2021 Topic 5 Find Your Vibe with LPC {by Jenny Marples)

  2021 Topic 5: Find Your Vibe

It's amazing how singular pops of vibrant colour draw the eye into a beautiful neutral colour scheme yet still allow the project to be vintage styled and subtle. Jenny has woven text, Lynne Perrella images and tonnes of texture to make this gorgeous handmade book with great tips for tea staining.
~ Keren

 

Hi everyone, it's Jenny Marples (Pushing The Right Buttons) with you today, and I'd like to share a new notebook that features the designs of Lynne Perrella. The theme is a combination of Spring birds and postage inspired by some of the stamps in her more recent releases (LPC45, LPC47 and LPC48) all given a vintage junk journal vibe with lots of texture and layering.

Creating books has become such a passion of mine and there are lots of things to learn along the way. The cover is usually the easy bit and there are lots of ways to put flexible spines together. Getting the pages inside completed can be more of a challenge since there can be quite a few to tackle and it's easy to lose a few days decorating them! I've focused on the decoration part in this post to stop it from becoming too long; if you are interested to find out how the book itself has been put together you can find all the details over on my blog here.

The cover 'sets the mood' for the rest of the book with neutral tones and a pop of colour, hand stitching, glimpses of fabric and those words which Alison Bomber curates so beautifully.

When starting a new book I find it really helpful to pick the colour palette; not only do you know which paints to use as you create new elements, you can also go through your scraps to find those leftovers that coordinate perfectly and can finally find a 'home'.

Above you may spot the teabag and bottle of Infusions; when tea staining paper you are going to get different results depending on the type and make of paper used. I already knew the cartridge paper would develop a pink tinge to it which would not work so well with the paint colours, so I added a tiny bit of 'Golden Sands' Infusions powder to the 'brew' - bingo! That has me thinking this method will also be useful for replicating the looks you get from using flavoured teabags to stain papers.

Below I've used the trick mentioned in my previous post of 'auditioning' an image on a page by stamping it onto some clear plastic packaging to help work out what the finished design will look like.

Here's a lesson in never giving up on those 'mistakes'; I pulled a couple of prints from a large gel plate using wet strength tissue but my plate was in full sun on a hot day so the prints didn't pull so well. I decided to add a layer of the 'Seaglass' paint to the reverse and then tore the tissue up so that it could be stamped on and layered onto tea stained pages.

In the photo below you'll see where I have used some of that gel plate printed tissue with one of Lynne Perrella's stamps from set LPC48, embossing it and mounting it onto some linen fabric. Remember you can use your Fresco Finish paints to stain seam binding, ribbon and more so that your trims will match perfectly with your page designs.

The lady with the bird's nest hat from stamp set LPC48 reminded me of portraits seen in those old hand-tinted photographs of years gone by. After stamping her onto tea stained paper I painted in the ribbon and eggs to make them stand out, heavily diluting the 'Seaglass' paint as it is opaque so that the image details were still visible.

Having seen a few of the techniques used to create the book let's take a look at some of the pages, starting with that lady with the bird in her hair from stamp set LPC47. The design is very detailed and was added to a Grunge Paste textured surface so I stamped it onto some tea stained paper and fussy cut around it before adding it onto the background.

In the same way you stamp onto paper and card it's equally possible to stamp and paint onto fabric like this linen. Fraying the edges and adding stitching with other trims help to frame this lady from stamp set LPC47.

I'm realising that it helps to have some pages which are plainer than others to give your eyes a place to 'rest' as you flip through a book. The double page spread below features tea stained paper that has been stencilled with Sara Naumann's PS219 stencil, hand stitched with an interconnecting leaf pattern and had a little of the gel plate printed tissue applied to it.

Mixing up the various page sizes through a book can give a glimpse of 'what has been and what is to come' helping to encourage the viewer into moving through the book. The little page below has had one of those postage references added to it with an image from Sara Nauman's PS218 stencil. Remember once you have added the paste and/or paint through that doesn't have to be the end; adding shading and highlights can give it more depth and dimension.

The next page has a lot going on with a pocket, a tuck spot, a textured tag and a subtle stamped background; keeping the colour palette really works here to prevent these various elements and layers from competing with each other for attention.

Taking a closer look at the background you can see where I've repeat stamped and heat embossed the large stamp images from set LPC45 onto brown wrapping paper before applying a couple of coats of diluted 'Heavy Cream' paint to take down the colour.

Here's where I used that smaller bird stamp on a small envelope pocket layered onto lace and a vintage book page. It's the perfect place to tuck a tag.

Rather than adding words from another of Alison Bombers stamp sets to the already 'complicated' pocket page they are able to draw their own attention in a much simpler layout on the following side.

The background for this page was created using a piece of dress pattern tissue, creating a backdrop for the stencilled leaves and words from Sara Nauman's PS218 stencil. After applying Grunge Paste through it I added some of the 'Guacamole' paint to make it pop.

The torn piece of gel plate printed tissue was blended into the fabric background on this page with Grunge Paste and paint before the image could be stamped on top. I love how a single row of hand stitching helps to 'ground' it.

The same technique of 'grounding' an image has been replicated below, this time with some of the paint dyed seam binding. The gel plate printed tissue has been used to frame it too, adding that extra pop of colour.

 

As you flip the next little page over it hides most of the image below with just a thin border of the blue/green peeping out at the side to hint at what lies beneath. More of Alison Bomber's words compliment with the final side (the inside back cover).

And at last we come to the framed lady, clear embossed and mounted behind an oval aperture that has been covered in layers of 'Gold Rush' and 'Heavy Cream' paint before being hand stitched around the edges.

Making books can take time but the results are so rewarding, bringing a sense of accomplishment and something you can flip through to provide inspiration for future projects.

Thank you so much for stopping by.

Jenny

Blog: https://pushingtherightbuttons.blogspot.co.uk/
Facebook: https://facebook.com/jenny.marples.73
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.co.uk/jennymarples73/