Sewing book cover and my sister's hat

I have been busy working on swaps and don't seem to remember to take pics before I send them off to the hostess! Duh! Anyway, here are a couple of projects using my dyed muslin as a base. Over at Penney-Jane Mixed Media our second swap is a Sewing Chunky Book. I made the covers and a page (60 items in all!). Took a picture of the cover, but failed to document the pages I made. I think I just get so tired of looking at 20 of the same thing that I ship them off without another thought. I probably should get better at taking those darned pics! I love, love, love sewing the "star flower" and try to put it on whatever I sew..........
the sewing book cover on tan fabric:

the back of a memo book I made for my sister who sends me really cool "stuff" she finds in odd places:

and here is my star flower again on the cover of her memo book:

in return for the good "stuff" she sends I sent my sister some royal blue dyed muslin to make an OR hat for work:

lookin' good! So, in answer to the age old question I hear a lot: "What are you going to do with IT?" I say.........sew a flower on it or send it to my sister! Ha!

Canvas Fun

Since I have this week off I have been working on several projects. Finishing up a swap due this week and working on the covers for another. But..........this is just for me! I dyed some canvas pink and then painted, stenciled, and generally doodled all over. The end product......well....I'm keeping that one close to my vest until it's finished.

Extreme Sale!

Over at Lowe's they have been clearancing their wallpaper. The last time I was there the large rolls were $3 and the small borders were $1 which is a good deal so I bought one of each and used the large roll for my Gold Swap pages. Our "upgraded" cabinets in the house decided to "downgrade" themselves to crap and the silverware drawer busted apart so off to Lowe's to get wood to fix it. NOW the wallpaper rolls are 25 cents each! Yes, only a quarter..........so I grabbed 5......yes, April I will share............the one on the left has dragonflies on it! Wahoo!

Charm Swap

I finally finished the many charms for a swap due by the middle of the month. I had a difficult time getting started over at Jane's this past Saturday, but finally got into the swing of things Sunday in between lesson plans and laundry. Top left charm is strictly beads with a Swarovski charm on top and a Swarovski flower near the bottom. Middle round charm is Monopoly money circle on a checker piece and beads. Top left is a paper bead with other beads woven around it. Lower left is a game piece with lampwork beads on top and bottom. Lower middle is a washer painted with alcohol ink and colored wire wrapped around. Lower right is a fabric bead with other beads and fibers sewn on (thanks for the inspiration Alma!).

Bunny Bread

Ok, so this post is TOTALLY RANDOM! I was making my umpteenth peanut butter and butter sandwich and after slicing my bread I noticed a bunny hiding in it! With an eye and everything!

Off to see the Wizard!

Over at Penney-Jane Mixed Media our FIRST EVER CHUNKY BOOK SWAP is wrapping up. I can't wait to get all of the pages and bind them into the chunky book! I made the covers and the Tin Man page so I will be receiving two sets of books in return. The front cover has a replica of the door to the Emerald City, the transparency art was drawn by one of my seventh graders, Kaitlyn.

The Tin Man page is made from roof flashing:

Today's Play Date

This post was supposed to be finished last night (and it really was--three times in fact!), but apparently I was blog-challenged, so let's try it again...
Today (actually yesterday) was another play date at Jane's Studio 23. I should have been working on swaps for my group that are due this week, but frankly needed a break from what I SHOULD have been doing to just "play" with all of the supplies that are sitting in piles yelling at me to use them. So I gathered tons of supplies and trotted over to the studio to sew........... I haven't decided exactly what the covers and pages in this and the next post will be, but then I usually never have an end purpose when I start. My goal was to just create.
The covers started out as the freebie paint chip brochures at the home improvement store. I covered them with painted and stamped canvas first. On the front cover I sewed my favorite dragonfly transparency over some light green tulle and then added a Dick & Jane tab. On the inside back I sewed some random pieces onto the actual paint chips for interest:

The next sets of photos show the fronts of a couple of pages and then unfolded.
This page is sewn onto a Claim Jumper's doggie bag: stamped, hand-dyed fabric, bits an pieces sewn under plastic, paint chip with a fabric strip woven through it and wall paper:

My plan is to utilize the open (left) side of the bag as a pocket

The base for the next set of pages is an old tablecloth (for one of those outdated round plywood tables covered with glass) that I had dyed with coffee to "age" it.

Inside I sewed fabric and a piece of Jane's tape measure twill tape: