Paper Cloth Journal

I watched a video on making paper cloth by Diana Trout and decided that I had to make some too. Here is the link to her tutorial. Paper cloth instructions and video  Here is what I did after watching Diana's video.

I added some pearlescent ink in white and pink.

This is the back side.

     I started with a piece of muslin and some tea bag paper laid out on a plastic bag.  I took tea bags that are opened up and have all the tea removed and I stamped some of them with one of my hand carved flower stamps with Staz-on ink. I brushed a mix of pva glue and water (it needs to have a milky consistency) on the muslin and then laid down the tea bags and brushed more of the glue on top.  I also used some tissue weight paper and glued that on in random places over the tea bags.  When the piece of muslin was covered and all the papers had the glue mixture on top, I sprayed the surface with Tulip fabric sprays in pinks and white.  I brushed those around and then I let the whole piece dry over night.  The next day I wanted some more shimmer so I brushed on some pearlescent acrylic inks until I looked just right.  I let that dry and then I peeled the piece up off of the plastic.
     For the next stage I did random free motion stitching with my machine all over the surface, in cream and a shimmery purplish pink.  After I had the stitching done I rolled the paper cloth in each direction to make it a little less stiff.  I decided to use this paper cloth for the cover of a book that I wanted to bind.  I used the book binding instructions from Effy Wild's boot camp to bind my book.  You can find the link here to learn all about boot camp.  It is a wonderful program full of great information for mixed media art and thought provoking too. I also stitched the word inspire in the right place for the cover of my journal.  I cut the paper cloth so it was the right size and stitched around the edges so that everything would stay together and look more finished.  Then I made five signatures with five folios out of Canson mixed media paper and I bound them into the journal. I left the binding thread long on the outside so that I could add some beads.  I also added a bit of hemp cord so that I could make a wrap for the journal.   
   

The front of the finished cover.

The inside.

The back.

The binding didn't come out perfectly, but I am happy with it .  This is the first book that I have bound in this way.

That is how I had fun with paper cloth and book binding. 

Have a great week,

Janelle