Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Reusing old book paper

This is one of my favourite thing to do.
(I have a little store on an Australian handmade craft site called Madeit.
You can find me here by the way:
www.madeit.com.au/alittlemusthave
Anyway, I wanted to show you how you can reuse the yellowing slightly aged paper from vintage books no longer wanted.

I guess I have a bit of an artist in me because I do occasionally love to draw.
I also love to reuse, as you have probably guessed!
So I decided to draw these drawings on vintage paper. They are made to be framed and look gorgeous when they are.
A cute bird.

Vintage lady portraits




Another project idea I have made with old books is folded pages. Ive only done a few of these, but they are a nice talking piece in my home.

Hearts




LOVE


Well I hope I have given someone, some new inspiration for their Upcycling adventures. Paper is great to work with and if you can't draw, why not put a page through the printer and print a picture you like. Easy as that.
Insects like butterfly's are a great idea and look fantastic in a library nook or on a desk.
Have fun that's the main thing.Happy Upcycling

Monday, January 16, 2012

Leather journals

Hi,
Well its been a great christmas holiday break and I hope evryone has had a wonderful down time with their family and friends.
Here in Australia, the kids have only two weeks left of their 6 week summer holidays and believe me, my children are definetely ready to go back to school!LOL

I have been upto something a little different then my usual clothing upcycles.
I managed to buy some off cuts of leather from my local craft store. They are all shapes and sizes, different colors and odd shape, being left overs of course.

I just love leather. I wasnt sure what to make from them at first. I was thinking maybe some tiny leather flowers as hairclips or something similar, which I may still do.
However, I decided to make some journals. Ive always loved leather journals, with the hand stitched pages, they are really personal looking and smell great!
Here's a couple I made.