Sneak Peeks

As I've mentioned before, I'm trying to get an etsy shop together for my book purses. I only have 3 so far but (as long as my shipment of supplies comes sometime this century) I plan to have around 8 finished by the end of next month. I'm so excited and happy about them . . . they are totally different from the ones I've made already. They are more my style . . . eclectic, is all I can say. I'm trying to have something for everyone, so the styles range from traditional and sweet to wacky and kitschy. Even though I'm dying to show off these new purses, I think it's best that I wait until I post them on etsy. Until then, I have a few sneak peeks of what I'm doing.
Any time I point something out to John I like (namely, furniture or craft supplies), he answers every time, "I'll make you one." And he probably could. He is so talented at carving and building things . . . heck, he made our coffee table! If it weren't for those two irritating factors of time and money, he could probably build furniture for an entire house . . . not to mention he wants to learn to make cabinets . . . I'm a lucky lady, right? My buddy Lindsey is also a very DIYer. We are constantly trading craft sites and ideas . . . well, more like I borrow all her good ideas! If she wants something (like a sketchbook bag . . . pictures yet, Lindsey?), she just makes it too. Something about those SCAD graduates . . . they can do anything, I swear. Anyway, John and Lindsey's do-it-yourselfness has definitely worn off on me.

I use a button for closure on the book purses. After awhile, I got the idea to use more ornate buttons. I had the idea in my head, but could never find what I wanted. One day I got the idea to make my own buttons out of Sculpey (kind of art clay that you bake). Here are the results:

For a "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" purse, I made a nautilus shell (since the submarine's name in the book is "The Nautilus"). Sculpey is a sort of fleshy pink color, so I painted this a sort of bronze. I like it!

This one needs work. I really wanted a cameo closure for my "Emma" purse. I love cameos and thought it would be a great match for an Austen book. Cameos are expensive and hard to come by. Luckily, my mom gave me her old one recently so I pressed it into some Sculpey to make a mold. I baked it, then pushed some more clay into it and voila! Now I can make as many as I want for cheap! Problem is, Sculpey is very stretchy, so it's hard to make a perfect impression. Obviously, this one's a little wonky and my paint job isn't great. I'm going to paint it again and if I don't like it, I'll just make another one. It's a start, anyway.

Which leads to my other idea. The other women who sell book purses online offer no real solution for what to do with the actual pages of the book once you rip them out. One of them even tries to sell the guts of the book without a cover! While it's not a total solution, I thought I'd make cards out of the pages of these books. Obviously, I don't use the whole book to make a few cards but at least I'm using it for something else. I recycle the rest of the book when I'm done (my brother Ethan just graduated with a degree in Environmental Science and made me take a blood oath that I would recycle all that paper . . . okay, there was no blood involved, but if I had been willing, I think he would've taken it). So, along with the purses, I'm going to try to sell card sets featuring pages from the books I've turned into purses. I was thinking of including one complimentary card with each purse, but haven't decided yet.

One of the purses I've made so far was made from an Audrey Hepburn coffee table book. It was all black and white photography of her. Because the pages were so big, I was able to make envelopes out of them, too. I made 3 sets of 3 cards and envelopes this week . . . and have enough to probably make another set. Here's a little peek at what they look like:

You can't really tell from these pictures, but I used a lot of little techniques to alter the pictures. I used rhinestones, epoxy gel, glitter, ribbon and even ink to make part of the black and white photos pastel. Here's to hoping someone else likes Audrey Hepburn as much as I do!