Sewing: A Chunky Page

I love sewing, and everything that relates to that: fabrics, ribbons, buttons, and of course my old faithful sewing machine! Sewing was this week's challenge at Take a Word.

For this piece, I tried both a new card format and a new background technique and am excited about both! The card sixe is 4x4 inches and it's called a chunky. They are usually made of a bit sturdier backing than ATCs so they're tough enough to become a book if you want to. You can punch one hole on top left or several on the left side, and collect a whole book of the same theme!

I want to collect these now, too, and sewing might well be the theme of my first chunky book. The pages can be traded in the same way as ATCs.



The background was a result of simply experimenting and I was really happy with it! I did not remember to take a complete series of "How to" pictures, but here's a photo of when the background was done.



It's made of decoupaged napkins, but instead of a decoupage glue, I used white acrylic gesso to attach the teared napkins. So the first layer was gesso and then a napkin layer, then again some gesso and napkin scraps.

I added some gesso to even out the wrinkled background in places where the rub-on sewing machine and the stamped button border would be. At this point it seemed to need a bit of another colour than violet and white, so I added a bit of orange yellow acrylic paint.

The sewing machine is a rub-on from Hambly Screen Prints. Buttons border stamp is by Lost Coast Designs, Versamark ink and the Purple Puff for embossing the buttons is by Wow Embossing Powders. All stamping products are from my local craft shop Askartelu Amalia and the artists' supplies from Tempera. My acrylic paints are brands called Amsterdam and Royal & Talens and the gesso is from Pebeo.