A Book of Shells - Seahorse Book Box

Today I have a small beach-themed faux book box that I thought I would make look more real and less faux by giving it textured pages.  I'm going to be using the ATC size faux book box chipboard set and for decoration, the ATC coin covers - under the sea edition.  This is a quick project that requires minimum supplies as I will just be decorating the box using the chipboard and some paint.  I used Paperartsy Fresco paints but you could use any paints you have, though bear in mind that your result might vary if you do.  Here's the end result...

First of all, I assembled the box using collage medium on the box itself, and masking tape on the wraparound cover.  This cover consists of the front cover and the spine, which need to be taped to each other.

Then I covered all of it with white gesso, and once that was dry, I applied a thin layer (1-2mm is fine) of texture paste.  DO NOT leave it to dry!  It needs to be soft for the next step!

To make the faux book look like it has pages, I drag this texture brush through the texture paste before it dries.  This brush is part of a set, and this particular one has teeth that are just the right width apart for the effect I am trying to achieve.  If you don't have a similar brush you could use toothpicks or skewers taped together to make a "comb" or even an actual comb!  After doing all three sides, I left it to dry.

Once the texture paste is dry, it looks like this. Give a little light sanding to get any of the rough or loose bits off.  If you just have a few loose bits of texture paste, you should be able to brush them off with just your fingers.

To decorate my book cover, I chose two of the Under the Sea Coin Covers that I thought would look good together - the seahorse and the coral.  

I painted both with white gesso.  I could have done all my gesso-ing at the same time but I hadn't decided on my decoration at that time.

Using my Fresco paint, I painted the inside of the box in Sand as part of my beach theme and the texture paste pages with Snowflake (white).

For the outside of the box and cover, I chose three colours - Aqua Duck Egg, Aquamarine and Beach Hut and sponged them on using an old paper towel.  Then I started painting the coral and seahorse chipboards.  You can see the coral already painted, unfortunately I don't have a photo of the actual painting of these elements.  I was out of Coral paint so I used Cherry Red and Banana mixed together which resulted in this reasonably close Coral colour.

For the inside cover I used a darker colour called Inky Pool to paint a beachy wood plank effect to fit with my theme.

I attached the cover to the box using Collage Medium and held it in place until it was dry to ensure it didn't move as I wanted my cover to close properly.

I painted the seahorse using Tangerine Twist and Bougainvillea paint colours, and Inky Pool again on the frames.  Then I used more Collage Medium to attach both coin covers to the front of my "book".

And the book box was complete!  I told you it was quick!  Here's another view of those textured "pages".

So what to do with a book box like this?  Well maybe you use it to keep some of your special shells collected from a favourite vacation or local beach like I have done here.

Or you could send this to a friend or loved one as a memory of a fun holiday you had together, perhaps add a rolled up note stuck in a tiny bottle?

I hope you enjoyed this project and that you find inspiration to create your own.  Please let me know in the comments.

Till next time,

Collect beautiful moments and memories :)

Elle

Empire of the Cat

PROJECT RECIPE:

ATC size faux book box BD12T, Trading coins covers under the sea C10V
White gesso
Collage Medium
Chalk Paints
Texture paste
Masking Tape
Texture Brushes

Fly Away Art Journal Cover

Today I have an altered book cover or in my case, an altered art journal cover, as this particular book is one that I am going to use for that purpose, but first I wanted to decorate the cover!

I'll be using this hardback sketchbook.  I think it might be a Derwent sketchbook but there is no label on it any more so I can't be sure.  It is also approx A4 size (21.0 x 29.7cm, 8.27 x 11.69 inches).

I will also be using this chipboard set - Collage Frame Birds & Ivy - which I had originally thought of using on something else (a tag) but then decided to make it the focal point of this cover instead.  I cleaned off the edges and then painted it with white gesso.

Once it was dry, I painted it with Paperartsy Fresco Chalk Paints in purples and greens.  Here's how it looks against the sketch cover - just a final check of the position to make sure it fits the way I want it to.

Then I painted the sketchbook cover with white gesso and left it to dry.

My plan for this cover was to use some of my gelli prints as the backgrounds.  I have two full A4 size prints that I can fit one on the front (shown below) and one on the back cover.  They are not the same colour, but they are in the same colour family, and the technique used creates a wood plank background. 

I glued them both on to the sketchbook cover using collage medium.

To add more interest to the background, I added some texture paste through two different stencils from Finnabair's collection.  A text stencil in the centre and a wild berries stencil around the outside.

Here's a closer look at the scripty word stencil.

And here's how it will look with the chipboard frame over the top

I decided I didn't like the white edges, so I painted around the edges with more Fresco paint in a combination of purple shades, just using my fingers instead of a paintbrush.

Here's a look at both the front and back covers - I did have to use a small paintbrush to touch up the edges under the spiral binding since my fingers are not that small!

Here's a closer look at the spine, looking very gritty and textural, just the way I like it.

It was now time to adhere the chipboard to the cover and I did this using soft gel and to ensure that it stayed in place while it was drying, I put some heavy objects on top to hold everything down.

This little frame comes with extra birds and extra ivy, both of which I wanted to add on top once the frame was attached to the cover.

Once the frame was attached it looked like this, so now all I needed to do was plan out where to put the extra bird and ivy pieces that I wanted to use.

I positioned the bird in the middle and added the ivy pieces on top and bottom, with the two single leaves in front of the two lower birds, as though they were perched on the leaves.

I glued them down using more soft gel and some heavy weights to hold them in place while they dried.

Make sure to leave plenty of time for the glue to dry and it will hold everything in place beautifully, but until it is dry, be careful not to move anything accidentally!  Here's my finished frame layout.

I felt like my cover could use some words so I used some of these Finnabair word stickers and stuck them on the frame.  These stickers were originally a cream colour so I painted them with the same paint as I used on the frame, only diluted a little with some water to allow the text to show through.

And that was my art journal cover finished and ready to use!

I hope that you found this tutorial useful and inspiring, if you are looking for ideas for your own book covers.

Elle

Empire of the Cat

PROJECT RECIPE:

Collage Frame Birds & Ivy
A4 notebook (or book of similar dimensions)
White gesso
Collage Medium
Soft Matte Gel
Fresco Chalk Paints
Texture paste
Gelli print backgrounds (already made)
Finnabair word stickers, stencils

Red And Green Should Never Be Seen...

This started off as my St Patrick's Day inspired project but as I thought more about Spring and how everything was turning green, this little rhyme popped into my head.  So I decided that this should be my inspiration instead:

Red and green should never be seen 

except upon a fairy queen

There are a few different versions of this, including "Irish Queen" instead of "Fairy Queen" but it was always fairy queen for us and here she is, my fairy queen...

I used this very large tag base because I wanted lots of room for this. I am also using Fresco chalk paints again, some of my own stamps and a few different mediums, so here we go...

My camera failed me and I don't have some of the process photos which included gesso, Tim Holtz tissue paper, texture paste through a stencil, crackle paste and these first layers of Fresco paint.

I did some stamping to the background using my own handmade stamps (see the white spirals) and then added some white splatter for good measure.  And so it was time to plan the Fairy Queen.  I started playing with all these chipboard pieces and took a quick snap so I wouldn't forget where I wanted everything to go. I am using the Flight of Fancy Butterfly Girl D132A, Blooming Flourish D22P, Acorn Border Set C10E, Leaves from Mushroom Shape Set D102B, and later, the Stackable Labels D35H.  I manipulated these foliage pieces into the shapes I wanted so that they became a crown for her head and a garland for her neck.

 
Gesso everything and leave to dry.

It was then time to start painting my fairy queen, remembering the rhyme about red and green, so her hair had to be flaming red! I painted her using Paperartsy Fresco Chalk Paints.

I gave her a green dress and some hand drawn features using first a pencil, then paint, and pink butterflies in her hair.

I really wanted to put the little red and green rhyme on the tag but even with this large tag, I didn't feel there was enough room for it to look right and not be squished.  I found some of these skeleton leaves in a drawer, painted them with Chartreuse paint and Metallic Glaze, and used them as a background for all the foliage around her.

I added some more foliage and then painted it using Frescos with metallic glaze mixed in and then cut one of the Blooming Flourish pieces into two, so I could use it on the other side of her face, to balance things up.

I thought she needed to be grounded so I added a lollipop stick to ground her. I inked it up with Ground Espresso Archival ink.

I used these little mini bookplates, painted them up and attached them, and because I couldn't fit the red and green rhyme, I used these Finnabair stickers to convey Queenie's fairy message to let yourself look for the magic.  I'm sure you will find it if you look hard enough!

 Oh and one final touch was to add these little Prima crystals as a necklace as I thought her neck was looking a bit bare and she is a Queen after all!

I hope you like my St Patrick's Day/Spring/Fairy Rhyme inspired red and green tag.  Please let me know in the comments!


Elle
Empire Of The Cat

 PROJECT RECIPE:

GSL Cuts - Tag Set Super X Model: D92C  , Stackable Labels D35H, Blooming Flourish D22P, Acorn Border Set C10E, Flight of Fancy Butterfly Girl D132A, Leaves from Mushroom Shape Set D102B,
Paperartsy - Fresco Chalk Paints, various
Decoart - White Gesso, Crackle Paste, Texture Paste
Tim Holtz - Ground Espresso Archival Ink, Collage Medium, tissue paper, stencil
Finnabair - word stickers
Prima - crystals
From Stash:  lollipop stick, my handmade stamps,