2017 #11: Art Journal {by Anneke de Clerck}

2017 Topic 11: Books - mini, maxi, binding

It's wonderful that every night during this topic our creative team are showing such a wide range of 'book' ideas. Tonight Anneke is using pages of all shapes and sizes with a really cool binding idea! I bet you can't resist having a go at this method!

Hi everyone, it's Anneke with you today, and I'd like to share an Art Journal I've made. I decorated the covers as well as the inside pages using paints, stamps and mini masks.
I love making books but lots of bindings are quite complicated. Measuring, making holes, using all kinds of difficult stitches....Non of this is necessary here!  For the binding I've chosen to work with tape, a super easy way to assemble a book!

The journal measures 14 by 18 cm. I decorated the front cover of the book with flowers from the EEG22 stamp set. They were stamped on gesso-ed book text.

I started by coloring 10 sheets of paper (front and back) by picking up paint from a gel printing plate. An easy way to quickly make a bunch of backgrounds.

After drying I decorated each page using PaperArtsy Emma Godfrey mini masks. I used PM002, PM006, PM007 and PM008. I alternated white stenciling and colored stenciling. 

Finally I overstamped the painted backgrounds using PaperArtsy EEG stamps (EEG22 (shown above), as well as EEG02, EEG07, EEG14, EEG15). 

 

I stamped with white paint and Distress Oxide inks in matching colors. Oxide inks do work well on paint but I noticed the ink stays wet for quite a long time so that's something to hold in mind.

To attach the front and back cover I used duct tape. In order to make room for the inside pages it's important to create a spine. That's the reason I provided a gap in between the front and back covers. I measured the height of my inside pages (0.6 cm) so the gap here measures 0.6 cm.

I put a strip of tape on the inside as well, trimmed to size with scissors.

The arrow on the picture shows were to put the first page before taping.

I flipped over the first page and added tape on the back as well. I continued taping the pages one by one. 

To avoid the spine from getting too thick I alternated duct tape and washi tape.

I  only used black and white tape, love the contrast on the colored pages.

For an interesting look I worked with pages in different sizes.

This flower mask (PM002) is one of my favorites. 

The EEG stamp sets contain lots of small stamps, ideal for background stamping.

Love how the stamps Emma Godfrey designed match perfectly with her mini masks!

I finished each page off with a white pen.

Duct tape is very strong, perfect to use for book binding.

I wanted to use a binder clip as a closure but I only had a red clip in my stash so I customized one by adding a strip of tape. 

When making a 'filled' book it can be difficult to start. How do I fill all those blank pages, how do I start? I tried to avoid the 'fear of the blank page' by working in steps (painting, stenciling and stamping) and by limiting my supplies. Before starting I picked my paint colors (lime, orange, pink, turquoise plus white), masks and stamps and I repeated working with the same supplies on each page. This helps to end up with coherent pages as well.

I hope you'll look out for pretty duct tape and give this binding a try. I can't wait to see what you come up with!

Thanks for stopping by!

Anneke

My blog

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Your explanation is perfect, and that duct tape binding is such a smart idea! I love the pop of black and white that brings too! And binding decorated pages has lots of benefits! Great idea! Thanks Anneke for so much inspiration! Leandra

We always hope that you  learn something interesting from our blog. 

Our creative team love to read your comments so much, so please take time to let them know you've been inspired!  

Why not join our 2-weekly challenge by blogging your create response to the current topic and link it here?

The current topic link Topic 11 (Books: Mini/ Maxi/ Binding) will close 17:00 (London Time) Sunday, August 20th 2017, and the winner will be announced 2 hours later at 19:00.

All links go in the draw to win a £50 voucher to spend on products of your choice from the PaperArtsy online store.

2017 #11 Books: It's my life {by Corrie Herriman}

2017 Topic 11: Books - mini, maxi, binding

Corrie has gelli printed up a storm and in the process created a bright and beautiful array of pages! Check it out! Anpther book construction method that is very achievable!

Hi everyone, it's Corrie (MadeByCHook) here with you today, and I'd like to share with you a little book I made. I got the idea for this book from Birgit Koopsen. I followed one of her Gelli Printing classes and enjoyed making a book just like this one so much, that I had to make another one. So when the chance came to make one for PaperArtsy I jumped! Make sure to visit Birgit's blog (link above) because she is a gelli printing wizard !!! 

The beauty of this little book is it's simplicity. Some books are difficult to make I think and this one is basically just made with paper and glue and a little piece of fabric for the spine. You could use it for classic journaling or like I do,  use more stamps and inks and make quick art journal pages. 

One of the things I really enjoy is making backgrounds with a Gelli Plate.  I must have made hundreds and they are so very useful for making cards, tags, art journal page and this little book. I also think using stencils whilst printing is a great way to add interest to the pages. I used a couple of stencils/masks by Emma Godfrey: 'PM001', 'PM002' and 'PM008'. 

I mostly use acrylic paints for gelli printing and the Fresco Chalk Paints are wonderful. I have used loads of them for my book. 

I printed approx. 30 sheets of white paper for my book. Make sure to choose paper that is not too thin. Around 200 gsm makes a good weight to print on. I chose the yellow/orange print on the top for the cover as I loved how it came out. To make a front and back cover it is cut in half. 

After printing on the gelli plate I love to add stamping and in this case I used Hot Picks set 'HP1504'. 

I love this set because it is so versatile. Lots of background stamps and I love the head with the glasses as a focal point. I used Archival inks for stamping; 'Jet Black', 'Watering Can', 'Saffron', and 'Tiger Lily'.

To make the head stand out even more I heat embossed it with black powder so it became very black. I love the contrast with the yellow and orange. 

Once all the prints are folded in half, paint sides together, and the cover stamped and finished, all I had to do was glue the backsides together, keeping the folds on the same side.

Once glued and dry, glue a piece of fabric 'around' the spine and front and back. This is going to hold everything together and in shape. Make sure not to pull it to tight because this will cause your book staying open. Ask me how I know .....

Lastly glue the front and back to the book and that finishes it off nicely. I love these little books. 

I am going to use my book as an art journal. But don't just restrict yourself to journaling. I think it would make a fab book to collect photos in, or to write about your day or as a travel journal. Also, you can make it in any size with any amount of pages. The possibilities are endless !

To show you a finished page I made this somewhere in the middle of the book.

Apart from the products already mentioned above I used a few more stamps:

'HP1604', Seth Apter 'ESA01' and 'ZINI no. 11'

and the following colours of Fresco Chalk paints: 

Sherbet, Bubble Gum, Professor Plum, Teresa Green, Granny Smith, Tinned Peas, Cheesecake, Yellow Submarine, Tango, Autumn Fire, London Bus, Wisteria, Lavender, Purple Rain, Antarctic, Lake Wanaka, Space Cadet, Blue Oyster, Bora Bora, Captain Peacock and Snowflake.

I have thoroughly enjoyed making this project and I hope you enjoyed reading about it. I also hope I gave you some inspiration to get out the paints and stamps and make something for this interesting topic as well. I would love to see how you interpret the theme. 

Until next time, 
Corrie x

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That's funny you should make a book this way - I was just watching one of Birgit's videos the other day - she is so interesting to watch her way of gelli printing, I really think that it is a fabulous way to create book pages AND experiment with gelli printing at the same time! Thankyou Corrie! ~ Leandra

We always hope that you  learn something interesting from our blog. 

Our creative team love to read your comments so much, so please take time to let them know you've been inspired!  

Why not join our 2-weekly challenge by blogging your create response to the current topic and link it here?

The current topic link Topic 11 (Books: Mini/ Maxi/ Binding) will close 17:00 (London Time) Sunday, August 20th 2017, and the winner will be announced 2 hours later at 19:00.

All links go in the draw to win a £50 voucher to spend on products of your choice from the PaperArtsy online store.

2017 #11 Books: Art Journal Book {by Raquel Burillo}

2017 Topic 11: Books - mini, maxi, binding

Raquel's book tonight is a bit like 'something old, something new, something borrowed...' well maybe we're going something brown instead of blue!

Hi everyone! Raquel (scrapcosy) here with you today. I'd like to share with you my latest project: a Vintage Art Journal Book bound by me! I used some sections of an old book for the inside pages while I decorated the outside using some of my Scrapcosy stamps (old and new) coloured using Infusions and I created some DIY embellishments. Do you want to see how I made it? Then keep reading!

It's been a while since I wanted to start an Art Journal and when the Topic 11 was introduced, it was the perfect excuse to create one from scratch, specially since I'm now a fan of binding things! My binding techniques come from me applying (un)common sense learned from nowhere and everywhere and experimenting with materials and sizes. So far I think I've succeeded. My best friends on this subject are grey card stock, kraft paper and mod podge. If you have those, you can bind anything in any format! See my video below for full details, but before let's see some pictures and details of this project! I hope you like it! :) 

When I started the project I just knew I wanted to create an art journal in vintage look, so I went and created a brown base (kraft colour) using 2 pieces of grey card stock, an A3 paper and lots of mod podge. And I choose to work with ESC03 (Voyager) and ESC04 (Vintage Roses) mainly and I also used the handwritten text from ESC06 (Halloween) 

From there I decided roughly my composition and started stamping in Vintage Sepia Ink and I embossed some parts in gold. Then of course I added some colour with Infusions and finally I added some embellishments at the end. So here you can see how the project evolved:  

Almost everybody reading this knows how to stamp and emboss, so I'll just highlight the later steps. To add some colour I went for a selection of "muted tones" of Infusions and mixed them with Matt Glaze Fresco Finish to I create my own translucent paint: Olive Tree, Golden Sands, Sunset Beach and Sleight Blue, and I have to say that these colours (plus Rusty Car, which I didn't use this time) are my most favourite ones! LOVE THEM SO MUCH! God bless you PaperArtsy to bring us such beautiful colours into the world!!

The back cover remained simple, just coloured stamped images. I Really like how ESC03 and ESC04 work so well together. And I feel using just Olive tree and Sunset beach Infusions for all the flowers and plants and stamping each image twice and in different places makes my composition balanced. And that hint of Sleight blue in the butterfly just makes the design pop. I don't know why but in most of the cases I end up liking more the back sides I make rather than the front ones!

At this point my back cover was done and I decided that the front cover was too flat and lacked interest in comparison... I couldn't let that happen, poor front cover! So I decided to add some 3D layers on it, and I did that by creating 3 clusters: the Journal title, the postal stamps and the weirdo leaf corner. And then I was really happy with it! :)

Let's start with the simplest one, the postal stamps: I basically grabbed 3 UK postal stamps that coordinated in colour with my covers and sew a metallic compass on top of them (I prefer to sew rather than glue my non-paper embellishments if I can, and if it's a metallic piece, I like to use a minimum of three stitches, to make sure it doesn't move), then I glued the composition with mod podge on the surface. 

Then, the weirdo corner just happened by itself: I had a little broken drawer from an advent calendar (no more than 2 by 2.5 inches in size) and I had few things in there, among them some buttons, a piece of lace, a metallic key, the postal stamps and a maple leaf from Japan (how all that ended up there, I don't remember). While I was getting my postal stamps for the previous cluster, the leaf and the key landed on the project and I thought: OK, they have chosen to be there, they will be part of my project! So I added other bits and pieces from the same drawer and there you go, a corner created by chance!  

And finally the Journal title. I had planned 2 version for the titles: one where I stamp and emboss the frame directly on the covers you've seen so far, and then an alternative version consisting of stamping my frame in modelling paste and then stamp my title "Journal" on it, but since I still liked the gold embossed frame of the cover, I decided to use both ideas together, so I cut the piece of clay to a rectangle with the word Journal, painted it with Chocolate Pudding Fresco Paint and rubbed on some Treasure Gold Onyxite, then I glued it in a piece of fabric where I sew few mother of pearl buttons and added some fibre underneath to create like a nest.

And now it's movie time! So grab a cup of tea or some popcorn and enjoy watching how I made the whole thing with all the details: 

I really enjoyed binding my own Art Journal and decorating the outside! Now it will be time to feed it with some art and put that book spine to work and expand! I'm really happy with the colour selection of infusions I used, specially the touch of the blue in the butterflies. Also I feel that just using Olive tree and Sunset beach for all the flowers and plants made the whole composition very well balanced. And I love how these 2 stamp sets work so well together!

You should try creating your Art Journal Book too, instead of buying a brand new one. No need to start binding if you don't dare yet, just grab an old book, paint the covers with some acrylic paint and you will have your plain surface to stamp on and to decorate. Then for the inside, glue some pages together to get some thickness and partially cover the letters with light paint or gesso, that will give you a nice faded background to start each of your projects. That is what I plan to do on mine :) And if you see that your art journals tend to become bulky because you stick too many layers and 3D elements, remove some pages from the book in between each project, so you make some room. Also consider adding a lace to close it down or an elastic band like moleskine notebooks have. Or even better, attach a padlock mechanism, to get a more romantic/vintage feeling book, which only you can open with a key. Actually, that would be a nice "secret diary" present that you can handmade and give to someone special, a daughter, a niece, a bestie, you name it! If you have other ideas, please share them in a comment below, I would love to read them and I'm sure we will all get inspired by you!

See you soon either in PaperArtsy blog, in my blog or anywhere else below:

Blog - https://scrapcosy.com/
YouTube - subscribe for more videos: https://www.youtube.com/c/scrapcosy
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/scrapcosy/
My Etsy shop: https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/Scrapcosy

Isn't Raquel such a delight ?! I really love how she brings her own flair to 'Vintage' in such interesting ways! There are so many great ideas within this project, I really hope you get to try some too! ~ Leandra

We always hope that you  learn something interesting from our blog. 

Our creative team love to read your comments so much, so please take time to let them know you've been inspired!  

Why not join our 2-weekly challenge by blogging your create response to the current topic and link it here?

The current topic link Topic 11 (Books: Mini/ Maxi/ Binding) will close 17:00 (London Time) Sunday, August 20th 2017, and the winner will be announced 2 hours later at 19:00.

All links go in the draw to win a £50 voucher to spend on products of your choice from the PaperArtsy online store.

2017 #11 Books: Japanese Stab Binding {by Wendy Mallas}

2017 Topic 11: Books - mini, maxi, book-binding.

Wendy is always putting amazing pictures on social media of the numerous books she makes. She has such a range of expertise in this area, so it is only fitting she kicks off this new topic! Creating your own book is a truly satisfying thing to do, I really hope this topic rubs off and you give it a go too!

Hi everyone, it's Wendy here again today, and I'd like to share a gorgeous bookbinding stitch with you.

I love to hand-stitch books and I find the Japanese Stab-Binding methods to be some of the most decorative. They look much more complicated than they are and are, in fact, much quicker to do than the more traditional coptic stitch. I chose a variation of Tortoise stitch.

I made this for my daughter who is about to buy a house needing more than a little tender loving care. I wanted a beaten up, worn look to echo the house. She can keep photos of the renovation process in it.

With a sandwich of Fresco Acrylic Squid Ink, Crackle Glaze and Stone, I pretty much followed all of the tutorials on the Paperartsy YouTube channel. After the Crackle Glaze, I sponged the final layer of Stone paint onto the front cover as I wanted finer cracks that sponging creates so I could stamp over the smaller cracks.

Then I brushed a thick layer of paint onto the back cover which creates much larger cracks. Look at those amazing cracks! It's like magic!

I heat embossed the spine in copper with a small stamp from the wonderful Hot Picks stamp set HP1601.

I'd carefully covered the spine to protect it and almost finished stamping the rest of the front cover, when I must have started daydreaming or something! I stamped the word 'Home' upside down. Eek!

Most things are easily fixed. Some light dabbing over the evidence with Stone Fresco Acrylic and nobody will ever know about my senior moment. Attach your painted and stamped card to mount board or chipboard to create sturdy hard covers. Time to die cut some letters to cover up the blunder completely...

...and finish the job properly with Distress Stain in Vintage Photo and a layer of Ranger Crackle Accents. 

Time for the actual binding. It's a good idea to keep the covers and pages in place with clips while the holes are punched and stitched. I bound my book with 1mm leather cord.

I love the effect I got on the door. I stamped it with Vintage Photo Distress Oxide and covered it in clear embossing powder then heat-set it. Because the Oxides are a sort of hybrid between pigment and dye, they stay wet for long enough to emboss with them.

Each stitch section (or station) looks like a little house, doesn't it?

All that was left was to enhance the embellishments. I used Derwent Inktense pencils around the letters and door to help them pop a little.

I found this type of stitching to be the easiest so far. Just remember to wrap around the spine with each stitch, returning to the same hole, before moving onto the next. This type of book is perfect for a coffee table. It would make a fantastic photograph album and a really special gift. I'd advise anyone to test their chosen stitches on scrap card first. You really won't believe how quickly you finish it. Also, I love the effect of Distress Oxides combined with clear embossing powder. I'll definitely be doing more of that. I hope everyone is keeping busy making books. I'd love to know what type of books you've all been making.

Love and peace,

Wendy x

Blog: https://wendymallas.blogspot.co.uk
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WendyMallasIllustration
Twitter: https://twitter.com/wendywitwoo
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wendywitwoo
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.co.uk/wendymallas

Wow that was fascinating Wendy! I am sure your daughter will LOVE this book to keep a record of the renovation!! Brilliant idea. Love that stitching too! ~Leandra

We always hope that you  learn something interesting from our blog. 

Our creative team love to read your comments so much, so please take time to let them know you've been inspired!  

Why not join our 2-weekly challenge by blogging your create response to the current topic and link it here?

The current topic link Topic 11 (Books: Mini/ Maxi/ Binding) will close 17:00 (London Time) Sunday, August 20th 2017, and the winner will be announced 2 hours later at 19:00.

All links go in the draw to win a £50 voucher to spend on products of your choice from the PaperArtsy online store.