"Beautiful" metallic book {Paperartsy Blog}

   

Hello again, my friends. I'm over on the Paperartsy blog tonight, sharing a fabulous book with a metallic look. This combines many of my favourite things, such as bookbinding, monoprinting, doodling and, of course, Paperartsy and Emma Godfrey's stamps and stencils. 

  

Luckily for me, all my pink and purple shades of Fresco acrylics are all in the same box. That made things easier.

I unearthed my mini hexagonal Gelli plate, something I hadn't used before, despite buying it several months ago! Then, alternating the first four purple colours, Blueberry, Purple Rain, Lavender and Wisteria, I used the gel plate as a stamp. I wasn't bothered about the little bits that missed. I think that adds to the effect. Anyway, they eventually get covered with stencilling. I carried on filling the Smoothy Card with the same four colours. 

By placing Emma's gorgeous mask (PM008) over the already printed hexagon, I 'stamped' over it with the same hexagonal plate covered in the first four pink shades of Fresco paints, Plum, Sour Grapes, Sugar Plum and Pixie Dust.

Then, by removing the stencil from the plate, it leaves you with a negative print which you can then press onto the cardstock...

I carried on with positive and negative masking until the whole sheet was filled. Some of the hexagons looked wonderful. Others not so...

Nothing that a black and a white pen couldn't fix though...

Finally, the main part of the cover was done. What it needed now was some flowers! You can never have enough flowers. 

I stamped up a good selection of Emma's flowers using sets EEG14 and EEG22 and painted them using Pansy and Moonlight for the purple flowers and Sherbet and Orchid for the pink ones.

After fussy-cutting the gorgeous blooms and then curling them over a stylus tool, I decided that I wanted a magnetic closure. 

The best placing for the magnets was under a flower and inaside the front cover. 

I made a bookmark from one of the offcuts and its own little pocket inside which would hide the other magnet.

Out with the Treasure Gold in Royal Amethyst. I rubbed it over the edges of the book, the flowers, the bookmark and the pocket.

Everything was looking shiny-shiny and beautiful. Now I just had to put this fabulous book together. The hardest part was tearing the cartridge paper edges. It's a bit rough on your fingers. I laminated the bookmark, then made a tassel and bound the book with silver thread.

I stamped and heat-embossed the "Beautiful" in silver, then gave it a drop-shadow as it had got a bit lost in the madness behind. Then I added the gloriously shiny flowers and, after what seemed like an age, the book was finished. 

Ta-daaa! 

I hope I've inspired some more bookbinding projects with you. I'd love to see whatever beauties you make. Thanks for sticking with me. I promise the next post will be shorter! 

Probably.

Love and peace, 

Wendy x

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New House, New Book - Japanese Stab Binding

  

Hello, my crafty friends. I hope everyone is well. Today, on the Paperartsy blog, I'll be showing you how to make a book using Japanese stab binding. Also, of course, using the gorgeous Hot Pick 1601 set of stamps.

I started off with 2 sheets of Smoothy Card and covered each with a layer of Squid Ink Fresco Acrylics. This layer doesn't really have to be painted carefully as we'll be painting over the top. Then make sure it's completely dry before continuing. Step 2 of this part is to thinly cover the painted card with some Crackle Glaze. I used a palette knife to make sure it was a really thin coat. Wait until it's completely dry again. For Step 3, I used different techniques on each sheet. I sponged Stone Fresco Acrylic on the first sheet, giving me delicate cracks on the top layer...

... then painted the same colour quite thickly on the other sheet which gave me stonking great fissures! I prefer the second one. It has fabulous texture, but I needed to stamp on the front cover so I wanted that to be smoother.

I stained around the edges of four separate pieces of mountboard with Vintage Photo Distress Stain - two cover pieces and two spine pieces. Then I set them aside to dry while I finished the covers. You could also use chipboard or Paperartsy's Grey/Whiteboard for this stage.

I used Versamark Ink and the small 'Home Sweet Home' stamp from the same set, then heat set some Ranger Embossing Powder (superfine) in Copper over the top. Oh, how striking does that look? Fab! Everything was just going perfectly...

... until I messed it up in superb style. I'd covered the embossed spine part with Post-it tape while I stamped the houses, beginning at the bottom (Ranger Archival Ink, Coffee.) At the top, I didn't want to only see the bottom of the houses, so I decided to take the 'Home' stamp and fill in the top. My mind had obviously wandered off for a coffee break without telling the rest of me and I stamped it upside down - CLANG!! 

As the great Ralph Steadman once said, "There's no such thing as a mistake." I always view these as creative opportunities and take a different route. Well, I wasn't about to start over! I die cut the words 'first' and 'home' from the offcuts of the covers and also from chipboard (Sizzix Tim Holtz die, Wordplay,) then stuck card to board,...

... went over each piece with Distress Stain (Vintage Photo). I used a paper stump so that I could control the amount of coverage as I still wanted to see the cracks,...

... then I went totally over the top (Who? Me?) and covered all of the letters in Ranger Crackle Accents.

Great decision, if you ask me.

I still had the problem of the upside down 'home'. I had to cover it as it would have been visible under the letter embellishments, yet I still wanted the cracks to show. So I gently dabbed Fresco Stone paint over the top with my finger. I kept doing that in very thin layers until I had a satisfactory result.

Now this was a test for me but, luckily, it worked out really well and is something I will do more in the future. I  stamped the large door from the set onto an offcut from the chunky crackle cover in Vintage Photo Distress Oxide then, because they stay wet a little longer, I covered it in clear embossing powder and heat set it. Wow! I'd like to pretend it was intentional but it was a complete fluke. 

I stuck a mountboard cover and spine piece to each painted cover, leaving 1/8" gap between the two to allow for movement. The spine will not move when it's finished, so the cover part needs to be able to open.

I punched the holes in both covers and also the pieces of cardstock (300gsm, Coffee) I was using for the pages. I used a Crop-O-Dile Big Bite to punch the holes but I would advise using a drill if you can. Then I practiced on a spare piece of board. Each set of three holes is called a 'station'. I started at the second station (from inside the middle page of the book out towards the cover) and worked my way to the far end.

I clamped everything together so that it wouldn't move. Each time the needle comes out of the a hole, wrap it around the spine and go back into the same hole, then onto the next. The thread, string, cord (or whatever you choose to bind with) will eventually pass through each hole three times. Don't worry if it looks like you've missed one, you will catch those on the way back down. At the ends, wrap the cord around the side of the book as well. This will provide the third run through that hole. Then you will easily be able to see where the thread should go next. When you reach the starting point again, simply tie the two ends off.

I chose 1.5mm leather cord to bind my book. Then I stuck the letters and the door in place.

I added shading to the outside of the embellishments with an Inktense pencil (Bark) and blended it out with a water brush.

Ta-daaaaa! One book for my daughter and her fiancé to photo-document their first house renovation. I can't wait to see it when it's full.

I realise this is a very long blog post, and I hope the 10 minutes with feet up was welcome. I will film a demonstration YouTube video to accompany this post very soon, so keep your eyes peeled on this blog.

Do have a go at different stitches for book-binding. It's very satisfying when things go according to plan ...*cough* ...eventually.

Love and peace,

Wendy x

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Zinski Vs. Tim Burton - Dark to Light/Contrast

Hello, my friends. I have a gorgeous birthday card to share with you today. I made it for my friend, Sarah. She loves all things Tim Burton, so I thought I would give one of ElenaZinskiArt's characters a bit of the Burton treatment. It's over on the PaperArtsy blog tonight for their Topic #10 (Dark to Light/Contrast)

 

I started with the background and blended Paperartsy Fresco Acrylics from Little Black Dress to Snowflake.

.

As long as you keep the brush moving, you can dry brush them together quite nicely. A little Drying Retarder mixed with the paint will help.

Then a little alteration. As she was, Elena's character was a little too cute for the Tim Burton look. So I stamped the flower from the last release (ZA08) then stamped again on some post it tape so that I could mask it off while I stamped the girl over the top.

I used Snowflake again to paint out the spots on her leggings. How serendipitous that the centre of the flower turned into her tummy!

A little painting with some Claret and London Bus and her spotty leggings turned into over-the-knee stripy socks.

Just needed to add the sentiment, a die cut (embossed with black ink and clear embossing powder) and the perfect birthday card, for Sarah, is done.



Love and peace,
Wendy x

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Awash With Aqua - PaperArtsy Blog

Hello friends! Today I'm going to share a star book with you. It's a seven-point star and each 'point' is made up of three parts. There's a lot of paper used here, but don't let that worry you. Once the components are prepared, it's really easy to put together - I promise!

I started, as I often do, with a masterboard (or two) using all of the aqua range of PaperArtsy Fresco Acrylics...

...although, in the end, I mainly stuck to Mermaid, Caribbean Sea and Beach Hut. I had a 6"x6" book in my  mind and decided that Heavyweight Smoothy Card would be perfect. That all changed in the end. 

As I mentioned, each 'point' of the star book is made up of three main parts. In my book, each part consisted of papers measuring 15", 13" and 11". All of these (already coloured) pieces are folded in half and joined at each end with double sided tape.

Then each outer section is completely adhered to the next to form the star shape. I brayered Fresco paints onto the large pieces, used Distress Oxides (Salty Ocean, Cracked Pistachio) on the middle pieces and sprayed Lindy's Stamp Gang (Starburst - Shabby Turbine Teal, Flat Fabio - Caribbean Blue) onto the small pieces. The overall size of the book finished up as 7.5"x5.5", which was determined by the larger section of each point.

I didn't have any aqua coloured ribbon for the closure so I stained some neutral seam binding with a combination of Peacock Feathers and Cracked Pistachio Distress Stains. Perfect!

I adhered the ribbon around the outside of the book with double-sided tape before I began the covers. I used Fresco brayered Smoothy Card, adding more interest and accents with masks and stencils from Emma Godfrey (PM006) and Kim Dellow (PS040), and smaller stamps from Elena (ZA15) with Ranger Archival Ink (Aquamarine). 

I adhered the painted papers around two pieces of mountboard to form the front and back covers.

And so, at last, the real fun begins. Using ElenaZinskiArt stamps from her new release (ZA13 & ZA15), I used Jane Davenport's bright watercolours in the same aqua shades. My reasoning was that I could use the same umbrella theme of aqua but they would look a bit different to the background if I used a different medium. Giving focal images the 'pop' they deserve is challenging when using a single colour scheme. Well, these  gorgeous new Zinski stamps deserve the biggest pop ever.

Finally, some doodling - my favourite thing to do. I used Prismacolor pencils to add definition to the focal images, Sakura Glaze pens on the flowers and dangles and highlights all over with a white Signo Uniball pen. All that was left to do was to adhere the covers securely with double sided tape and glue (those covers are staying put!)...

...and mat the pages and my very first star book was finished. 

I hope I've inspired you to try making a star book of your own. It really is much easier than it looks. Of course, the size, colour and embellishments are all down to you.

All this talk of Star Books is making me want a coffee...

Love and peace,

Wendy x


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