book or bag?

Sometime ago I went to a little craft fair and saw a book that had been made into a little handbag.  The outside of the bag was just the plain hard back cover of the book and I thought it was a shame that whilst the idea was good it was a shame that the outside had not been thought of so it set me thinking...

I bought a large old hardback copy of a microwave cookery book from a charity shop - just because it seemed a nice size.

/

I decided to go with a shabby theme and I removed all the pages and used image transfer to cover the front and back.  before sealing I added some distress inks around the edge to make it all  well worn!

It turned out well so off I went to my local craft shop Minerva crafts in my home town and bought some material to line it and a button for the fastening.

I had some lovely lace in my stash so I distress with vintage photo ink and stuck a strip across both sides.

To line the bag  I made some handles and a loop for the fastening and glued them into place before lining with the same material (I added a little padding underneath the material on the sides )

I cut some die cuts out of greyboard which I gessoed before distressing with inks...mmm water based so decided to seal them - this made the ink smear but it seemed to just add to the shabby effect.

I stamped a leafy swirl stamp and embossed in gold.

I added some flowers and buttons and stuff - done.

Thanks for stopping by please leave a comment I love to hear what you think.