Moleskin Journal Cover

Yesterday, I decided to quickly decorate the cover of my new moleskin journal with some texture and the new Kaiser Paints that arrived in a couple of weeks ago. This journal is a work in progress, so there is still more to happen, particularly in the centre region which I deliberately left blank but I thought I'd share what I have done so far in no more than 10 mins!

I was itching to get my paws on these bright kaiser paints. I have used my faves of bluesy-greens already, but now it was turn for the pinky orangey shades. Yes I know a lot of people don't "get" pink and orange as a combo, but ever since I saw Teesha Moore's work in True Colours, I was hooked on this combo. It's so fresh and summery, and I think we will have to do some papers in these shades one day. I adore them!

First I wanted a variety of texture around the edges, so starting with Vivia Ferro texture apply it with a spatula to the edges. Next stamp into it with a variety of damp stamps. Making the stamp damp with a babywipe helps the release out of the paste and helps with clean up! You need deeply etched rubber to do this. I mainly used SM08 (flourish), MN23 (numbers) and a couple of others, but in general I try to get a balance of round with linear designs for a nice contrast. Tip: if the stamp lifts off and you get sucky "lift off" texture, then reduce the thickness of the ferro. If the impression is too shallow, then add more ferro texture. "simples"! lol

Step 1: Paint the ferro white I needed white because I intended to use vibrant pink and orange shades, however if you are using metallic or darker shades, then you could get away without a base coat of white. Decide if you want the white to sink into the crevices made by the stamps or not. As I was aiming for fresh and funky, I needed the entire piece to be white.


Step 2: Mango In general my aim is to not obliterate the layer that went before, but instead to add depth with layers of colour. Start with light shades like mango, and build up to darker ones. Leave some areas white so that the true tone of the pink can pop off the white base.



Step 3: Candy Now to the remaining white areas, add some candy pink. Squeeze a puddle onto the craft sheet, and pick up with cut and dry foam. I like to have a thin even layer of paint on the foam, so I prefer to dab the blob of paint on the craft sheet until it is flat all over the foam. Candy is a nice soft pink just like the mango is a soft orange. You can repeat Steps 2 & 3 over until you have the depth of colour you prefer, Also you can consider if one of these shades should be pushed into the stamped recesses. So many options at this point.

Step 4: Orange Once you have the base established and a nice balance of Candy/Mango, you can add depth with the darker shade of Mango which is Orange. You will only use a small amount of this, and you are really aiming to get it around the edges of the cover to create a darker 'frame' at the edges. You also may like to catch the peaks of the texture with this colur too. The only caution is don't cover up all the Mango. You need to leave that showing too, otherwise, what was the point of putting it down in the first place? The only time I obliterate is if i don't like what I did. Paint is very forgiving in this respect, you can't make mistakes, you keep layering until you get it how you like it.

Step 5: Hot Pink Same deal as the Orange. To get the Hot Pink standing alone and popping independently of other colours, you would need to make sure the Orange is dry first. If the orange is left wet, then you will get some sections where the Orange and Hot Pink blend together...this can be a really good thing, so try wet into wet and dry on dry to find your personal preference. Again, Hot pink at the edges and on the texture is the aim here.


Step 6: Glimmer Once you are happy with the balance of the cover so far, then you can bling it up. Either make your own glimmer spray from mica powder mixed with water in a mini mister. Spray over the paint. If you want you can add a dye to either of these mixes to enhance the colour of the paint. You could use any dye based ink, try a few drops first. If you have a good selection of glimmer mists, then you may find Dreamsicle works well (an orange with a gold Glimmer), Sweet Pea (pink). On my cover I mainly used Iridescent Gold, this is a no-dye spray, just a pale gold shimmery mica powder and as it is iridescent it pops more on darker areas. I also added a touch of Timeless Lilac which is purple. On top of the pink areas the purple mica, once dry, pops nicely.

Glimmer mists are tricky, because they are never permanent, if you add water they re-activate. They dry off a lot paler than how they look wet. Once you get used to this, you realise you can spray a darker shade onto a light paint and it will dry as an accent, and not dominate. Select the colour by considering the dye and the mica pigment at the same time.




Step 7: Gold Viva Accents Nearly there, and yes I did do all this in less than 10 mins.... Now you just need to add some metallic accents to the peaks if you wish. I am hooked on Viva Precious Metal Colour paints because they are so extremely metallic! The gold is just like a Krylon Gold pen. Awesome. But on this piece I could go dark into Blackberry, or Coral, Rose Pink, Cinnamon, Pearl, Gold, Silver Gold....they would ALL work well. You can see the gold in this close up. The trick is to put pink on the orange areas, and gold on the pink areas, then it can be seen better.


Hope you enjoyed this idea. The kaisercraft acrylic paints are cheap, and the tubes are like a toothpaste tube, so it's easy to dispense. Tubes are extremely good value at £2.50ea for 75ml, and the colours are trendy!

Leandra