Teesha Moore patches combined to make a cover for our Trailer Journal

A Teesha Moore cover for our trailer journal!!!!!!! I have been making Teesha Moore inspired squares for quite a while as I really love the hand stitching and the very creative look of them.  For some reason I have been resistant to combine them into larger projects though there is enough inspiration online to make a wide variety of projects from journal covers, trivets, mug rug, and bags!! I did do a composition book journal cover a few years ago. You can check it out here, but have not really come up with anything else for quite a while.  Recently, we purchased a travel trailer and at an event on the weekend my aunt, Maria, suggested that we keep a trailer journal to document our travels and the repairs and improvements along the way.  I was immediately inspired to use my stash of Teesha Moore patches!!!!!!!   
I dug out my bag and started sorting them to general size and then placing them on the cover of a composition book leaving a bit of over hang on the top and bottom so I could stitch up the flaps on both ends that will hold the book in the cover.  It was so great!!!!!  I decided to use my three stitch zigzag on my sewing machine and multicoloured thread to attach them to each other.  The stitch is wide enough to have decent purchase on both pieces and with the multicoloured thread I found it did not distract from the colourful hand stitching I had done on the edges of the patches.  I ensured that I double stitched at all the joining points to ensure integrity in the cover and it went together fairly quickly using the sewing machine.  I had individually hand stitch the surface of the patches and then used hand stitching to combine them into a cover when I made the last cover which was a bit time consuming.  I still plan on hand stitching the individual patches on this cover and using one of them to give it a title - probably the coral ferny one which will give the best contrast.  It will be a great hand stitching project for around the campfire!! I am so very pleased with it!!!!!!!! Here are a few more photos!!

The back of the cover!  Love that little rainbow on the right hand side of the front.

The two inside flaps.  The one on the left is quite loose so I will be adding an elastic to the inside to tighten that up a bit but the extra give will allow the storage of a pen or two.  

Here is the inside of the cover with the composition book removed.  You can see here that I used a blue bobbin thread and it is less beautiful than the cover.  It might have been better to use a neutral colour but in the end no one is likely to ever see this part of it so all is good!!

Therese

Teesha Moore inspired Postcard

I joined a postcard swap on one of my groups!!  The Theme: a raised letter A in Teesha Moore style!!  I started with a 4" x 6" lightly coloured alcohol ink background that I had in my stash.  I used my new Dylusions - Triangles -  stencil which I got for Christmas from my sister to add some texture on the right hand side.  I simply placed it over the background and sponged some inks through the holes - purple, green, teal & blue.

I punched the left hand side with a Fiskars ribbon slot punch, added some doodling around the holes using a fine tip Sharpie and then did all the way around the postcard edges using a wider black permanent marker. It added the contrast I like in my favorite Teesha Moore art. Then, I went looking for elements I could add to my collage.  I started with the chipboard "A" which fit right in and then found a cool sister poem on the gift tag I received from my sister this Christmas (will have to find out where she got it),  a teal coloured glittery heart, a little fairy girl and a couple of butterfly punchies.  These struck my fancy and complimented the colours of my background very nicely!!  I did sponge the poem with the same colours I had used on the stencil to get it to coordinate.
With my elements chosen I gave some thought to how I was going to add words.  Teesha often writes between the lines in her art so I drew wavy lines from the dips on my left hand border and added dots in between.  Really liked that!!  The border needed a bit more colour, so I used a variety of gel pens to colour in all around the slots.   That was better!!

I glued down my sisters poem and used 3D foam tape to adhere my "A" in place.  It needed a bit more contrast so I added some black doodling to it. The poem also needed a bit of something so I added some black dots on three sides and some drops of coordinating nail polish to the right hand side of it.   With those main elements in place I started adding words using a variety of hand lettering with a fine tipped Sharpie marker.  I started by adding "sister" next to my "A" and kept adding words and doodles between the lines.  I did get some inspiration for my lettering from Jenny Doh's book - Creative Lettering.  Once I had filled all the lines, I glued on my butterflies, the glittery heart and the fussy cut little girl.  I found the coordinating fiber in my stash which was off my sister's gift!!  It was so fun that I was able to incorporate so many elements that she gave me into this collage!!!  I tied the end of the fiber into the first slot and then cut it off.  Tied it into a different slot and cut it off.  I repeated the process until I had filled all the slots and no fiber remained - perfect!!  I really love how much texture it adds to the final piece.  I added another 4"x 6" postcard to the back and hand lettered "postcard", added a dividing line and little postage square in the corner.  I am very happy with my postcard!!!  We will be doing monthly postcards on the group - I am looking forward to doing more letters using different techniques.  You can check here to see the "R" postcard I made using the Tim Holtz January Tag as inspiration.
If you received some crafty items for Christmas, dig them out and use them!!  Get creative today!!

Therese