Welcome To My Rainbow! It's Not Your Mother's Roy G. Biv!

I finished my rainbow book/screen. The front is pictured above. The back is pictured below.

I got started on the book through the Sampler Book class I took at Joggles. But I went off in another direction and had lots of fun.

The idea of a rainbow came after I took a quiz to find my personal rainbow at spacefem.com. This book is my real personal rainbow. And before any meteorologist becomes upset, I know that modified the arrangement of the colors. I mean, it's MY rainbow!

I tried to use stuff I already had, and I was quite (though not totally) successful. I have to admit I have a lot of stuff.



The last thing I have to do is make some flags or pennants for the dowels at the beginning and end of the screen. If you want to see how I made each of the pages or what is hidden behind the buttoned door on the second page, look at some of my earlier posts.

Remaining Rainbow Book Pages

I've finished the remaining pages for my rainbow book. The back of the yellow page is above. First I fused some yellow cotton to felt. The light peach color of the felt seemed to show through so I fused another layer of cotton. The fibers going across the page are perle cotton, embroidery floss, some vintage silk buttonhole twist I found at a thrift store, and a collection of fibers that came together in a package. Those fibers are couched down by hand, while the others are sewn on with a running stitch. I have to say that sewing through felt, two layers of cotton, and two layers of MistyFuse was not the easiest thing I have ever done. I needed to use a rubber jar opener to get a grip on the needle to pull it through the layers when I used the heaviest perle cotton. One of the fibers from the package is glued on as an edging.

Below is the front of the yellow page. Again there are two layers of cotton fused to felt. I used a direct-to-fabric stamping technique with gold and yellow ink pads to add a little stronger color around the edges. To make the pocket, I laid various yellow fibers on tulle, sandwiched it between water soluble stabilizer, and stitched it in a grid pattern. Then I rinsed it in cool water to dissolve the stabilizer. There is a chenille wire wrapped with the fibers stitched on the left side. The tags in the pocket are decorated using a variety of techniques and they each have a word I associate with yellow--cheerful, energetic, warm, etc.






Above is the front of the orange page and below is the back of the orange page. They have several layers of fabric paint--more than I anticipated using. It took a while because it had to dry between coats of paint.

First I painted wet white fabric with yellow and a little orange. Then I added an orange wash on one side. Next I stamped on the fabric with more orange paint. On the front I used several sponges. On the back I used a foam brush, a wine cork, a cosmetic sponge, and a nine-patch stamp I made from PenScore foam and a cake cooling rack. I also stenciled through some mesh from a fruit bag. The next step was more stamping with an opaque fabric paint. For the front, I carved some stamps from erasers. You can see the stamping on the right side of the thin horizontal lines. On the back, I used bubble wrap. Look for the little circles on the left side of the page. After it dried, the opaque paint stood out too much so I added another orange wash.

Finally, I used Super Copper Lumiere to add some thin lines on both the front and the back. I thought it might look cool to have some accent lines with Indigo Lumiere. It didn't. So I painted over those with a second line of Super Copper. The front has three small beads at the intersection of the lines. Because I couldn't find the right color of ribbon for the edging, I painted some with the orange paint.





Above is the front of the red page. It has turned out to be my favorite. I had some hand painted deep pink fabric, but it was not quite as red as I wanted. I sprayed it with some red Memories Mist to darken it to a rich rose. It is fused to felt. Using all the different techniques to make the squares and rectangles was lots of fun. Each of the pieces has the decorative top layer either fused or glued to a rich rose fabric fused to felt. The edges of the felt were colored red with a Sharpie marker, and the gold leafing pen was used to edge the top of each piece. Gold ribbon is used as the edging.

The techniques used are:
Top Row: painted paper towel fused and quilted to felt, Tyvek painted and heat distressed
Second Row: alcohol ink on shiny paper, foil glue-stenciled on fabric, alcohol ink on aluminum foil
Third Row: Tyvek painted and heat distressed, cheesecloth fused to fabric then painted with red and gold paint, foil glue-stenciled to fabric, painted paper towel fused and quilted to felt
Fourth Row: Angelina film fused to fabric, cheesecloth fused to fabric then painted with red and gold paint, Angelina fused together and fused to fabric
Fifth Row: Angelina film fused to fabric, foil glue-stenciled to fabric, alcohol ink on vellum paper, Tyvek painted and heat distressed
Bottom Row: Angelina film fused to fabric, Tyvek painted and heat distressed, alcohol ink on vellum paper, cheesecloth fused to fabric then painted with red and gold paint

Below is the back of the red page. I used the same fabric on the back as I did on the front. It is stamped with Halo Pink-Gold Lumiere, and the stamped areas were edges with a gold leafing pen. Gold trim is glued on for the edging.



The next step is to finish painting the dowels that will hold the book up as a screen. I had lots of fun making this book about my personal rainbow. It's not your mother's Roy G. Biv!

The Green Page

I finally finished the green page for the screen/book I am making. This is the front of the green page. The fabrics are some I painted when I was doing a color movement series last summer.

I drew the shapes in reverse on the non-shiny side of freezer paper. Then I cut them apart and ironed the shiny side of the freezer paper to the wrong side of the fabric. I cut the fabric out, adding a seam allowance. I pressed the seam allowance on the left (convex) side under to the non-shiny side of the freezer paper. Then I removed the freezer paper. I fused some Misty Fuse to the felt "house" shape. Then starting with the largest piece on the left side, I fused the fabric to the felt. The pressed under convex seam allowance went over the top of the concave seam allowance on its left. There was no Misty Fuse between these pieces. Then I used a variegated thread and a machine buttonhole stitch to applique the curved shapes. I finished the edges with some rickrack that I painted with blue, green and yellow Dye-na-Flow.

The circular item sticking out on the right hand side is a CD. It is covered with painted paper towels and Mod Podge. Sticky stuff... Once it was dry I stamped on "dance" and finished the edges with more of the rickrack. It actually turns, but it doesn't spin wildly. Not at all wildly. It took several tries to get the CD attached. From the bottom, the layers are: The back of the page ( pictured below), Pellon #70, another piece of the green fabric, a flat button, the CD, another flat button, and the front of the page. My first attempt at attaching the CD malfunctioned. I ended up sewing through all layers with beading thread, and covering the stitching on the front with a fabric bead I made.


This is the back of the green page. I used the same fabrics here as I did on the front. I fused Misty Fuse to small pieces of each color of fabric and then cut the pieces into one inch squares. Then I fused another piece of green fabric to a felt, house-shaped backing. I arranged the squares on this green fabric covered backing, and fused them in place. Then I machine stitched using the same variegated thread. After the front and the back were put together (glued for temporary hold and then stitched around the edges), I glued more of the painted rickrack around the edges.

This process took about 2 1/2 weeks. Not continuously, of course. Grandma Ann wanted to know how I could work on so many different things at the same time. It's because I had to wait for stuff to dry in between the steps. Also, I like to ponder my options. I lean a lot closer to reflective than I do to impulsive. (Or as my son said when he was in high school, I'm a slow decider.) And it took three tries to get the CD the way I wanted.

Where the Feet Went

This is where the feet (see post below) went. Into this page for the Sampler Book class I am taking from Joggles. I didn't follow the directions for this page either, but maybe I can get extra credit for going through so many steps to complete the page.

The blue fabric covering the page is some that I painted this summer. The door is another painted piece. To make this page, first I fused the fabric to felt. Then I made the bound hole in the middle. I used the part I cut out to make the door. It is attached with a fabric hinge.

I used Brilliance stamp pads to add a little more color around the edges of the page and to take down the dark splotches on the door. I fused another piece of the light blue fabric to the Pellon #70 base where the hole would be. The words are stamped with Azure Stazon ink, and then darkened with a gel pen.

The buttons started out as a jade green, but I rubbed them on the Azure Stazon ink pad to make them blue. Then I dried them with a heat gun. I found the edging in the basement. It was white. I painted it with various colors of blue. (Totally ineffective light in the basement, hence the numerous tries.) When it still wasn't right, I went at it with the Stazon and some Fabrico ink. It's glued on.

There were lots of other steps in there, but it would probably cause carpal tunnel syndrome if I typed them all out.


This is the back of the page. I wanted to try painting on fusible, but the only kind I had on hand with paper on the back was heavy weight Heat & Bond. Why not? This was an experiment. I painted it with Dye-na-Flow and Lumiere. After it was dry, I ironed it onto a piece of the blue cotton fused to a piece of felt.

It was a little blah looking, so I decided to quilt some wavy lines. If you ever decide to do this, use some kind of stabilizer on top of the painted material. The fusible has a very rubbery feel, and I had a dickens of a time sewing through it until I tried the stablilzer. I used a water soluble kind but just tore it off. I would think you could use a tear-away or even tissue paper. I just used what was closest. Then I added a little gold Lumiere along some of the quilting lines for highlights. Hmmm... Still blah, but better...

After a couple of days of meditating, I decided to put a layer of tulle on top so the painted colors wouldn't be so bright. With a piece of parchment paper on top, I just ironed it onto the page. No additional fusible needed. I decided to try some blue Brilliance around the edges and a little gold Brilliance in the middle. Finally a look that I could live with. The Brilliance, however, would not dry. It kept rubbing off on my fingers whenever I picked up the page. As a last resort, I opened the garage door, took one step into the snow-covered driveway, and sprayed it with a varnish. Yay! No more sticky fingers! Finally I glued on the edging.


Here are the feet! They are a fold-out hidden behind the door. What better way to step into your own rainbow than with multicolored feet?


To decorate the back of the feet fold-out, I used foil. The inside of the door and the opening behind the feet are also foiled. This does not show up well in the photo. The part that looks black is actually purple. The colors are much more subtle than the picture shows. I used foil glue for this application, and I found it easy to use.

No Animals Were Harmed In This Process

Step 1: Iron fabric to freezer paper. Tape freezer paper to bathroom floor. Gather paints, brushes and an old towel.


Step 2: Apply paints to freezer paper across from fabric.


Step 3: Spread paint with foam brushes and fingers to make a continuous pattern.


Step 4: Step into paint first with one foot and then the other.


Step 5: Step directly from painted area to fabric, one foot in front of the other.


Step 6: Step off fabric with one foot, placing it onto unpainted area of freezer paper. Step with other foot into bathtub.


Step 7: Place second foot in bathtub, and admire painted fabric.


Step 8: Admire painted bathtub.


Step 9: Admire painted hands.

If yer gonna make an omlette, ya gotta break some eggs.

Above is the first egg. And below is the second egg. You knew this was going to be messy, didn't you?



And here is the omlette. I'm taking a class called Sample Book through Joggles. The instructor is Janet Clark. This class appealed to me as a way to have some structured playtime with some of my stuff. So far, so good.



The front cover of my book has windows with shutters. It is made of tissue paper fused to felt which is then attached to some stiff interfacing. It is stamped and painted.



The back of the cover is above. The windows are made of Angelina film that I ironed over a rubber stamp to give a swirly design.

Below is another view of the front. You can see one shutter opened. The shutter hinges are a double layer of fabric secured between the front and the back. I decided I wanted to make a screen that will stand open rather than a book. The funny looking things on each side are the hinges where I will put the supporting dowels. Designing and manufacturing the various hinges was helped by my total lack of knowledge about engineering and architecture. If you don't know what's right, you can't do anything wrong. Especially with a seam ripper in every room.