Shabby book banner tutorial

I love the look of vintage, shabby banners and I wanted to try one with pages from old children's books.  This is an easy and fun tutorial that makes for a lovely accent with your Christmas decorations.  Depending on the book you use, you could leave it up year round. 

Here's what you'll need:
ribbon or twine, glitter, mod podge, hole punch, paint brush, paper cutter and/or scissors, pretty scrapbooking paper, an old children's book.  If you don't have all of these supplies, look around your house and make do!  This is a shabby project after all and does not have to be perfect.  A banner made from a regular book would be pretty also!

Use your paper cutter or scissors to cut flags.  Mine are definitley NOT all the exact same size, so don't worry about perfection.    Punch a hole at the top of the flag. 

Now do the same thing with your scrapbook paper.  Mine came pre-punched.  Lucky me.


Brush the paper lightly with Mod Podge.  Dont' go to heavy or the paper will curl.  You may also want to decide which side you like best if your banner will be hanging against a wall. 


Sprinkle liberally with glitter (as always)!

Do the same thing with your scrapbook paper flags.  If your banner will be hanging in the middle of the room, do this to both sides.  Let one side dry, then move on to the other.   If you don't have the mod podge and the glitter, skip this part honey!  Another variation would be to age the paper instead via coffee and the oven--this would be very pretty with pages from a regular book.  You can look at this past post for details on aging paper from old books:  http://booksenchantedblog.blogspot.com/2012/06/make-your-own-business-cards-using-old.html

Now you should have a big mess of flags.  If you are a planner, you can decide the order you'd like them to hang.  I counted out my Rudolph pages and I had 12, my scrapbook pages were around twice that so I alternated one Rudolph with two scrapbook flags.  You can space them evenly or just throw them up there any ol way.  Either way it will look lovely, I promise. 

I tied a ribbon from the back of a chair to a drawer knob so it would be an easy height to work with.

Then I tied the flags onto the ribbon.  I've done a couple of these, and the organza ribbon tends to slip around less than twine, but either looks pretty.

Now you have a pretty flag banner to hang wherever you like!  Whimsical and shabby!

Harry Potter Spell Book Potions 101

The spellbooks have certainly become more detailed this year!  I've been wanting to try a Harry Potter themed book for awhile and finally got the chance to do it.  This particular book is for sale at Grace's Place in Paw Paw and comes with a magic wand!  Have you recieved your Hogwart's letter yet?

 This book comes with various potions and "specimans"

Love the Chinese Chomping Cabbage!

The book contains 4 potion recipes:  Polyjuice, Amortentia, Shrinking Potion, Growing Potion

Here's a view of the back of the book.

I love how this book aged, look at those pages! 

Alice Books

I'm working on something new and I'm really excited about it!  It all started yesterday when I had an idea to make a fabric "Alice" dress.  I've been trying to come up with some sort of character design that's all my own.  So I pieced together a little dress for Alice to wear in Wonderland.  I ended up seeing some yarn and ribbon that would be great for her hair, and some eyelet lace that I liked for a pinafore, and I was off!  Okay, I was completely obsessed.  I was up late making it, but it's totally different from my other work.

Can you believe her dress is made from vintage bedsheets? 

 Look at the waistband! It's a corner of a fitted sheet! 

The rabbit hole was my 10 year old daughter's idea!  Love it!

I struggled with the face.  What to do?  I am not an illustrator.  I like piecing things together so I came up w/ a pieced together/aged look for texture and depth.  I'm happy with how it turned out, although my 6 year old son thinks it's looks really creepy. 

I like how the book seems to come alive. 

So this morning I got up and (again) became completely obsessed with another Alice book.  Was the first just a fluke or is this a sign of things to come?  My artwork kind of takes on a life of it's own.  I really never know how things are going to turn out.  I have a base idea...."alice" or "alice at the tea party" and then I just begin working on the background and adding.  Ideas arrive and I try them out.  Usually they work out, but sometimes they don't and I have to rip things up.  It's almost like the art tells it's own story along the way....

Here's the second book.  It's a bit busier than the other one....Alice attends the Tea Party here. 

The neat thing about this book is that the table cloth is a vintage napkin that my Grandma Rozen embroidered.  Amazing to incorporate her artwork into mine decades later. 

See the bunny ears popping up from under the side of the table?

I like how the buttons fall of the side of the book all haphazardly!  I may need to add some color to the Hatter's hair.  It seems to blend a little too much with the background.  I tried some orange in it but it didn't look right.  I'm also not sure if I dig his shoes.  Hmmmmm....

Again, my daughter is brilliant.  I had both of Alice's arms back below the table on her lap, but Abby said I should make one covering her giggly (non-existent) mouth. 

I love this picture because you can see how the Hatter's buttons stack up to look like plates and teacups!

Have you noticed the door mouse yet?  He's there too!

Thanks for looking at my latest project! 

My latest project: fairy garden books!

I can't claim the book idea, saw a miniature garden on pinterest the other day. But I added a teacup and a mirror for a pond. I've got 2 prototypes I'm working on til the show Friday. Who knows what else I'll add by then. The lily pad in the pond was exciting!