Alphabet Book by Robin Seiz

Happy December to all of you.

Most of us are thinking about gift giving during this time of year. This project I am sharing with you is an alphabet book I made for my 19 month-old granddaughter for Christmas. I absolutely love combining paper (I use the Gelli Plate a lot) and cloth, and hand stitching whenever I can.

I knew I wanted the book to be small enough for her to easily handle; I made it 6”x6” but, of course, you can make one any size you like. I started with a cardboard template to measure the pieces of duck cloth. I find that I don’t really like cutting out material using my cutting mat; it just never works out for me. I cut out 6 pages, one each for the letters A-F. I, also, cut one page which was about 1 inch longer for the cover. Once the cloth was cut, I frayed the edges.

I chose 6 Gelli Prints that coordinated and were lying around on my desk; this is a great way to use your scraps. I cut each print to 5”x5” so they would fit on the cloth page with a margin. I started with the first Gelli Print on the inside of the first page. I knew the outside would be sewn to the cover. I machine stitched the Gelli Print to the page.

Next, I cut 6 - 2 1/4” x 2 1/4” pieces of duck cloth for the letters. I used Julie Fen Balzer’s alphabet Art Foamies and stamped the letters using Versa Fine Clair ink. It did smear a little. The next book, I will use Archival Ink which I think will work better. You could also use acrylic paint mixed with GAC900 as well. I placed the duck cloth letter on the Gelli Print and machine stitched it as well.

The adjacent page to the A, I stamped the Art Foamie Apple. I then hand stitched the detail, but of course you don’t have to do this. The stamp looked good all on it’s own.

I repeated this process for the other 5 pages, using the letters B-F and the Art Foamies Bear Borders, Circle (I used the back of the Button Art Foamie), Halftone Dots and Polka Dot Bar, Elephant (this is a stencil) and Sardines. I added some fun tactile pieces; buttons on the bear, pieces of cloth to C, and some shiny sequence (for the fish scales) to F. Under each picture, I free-motion sewed the lettering describing the object. ie, Bear with Buttons, Circle and Cloth, Dots, Elephant, and Flying Fish.

 

Finally, when the pages were complete, I stacked them on top of each other and sewed them together with book binding thread. Next, I stamped the cover, with A-F Art Foamies and used red embroidery thread to hand stitch the cover to the first and last page of the book.

I have moved onto the next 6 letters in the alphabet. That one, will likely be completed for Christmas. The others will follow when I have the opportunity to do them.

This project was really fun and it’s a great way to use lots of your Art Foamies.

I hope you try to make your own little journal. Post it, and tag me so I can see what you do.

Happy Holidays.
Robin

Don’t Breathe Air, Breathe Life By Wendy Aspinall

HEY FRIENDS! This is Wendy Aspinall and I'm the guest artist this week for Art Foamies. I found fun quotation “Don’t breathe air, breathe life.” Fish don’t breathe air, but are full of life so I wanted to incorporate two things together. I also love Red tin roofs sardine stamps. They are really fun and quirky. So please, enjoy my Plaque project and I hope you’ll try this yourselves.

SUPPLIES 

• Red Tin Roof | Sardines | Foam Stamps - Set of 4
• Wooden plaque
• Paper clay
• Acrylic paints
• Gesso
• Sharp knife
• Sanding paper
• Scrapbook paper
• Glue
• Copper paint
• Drill and wire 18 gauge

STEP BY STEP 

• Roll out paper clay and using the backside of the ArtFoamie as a template cut out four fish. Don’t worry if the edges are rough. I sanded them when dry
• Press into the clay with the ArtFoamie, using the side with the details.

• Let dry on sheet of paper towel. This may take a few days. Turn over half way though so the fish stay straight.
• When completely dry, sand off any rough edges until smooth. Be careful --  the fish are fragile. 
• Add a coat of white gesso. Let dry.

• Paint each fish a different color, but add touches of the other colors to highlight the texture.
• Add the brown and then copper. Paint in eyes with white and black acrylic. Let dry.

• Paint the edge of the wood plaque in the same brown acrylic paint. Distressed the edges with the sandpaper.

• Cut scrapbook paper to cover the back and front of the plaque. Glue in place. 

• Drill two holes for wire hanger.
• Glue on the fish and quote.

Hope you enjoyed my project today! See you again soon!

Wendy