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

A Record of the Past

Hello!! Jennalee here today with a vintage-inspired journal. I have been loving using vintage stencils as frames. But I tend to hoard my vintage supplies so I asked Gina at Gypsy Soul Laser Cuts if she could design some stencils for me. The result was perfection!!

When I started trying to find a home for my stencil I fiddled around with it on a vintage ledger but the ledger was larger than I wanted. Then it hit me I could make my own!! 

Begin by painting stencil. I used Tarnished Brass and Antique Bronzed Distress Paints, Black Soot Distress Crayon and Metallique Wax to get an aged look on my stencil. Bend edges to give it the look of an interlocking brass stencil. 

Blend Black Soot Distress Ink onto the front and back of an Eileen Hull Journal cover using a blending tool. 

Rub Black Soot Distress Ink pad across the journal cover. Use a light touch to get a mottled look of a vintage journal cover. Work in halves for this step to give plenty of time to apply embossing powder while ink is still wet. 

Once heat embossed and piece has cooled rub Vintage Photo Distress Crayon into the pits of the embossed surface. Use a baby wipe and paper towel to blend as desired. 

Not shown - Rip a piece of muslin to size of journal spine and color with Aged Mahogany Distress Ink. Create a stencil for the journal binding using the letters from Tim Holtz's Gift Card Die. Align letters and apply to washi tape. Cut from a piece of Freezer Paper. 

Iron freezer paper to piece of muslin and apply embossing ink thru stencil. Remove stencil and apply gold embossing powder and melt. 

Assemble journal and decorate cover using the Alphabet Stencil. I made a copy of a cabinet card in my collection. I added a thin uneven layer of Vintage Beeswax embossing powder to my photo and layered the stencil over it. I added a couple of flowers from Tim Holtz's Bouquet, added a Hex Fastner to each corner and finished it off with a couple sentiment stickers from Clipping stickers. 

Using the same technique for the stencil for the spine make a stencil for the number in the bottom corner. To add to the vintage feel I bent the cover to give it a worn look. 

Cover inside of journal with vintage ledger paper and ink edges with Vintage Photo Distress Ink. 

The stencils will be coming to Gypsy Soul Laser Cuts soon so be sure to keep an eye out for them. 

Thanks for spending a few minutes with me today. I hope you get to sneak in some creative time this weekend!! Happy Creating ~ Jennalee 

Celebrating Friendship

Hello!! Jennalee here today with a project to commemorate my recent trip to Creativation 2018 and meeting Jess of Two Mad Dahlias in real life. Have you ever met someone online and then met in real life and you are instant best friends? Thankfully this was the case with Jess and not just because I was staying at her house for a week!!  So naturally, I needed to make a piece to celebrate this friendship. As I was digging thru my Gypsy Soul Laser Cuts stash I ran across the Tudor Rose Singles and Petal Corners Mini and my wheels started turning.

I began by prepping all my chipboard pieces. For the Petal Corners Mini I heat embossed 2 of them with Hammered Metal embossing powder. Using my finger I added some Cracked Pistachio Distress Oxide to give it an aged look. I wanted some more age and texture so added some Cracked Pistachio Distress Crayon. I left some chunky bits of crayon on the Corners. 

I cut the Tudor Rose Singles in half and then sprayed two coats of white spray paint on all the pieces. Once the paint was dry I randomly applied some Distress Crazing Medium with my finger. Once the crazing medium was dry I added some detail with Vintage Photo Distress Ink. 

For my base I used a medium Tim Holtz Etcetera Tag. I cut my background paper to size and stitched around the edge with gold thread. I  then applied the background paper to the tag using Distress Collage Medium. 

I then added a bit of detail to the top right and bottom left corners of the tag using a palette knife to spread gesso thru the Tim Holtz Layering Stencil- Floral. 

To begin my layers I started with a Tim Holtz Pocket Card. I added a small piece of ephemera and a stamped spool image from the Haberdashery stamp set. On top of this I added the Tudor Rose Singles. I used one half of the largest cut out and one half of the medium size cut out. I adhered them to the top left and bottom right of the tag using Distress Collage Medium. 

I then built up the main layer by layering this awesome photo of two vintage girls from Tim Holtz's new pack of Found Relatives on a piece of background paper from the Memorandum Paper Stash. Using a paper distress to distress the edges of the background paper and Vintage Photo Distress Ink for detail. I layered the photo and a ticket from an ephemera pack and stitched them together with my sewing machine. I then adhered the Petal Corners Mini using Distress Collage Medium. 

To finish I adhered the photo layer to the tag using foam dots. To finish off the tag reinforcer I used two pieces of floral Design Tape from the Rose set and adhered to the tag using Distress Collage Medium. 

The final touch added was this quote from a movie both Jess and I enjoy. Bonus points if you can name that movie!! 

I love the texture and chunkiness the Tudor Rose Singles add to this piece. And the added vintage detail from the Petal Corners Mini complete the photo. The best part is that I still have enough left from both sets to make another project down the road. 

Thanks so much for stopping by and spending a few minutes with me today. Happy Creating ~ Jennalee 

Spring chics

 Hi Everyone,
I have some sassy birds for you today.

I started by coating my tag with a layer of collage medium and add bits of ripped tissue wrap.  Next I scribbled a light layer of  Distress Crayon in several colors.

In the one you see here I used colors that reminded me of a sunset.  I placed a stencil over the tag and rubbed away some of the crayon using an almost dry baby wipe.

I buy the cheapest baby wipes I can find.  They tend to be rough and pretty dry(not exactly what you'd want to use on a baby's bottom, but awesome for crafting). For the final step on the tag I added speckles of black and gold paint.  I also used some gold paint and just smeared it with my fingers.

Obviously, this is a close up of one of the other tags, but you can see the speckles. 

I took one of the bird nests from the For the Birds set. I inked the top part using brown Distress inks. The bottom piece is embossing using a sand color.

I cut out a vintage lady and plopped her in the nest.  I decided the tag needed a bit more interest so I used a stencil and distress crayon to make the tracks down the side. Once the sentiment was added I randomly scribbled around on the tag.

I decided she needed some friends so I made a couple more tags using the same technique and different bits of the For the Birds set.

I hope you like the girls and try to make some of your own!

Jess