Altered Floral Notebooks with EAB {by Autumn Clark}

Hi friends!  It's Autumn Clark from SewPaperPaint with you today and with Valentine's Day right around the corner, I thought I would be fun to create some handmade gifts for my loved ones.  What's better than a bouquet of flowers for Valentines?!  So I've created a couple of handmade journals, bursting with bouquets and filled with love...  

I created the notebooks in two colorways to inspire you all year as you craft your own handmade gifts.  First I'm showing the products used for the pink journal, including the focal florals from PaperArtsy stamp set EAB48 by Alison Bomber and the supporting berry stamp set EABF.  I also used two bottles of Infusions, Sunset Beach and Magenta and a coordinating ink pad.  

 

Next we have the products used for the blue-green journal, including the same florals, but different focal stamp from PaperArtsy stamp set EAB48 by Alison Bomber and the supporting dandelion stamp set EAB52.  Again, I used two bottles of Infusions, A Bit Jaded and Olive Tree and a couple of coordinating ink pads.

I purchased a stash of these unlined journals from Amazon HERE to create personalized gifts.  I measured the cover to include a bit of the black cover as a border and cut watercolor panels for each journal.  I knew I wanted some white contrast, so I embossed the text from EABF in white on panel one, knocking off some of the powder here and there to avoid harsh lines and give a more organic look.  I spritzed the paper heavily with water then sprinkled Infusions powder in Magenta mostly in the corners, spraying with water and dabbing with a "flouncy" watercolor wash brush to blend the colors as desired.  I wanted to leave the center a bit lighter. I let this dry thoroughly. 

I then stamped my berries and used Infusions in Sunset beach to color them.  Then I spritzed the panel again with water and the coloring diffused, so I took the paint brush and moved this pigment around where needed to achieve the right asthetic.  I spritzed the entire panel with water and added more of the Sunset Beach along the edges, as described above with Magenta to give a depth of color.  I finished by stamping  some of the collage stamps from the sets in a darker color.  

For notebook no. 2 I opted for dandelions from stamp set EAB52 in place of the berries and the alphabet in place of the Thoreau quote, embossing both in white.  I repeated the process above first with Infusions in Olive Tree, as you see below.  Then to add depth of color I layered with Infusions in A Bit Jaded.

 

With both backgrounds tucked under stacks of books to dry flat, I worked on the focal florals.  I stamped the flowers onto watercolor paper and used the same Infusions to watercolor them, trying to leave the flowers as white as possible, yet with shading for depth.  I really wanted the flower stems to fan out in opposing directions, so for one of the flowers I bent the rubber stamp stem as far as possible in the opposite direction, using tape to secure in place for stamping.  I drew with a waterproof pen the lengthened stems.  

I love to use foam tape to mount my stamping layers in most all of my projects.  I love the dimension it creates!  Since I was making notebooks, which would be handled more, I wanted to strengthen the dimensional stamping for endurance with use.  Often I do this by adding packing tape to the backs of my stamping before fussy cutting, but this time I used black bookbinding tape because I thought it would be nice to have black on the backs of the flowers if it were to show any, and thus coordinate with the black notebooks.

My stamped flowers looked beautiful over the supporting berries and foliage!  I loved the dimension of the flowers popping up, but I glued the stems flat for extra protection and to allow me to layer the absolutely beautiful sentiment "here's flowers for you" over top.

 

Here you can see how that tape trick worked out and I achieved two different looking flowers from the same stamp.  Yay!

I added a tied sari ribbon to each notebook, which can also be flipped inward as a bookmark.  

The pink makes my heart sing this February, but I am a green lover and can see myself using the other journal more so on a daily basis.  How about you?  Or maybe there are a couple of other colors you could combine with your own Infusions powders for a different colorway all together?

I hope these gift recipients will feel warmed by their flower bouquets much longer than a week!  Mostly, I hope you are inspired today to get out your infusions and PaperArtsy flower stamps and make some gifts of your own.  

I particularly loved adding the word Valentine twice at the bottom of this piece and think it would make a great greeting card design too!  Happy Valentine's Day!  xx, Autumn

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