collage folder

i just love this folder.

i had a brilliant day at itchen valley lacemakers this weekend. we have workshops most months, the projects vary greatly,  including lace, embroidery, felt and sticky, glue experimental stuff. this month was definately the latter.

we started the day by dying our fabric with procion dyes (i haven't used these before and i love using new products. i used a combination of turquoise and yellow, the fabric was dry so we needed to use more dye which made the colours more intense.

next we dyed some paper with brusho dye and made some paper batik by scunching up paper and rubbing on distress inks when it had been smoothed out flat again, this produced a really good effect.

next we made some texture stamps and rubbings using piece sof lace and anaglypta wallpaper

the final piece of experimenting we did was some transfer printing, we usedthe pieces of lace, if you have done this you will know how effective it is.

not only did the impression of the lace come out well on the net but the lace was dyed as well, again i used blue and yellow which of course gave me a lovely green colour. i used the best pieces on my folder but still have some left to make another one.

finally we gathered all our bits and pieces together and glued them onto the pelmet vylene that susanne had prepared and folded for us earlier. the fabric  and paper was layed across the vyene in an 'organised' random fashion, it was very sticky, then i glued the pocket inside, this will hold the notebook in place.

 i added the decoration, pieces of transfered lace and i stamped it with a flower  i had taken with me. i used stazon, not recommended for fabric but it seemed to work ok. i also stamped the same flower onto some spare dyed fabric and cut them out. sadly we ran out of time, but i was amazed at how much we had done in the time.

when i got home my hubby was still out so i finished it off. i used  some paper flowers and brads. the last job was to sew all the way around the edges and down the middle. then the final, final job was to make a wrap and toggles. i made fabric beads with some of the dyed  material i had left and then covered them in utee. the cord was a piece i had previously made on my lucet

i cannot believe how many different techniques i have used on this folder it is a real sampler, even some of the lace is hand made.

well we are a lace group after all.