Sunday, January 16, 2011

The Gift

I had such a wonderful surprise when my art group presented me with a giant bin full of their fabric scraps this week! I delighted in each and every one of them--the good, the bad and the ugly--they will all find a place somewhere. I spread them out on my floor and admired each in detail and let the possibilities flow.


Usually when I haven't worked for a while (Like Now!), I get back into things by playing in a mixed media journal. This time I decided to play with all those new fabric scraps and try a little pocket folder I saw in the Jan./ Feb. issue of Cloth, Paper, Scissors. Heidi Sekovski and Karin Winter describe how they make a Folder Journal out of a standard manilla file folder. It reminded me of the very fun journal for Mexico I made in Mary Ann Moss's online Remains of the Day class. You can see that one here.

The Folder Journal is made by sewing paper and fabric onto a manilla folder, then folding and stitching little pockets in it for your journal papers. Here's mine, without any journaling paper in the pockets:

The Front:
The Back:
The In-Between:
It was fun to dig through my new bin of scraps and see what would work. I made a lot of mistakes with this one and found that I would revise their directions next time. If you decide to try one, I recommend adding all the fabric and embellishments that you want before you fold it into the journal shape. Once that's done, you can't get into areas to stitch stuff on. I have enough scraps now, that I just might try another one.

6 comments:

Dreamcicle Journeys said...

Glad you enjoyed all of your new fabric stash. The file journal idea looks like fun with all of its pockets to fill.

gerfiles said...

You managed to pick just the right fabrics to make your folder look very much like yours... - so, what are you going to put into the pockets...?

Robin Olsen said...

I'm thinking of putting little bits of sketch paper in the pockets, so I can have a nice, light folder in my purse rather than hauling around my whole sketchbook.

Curious Works said...

love that it came tied up with ribbon & lace!
I love rummaging through all my bits and pieces of fabric...imagining all the possibilities they contain is often a bigger part of the creative process for me than the actual creating i think.
Love your folder...i should make one to hold all the bills so it's less painful to pull them out...

Tory Brokenshire said...

One of my favorite parts of art is to experiment its so fun to see it get better and better.
It looks like a fun journal good idea to keep it in your purse.

Dayna Collins said...

FABULOUS folder journal! What a way to use fabric scraps.