Into The Woods {A Fantasy Photo Shoot Mini Album Within an Embroidery Hoop}

Recently, I had this project go up on the ScrapFX blog , but I didn’t share the inner pages, so I thought I would let the gnomes toss them into the blogisphere.
I started with a vintage embroidery hoop that someone had donated to my crafty cause about a year ago. I cut a piece of denim in a larger circle than the hoop, and added gesso and light colored mist, using a brayer; then I stamped with distress ink, using some pretty background stamps. Finally, I hand dyed pieces of cheesecloth and seambinding, and tied the Tim Holtz mini binder piece onto the embroidery hoop, before securing the denim piece behind.

Next, I embellished the outside of the hoop using fantasy like elements…like these gorgeous and delicate ScrapFX flutterbys. I. Love. Them.

I created the cover for the mini album out of corrugated cardboard that had been previously gessoed, (I did several pieces at one time several months ago)and embellished with lovely Pink Paislee papers, a ScrapFX stencil and chippies, and other pretties .

All of the papers within the mini album are scraps from the Portfolio, Hope Chest, and Artesian Papers by Pink Paislee. I’ve been so lucky to have worked with such amazing products.

It is so easy to create some gorgeous custom papers with the Artesian collection, with just mist and imagination. I also used a very lightly damp sponge to blend the colors on the pages.

These photos were all taken and edited by my VERY talented daughter, Haley. I loved how each one had been edited cohesively, so it made making a mini with them seamless. I’m always blown away by her talent as a photographer. I can’t wait to see where she goes with it.

I hope to teach this as a class one day soon. I think it is a great way to add new life to a commonly unused object…the embroidery hoop; and it makes it easy to hang on the wall for display.

Thanks so much for having a look today. This afternoon, I’ll be frantically creating two projects for deadlines that will arrive after I am on the lovely island of Oahu. We take off on Monday morning, and I’m so excited. Honestly, I am a liiittttle nervous about being away from my creative spot for that long, but I hope to take a few things to occupy myself while I’m there. Maybe one of my projects can be an island themed travel art journal? Ding ding! Time to get crafty!
Have a great weekend, all!

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