Art Journal Cover done!!

I've been fiddling and messing around with a piece of 'fabric paper' for ever so long.  It was just not telling me anything, but the last few days saw me finally put it all together to make a little slip cover for an A5 sketch book.  

It began as a piece of unryushi paper, fused to lutradur, rusted with steel wool/vinegar, then overpainted with some weak turquoise dye.  You can see the unryushi paper here.  I purchased it from Amazing Paper last year, and wish I had some more.  After the painting, I sprinkled some coarse sea salt over it.  Unfortunately, some of the salt seemed to be trapped within the fibres, and every time the weather was a little damp, well, that's what happened to my fabric/paper.  I think I may finally have managed to get it to dry out, but I've put a sealer over the finished cover, just in case.  This photograph shows it before I've added the stitching - you can also see below that the sealer has added some warmth to the colours.

Sadly, the warm glow isn't shown so well in the photographs.  The little specks of foil do shine, but it's really hard to get a good photograph.  This is the back of the cover.

I've added a little decoration to the front.  I simply hate picking up a covered book without something to identify the front!!  I've used real copper shim, forming a diamond, with a little window, added some metallic machine stitching, as well as some little copper metallic beads.  The copper shim has been stitched to the surface using an open machine zig-zag.  I felt I needed to cover the edges/points, as it is quite sharp if you touch it the wrong way.

Before attaching the shim, I distressed it a little, using a ball stylus.  This was sufficient to take that 'new' look away from it.  I used a little glue to keep it on the work while I stitched.

Lastly, I managed to find a piece of fabric in the stash, just enough to use for the inner sleeve/lining.  This was fused to pelmet vilene, the slip pockets added, and then the two pieces were stitched together using a very close wide machine satin stitch, in tan rayon thread.  It has a lovely feel about it too.  I'm really happy with it.  The design is simple, not overpowering, but enough to draw one's attention to it.   I've really enjoyed working with this, altering one surface so as to render it almost unrecognaizable.  I have been playing with these surfaces since purchasing the book 'Fabulous Surfaces', by Lynda Monk.  The purchase of this book was also followed up by some online lessons, further adding to the fun.  These were conducted free, via the site http://www.d4daisy.com/.  I can fully recommend the concept to anyone. 

Thank you as always for all your support.  Your comments are always welcome.