Busy times filling up my Etsy shop!

Hello friends....
I've been enjoying the redwoods surrounding my studio this summer...busy as a bee, the doors and windows wide open, creating pretty lacy books and journals to fill my Etsy shop.

Please feel free to 'pin' any of these onto Pinterest!

This is a sweet covered journal, perfect for your gratitude thoughts. Found here on Etsy.

 Another reusable covered journal.... fits the standard composition book. Found here.

Little Girls in the Garden

This little lacy book is chock full of beautiful vintage laces and trims. So much fun creating this sweet little book featuring Girls in the Garden. 11 pages, one with a pocket for your keepsake or sweet memories. One standout in this book is the beautiful red tatted trim! 

Measures a bountiful 5x7" with tons of lace peeking out! 
Just a sample layout... sweet pocket on the left.

Ooolala Naughty Dancers, lace album, lace collage book, Mixed Media Fabric book, Shabby Chic Lace Book!

Ooolala! These ladies of the 1920s were all about dancing! Ziegfeld Follies ladies, a great inspiration for this fabric and lace journal. Each page speaks for itself! Each page, a collage of vintage photos, laces, trims, and feathers! 

Measures approximately 6x7" with lots of lace and feathers peeking out!

Gypsy Soul,

I was blessed with a vision of how this book was to be, about the message of love and acceptance, and the wild abandon our ancestors, out 'Gypsy' grandmothers may have lived their lives! A message we can all appreciate today!

On each page, you'll find a vintage image of a Gypsy friend, gazing at us through the window of time. Each image has been printed on quality linen paper, then glazed with a layer of natural bees was, known as an 'encaustic' application. Each layout also supports a pocket in which you'll find an adorned, interactive tag, quoting the wisdom best remembered from a Gypsy Life.

ELEVEN decorated pages, many pockets and tags.

May you be blessed with the 'Gypsy Spirit'!!!

Book measures a supple 8x10, and is 4" thick! Lots of jewels, laces, trims, all in rich, rich color! Some laces and/or trims were specially dyed.

 Just one sample layout... there are MANY tags and pockets in this lacy book! See the Etsy post for more pictures.

Girls sewing book

I learned to sew as a young girl in the fifties, at my mother's feet of course. She'd provide the scraps as I hand stitched dresses for my dollies.

Hopefully, you'll remember those times when looking through this sweet little lace book. Created with vintage laces and trims. The last page is a pocket page created from two antique little girl dresses.

Measures a bountiful 5x7" with tons of lace peeking out!

So, these are just a few of the lacy creations this month. Thanks for looking.
Sweet blessings to you!
xoxo Chris

'FAMILY' A Family Weddings Lace Book

This week my dear cousin is retiring from years with the Sheriff's  Department. With the help of her mom, I was able to photocopy her family wedding photos. This has been my MOST FAVORITE lace book project ever! Probably because it was inspired and motivated by LOVE!

Enjoy the eye-candy!
Mostly created with vintage wedding laces and trims. The pink rolled roses here are circa 1920.

 More 1920 flowers, plus a vintage rosary. You can see here, the foundation made with a beautiful set of vintage linen napkins. You'll see the beautiful crochet borders peeking out on most the pages.

 All the photos were photocopied onto Linen Paper, then I applied an encaustic glaze (hot wax).

Behind this vintage glove is a pocket. The 1920's 'lily' flower reflects the bride's beautiful lily bouquet.

 Closeup of a rolled rose made with vintage bridal satin, layers of laces, and some Mulberry paper roses. Also a vintage pearl necklace.

 I love all these buttons, each covered with satin and veil netting.

 The laces on this two page layout came from my cousin's wedding dress! The beautiful button sleeve forms a pocket.

 Many doilies and bits of lace make up this flower, topped with a vintage broach.
(Tip: if you want to create a doily flower, consider cutting out the centers of the lower doilies! The centers wouldn't show, plus, you have more doilies to work with on other projects!)

 Bits of wedding laces, collaged to what felt 'right'.

 Tucking in those lace snippets.

 The little Mulberry flower bouquet on the bottom of this page reflects the pink roses and baby's breath this bride carried.

 Closeup of the layers on the front cover. The beaded flower is a newer trip, but kept with the vintage theme. And, I just love those rolled roses from the 1920s. Found these, years ago, at the estate of a retired milliner. Her  supplies were cataloged and dated 1910-1930s! I'm now down to my last dozen flowers. Didn't mind using them here since this has been a work of love.

 The thick spine...

 View from the top. I love, love,love the layers of laces peeking out!

As I said, this was a labor of LOVE! I'm so excited to give it to her later this week.
Thanks for viewing, Sweet Blessings, Chris

On a roll with two more insert pages....

Seems like I just can't wait to get into my sewing studio and assemble these foundational inserts for my fabric & lace CQ prayer book. It seems to be taking on a life of it's own as I play with the book, inserts, and embellishments.
This is my forth block or insert (I need 15) made yesterday. You can't see the deep velvet colors, but the foundation is crazy quilted around the message. This is one of the pocket pages, the pocket being the folded crochet doily on the bottom 1/3. All the lace on this piece is vintage! Just waiting now for it's embellishments.

 Now, this insert is a slightly different style, using layers of vintage fabrics from several dresses. There's an oversize piece of tulle that I plan to fold back onto itself, embellishing with silk flowers. I think I'll try to use only the vintage silk ribbons and flowers from my stash I mentioned in a previous post. I'm thinking that on some pages, I want to stay true to pure vintage. I love this angel picture. She's stitched onto a piece of upholstery fabric, which is a pocket as well. This book will have many, many pockets to tuck in prayers and wishes.

You can't see it fully, nor get the effect of the layers of laces and tulle dripping off the end of the page. I love the way it looks when I lay it in the book against the deeper colored pages.

New Prayer Book... Work in Progress

This idea has been floating around my mind for a while now, ever since my 'Votes for Women' fabric/lace book. This time, I wanted to create a finer book, without all the raw edges. After making 20 purses, I'm partial to finished seams. So I created the cover and three signatures for my new book.
I chose deep, saturated colors for the foundation pages. The cover is just a beautiful upholstery fabric my granddaughter found for free at a garage sale! 

 You can barely see (above) the lace on the ends. It's beautiful hand made lace I took from two vintage Irish tea towels.
This view is of the top of the book... no raw edges!

 Inside the front cover showing the first signature. I had just enough of this fabric to create the signature. 15" by 19" gave me my roughly 6x8" book.

 This is funny.... the second signature is a beautiful soft forest green fabric I cut from a home-made runner bought at a garage sale a few months ago for $1. From that runner, I've made a purse, Christmas stocking, and now another signature for my book.... for ONE DOLLAR! (It sure doesn't look forest green in this picture!)

 I chose the third signature fabric just because I like it. The flower looks so nice here, but of course, it will be covered by the lacey pages. It's kind of the way I feel about the insides of my bags, I want things to be as lovely on the inside as the outside. It's all about intention.

 So, there will be 15 (!!!) inserts! Here is the first basic layout. I will be finishing off, embellishing with silk ribbon flowers, vintage jewelry, and what ever inspires me. What you are seeing is only the foundation. Oh... don't you love the squiggly stitches? First time I've used that stitch on my fabulous workhorse Janome sewing machine!

 This book will be filled with beautiful laces, stitches, embellishments, and many, many pockets to hold prayer cards and wishes.  I found an amazing Etsy seller, Green Valley Studios. I spent hours yesterday morning just looking at all of her lovely digital art. Her amazing deal, I bought TEN digital sheets for just $20. They are going to work great on my pocket pages. Do check her out!
'Hope' is the first pocket page I created. I'm imagining some silk embroidered flowers across the doily that is draped over the top. The lace sticking out of the right side is a coffee-dyed Venise lace collar.

 The third insert page is an inspiration page, showing my favorite holy card image from my youth. I always felt the presence of my Guardian Angel (still do!), so she had to come next. I want a number of crazy quilted pages, so here's the first. It's fun to work small, with scraps I'd thrown into my bin. I mounted the little CQ onto a partial vintage hanky with beautiful crochet trim. The bottom is from a vintage tea towel. And to finish the top and right sides I've over-stitched a beautiful vintage crochet lace. The lacy thing on the left is another coffee stained lace applique. This too, awaits embellishments.

Thanks for looking at my WIP! I welcome any suggestions!
Sweetest Blessings

A New Look, plus this week's work

So, I'm going for a new look here. Something softer that blends with the cloth side of me. Please tell me if you like it? Any suggestions?

In the mean time, here is the work I completed this week. Been a busy girl, with many hours lost in the wonderland of fabrics, laces, ribbons and buttons. I'd love to hear your comments. Oh, and if you are interested in purchasing any of these creations, please email me!

First, here are a few Composition Journals that I covered in the paste papers I made last fall. I love the colors. And I love paste paper! I'm selling these in my shop (Boulder Creek Antiques & Art) for $12 each.

Now, here is my Lace Album.... finally completed. I'm really happy with it... but of course, now I know how I'd do things different. It's a lovely book. I've already put it into my shop, and will probably list it on Ebay and Etsy. I'll create live links when I do. And, you're always welcome to email me directly.

So here it is.....
This is the front cover. I printed the images on muslin using the freezer paper technique. Much more economical than paying $10 for three sheets of printer fabric! All the laces you see are vintage, sewn onto upholstery fabric pages.

Here are some pictures of the inside pages. I embellished with a few vintage pins, buttons, and flowers I made from vintage satin.

You can see a few little pockets here and there... perfect to tuck in a little note or something.

 This page, on the right used several vintage hankies to create three individual tuck spots.

 I'm proud of the page on the left here. I created my own fabric by first using Photoshop and some vintage postcard images. I printed the image on fabric, then cut them and quilted them into a deep pocket page. The flower is another of the satin flowers I made. After cutting a number of circles, I singed the edges which made them curl, sewed a button in the center... tadaa, a rosette.

 This vintage, hand crochet doily made a beautiful back cover. It feels so great in my hands.

On a roll this week. I created another Composition Journal Wrap with vintage lace and fabrics. It started with a vintage hanky on top of a rectangular doily that just fit the 7x9 size journal. Then lots and lots of lace and another satin flower. (I listed this for $22, do you think that's too much?)

 Here's a pocket inside the front cover, perfect to keep your pen in.

 And, I just couldn't leave the back cover alone.... so I stitched row after row of different lace trims.

Yes, there's more!!! I just can't keep out of the laces! I had lots of bits and pieces left, so I stitched together some sweet little hang tags. (I put these in the shop for $4.50 each.)

Well, that's enough for one week. I just loved playing with all the fibers!
 PLEASE LEAVE YOUR COMMENTS! Thank you and SWEET BLESSINGS!