As a novice in art journaling, I was excited to see this appear in a form not entirely unpleasing. If you do follow the tutorial, please show pictures in the comments and let me know what worked/what was difficult to understand about this tut. Thanks!

Inspiration

Descriptions throughout The Scarlet Letter of Hester’s dressmaking skill and the luxurious garments she makes Pearl. The dress in this tutorial is far less fabulous and much cuter than I envision the original clothes; however, I wanted to mix chainmaille and quilling, so I went with “adorable” over “audacious.”

Supplies

Page itself

1. Piece of watercolor paper cut to desired size
2. Page from a Thesaurus (I chose a page connected to Pearl)
3. Bella Glitter paint: Star Dust
4. Bella Metallic paint: White
5. Sponge brush
6. Sharpie
7. Triangles from the dress card stock

Dress

1. Paper for template
2. Cardstock for dress (I used an actual card)
3. 1/8″ quilling paper
4. Notched end quilling tool
5. 11/0 metallic turquoise seed beads
6. 7/64″ 20 gauge jump rings from C and T Designs
7. Bent nosed pliers and chain nosed pliers
8. Aleena’s Clear Gel Tacky Glue (I’m not attached to it; it’s just what I have on hand!)
9. Craft tweezers
10. Small, sharp scissors
11. Ruler
12. Toothpicks (not really necessary. I use them to dab glue in small places and to straighten my beads)

Step One :

Cut out a page from the watercolor paper to your desired size.

Step Two:

Select a page from an old Thesaurus (not too old-it might be a treasure!). I chose a page that had “Pearl” on it, which, fortuitously, also had “peccadillo” and “pedant” on it.

Step Three:

  Next, take glue and smear it on the journal page, and then smooth the thesaurus page onto it. I used my scissor handles to gently press it on and squeeze out excess glue. Once it’s dry, trim the excess thesaurus paper.

Use a mixture of the glitter/metallic, brush the paint over the page  until the words are still seen but slightly faded.

Step Four:

  Make a dress template from paper (I used watercolor paper, again, because it was easy to find) that will fit your page

Step Five:

  Cut out your dress using the template. I used cards from a quilling set that I recently bought from Hobby Lobby.

Step Six:

  Glue the dress onto the page. Outline the edges of the dress with a Sharpie.

Step Seven:

 Select your quilling paper and use the tool to make “S” scrolls. I, for some inexplicable reason, chose green for my first round, but I switched to two shades of blue and two dark red scrolls for my final draft. I laid out my scrolls and then glued them on. I used the tweezers and toothpick to put the glue on first. By the end, I dipped the quills into the glue or squeezed a line of glue onto the card.  WARNING: Dipping can lead to useless, soaked scrolls. Squeezing out glue can create wind that will blow the quilled paper off the card into studio oblivion.

Step Eight:

  After the quilled paper has dried, draw a line of glue across the waist line, and then pour beads onto the glue (I’m sure some people would place each bead using the tweezers, but I’m not that dedicated). Shake off excess beads, and use a toothpick to manipulate the beads into position.

Step Nine: 

 Create a line of European 4-1 chainmaille the length of the top of the bodice (the link takes you to a tutorial). These jump rings are TINY: anything can be substituted for them-sequins, larger beads, bugle beads, etc.

Step 10:

 Add another line of beads under the chainmaille.

Step eleven:

 Make 3 layers of E 4-1* and glue on beneath the beads.

Step 12:

 Outline the entire page with a Sharpie, and then make triangles from the dress cardstock to put in the corners.

Voila! A finished product (I’m still contemplating my love of the negative space. Any advice on that??)

*I will look for a tutorial or make one on gradually shortening rows.