turn back the calendar to 2011

I'm late, I'm late.......for Kaite's 2011 birthday!!!!  Okay, I was over-the-top busy last year, so as a reward for her patience, I wanted to give her a little something special.  A side result from my renewed beading interest this year, are these little brooches (there's another in my previous post).  I expect that I will be making more of them as the year progresses.  Hey!!  Perhaps I'll even make one for myself!!  I wonder what colour that will be?  This one is lemony and quite delicious! 

Buttons from the family button box, a few sequins and miscellaneous beads.  Stacked, back and boucle/bocce stitches.  The stick in the background is an honest to goodness, chewed by a beaver, stick!!!  Picked up at Skookum Lake in Northern Ontario (close to Sault Ste Marie) a couple of years ago.

You might not know this, but I have a weird and wonderful facination with handmade books.  No, I've never taken a lesson, but I've purchased books to teach myself a few techniques.  Some, of course, are far beyond my fledgling capabilities, but this one was fairly easy and fun to do.  I found the instructions for it in Making Handmade Books by Alisa Golden.  I've played with a few of the one-sheet-of-paper folded type books and am happy with the results.  I hope to do more of this in the future!

Back to this book!  It's heavy watercolour paper (I forget the weight).  I cut and folded the book first and then proceeded to paint and embellish.  I made it a while ago, so actually forget exactly what I did.  However, I will tell you that it included acrylic ink & paint, watercolour pencils & crayons, regular pencil crayons, distress ink, pearls, gesso, acrylic matte medium.  I also pasted in some of my citra solve paper and a folded origami envelope, made out of that same paper.  I distressed the edges and then finished it off with some of my machine wrapped braid, a leaf and a few beads.  A little obsessive, but all-in-all a satisfying exercise.

The final result in all it's fresh green colour!!!