Fall and Winter Altered Notebooks - Christmas Gift Ideas - Part Three

Hi friends,

I'm here with my final notebook gifts tutorial to share with you all, this time using a 3D tree chipboard in a different way than intended!

So here we go!  As I mentioned in my last post, I decided to make some custom notebooks for some Christmas gifts and I thought the notebooks would be easy to post and easy to customise to each person.

Here are the notebooks I'm using, which are A5 size, and a popular size with bullet journalists so you will probably know the size I mean.  It's approx 5.5 x 8.x inches. The process is the same so I started by painting the covers with black gesso, to give myself a good, primed base especially as these are clothbound books.

While that was drying, I sorted through my chipboards and selected a few that I might potentially use, keeping in mind the person for whom they were intended.   I had already made this notebook and this notebook and also this notebook. For these final two notebooks I am using fall and winter inspired chipboard elements and sharing this 3D tree chipboard between the two books.

This chipboard has two parts that slot together to make a standing 3D tree, but I decided to cut both parts down the centre and then line up the matching pieces to make a double thickness and glued them together. If you didn't want them as thick as this, you could actually make four tree notebooks, using one half tree on each.  I wanted a little more dimension, so I doubled them up.  You can see the double thickness in the photo below.

For the winter notebook on the left, I also used three snowflakes from the Snowflake Shape set, and some die cut letters using some cereal box cardboard and glued everything down.  Then for the fall notebook, I also used two words from the Fall Words set - FALL and MEMORIES - and glued everything in place.

On the back cover of the notebook, I used an A5 sized wood slice stencil and some paper texture paste to create a dimensional pattern on the Winter notebook...

and the Fall notebook...

Leave the paper texture paste to dry and then paint everything with black gesso.

Now it was time to start painting!

I painted the Fall notebook with this gorgeous golden brown metallic acrylic, then used a Metallic Russet to paint the words.  Here is a look at the back cover which is stencilled with the texture paste and then painted.

The fall cover - complete or not complete?  I can't decide!

I felt like it needed something more in the cover so I die cut these leaf clusters and painted them with a variety of gold and copper metallics.

Then I cut them into smaller leaves and drew some veining on them with a dark brown pen.

I kept two leaf clusters whole and stacked and glued them together.  Then I punched a hole near the top and attached it to the bookmark ribbon which is part of the notebook.

And here is the finished Fall notebook.

Now it was time to focus on the Winter notebook.

For this notebook, I used this great icy blue metallic paint for the cover, and then used silver metallic paint for the snowflakes and a dark teal metallic paint for the text.

I hope you enjoyed this project and that it has given you some gift ideas for reasonably quick and customisable gifts that can be used all year round, but are perfect last minute Christmas gifts that can be tailored to the recipient.

Till next time,

Elle
Empire of the Cat


PROJECT RECIPE:
GSL Cuts - Snowflake Shape Set D38A, Fall Word Set D81E, 3D Chipboard Tree 6" C1B,
A5 clothbound notebooks
Black gesso
Finnabair Metallique Paints
Jacquard Lumiere metallic paints
Tim Holtz Handmade font dies
Glue
From Stash: cereal box cardboard

Let it Snow

Good morning. Deann here, today I am sharing a 10x10 winter themed canvas.

 

I painted the canvas with blue, brown and white chalk paint. I dabbed the paint on with a sponge. I used half of the 3D Chipboard Tree-6 inch  ,then cut it in half. Painted with brown and white chalk paint and glued on opposite sides of the canvas. Next up, the Fairy Door Mary . I used red chalk paint for the door. I covered the back of the window with vellum then yellow paper, to make it look like a light is on.

I used the Winter Shape Set to finish off the canvas. Thanks for checking out my project and Happy crafting!

Creating my own Winter Wonderland by Betsy

                                  Altered Art Winter Wonderland

I live in Minnesota. Cold and snow are a way of life. In fact, Minnesotans don't even think the weather is cold unless our nostrils freeze together when we inhale. (That's our own nostrils freezing together--our noses don't freeze to other random people's noses. Even though the extra body heat might be tempting, Minnesotans are too aloof to willy-nilly start cozying up to people walking down the street. Plus, just imagine people walking around with their noses frozen together. That's just weird.) Even though Minnesota winters often involve double-digit below zero temperatures and heart-attack inducing snowfalls, we currently are enjoying the warmest November on record. It is in the mid 70s here people.

The good news is that my solitary nose and the balmy weather has not stopped me from dreaming up some winter-themed craftiness, such as this Winter Wonderland Altered Art scene.

Tutorial to make Winter Wonderland

Since this will make a great holiday craft, I wanted to share with you how to make the Winter Wonderland Altered Art Scene.

Begin by assembling and gluing the joints of a 9" x 9" x 1" Cottage Base. Cover with white acrylic paint and let dry.

Before removing the excess chipboard, cover the bare branch trees with brown ink, the pine tree with green ink and the fence with black ink. Cut away the excess chipboard and assemble the deciduous trees.

Using the deciduous trees as a model cut a slit in one of the 6" pine trees from the top that extend about two-thirds of the way down the tree. Repeat on the second tree, except this time, beginning at the bottom. Slide the two trees together at the slot to create one three-dimensional tree.

Determine the placement of the trees, mark with a pencil and drill small holes through the Cottage Base.This is where you will run the lights for the trees. As you can see from the pictures below, originally I was going to wire the pine tree, but I later determined that the pine tree looked better without wires crisscrossing it, so I only wired the two deciduous trees.

Attach the trees and the fence using a strong glue. Then add the lights.

Next, assemble and paint the itsy-bitsy teeny-weeny bird house. Just look at how cute this thing is!

The next step is to add the snow to your base, fence and trees. Before the snow dries, add your deer.

Then, once everything is dry, add the birdhouse and cardinal.

You can house the battery packs for the lights beneath the cottage base. I pulled them out here so you can see them.

Great Stuff

Three 3D Chipboard Trees

Pine Tree Shape Set

Three Mini Wrought Iron Decorative Fences

Cottage Base

Little Bird House

Plastic Deer

Deco Art Snow Tex

Miniature Christmas Lights

Miniature Cardinal

White Acrylic Paint

Red Acrylic Paint

Beacon Fabri-tac

Vintage Photo Distress Ink

Black Soot Distress Ink

Forest Moss Distress Ink