I don’t normally split my experiment posts up, but this weekend gifted me with unexpected visits with family and friends.  I didn’t have as much time to work on my project as I’d hoped for, but I can’t say I regret the time spent visiting.

I didn’t want to leave everyone hanging, though, so here’s what I have finished so far on the recycled magazine project.

First, sewing the pages together.  I don’t have a sewing machine that will let me do the freestyle embroidery the instructions called for.  So, I sewed the pages by hand and went for a simple and less full pattern of loops and swirls.

Next, I added just a few colorful images and gessoed over the whole thing.  I used a damp paper towel to lighten the gesso in some areas.

I’ll admit it was really time consuming and a bit of a pain doing the sewing by hand, but I am really liking how this looks so far.  I also really like the feel of the magazine pages.  Even though there are seven of them, there’s a really flexible feeling to the pages that I think is going to lend itself beautifully to making journals.  I’m hoping I’ll be able to use a sewing machine to get the fuller (and faster) stitching effects for the next time I do this, but I definitely want to do more of these.

Did anyone else try this project?  If you did, let me know how it went–just leave a comment here.  And if you have photos, please leave a link. I love seeing your work!

I’ll be back tomorrow with the final, painted project.