Fabric Painted Christmas Album by Helen

Hi everyone, My name is Helen and I am so excited today to be sharing my first tutorials as part of this seasons Guest Design Team for Faber-Castell Design Memory Craft®!  Today I will show you how to paint a cute Christmas design onto fabric and then how to turn those panels into a fabulous festive fabric covered photo album (try saying that after a glass of mulled wine!).  I am sure if you decide to make this album for yourself it will be something you and your family will treasure.  Imagine a cold winter evening in front of the fire, Christmas tree lights twinkling surrounded by your family looking through this album remembering Christmases past…..careful not to spill your hot chocolate on it!!!

When I received my Design Team package I knew I wanted to try mixing mediums to achieve an Art Journal look on fabric.  I initially started out with a design in mind that I wanted to turn into a lovely Christmas cushion but when I sat down to do it I realised that the panels of fabric were too big to film on camera so I downsized my panels and this took me in a completely different direction as you can see above!

For those of you that don't know me, I love to share my creativity on my YouTube channel so I will be bringing you video tutorials to show you exactly what I have done to create my projects each month.  Today I am bringing you two for the price of one!  The first tutorial is all about the products and techniques I used to replicate my design on to the cotton fabric panels.  

My aim was to try to get a permanent and washable panel that I could turn into a cushion.  I haven't been able to test the washability of this project as in the end I decided that the panels would make a lovely cover for a special Christmas photo album.  I will let you know about the washability as soon as I make my first cushion cover and can test it out for myself.  Fingers crossed I don't wash off all my hard work ;-)

Here is the tutorial to show you how I mixed and matched Gelatos®, PITT® Big Brush Artist Pens, Texture Gems^TM and Gel Medium to create my fabric panels.  Remember that these tutorials can be used to replicate my designs or you can use the techniques and ideas I bring you to create your own designs to turn into lovely home decor pieces or heirloom albums like this one for your family and friends to enjoy.

Video number 2 is all about turning those fabric panels into a wonderful photo album complete with jingling charms.  

You will also learn how to create signatures for your album and then how to tie them into your book so that you have plenty of room to preserve all those Christmas photos and memories.  I think you will agree with me that you could either use the entire album to record one Christmas or use each of the three signatures to record a separate year (three in total).  

This project takes time as you can see from the running times of both tutorials but I hope you think that it is well worth the effort.  I am already thinking I might need to make some of these as Christmas Gifts!  I really hope that my tutorials inspire you to get out your Faber-Castell Design Memory Craft® products and to make albums or cushions of your own to celebrate the holiday season.

Cutting Guide for the Photo Album Cover:

Fabric Panels 10" cut 2

Chipboard Covers 8" squares cut 2

Chipboard spine 8" x 2" 

Sticky backed canvas 4" x 12"

Cutting Guide for Photo Album Signatures:

There are 5 pages with tag pockets in each signature and you will mix and match the colours to suit your project.  There are 3 signatures in the album.  I used A4 card stock.

Page size: 7¹/₂" x 11³/₄" scored at 3⁷/₈"

Pocket Piece:  7¹/₂" x 3⁷/₈"

Tag: 6¹/₂" square

Products Used:

Gelatos® Metallics Collection - Metallic Blueberry, Metallic Icing

Gelatos® Pastels Collection - Aqua Dolce

PITT® Big Brush Artist Pens - Cold Grey III 232, Light Cobalt Turquoise 154, Dark Chrome Yellow 109, Orange Glaze 113

PITT®  Artist Pen (B) Dark Indigo 157

Texture Gems^TM - Silver

Gel Medium

Mixed Media Stencils 101 Collection

Hi, my name is Helen and I love to share my crafting journey on my blog, ‘The Craft Project’ and for the past few of years on my YouTube Channel.  I am at my happiest when designing lovely projects to teach to other crafters.  As well as sharing my tutorials on YouTube I also sell online workshops for larger projects from my ETSY shop.  I am thrilled to have this wonderful chance to be part of the Faber-Castell Design Memory Craft® Guest Design team and to share projects with you all.  Some of you that know me will know I am also part of the Rubber Dance Design Team (a Norwegian Stamp company).  I am very lucky to have a very supportive and understanding  family, a husband and two sons who always cheer me on in my creative adventures even when their tea is late!……oh, and I mustn’t forget our huge golden retriever Comet who likes to try to scare off the postman when he brings me happy crafting mail!!!

 

Comments

[Debbie Siddle]

That is one beauty of an album...

[Tamiko McCurry]

beautiful album!

[BEth Williams]

I absolutely adore this. I think I want to these techniques to make a canvas panel for an embroidery hoop wall hanging. Thank you so much for the fantastic inspiration and tutorials.

[TheresaMP]

Hi Helen, good to see your project. Fun as usual. thanks as always for sharing.

[Lynda Wessell]

I love this tutorial! Thank you for sharing. Onr question, what is the brand of book binding glue you used?

Looking forward to your next project.

Lynda

[Helen Allen]

Hi Lynda the Book Binding glue is by a UK company called Pinflair. Helen x

[Margie Higuchi]

I just LOVED how this album turned out - wonderful job!!