Hello
all, it’s Alison (a.k.a. butterfly) here from Words and Pictures. My “real” job is as a Text and Voice Coach
for the theatre, specialising in Shakespeare, so that’s where the words come
in, and these days I love combining words with pictures as an addicted mixed
media crafter. When I’m working on a
show it’s quite a struggle to fit in as much crafting and blogging as I’d like,
but between shows I get to play whenever I want, so I feel very lucky. I love that I get to spend my life following
creative journeys at work and at play.
I’m
delighted to be a guest here at Stamps & Stencils this month, and what a
lovely theme to get to play with. I've altered the cover of a very cheap
journal to create this grassy meadow. I think it will inspire me whenever
I pick it up to play.
It's
actually very good quality for the price - nice, strong kraft pages on the
inside and sturdy kraft cover boards. (It's from The Works - good news
for those of you in the UK.)
I
had to get rid of that black ribbon closure, of course (not my style), and then
I was ready to start getting painty and inky.
I
forgot to take a picture of the very first step, which was just a plain coat of
DecoArt chalk paint in Vintage (a soft, pale green). Over that I sponged
some PaperArtsy Fresco paints using a natural sponge. The grassy bottom
is a combination of Dusty Teal and Hey Pesto, and the sky is made up of Sky (of
course!) and Ice Blue.
I did take some pictures of the next steps, but sadly my camera didn't capture them for some reason. It was all pretty simple really to get from the stage above to the finished stage below.
I
started by stamping some of the lovely new meadow flower sketches designed by
Lynne Moncrieff for That's Crafty. These ones are from Lynne's
Wildflowers Set 2.
They're
stamped in either Olive or Leaf Green Archival, and sometimes a combination of
the two.
They
don't have very long stems, but because they are clear stamps (which I really
don't use very often) you can line them up very easily to re-stamp the stem
part until you have a long enough stem to reach the ground.
I
also used the partially-inked stems to create some grassy stamping at the foot
of the cover, as well as adding some freehand brush strokes of grass.
I
added some doodled spots to the flower heads with a white pen, and in the long
run added some spots of white paint too for a softer look.
The wispy grasses in the background are done with a paintbrush using the same grassy Fresco colours. I like the depth they give to the scene.
Any
paint left over on the craft mat got spattered onto the book covers to create
that summery haze.
There's
a Quote Chip to remind me what we're here for.
The
ring binding just got coated in whatever was going on and, yes, I'm happy to
say the pages all still turn perfectly happily.
I really like the contrast between the soft blue/greens of the cover and the earthy interior kraft pages.
And
the back cover allows you even more space to wander...
The
final touch was to add a lightly-inked piece of seam binding to create the
closure... far preferable to black in my opinion.
I
hope you've enjoyed this little tour round my altered journal cover. I
always like to spend time wandering in the meadows! Thanks so much to everyone here for having me
along to play, and I hope you'll be inspired to come and judge a book by its
cover this month.
Alison xx
Thank you Alison for such an inspiring post ! There is still plenty of time to join us for the current challenge Do Judge a Book by it's Cover.
