scrapbooking or journals, hand made arts and crafts projects #1

PROCESS:

I purchased my purse near Boston in Mid-April, 2002, at a Wal Mart store near The Stamp Lady where I was teaching for three days. The purse cost $9.96 plus tax. I demonstrated techniques of painting and rubber stamping the purse in my all day Painting Pizzazz class. It was so much fun to do, I encourage all of you to try this project. All you have to do is purchase an inexpensive purse, backpack, tote bag, etc. and just go for it. I would not get a purse that is made from imitation leather. Also heavy cotton with a lot of grain will not paint very well. Look for smooth, strong polyester fabric purses that have lots of bells and whistles to paint. The purse costs so little that you will feel free to experiment. Even your children can do this project. You need acrylic based paints so that they don't have to be heat set. In addition you need sponge squares. I use "hydrophilic" sponge squares. I purchase the sponges at Home Depot in the wall paper department or the paint department. Sometimes you can find them in the tile department. Cut the large sponge with strong scissors. Cut the sponge into 1" to 1 1/2" square.

After you have completed painting the purse, you can glue fabric collage with fabric glue. In addition you can add more rubber stamping, toothbrush spatter, masking tape resist, or any of the other techniques covered in my book "Creating With Paint..." In my class in Sedona, several students painted and stamped spectacular purses. Just have fun and keep asking "What If".

Step One: This photograph shows the purse as it came from the store with no paint or embellishment added.


Step Two: This photograph shows the purse with various colors of Jacquard's Lumiere Metallic and Pearlescent Paint sponged onto the surface. You can view the bottles of paint that I used from the Travel Paint Studio in the background. I used a sponge square to paint overlays of color over the entire purse, including all of the pockets.


Step Three: This photograph shows the back of the purse and the side of the purse. I sponged more Lumiere paint plus some of the "Sherrill's Sorbets" (the sorbets are new paints included in the Travel Paint Studio. They are gorgeous colors, matt in finish, and they rubber stamp and sponge beautifully).


Step Four: This photograph shows rubber stamping on the front of the purse using Jacquard's Neopaque, Jacquard's Lumiere, and Jacquard's Sherrill's Sorbets. I rubber stamped after getting the base colors onto the purse in steps two and three.


Step Five: This photograph shows a close-up of the flap of the purse. I have painted over the label that came on the purse with Sherrill's Sorbets.


Step Six: This photograph shows the final purse. You can see all of the stamping and detail that I added with paint. I created the lines that you see with a Bronze Lumiere Applicator tipped bottle from the Travel Paint Studio.

Other completed purses.

I hope that all of you try this project. I loved every minute of making
this purse. I will hopefully have a purse project in my new book.
Have Fun!!!