Humble Beginnings...

 

Bits and pieces is all it takes to make one of these Tiny Sacred Art Journals as part of artist Colleen Attara's online class. Colleen encourages students to see items that may usually be tossed out in new ways. This journal, which measures just 3" square, is made using a vintage photo matt I had in my paper stash. There are also pieces of old wallpaper, rusted papers, thread nests, and lace trim. A little on the trashy side. And yet here it all is in a fun little journal to hold in your hand. The cover photo is a sweet vintage photo of a crafting friend's family members. What kid didn't want to have a photo taken on a pony?

And inside, there's a photo of her grandmother tucked behind a stitched fold out. I was very taken by this photo- it is so artistic.

Some pretty thread ends all wound up embellishing a page.

And the same friend gave me this vintage button card which I tarted up to put in the book. I think the whole journal will be a gift to her. She's always generous in sharing things like this. But the book is about her family (not this little girl, though-she's a Tim Holtz paper doll.) So, I'll present it back to her. This is the second Tiny Sacred Art Journal I made in Colleen's class.

The first journal began its life as a long, narrow clothing hangtag. After following Colleen's instructions, I was able to peel the tag into layers which became the pages of the book. 

Inside is some hand stitching and a machine stitched paper web.

Colleen invited students to send one of their Tiny Sacred journals to her to be included in her exhibition this month at ArtWRKD Studio in Newtown, Pennsylvania. The title of the display is "Exploration of Art Journaling: Lost in the Found". That about sums up the nature of these little journals. And this is one of the 80+ student journals that will be exhibited, along with works by Colleen. So what was once trash, now has a life and is on the road in its own journey!

More Button-Mania...

 

Well, out came the button collection once again. A local sewing group expressed interest in making the button bouquets like those shown in my November post, Behold the Humble Button. I'm never one to turn down more button fun, so we had a little workshop and members learned to make bouquets like this one. This is my demo project and I gave it as a gift to the wife of a local musician. They spent some time in Nashville, so when I saw this cute little collectible pitcher in a thrift shop, it seemed the perfect one for a tiny button bouquet.

I learned something at our gathering, too. One member brought a button bouquet similar to the ones we were making. She'd purchased it at a vintage market and the maker used the holes in the top of a salt shaker to support the wire stems. I bought a pair of shakers at the local dollar store and filled one with glass marbles. It really does the trick! This is a project in progress. But I sure liked the idea.

I'm pretty sure every quilter has a tin or jar of buttons- some old, some new. We shared the bounty as you can see! To the left of the pink vase bouquet that I brought as our sample, you can see the vintage silver salt shaker mentioned above.

Nothing but smiles all around the table when working on our bouquets. 

A pair of wire cutters, assorted buttons, and floral wire (plus a pretty vase with some filler of course) are all the supplies needed to created these pretty and whimsical flowers- guaranteed not to fade.

I dislike sewing buttons onto clothing, but never balk at sewing them onto projects. Why is that?? More buttons traveled with me to our Fiber Art Bee work session where we made these wise guys... oh, I mean wise old owls. Three of us led a small group of members through making these cute pin cushions filled with fiber-fil and crushed walnut shells.  This is a display of my table member's work. Here's a link to a video tutorial and free pattern so you can make one, just in case you find them irresistible, too.

And, with apologies for the blurry image, here is part of the owl graduating class, below.