All covered up... {with brand new JOFY stamps by Jo Firth-Young}

Hi everyone, Jo here.  My project this month is to give inexpensive notebooks a makeover... a 'JOFY' make-over.  I used my new stamps, stencils and paints!!.. and combined them with some old favourites - scallops and buttons.

I bought a pack of inexpensive notebooks from a high street shop - I chose these because they are spiral bound (my bookbinding of choice) - easy to use, work with and alter - the spiral binding is easy to take apart and put back together. 

I chose to alter the book with butterflies because if the image still showed after I had painted the covers it would be quite a nice 'hidden/ghost' image (though I was sure the opaque paints would cover successfully)

The covers had a slightly glossy surface and so I sanded them lightly to give a key for the paint.

I planned to create lots of washed, random layers- initial layers were using Chalk from the JOFY Limited Edition Fresco Finish paints:

I worked with the covers laid on the worktop with the open edges 'together' because these are the edges that, when the book is closed, will be closest/seen together.

I painted all over the covers with a mix of Chalk and Dusty Teal (also part of the JOFY paint set).

Then painted roughly around all edges with a mix of Chalk & French Roast, leaving the centre paler - ready for stamping and further embellishment.

I stamped the scallop border image (JOFY13) onto book text, cut it out and into small strips and laid them in place on the covers along with a text panel (JM40). I glued the scallop strips in place but removed the panel so that I could add stenciled images.

I added stenciled poppy heads (Chalk Fresco Finish). This is one of my four new stencils: PS007 

I decided to use paint rather than Grunge Paste on the cover as I wanted to keep the surface relatively smooth.

Next I stamped small stems (JM33) across the bottom edge of the cover (Black Archival ink)

Unfortunately at this point in the process I was 'in the zone' and so busy stamping I forgot to take a photo - I'd glued the white script panel onto the book cover and stamped large seed heads over the top.
The large seed head is from JOFY23:

Now I began painting the flowers with pops of colour (& remembered to take photos!) - a wash of French Roast on the large stems with Dolly Mix on the spots, Amethyst and Hey Pesto (with a touch of Tinned Peas) on the small stems. 

Here is the finished book - front and back covers, re-assembled, and painted with a couple of layers of Matte Glaze to protect the book when being handled/used & general wear & tear. I chose Matte Glaze because I didn't want to lose the 'chalk' matte finish of the paints.

As I said earlier I was in the creating 'zone' and I had 2 notebooks remaining so....
...one was given a book text makeover:

I covered front and back covers in book text. Blocked out a panel with Chalk. Stamped numbers (mix of Chalk and Dusty Teal) randomly over the cover & shaded on one side (French Roast). 

        

Stamped single stems (JOFY24, on left above) along the bottom along with the scallop border (JOFY13). A big flower was added (JOFY22, on right above)- painting and adding the flower head and leaves separately. Added a button for the centre (there had to be a button somewhere!).

... and the last remaining book had a paint & paper makeover: 

Pieces of Chatsworth paper - the lovely new PaperArtsy papers - were used to cover the notebook. A wash of Dusty Teal & Chalk was added all over and concentrated around the edges. Numbers were stamped on in Chalk (I really like using the numbers of JOFY22 as a background image).  Various flowers added (large star centre flower is from JOFY24) and coloured.  The covers were again painted in Matte Glaze to protect them from wear and tear.

Here are the 3 books together... all with the same colour scheme, with similar elements but given different treatments.

I hope this inspires you to find an old notebook that would benefit from a bit of a 'make-over' - if it does please link up what you make and join in the challenge.

Thanks for popping by.

Jo
(PS - apologies for the state/paintiness of my workdesk - I'll try to keep it cleaner next time!)

If you would like to join in this week's challenge and play along with Jo's techniques, then link up your creativity here, and go in the draw to win some PA stamps of your choice! You need to link your entry by 17:00, Sunday February 23rd 2014.