Welcome to today's Guest Designer, Amanda !

Hello and welcome! Today we are welcoming Amanda of Treasured Moments of Inspiration as our Guest Designer. Amanda was the winner of the Three of a Kind challenge and was asked to join us as Guest Designer. So, let's move on to hear from Amanda !

Hi everyone, Amanda here and I am delighted to be here following my win of last month’s challenge

I am a “Craftaholic”! I have been crafting for about 6 years now and love nothing more than escaping into my craftroom to just get all inky and messy. My style is continually evolving and I love trying new techniques and products and create, in my opinion, many “Happy Accidents”! I suppose I would class myself as a mixed media crafter but also like creating within many other genres it just depends what crafty mood I am in. I also do like to collect the odd stamp or two, an obsession that I am considering seeking medical attention for, but I think I am beyond help!!

For this month’s challenge “Small is Beautiful” I have created “The Little Book of the Sea” which is housed inside a small matchbox.

 

Here’s how I made it:-

I first started by die cutting my matchbox using Tim Holtz Alterations matchbox die, for this I used a heavy kraft card.

Then to make my little book to put inside. The inside measurement of the box is 4.5cms x 6.5cms so to ensure that my little book fitted, it needed to be 4cm x 6cms when finished.

I cut a piece of A4 white card into a 6cm strip and then scored at 4cm intervals.

I then prepared my background. The first layer was a layer of blue brusho, I then stencilled the bubbles over using first PaperArtsy Fresco paint in white and then bump stencilled again with shades of blue Fresco paint. When that was all totally dried I applied Antique Linen Distress Ink with an ink blending tool.

 

 I then added some background stamping using blue Archival ink.

Then to add my images. I stamped a selection of sea themed stamps, from Crafty Individuals and Chocolate Baroque, onto white paper using Potting Soil Archival ink and set about cutting them all out.
 

Then to create the pages. You will notice the last page is blank, that is because when folded up it sits under the cover to complete the book.

 

A layer of white fresco paint roughly applied, same stencil technique as above. Then I added some bandage, to mimic fishing net, that I had coloured with the watered down Fresco paints and Vintage Photo Distress Stain and some of my left over cut outs. 

Text has been typed out on my vintage typewriter and applied with 3D glue gel. I even added to the inside of the box for the book to sit in.

I hope you like it.

Love

Amanda X

Fantastic Amanda ! What a beautiful little book and housed in such a gorgeous match box home. There's still plenty of time to join us for the current challenge of Small is Beautiful and I'm sure that Amanda's project has give you even more inspiration.