Up with the birds

I was wondering what I could do with my silk paper. I have done all the usual things with it and wanted to try something different. I thought I would leave it on the design wall in the hope that inspiration would strike.

I was up bright and early this morning and decided I would make a book with the paper/fabric I had hanging there. I just needed to get some colours together. I took the colours from the silk paper and as you can see I have some Textil paint in a deep Violet, Pearl-ex pigments in Duo Red-Blue and some Heat it up! embossing powders in verdegris. I first of all mixed the paint and pearl-ex powders. I painted a piece of paper to see how it looked and then added some embossing powder whilst it was still wet. I set to it with the heat gun and it looks gorgeous. It's hard to get a good picture and you can't see the pearlescent lustre that the pigment produces. The verdegris embossing powder looks quite stunning on the painted background.
I took some art straws, large and small, popped a couple of the smaller straws into the larger ones to give them some body and then I painted and embossed them as I did the paper above. I wrapped some pink/red wire around the straws adding pink/violet and white beads as I went along. I just dipped the ends of the straws into paint and they are drying as I write. I intend putting these on the front of the book with some embroidery and perhaps some slips. I may use heated copper shim or perhaps some painted tissue would look good - same colours as the paper. OR I could use the painted paper I did above and glue it to Timtex. Hmmmm! that sounds like a good idea.I have fused the silk paper onto one side of the hand dyed fabric using misty fuse. I used the black misty fuse and it is looking good. This is the front of the book.I used pelmet vilene to stabilise the book cover. I can stitch into this easily. I just used bondaweb (wonder under) to fuse the edges to the inside of the book cover. I may use felt or perhaps another hand dyed fabric to line the book. I am just going to use a reasonably heavy cartridge paper for the book itself. I may dye the papers with brusho inks - not sure yet.