Thursday, August 23, 2012

Altered Book Lesson 15 - Decorative Edges



For this lesson Elizabeth gave us examples of ways to decorate the edge of a page in our altered books.   Punched edges decorated with buttons and a line of flags.  I returned to a page I made earlier to add another element to it by sewing various shades of brown, white and cream buttons alone the outside edge with copper wire.  After punching the holes along the edge I reinforced them with eyelets to take the weight of the buttons an wire.  I too had difficulty with the wire twisting but using a pair of needle nose pliers helped to sort that out.  I tried to make the overall shape a triangle by placing the largest button in the center. I like the way the row of buttons shows outside the book when closed.  


The wiring on the back looked fine but the page behind it needed lifting a little and the buttons did not fit it very well with the jeweled butterfly so I glued some gold doily semi circles onto the page behind the buttons for a decorative edge and it worked well.  I like the way the doilies also provide a background for the buttons.


Getting carried away with decorative edges, just made this one from a rusty old earring that my partner found when we were out geocaching.  I coated them with alcohol ink but I think it must be old because the result was dull so I rubbed the with gold acrylic paint.  The page backgrounds are coloured with water colour oil pastels and water added to blend, pastel swirls, highlighted with gesso, stamped with stazon ink, and finally kissed with matching gold acrylic paint.  I attached the gold leaves to the edge with gold eyelets.


5 comments:

Carol Rigby said...

Wow your journal pages look great. The buttons are so effective. I don't even own that many buttons lol!

BJ said...

Wow Wow Wow Wow Wow!
Amazing button edge - I really ought to try it. Eyelets for reinforcement thanks for that, this is definitely an option I can use. Your pages are adorable too, love you backgrounds. BJ

Bleubeard and Elizabeth said...

Holy cow. This button edge is incredible. Way better than anything I could EVER make. I originally considered using eyelets when I made the first button edge after I broke the hole. However, this time I didn't even think about it, or I would have offered it as an alternative. How fabulous that you reminded me. Unfortunately, I don't even own that many eyelets, because these are not things you find at the thrift or second-hand store. And I'm not sure my hand could adhere that many at one time, either.

I actually came to see your tag, which I found when I was looking at someone else's blog link and saw your name. Of course, I also wanted to thank you for the suggestion of shrink plastic. I read somewhere where some gal used candy wrappers and they worked. Guess it wasn't anywhere near the same. But I will look to see if I have shrink plastic. Pretty sure I have some somewhere.

Craftymoose Crafts said...

Wow! Your button page is amazing! It looks so secure and neat! The page is also awesome.

Dawn said...

Paula, your button edged page is exquisite my lovely, lol you must have the patience of a saint. I love the way you have used the doilies to mask the back of the buttons to fit the page behind, ingenious.
Big hugs x x x x