The Rosa of Cairo

In the Round Robin on Vintage Ancestors, the next book I worked in is Teri’s book. All about this famous tailoring studio, which appears in Paris after the intervention of another RR player! Thanks Sue. 
In my pages, the Sheik of Arabia comes to the studio, meets Auntie Rosa, falls in love with her, and marries her.
Not until he orders her wedding gown to be made by the studio. Hence the introduction of ARABesques, and damasks in Paris, which became all the rage at in the 19th century.
This is how she became the Rosa of Cairo.



The left page shows the scroll that tells the story.


The scroll ‘holder’ has a story. I was browsing on the internet to find some arabic text. And I saw this scroll holder which just triggered my mind. Yesterday, a wonderful neighbor gave  me a bag of goodies. You know, broken jewelry, unloved scarves and earrings. And  this outrageous pen. We both looked at each other, wondering what I could possibly do with it.
Well, not 24 hours later, this wonderful pen has become a jewelled scroll holder! Don’t you just love synchronicity?

And here is Auntie Rosa herself, quite transformed, and quite glamorous on her wedding day…

Beautiful people and a tutorial

I am humbled by the number of gracious people who stopped by my blog and took the time to comment on my work. You ladies rock! I am so happy that you find pleasure in what you saw.
And thank you to all the glorious women who became followers. I can’t wait to get to know you. I’ve made many wonderful friends online already. What a great way to connect!
It’s my pleasure to announce that I’m launching a lace kit so you can make one of the fabric lace pages like this one:

The kit will contain everything that is needed: a choice of two images printed on fabric, the doillies, a piece of antique lace from my private collection, vintage buttons, a piece of jewelry, everything. Just go to my store to get a complete kit.
It will work along with the tutorial that I post on this blog.
And since so many of you are interested in the tutorial, let’s start TODAY!!!!!
The first thing you need for your fabric collage is a great image on fabric. Yes, you need lace and more lace, but if your image is not right, your collage will not be stunning.

There are many ways to get a good image on fabric. The fastest and most expensive way is to buy your fabric ready to go from brands like Jacquard, Claudine Hellmuth, Fredrix. You just Google them and you will have an infinite choice of material, such as canvas, cotton, silk, organdy. And a choice of prices too. These are ready to run through your printer, either laser or inkjet. You can find most brands at Michaels or Joann’s, and most definitely online, Amazon being a quick source.
The next method which I like to use, gives great results, and is inexpensive, is to create my own fabric sheets ready for the printer. That way, I have the choice of the materials and fabrics I’ll use.
You need some freezer paper and an iron. Any old brand of freezer paper will do. Freezer paper is found in most grocery stores in the same aisle as foil, plastic wrap, etc. Make sure it says FREEZER paper. Do not use wax paper, it’s not the same thing and wax paper won’t work.
It’s best if your fabric is ready to go. By that, I mean have it coffee or tea stained already, and ironed flat.
Take a long sheet of the freezer paper, and with the glossy side up, iron your fabric on the glossy paper. The glossy is a very mild type of wax that will bond your fabric to the freezer paper.

You can even buy your freezer sheets already cut to 8.5 x 11. These are $8.95 for 30 sheets.

If you have not bought precut freezer sheets, then take a blank sheet of printer paper, and place it on your freezer/fabric. Cut around the freezer paper, although slightly smaller than the freezer paper is better. Make sure there are no stray bits of threads that could get caught in  your printer.
Voila. All you have to do now is run your freezer/fabric through your printer as you would with paper. Select an image that has good contrast. You can manipulate your image in any free image processor online, to make sure it has good contrast.
Some printers will have a setting for printing on fabric. My HP does.
Then print. Once the freezer/fabric comes out, gives it a minute for the ink to dry, then peel the fabric from the freezer paper. Your image is now ready to sew onto the fabric collage.
Sometimes, you’ll find that the ink is still a bit faint. Golden make a great product, that of course, being Golden, is not cheap! (

They are a product designed specifically for printing on unusual surfaces. You apply a coat all in one direction. Let it dry. Then apply a second coat going against the previous direction. Let dry. Then you end up with the same fabric you could have paid a fortune for at the art store. It definitely makes a difference, even if you only apply one coat.
Here is a pretty lady that is free for you to use in  your fabric collage. Do come back for the next step of making your collage: preparing your fabrics. In the meantime, go through your stash and start pulling pretty fabrics. Or go to my store to get a complete kit.

Email me if you have any questions. I’m happy to help.
And  you can still enter my blog giveaway. See the post immediately below. The draw is Feb 1. 
See you soon!

What women want

I took Collage Camp with KC Willis and adore her methods. New tools to add to my lace books.

I made a journal which I call: What women want. KC uses a theme to guide her in designing her art. She seems to focus on Wild West. Since I’m French, lovely women of yesteryear are more my heritage.

Front cover of book, 8x10 on raw canvas:

Each left page contains a text relevant to the theme.

Details:

 

Details:

Back cover:

I purchased the images from an Etsy digital supplier. They are heat transferred, a new approach for me, I usually just print my images directly on the fabric. The antique and vintage laces are from my collection. It’s such a pleasure to see them out in this book. It was a fantastic class.

Thank you KC.

Everything and the kitchen sink

It’s true, I’ve been having so much fun this summer, I have not posted for a long time. But I certainly have been productive. So here goes:

First, I made a gorgeous book for my friend Lillian, with her fabric and choice of ribbon. It’s for our Asia RR.

I also made one for Sue. I use the french ribbon binding technique, so you can open the book flat when you’re working in it. Don’t you love Sue’s cover? It’s really beautiful in person:

 

 

 

 

 

 

I also took Mary Ann Moss’s new online class. Of course it’s fabulous, all sorts of new binding techniques, she’s a gem. Here’s one book I made for a present. I used an old german dictionary which I gutted, and I replaced the pages with vintage ledger paper and some pages from a 1829 book!!!! It was fun!

I also signed up for a Cabinet Card swap, where we decorated the cards on the theme of clocks and Time. We were to send 7 and receive 7 back, bound in a little book. Here’s my series:

I also entered a fabric journal swap where we were to decorate 15 tags on the theme of Paris and using a dress form. We’re sending our partners a fabric strip, 14x9 and a piece of lace, too, so they can vary the pages in their own book and I’ll receive 14 pieces to make a book. Here are some of my tags. They are larger than normal tags, made of fabric, but they will all fit on the 9x7 pages.

In Mary Ann’s new class, she uses old Victorian photo albums. I found my first one today. This will make a unique journal:

And finally, here’s to Teri, who forwarded an article from CPS, about what to do with what’s left (on your art table at the end of a project)! Fabulous project. It’s 9x12, and I like the way it looks:

Missing Paris– grunge paintings

My wonderful friend –you know who you are- shared with me her techniques for grunging up a painting. This was great fun. They are both very urban. Here is the Paris interior, one of those ‘hotels particuliers’, meaning mansion, not a resting place for tourists…

I”ve seen many walls like this when I lived there.

Don’t you just smell that musty smell of old castles and Paris apartments? It measures 11x14 on stretched canvas.

This next one is “Urban grunge”. Could be any town, really. Paris too.

The textures are really fabulous. I hope Blogger makes the painting justice. It is on stretched canvas, 16x20.