TATTY BUTTON STAMP PROJECTS II
My final dimensional project for the moment...and I thought it deserved a blog post of it's own. I've got to say this has been a labour of love, has taken me the best part of two weeks to complete inbetween working on the other projects....BUT I'M SOOOO PLEASED WITH HOW IT TURNED OUT!
THE TATTY BUTTON GRUNGE PAPER PATCHWORK BAG
Sadly I do have to say that this isn't my own design entirely. Credit must go to ANNELIESE BATES who did a wonderful project in the October 2009 edition of Craft Stamper magazine...I have been itching to do this one for a long time and now the Tatty Button stamps are available, decided to have a go using them. I have done a little adapting of Annalieses design mainly due to my limited materials available, but it does stay reasonably true to her original style.
The Patches are individual squares of Tim Holtz Grunge Paper that have been inked (Distress inks) and the either stamped with Tatty Button images (plus a couple of other pattern stamps) or embossed using various plates for texture. The patches were hand stiched together to form panels for the two main sides.
Unlike Annelieses bag, mine is much smaller, consisting of nine patches per panel, rather than fifteen. I also lined my bag with canvas fabric and edged the top with fabric. Anneliese lined her bag with extra panels of Grunge Paper and left the edges raw. 
The lining I left in it's original natural colour, and stamped over it using small Tatty Button embellishment stamps.
The end panels and base of the bag are single pieces of Grunge Paper, inked up with Distress inks and embossed. This one in the photo is a Creative Expressions embossing plate design by Sam Poole and goes very well with the Tatty Button range...and of course it's only right to use something of Creative Expressions...after all they are the company producing my stamp designs.
Anneliese used patterned 7 Gypsies Gaffer Tape and Tim Holtz Idea-ology metal componants for the handles and attachments...which I unfortunately didn't have to hand. I think those pieces lend a much more professional finish to her bag, but I had to make do with some simple brass eyelets and black fabric tape, hand sewn to match the patchwork stitching...I still think they work well though, and the black handles tie in with the black edging around the top of the bag and highlight the black ink of the stamped images. Looking at the photos now though, I think the brass is too new and shiny looking so will probably give them a wipe over with some inks to tone the 'brassyness' down.
