Pocket Art Book with EEG {by Martha Ponsanesi}

Hello everyone, Martha (@CrfatingMartha ) here with you today sharing a little project, a One Sheet Mini Book, using some Stamps and Stencils by Emma Godfrey.

For my project I choose two Stamp Sets by Emma Godfrey Set 15 (EEG15) and Set 23 (EEG23), and some Mini Stencils (PM004, PM005, PM006, PM007, PM009, PM010).

Along Emma Godfrey's Stamps and Stencils I used one sheet of PaperArtsy Smoothy (Regular) A4 White Stamping Card (SCA4) for the structure of my Pocket Mini Book, and PaperArtsy Printed Tissue Blank (PT10) for what will be a super fun part of the embellishments. As for the colours, well, by now you know that I have an issue with colors, it's hard for me to pick just a few, and the wide range that PaperArtsy offers tempts me even more! However, I tried to hold back and chose PaperArtsy Fresco Chalk Acrylic Snowflake (FF15), Zesty Zing (FF47), Caribbean Sea (FF94), Bubble Gum (FF116), Slimed (FF137) and Persimmon (FF209).

I find that PaperArtsy Fresco Chalk Acrylics and Gel Plate are a match made in heaven and so, to create everything I needed for my Mini Book, I grabbed my Gel Plate and Brayer and started having fun with colours.
I spread the PaperArtsy Fresco Chalk Acrylic Zesty Zing (FF47), cleaning the excess colour off the brayer onto some pages of an old diary, and placed a couple of stencils (PM010) and (PM006) on top of the Gel Plate.

                                    

I placed the PaperArtsy Printed Tissue Blank (PT10) on top and pressed it down well to absorb all the colour.

The print on the Tissue Paper is very satisfying; what's more, a lovely colour texture was left on the Gel Plate, which I am naturally going to pull...

...at first trying to stamp directly onto the sheet, but if you live in a place like beautiful, warm Italy (even in October!), it can happen that if you haven't spread enough colour on the Gelli plate, the 'stamped print' might turn out a bit disappointing like this one.

In that case, there's no need to despair: just spread a contrasting colour, or some white, so that all the remaining paint on the Gelli plate is transferred to the sheet, in this case, I used Fresco Chalk Acrylic Bubble Gum (FF116).

I got an unusual result, normally you would use a lighter colour, but on the whole, even this print has a charm of its own!

By repeating this process, alternating colours and stencils, I fully decorated the sheet of paper and the tissue paper, as well as several pages used for cleaning the brayer.

Now that I have my coloured Printed Tissue Paper, I want to add an extra decorative touch by randomly stamping with Distress Oxides in shades similar to the PaperArtsy Fresco Chalk Acrylics I used. 

Emma Godfrey Set 15 (EEG15) and Set 23 (EEG23) have decorative elements that are just perfect for my purpose.

Using Distress Oxide Black Soot, I stamped all the phrases from these same sets in various orientations.

Once the decorating phase was finished, it was time to transform my Printed Tissue Paper into DIY Washi Tape. I applied strips of double-sided tape to the back, making sure to choose one with transparent adhesive.

Then, using a craft knife, I cut strips of various sizes.

My DIY Washi Tapes are almost ready, but I realised I wanted to add one last finishing touch: using a small cap and a silicone brush, I stamped little circles and lines with PaperArtsy Fresco Chalk Acrylics Gold (FF20). It might have been better to do this before cutting the various strips; to make things easier, I stuck the strips onto the Gel Plate so they would stay put.

And now for the final touch: a few splatters, again using gold.

Now it's time to take my Smoothy sheet (SCA4), decorated with the prints made with the Gel Plate, and create the structure for my Mini. In the photo you can see how simple it is: just fold it into 4 on one side and into 3 on the other, make the classic cuts for the 'snake' folding structure, and then fold it up and glue the right pages together.

Here it is in its final size, I love how the decorative details stand out once the dimensions get smaller.

The fun now continues with the embellishments! On the two small pages that were left white, I applied my DIY Washi Tape, on one page placing strips of various sizes, and on the other creating a frame.

For the focal images on the various pages, using the sentiments from Emma Godfrey Set 15 (EEG15) and Set 23 (EEG23), I stamped with black ink and embossed with clear embossing powder. Using embossing powder is a win-win: not only does it make the sentiments stand out even more as a focal point, but it also saves you waiting for the ink to dry, which tends to take longer on top of acrylic paints, avoiding any accidental smudges on your pages.

I grabbed the Emma Godfrey Stencils again for extra touches on the pages, applying PaperArtsy Fresco Chalk Acrylics with a Cut-N-Dry Foam.

Again with stamps and Distress Oxides, I continued adding details to the pages.

From the initial session with the Gel Plate, I also had some diary pages coloured from cleaning the excess paint off the brayer; to make even more embellishments, I decided to punch circles in two different sizes...

...and stamp additional decorative elements onto them in black ink.

Ta-da! Here is my completed Mini Book!

For the closure, I opted for a simple folder clip.

Here is a showcase of the various pages.

As you can see, I used the punched circles and pieces of DIY washi tape to decorate it.

On the diagonal page, I added another circular punch-out, decorated on both sides, but it’s actually a pocket, so if you like, you can insert a pull-out tag if you'd like to write a message!

Also the folder clips are decorated with my Washi Tape.

Using Washi Tape for decoration is a fun way to add accents, but building a frame with it is also really effective.

A feature of 'real' Washi Tape is that it's repositionable, while double-sided tape isn't, if you ever need that feature (for positioning the frame, it's so much better if it is)  you can use a little bit of baby powder.

I just love how this page turned out, simple strips of Washi Tape, but I absolutely love the gold details.

I had so much fun with this project, I hope you give it a try! 
Have fun.
Martha xxx

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