Les Femmes: Embellished Beauties on Canvas Book

This feminine and flirty fabric book celebrates beauty, glitz, and glamour. It provides a great opportunity to showcase all the lovely embellishments you already have on hand and is so much fun to create.

Materials:

C&T Publishing Ready-to-Go!® Blank Canvas Book 8.5″ x 11″
A selection of ribbons and trims of varying width, about 9″ in length
Beaded fringe, 9″ length
Vine trim, 24″ length
Ink Jet Printable Cotton (iron-on)
Vintage images of women
Acrylic paints in regular and iridescent colors (designer used both Jacquard Lumiere paint and Golden Artist Acrylics)
Silk flower petals (starburst shape, such as from a daisy or chrysanthemum)
Embellishments: flat-backed rhinestones and pearls, feathers, and exotic trims
Fabric glue

Step-by-step Instructions:

Lay your trims along the bottom edge of the Ready-to-Go!® Blank Canvas Book pages, starting with the last page (inside back cover). With a pencil and a ruler, mark where the trim edge stops on the page. Tuck the bottom edge of the previous page in and up, shortening it so that the trim you just positioned on the next page will be visible. Pin and stitch. Repeat this with the middle page and front cover.
Paint each page using iridescent acrylic paint. A bristle brush is good for scrubbing the paint into the canvas and providing even coverage.
Using a computer graphics program, size your vintage images to fit your pages. Print these images on to iron-on printable cotton. Also print the book title, the names of the women (your choice), and Au Revoir.
Cut out images and titles (options: decorative scissors, coloring with ink pad or misting sparkle spray). Following manufacturers instructions, iron all images and titles in place on the pages making sure to allow space for the trims.
Glue or sew (hand or machine) the trim to the bottom edge of each page. (Sew the heavier trims for stability and glue the lighter ones).
Cut two starburst flower petals in half. If you are using a silk flower on a stem, you’ll need to take the
flower apart first. You only need two rings of petals.
Color the semi-circles of flower petals if desired, then glue one half above each title and the other half below. Glue a rhinestone to the center edge of each semi-circle. Do this for the inside pages only.
Paint over the clothes of each vintage photograph. As long as you are adding more “fabric,” you can use your artistic license and modify the model’s original clothing however you like. Feathers can become fans, rhinestone strips can become long necklaces, and embroidered trims can become exotic shawls. Have fun with it!