Frayed Burlap and Weathered Wood Distress Inks, along with Picket Fence Distress Paint.


I decided to use the Baroque steel rule die to create the pages.  Since I wanted to frame them, I used  the corresponding mini-Mover and Shaper to create the aperture, after first lightly painting cream card with Weathered Wood Distress Paint, spritzing with water and a very light spray of gold mist, and then embossing.  Below is one of the inside covers, as I needed to strengthen the "leather" outside covers.  Faux leather remains fairly pliable due to the glycerin, even upon drying.


Here is an outside cover, now cut after being glued to the embossed inside.







I created the frames from the embossed card stock, and sandwiched the pages between them for a total of eight pages.  I placed eyelets in the covers and pages, through which I would thread my ribbon (seam binding colored with Weathered Wood Distress Stain).







The aged "glass" acetate was placed as the first page, to "protect" the title page....


which I created by printing one of my favorite fonts, Emily Austin, onto tissue paper and fixing to the sampler's page with matte medium.


The other pages were stamped in Wendy Vecchi's Tree Branch archival ink with little stamps that resembled something that might be embroidered floral images.... I think these are called tea bag stamps, as they are about that size - I got them when I first started collecting stamps.  Many of them have an image at an angle, so that four placed together would make a pleasing "tiled" look..... but I chose mostly images that stood on their own.  The images were then colored with non-reactive pens, as I wanted to coat everything with matte medium once the book was complete.  The pages were further aged with smudges of Frayed Burlap Distress Ink, which was also used to distress the edges of the frames.





So that is my little book....

 I will be entering this into the following:
and of course Brenda's Visual Journey!  Thank you so much for stopping by, and please do leave a comment - I love hearing from you and appreciate each one! 



11 comments:

  1. Oh my gosh Lynn your sampler is just darling. I love how you have created and aged your papers and leather for the cover and all the techniques you have used. C'est magnifique. Thanks again for sharing at as part of our visual journeys and also thanks for linking to a Vintage Journey, I'm so glad you found us.
    I hope you are having a great Easter.
    hugs Brenda xxx

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  2. Lynn, I love your inventive mind! Your book appears like a shell to me... And of course it's a precious pearl inside! By the way thanks so much for adding your talent and joining us at Our Créative Corner.

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  3. Oh Lynn this is completely BRILLIANT!!! So many cool techniques and great explanations of your process, I totally love everything about this! The shape of the book, the faux leather in those colours (so pretty) the inside pages with those sweet stamps, the gorgeous ribbon, well just everything! I was really in need of some inspiration this morning, and this was just the ticket, so thanks for that too!

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  4. What a wonderful little book Lynn! Your 'leather' covers are beautiful - love the white/blue/pink soft coloring and the pretty shape- your aged acetate is perfect for the challenge! Thank you so much for joining us in the AVJ Through the Looking Glass Challenge!

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  5. I learned some new techniques with this project thanks for the inspiration. Thank you for entering it in our challenge at Our Creative Corner. Happy Spring! xxx Laurie

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  6. Just taking in the wonderful textures and effects you've achieved here Lynn. The faux suede (a personal favourite) looks fantastic in this lighter version and the faux aged glass is superb. And what a creative concept to put together this gorgeous sampler! Thank you so much for joining us at A Vintage Journey and Frilly and Funkie. Jenny x

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  7. This is such a sweet project. Love all the fabulous techniques you used to create this little beauty. Thanks for joining us at Frilly and Funkie.
    Hugs!
    Cec

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  8. Hi Lynn :-) what a beautiful album you have created, wonderful details and stamping. The faux suede looks fantastic as does your embossing. Thank you for joining in with us at AVJ this month and for the lovely comment you left on my blog.

    Best wishes Annie x

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  9. What a fabulous album - it really looks like a leather covered, embroidered book. Thank you for all the individual steps - some new techniques for me! Thank you for joining us at A Vintage Journey for our Through the Looking Glass Challenge this month. Jennie x

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  10. That is so beautiful, love how you aged the acetate and how it just gives a glimpse of the wonderful quote behind it! A gorgeous album :O)

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  11. Such a fabulous album, Lynn - and I love the vintage glass effect on your acetate - beautifully done! Thanks so much for playing along at The Artistic Stamper and for joining us on A Vintage Journey.
    Alison xx

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