Sewing Challenged

I did it! I finished my pages for the upcoming book swap themed "Sewing". Not such a big deal, right? Considering that sewing is one of those things I just never quite mastered, it is a huge deal. Well, at least it is to me. I sent the pages off on the 18th and will get the return group sometime after the 1st of April. Here's my page-




I actually enjoyed the process and did very little sewing. The background is a patterned yellow cotton that I overstamped with a flourish design with Black Staz On ink. I made a little template for the pattern piece on the left, used a collage sheet for the pattern envelope and stuck some ruled quilting tape on the bottom. Is that tape the coolest thing? I was going to buy enough tape measures to do all 20 cards, but was very stoked when I found this roll of adhesive. I actually DID sew a bit when I attached the vintage buttons (from my Grandma's button jar) and the little silver charm. Each page had a different sewing-related charm and each page was slightly different. I decided I wanted to do some fabric painting, so I bought some muslin and painted up a large batch of it to use on the back of the pages. I used thinned down acrylic paint as the first layer. Then added stampings of a double ring and a spiral in 2 other shades of yellow. The last touch was random dots of white applied with the wooden end of my paintbrush. I don't think the picture really shows all the detail, but the process was fun and I will try more of the muslin painting in the next few days. I used the fusible web to put the 2 sides together and they were done. I need to add to this that I fully intended to use my sewing machine to add a little bit of stitching, but life being life and all, my machine needs a tune up and just would not work well enough to do what I needed to do. So...or is it SEW, it's now in the shop awaiting a proper tune up. I guess I can't be too upset, as this machine was purchased in 1976 and I have never had to do a thing to it. It is a very basic model and weighs approximately 342 lbs., but it would take alot to destroy it, so I will appreciate it for the fine piece of machinery it is. When I get it back.