SweetPea's "IT" Gift a Fabric Purse Pocket Book

I wanted to get an early start on Sweetpea's "It" gift for an Art-Venturers swap. Her turn isn't until February, but I was struggling creatively with her theme of "Bold, Funky and BRIGHT with black and white checkerboards ". When I saw Belinda's Fabric Purse Pocket Book in the latest issue of ClothPaperScissors, I knew I could do it with fabrics I already had, and creating images on the canvas sheets. I had about 1/4 yd of black and white checkerboard that I tore into strips to make fabric "ribbons" and sewed them on red felt pieces with bright, bold & funky fabrics. Most were scraps in my stash. I had a sewing friend over to make books with, and she shared some of her animal fabric scraps with me. I used a bright variegated thread to sew the fabrics together with a variety of fun stitches.
I know Pea likes images with wings and animals, etc. Because I was working with a fabric book, my traditional method of cut and layer wasn't going to work for me. I knew this was possible to do in Photoshop, but I just wasn't getting how to do the layers, and the "help" files weren't helping me. Fortunately, Fiona agreed to meet with me via IM for a couple of days, to give me a Photoshop tutorial. With Fiona's help, I learned enough to make the images you see below and printed them out on the canvas sheets Chris sent me. I used photos I took for the backgrounds, and altered them in different ways. The other images were gotten from the web and "cut" out and "pasted" to make a single image. The text was also added in Photoshop.

I added glitter glue to the wings and allowed them to dry.

I added some text to the fabric pages with stamps and black Versafine ink.

Before I sewed the pockets together, I sewed on the printed canvas pieces. I decided to bind the book together with torn strips of the checkerboard fabric, instead of the more traditional binding I used in the first Fabric Pocket Purse Book I made. I punched 5 holes in the left edge of the pages with a CropADile and used a large eye needle to pull the fabric through the holes and tied them together. On the front I sewed on letter beads to spell "D-R-E-A-M" and a metallic butterfly charm.

On the inside of the covers, I sewed on a black & white checkered ribbon on to bright checkered fabric as both a decorative element and to become ties to close the book. I tied on a heart charm to the image on the left. Instead of buttons, I sewed on metal charms to the pocket flaps, to help hold the flaps down.

Back of page 1 and front of page 2. Back of page 2 and front of page 3

Back of page 3 and front of page 4

Back of page 4 and inside back cover, where I sewed on another metal butterfly charm.

Back of book.

I was pleased to see Pea, left a comment saying she liked the other book I made, so I'm sure she'll love this one in her "IT" theme.

I have a couple more of these books in progress. they are lots of fun.