This book is for the birds!

Many of you have watched me put these pages together for days on end.  Now it was time to decorate them.

To continue my recycling efforts, I cut these birds from left over gifted scrapbook paper.  I didn't have enough for two the same color,

but recently I had moved my mica powders, Twinkling H2O's, and Radiant Pearls to a much more convenient area so I could easily reach them.  I chose this over the H2Os because these were given to me by a dear friend who has since left my life.  I thought it would be appropriate to use it in this way.  I colored over both these birds using the Radiant Pearls, and turned them into a more similar color.  After an exhaustive search, I don't believe Radiant Pearls are made anymore.

I seem to have forgotten to show the next things I did.  I first sewed everything in place.   Only items that could not be sewn were glued.  Once I had sewed everything in each of the pages, I added Pellon (also known as Wonder Under) to the back of ALL FOUR pages.  I wanted to make sure these didn't come apart.  Overkill is better when you are making something for someone else.

Next, I ironed the pages back to back, turning the four pages into eight once they were sewn down the middle, very much like my scrappy visual journals.  The only difference is, these pages were each sewn separately before being "glued" back to back using Pellon.  I had to make sure everything I wanted on each page was sewn before I did that, though. Unlike my scrappy journal pages, there was no way I wanted my sewing to show through to the opposing page.

Here is the front cover for Birds.  Because this was a fun project, I'm joining Wendy from Wendy's Art and Craft Journal who is our host at Art Journal Journey this month. And since these birds looked like they belonged to springtime, I'm also joining my friends at Try it on Tuesday, whose theme is Springtime, and Moo-Mania and More, whose theme is Spring Fever.

This is the back cover.  The birds suffered a bit when I laid the damp pressing cloth over the page.  For those of you who are curious, the book began as 10 inches wide by 8 inches long (25,4 X 20,32 cm).  Once folded, as you see here, it was 5 inches wide and 8 inches long (12,7 X 20,32 cm) which falls within the guidelines set by Art Journal Journey.

To begin, the "B" and "R" (as well as the "S" not shown above) were cut from circles of leather that had been used to make badges at a friend's summer camp.  The leftover circles not used at the event were going to be thrown away, so I took them.  I've used a few off and on over the years, but these turned out great.

I got the "B" backward in the die cutter to the correct side of the leather, but I liked it because it accepted the Radiant Pearls beautifully.  The "I" was a sheet of paper that I glued in place and colored with another color of Radiant Pearls, just as I did with the "S" below.  The birds in ovals were from a set of stickers I was gifted with.  I sewed them in place because they were old enough, the sticky side of the sticker wasn't sticky enough to keep them from coming away from the fabric paper.

I sewed the "D" in place, which had been colored with Radiant Pearls, but lost much of its color when I used the damp pressing cloth needed to adhere the backs of these pages.

The purple on the "S" was very faint, but eventually it stayed.  So different from the color of the "I," which shows how different materials behave so differently even when the same product is used.  Another bird found in my stash was sewn to the bottom.  You KNOW how much I love cardinals.

I held these birds in place by sewing around them using variegated thread. 

I gave each bird wings, too.

I think this is out of focus because I didn't stamp it clearly.

It took four tries to get Birds of a Feather stamped properly.

Every bird sings its own song came together quickly.  These three red rubber UMs were purchased from and made by Joanie at Mrs. O'Leary's, who runs a wonderful mixed media shop in my town.

Since I spent so much time showing the cover, front and back, I'll be back tomorrow with the remainder of the book.

For Day 18 of 22, I assembled the fabric paper book I have been working on.  I recycled three pieces of leather destined for the trash, and repurposed two sheets of colored scrapbook paper, as well as stickers gifted me.   Only the glue (E6000) and variegated threads were new.  I think I spent more time changing thread on my machine than I did most anything else!

Thank you for joining me on this quest.  I am so grateful for your support of my art and recycling efforts.  Please also join me at Art Journal Journey, Try it on Tuesday, and Moo-Mania and More.