Leslie Elledge at Alpha Stamps has been collecting old books and specifically the Brothers' Grimm Fairytale books for a long time. This spring she started by releasing not one, but 12 - absolutely gorgeous image sheets, plus new rubber stamps and the coolest clear stickers. ALL related to the Grimm fairy tales in conjunction with a swap I am hosting based on the same theme. Leslie has added at least a dozen more collage sheets (paper or fabric), more clear stickers and more rubber stamps! I was compelled to create a fabric book of my own design using these items simply because of how beautiful the images are. I used mostly paper collage sheet images sewn onto fabric and I am really impressed with the quality of the paper; even my husband commented on it when the book was finished! I also used clear stickers, rubber stamps, and these cool shoe buttons that Leslie carries.

Here are the inside pages -please click on any picture for more detail.

I used a simple linen fabric and made a sandwich of 2 pieces that I filled with soft & natural cotton batting. I worked on double pages and did not sew the edges together until I felt the book was finished. I used decorative machine stitches to sew the paper collage images to the fabric. The stickers seem to stick to my fabric very well, but just in case, I sewed the edges down too. The black & white (clear) border that goes around the inside corner, below right, is a sticker. The black mice border on the right & left sides of those pages is a stamp from alpha stamps, and so is the raven stamp in black on the blue page to your left. Rubber stamping was done with VersaCraft ink, which I heat set. I also added a few beads and sequins on the first page.

The roses are all clear stickers. I stuck them to the fabric and sewed them on for good measure. You'll find them on the Brothers Grimm collage sheet page.

For the back of the book I stamped on a clear sticker (part of a rose) with permanent ink and added my name written in permanent ink. I did a bit of embroidery here as I attached the buttons. I really love how this came out!