2015 #1 Golden Hours {by Lynne Moncrieff}

2015 Theme 1: Fragile Papers

Hi everyone Lynne Moncrieff here, joining you this evening with a post where stained vintage book pages are the prominent feature on a wall hanging.

Incorporating vintage book pages into my artwork is almost a constant for me.  As a Bookworm, initially I struggled to destroy books but now I find the beauty in using pages from books that are falling apart.  My preference is to use vintage book pages because the texture is so beautiful. If you prefer, you can easily use new book pages. This wall hanging was inspired by all of us and how we become so immersed in the creative process which for so many of us are the Golden Hours.

Step One:
The book I selected is a rather tattered vintage French book. Cutting the spine in half I claimed one of the covers, a signature of pages and approx 6 loose pages to work with for this project. 

Step Two:
Next I gathered the supplies for altering the colour of the cover and pages.  Staining papers, lace, etc is such a favourite of mine.  For this project I started by boiling enough water to fill two large screw top jars. Once the water has slightly cooled I added coffee granules to one of the jars and the tea bags into the other, removing the bags when the desired strength of colour has been achieved. This is a timesaver because I have the solutions to hand for whenever I want to do some staining.  Apply the solutions with either a large round head watercolour brush or a foam brush.

Step Three:
For this project I also applied Vintage Lace and Distress Stain Tattered Rose to some of the pages.  Vintage Lace is my absolute favourite paint to apply to book text.  Applying with a baby wipe, when the paint has dried, which is so quickly, the book text peeks through the paint which adds dimension to the subsequent stamping.

This is a selection of the prepared pages all of which I then used for the wall hanging. 
Left to right:-
painted with Vintage Lace, tea applied over Vintage Lace, tea and coffee, coffee with Distress Stain applied on top and finally lace stained with tea and coffee.

Note:- for the book cover (not shown) I applied Vintage Lace before staining with tea. 

Sara Naumann's stamps seemed the perfect choice for working with book text.

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Step Four:

I selected several words/phrases which I stamped with Staz-on Timber Brown onto the prepared pages, stamping not only on top of  the book text but also in the margins.  At this stage I stamped the words play and experiment twice, onto different papers. 

Before planning the composition, I adhered, with Golden Regular Gel Matte, the signature of stained book pages (a tip is to use a brayer to ensure good adhesion).to the cover. I then played around with the stamped words/phrases. The photograph below shows how I retained only one word or two from a phrase and also how I tore experiment in half and created  word tiles for the word play.  The two main words were then adhered to foamcore board for dimension  with all the other stamped elements strengthened by adhering to cardstock. Now you start to see that by stamping onto the different stained/painted papers it creates visual interest.

The composition is now planned but prior to assembling I threaded ball chain through holes created with a Crop-a-dile at the top of the book cover.  The embellishments of a Hinge Clip and Word Band were painted with Vintage Lace and Nougat and Distress Ink Walnut Stain sponged onto the edges of the stamped elements. At the bottom of the book cover I adhered a length of pretty lace with torn pieces of the stained lace trapped between some of the words/phrases and the book cover. I like the juxtapose of the lace next to the metal elements.

And Finally:

The Word Band, with the dusting of chalk paint was tied with torn pieces of stained lace and rests on top of a length of vintage velvet ribbon. The words were so apt for the overall theme of the wall hanging.

If you have never stained book text before then I hope that you are now inspired to do so. You can create wonderful variations depending on the strength of the tea/coffee solutions and beautiful mottled effects can be achieved when misting with water. 

My tip is for you to stain batches of pages in one go.  By doing so, the next time you set to work on a project, you will save yourself so much time as you have a stack of pages already pre-stained. Using tea and coffee is such an inexpensive way to transform book pages. Simply have fun!

Thank You for visiting. 
Until next time, 
Lynne Moncrieff

Fantastic to see how you bring a project all together Lynne. Doing tests on Fragile Papers to get those different shades of stain I can see will be a useful strategy in many situations. Thanks so much for sharing your ideas with us tonight!

We would love you to join in with challenge #1: Fragile Papers. If you are inspired by any of our guests who have blogged on this topic over this fortnight, then please join in and link up your creativity HERE. 

All links go in the draw to win a voucher to spend on products of your choice from the PaperArtsy online store. This link will close 17:00 (London Time) Sunday, Jan 18th 2015, winner will be announced 2 hours later at 19:00.