2017 #18 Torn, Ripped, Burnt: Sewing Art Journal with HP {by Raquel Burillo}

2017 Topic 18: Torn, Ripped, Burnt

A vintage treat from Raquel today, and she has made you a video too!! Read on!

Hi everyone, it's Raquel here from scrapcosy. Today I'd like to share with you my latest art journal inspired in this fortnight challenge. 

I was craving to try these stamps by HotPicks. They are the most awesome stamps I've seen on the haberdashery subject! Every single image of them is absolutely beautiful. I'm so happy to have them as part of my collection now.

I love vintage style and I love aged items, so to me this challenge was the perfect opportunity to try and get even a much more distressed and aged look on a project. With that objective in mind, I torn some pages and played with my distress (plain and oxides) as well as with infusions, and additionally I decided to incorporate many different textures: lace, metal, buttons, thread and cheesecloth. I enjoyed it very much! As you will be able to see in the  how-to video I created.

I had this idea in my mind to create some holes in my pages and leave the edges curled up and dark, so they could give like a burned effect, and I wanted to show something through the holes. That's when I decided to incorporate some cheesecloth dyed with Golden Sands Infusions and glued on the underlying page, which painted with Chocolate Pudding Fresco Paint. You can still see the words behind the cheesecloth. And the holes were the perfect place to insert my metallic scissors, which are not glued.   

I always love incorporating something playful or interactive in my projects. In this case I decided to add a chain to my scissors so I could move them around between holes but at the same time don't loose them. The chain is attached by a brass safety pin. 

When I see a stamp of a spool of thread, I have the urge of actually loading it with real thread. So I created these three by stamping the 3-spool image thrice: from the first stamped image I cut the spool in the middle, from the second one I cut the left and right spools (in this instance I ignored the middle spool and I just cut the shape of the 2 spools the best I could) and the third one I used it as a base to glue the 3 spools back in place. Instead of thread, for the one on the left I used baker's twine that I frayed. 

Again, I found an opportunity to put some thread through the sewing machine. This stamp is so detailed!

The stamp set also incorporates a lace image which I stamped, cut and then I combined with 2 real laces and used these as a base to ground some other images. I love how these 3 laces stacked look like. Next time I may try to emboss the stamped lace, to try and get more texture. I also added more torn details in the bottom of the pages, some of them were intentional, like these ones:

But this other bit was broken by chance (or by me being to harsh when applying ink in the edges), so I decided to embrace it and keep it. And I also added cheesecloth and paint as I did on the main big holes so everything came together. By the way, here you can see a bit of detail in the background which I created using regular Vintage Photo Distress ink combined with Vintage Photo Distress Oxide and flickering some water.

I love the manikin Image! Here I decided to incorporate the same lace I used before to create a skirt for the manikin. I stamped the image twice. I cut the corset from one of them and this allowed me to glue the little skirt behind and then I glued these on top of the other stamped manikin. It reminded me of playing with dolls and dressing them up, I really had fun with it! By the way, all images are stamped with Vintage Sepia Versafine Ink and then water coloured with only 2 colours of Infusions: Golden Sands and Rusty Car. And then I always like to age the edges with Vintage Sepia Distress Ink, that gets rid of any white edges of the cut images and gives some volume.

A friend of mine (Aida) taught me a trick on how to torn very little pieces of paper, you just need to wet them with water and paper becomes super flexible. That's what I did on that little piece of paper on the left, I did few little cuts with the scissors and then with a wet brush you just touched them and then you can curve the paper. I did the same on the corners. I only "knew" the trick but I hadn't tried till now and OMG, it really works!! Super easy! On another matter, I love these stamps which have empty space where you can sew whatever you want. I, of course, chose to sew mother of pearl buttons, my favourite type.

Another chance to sew few more buttons, but on a bigger piece. By repeating the same techniques or same materials in different places of the project you achieve that all comes together.

And if you want to see how this Art Journal came to life, you can watch the video below.

I enjoyed so much this challenge! It gave me the chance to explore a more grunge side of my vintage style. And the best of this challenge is that it teaches you to embrace imperfection: if something gets broken while you're working on a project, relax, don't throw it away and just incorporate it in the design by breaking few other elements in the same way. It will seem you did it on purpose and it will add a twist. 

I also enjoyed playing with these stamps, they are so much fun to use! I would love to create a little sewing book with them. They would also be perfect to decorate a box so it becomes a proper sewing kit. Or even another option can be creating your DIY mini sewing kit for when you travel. I'm sure it would be the most cute travel sewing kit ever, perfect for a little stocking gift, now that Christmas is round the corner! ;)

If you want to stay in touch, you can follow me in these places. Thanks for reading and see you soon!

Raquel

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Oh my goodness, so many amazing details in this post - we love what you do soooo much! Thankyou!

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The current topic link Topic 18: Torn, Ripped, Burnt will close 17:00 (London Time) Sunday, 10th December 2017, and the winner will be announced 2 hours later at 19:00.

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