PaperArtsy: With 3 Things: Blues Book {by Mags Woodcock}

Saturday 1 June 2024

With 3 Things: Blues Book {by Mags Woodcock}

Hello, Mags here with you today for another post in the three things challenge.

You'll have seen the previous two projects by Autumn and Floss, weren't they fabulous ! I love seeing how different artists use similar supplies to create a project in their own style. As many of you may know, I favour a vintage vibe with my art. This project is no exception. The book and journal Topic is a firm favourite and adding in a hidden element was great fun.

So lets have a look at the supplies I received from PaperArtsy HQ. There is a fabulous stamp set by Lynne Perrella (LPC006), a small stencil (PM015) and a bottle of Shark Mattint (MT04). If you haven't already discovered the Mattints, think coloured Matte Medium, just so incredibly versatile. As soon as I opened the parcel I was a very happy girl, a lovely surprise and right up my street.

My mind started to bubble over with ideas, so many choices and decisions. I've recently started revisiting my love of board books, you know the sort of thing that very small children start with, chunky and sturdy cardboard pages for little hands to hold. I love to repurpose those into art projects. I also adore miniature things, so a mini board book was the planned starting point for this project.

Firstly I wanted to get a feel for the stamps, the size, amount of open space etc. I was hoping to stamp onto vintage book pages, but I needed to find out which ink and papers were the best to combine. Some vintage book pages are fairly rough textured and the ink bleeds. I like Versafine Claire ink pads, as they give great detail to stamped images. You'll see that most of my papers took the ink well without any or too much bleeding. Playing with the stamps beforehand also gave me a stash to work with, and to try things on.

I sorted through my collection of saved board books, but couldn't find one small enough to work with my ideas. So I decided to create my own, in fact I created a prototype using music papers and then another using the end papers from some old books. Both were created using grey board as the base. I have a video on my YouTube channel showing the method I came up with, but you could just use a ready made board book. I decided to leave the binding until the pages were completed.

Once my board book pages were ready, I started creating the grungy papers for the backgrounds. Recently whilst playing with the Mattints, I discovered that they are fabulous for lifting multiple dried on layers of paint from a gel plate. So with this in mind I chose some vintage piano roll paper as my base, I love all the punched holes and random printed dots. I started by using just the Shark Mattint (MT04). I then needed more colours to build up the layers on the plate, so Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylic Blue Bayou (FF206) Glacier Ice (FF132) and Midnight (FF123) came out to play. I didn't over think the process and added very small amounts of paint to the plate before using my brayer to spread it thinly. Picking up a random grungy layer is easy this way.

Once I had some layers built up on the plate, I added a layer of the Shark Mattint and pressed my vintage paper onto the plate. It's important at this stage to let the Mattint dry fairly well. Test a corner to see if it's picked up the paint, and them peel away. Any remaining prints that were too bright were given a coat of Mattint with my brayer. Even the most striking colours can be given a vintage look by adding a coat of Shark Mattint over the top.

When I had a collection of grungy vintage looking gel prints I picked out my favourites and started to add details. The first print I used the stencil (PM015) and a Micron pen to add the archway, following up with a light inking using a Ranger archival Ink pad (Jet Black) applied with a sponge.The centre of the arch was easy to cut away using a craft knife, leaving an aperture to act as a frame for a stamped image.

For the first hidden part of the project I decided to have the main character from the stamp set hiding in the building. This was fairly easy to achieve. I had stamped her onto vintage book pages, and cut her out. I folded her up and concealed her behind the bottom panel of the stamp. That way when the viewer opens the book at that page she is hidden, but moving the panel downwards reveals her. Again I used a grungy gel print as a background on the page.

I also decided to add folded index cards to the left hand pages, making for a second hidden element for secret journaling. These cards were given a coat of Shark Mattint with a brayer and then dipped into a weak solution of Just Walnut Infusions (CS25)

I continued to work with the gel prints and stamped images, cutting and combining some of the images made interesting pages.

Adding torn strips of gel prints and book papers along with small details from the stamps added interest to the rest of the pages. You'll notice I also coloured parts of the images with the Shark Mattint for a cohesive look.

When all the pages and the cover were completed I used a strip of heavy cotton rag paper to create the binding, adding Shark Matting with my fingers until I got the depth of colour I wanted. I glued the binding in place with PVA glue and clamped everything together until it was dry. With hindsight I think I should have used a lighter weight paper which would have been more pliable and adhered to the signatures better. As they say, we learn something new everyday.

I had great fun creating this little book and may add some wording to the journaling panels. Possibly something along the lines of Where did we go? Who did we meet? What did we do? . I'll let you make up your own mind about the story behind the adventures these ladies had.

I'll leave you with a couple more photos of the project and say goodbye for now.