Hard at work

What have you been up to?  I've been working on my craft room, and trying to come up with some family summer plans, business summer plans, and trying to figure out how to make time for writing.  I've also been supporting friends who are going through hard times, which can be time-consuming as we all know.  And, doing a little bit of creating.

Here's what my work desk looked like this morning.

I've been experimenting with glues and stuff; the journal cover above has a base of an old primer, which I embellished with crochet lace, seam binding, a cute Fleur de lys jewel, and a paper linen motif of a knight and lady.  I used the paper linen because I liked the way the texture was similar to the linen book cover.  But I've since decided it's kind of a waste of the (expensive) paper linen; first of all, it bubbled a little underneath from the medium I used, and, secondly, it turns out looking just like paper anyway.  See, I learned something.

 

For this journal cover, I used a repro postcard, a page from that primer, and a variety of vintage rick rack, lace, and millinery flowers over a cover that was ugly to begin with (so I painted over it with gesso.)

My favorite project, though, is this little box (cover is shown.)  It began life as a light blue, gold-stamped jewelry box from the thrift store.  I painted it all over with gesso and I really like how it turned the color to a sort of soft gray.  I embellished it with that sweet bird, wonderful lavender-gray crochet lace, two shades of gray seam binding, millinery flowers, and a sweet plastic button. I hope it's not too much color for the piece.

Thank you to Karen at Graphics Fairy for the nice antique images!

I can't wait to finish up my craft room -- I'd say it's about 80% finished now -- and show you!  I took before pictures and am working up the nerve to post those.