An Art Journal Book Cover

Hi all, welcome, my name is Anne, and this is my first post as a member of the design team for  Crafters Cupboard

Today I would love to share with you an "Art Journal" book that I have made for myself using a blank cover that I had in my stash.

I started off by covering the whole cover in gesso.

From there I applied some Paper Artsy grunge paste through various stencils including TCW287s (Mini Burst), TCW436s (Mini Skyline), TCW467s (Mini Love, Live, Laugh) and THS018 Doily  from the Tim Holtz collection.  I also used some other stencils used from my own stash for two of the words on the front cover (the Journey) and two words on the back cover (travel journey)

Stencils front cover TCW467s. Spine THS018

Stencils back cover TCW 287s & TCW436s

After  adding the stencilling I then applied a light covering of Paper Artsy Fresco Paint "Stone" then I applied some "Very Berry." I then decided it needed a bit more, so using a stipple brush I applied a liberal coat of  "Stone, Very Berry and Claret" until I was happy with the overall effect.

After heat drying I then used Rangers Distress Ink "Black Soot" to  distress all the edges. I also used one of my favourite mediums which is "Treasure Gold" using the colours "White Fire and Spanish Topaz" to highlight all the stencilling and edges. When I was happy with the effects of the distressing and application of treasure gold, I added some stamping. I used the stamp set "Hot Picks HP1301EZ" from Paper Artsy.

From there I distressed the inside of the cover with "Black Soot" distress ink.

When I was happy with that, I added a bow to the front cover using some matching coloured ribbon from my own stash.

I cut out some printed paper from my Paper Artsy paper collection "Thordon Hall." I  then applied a light covering of "Victorian Velvet" distress ink, scrunched the paper a little to age it, and again lightly applied some "Black Soot" distress ink to highlight all the creases in the paper. I also re applied the "Black Soot" distress ink to all the edges. I heat dried the distress ink before I applied some more Treasure Gold to the edges.

Inside cover

I re-stamped the butterfly using the same stamp on the front cover, cut it out and coloured it in using the same colour paints used for painting the cover.After all of this was done I attached my butterfly over the butterfly stamp on the front cover using pop dots to give a 3 dimensional look.

I then cut out a bundle of 190gsm paper to make into the pages for my mini art journal.

I hope that you enjoy this "Mini Art journal" as much as I  have in making it. I'd love to see any creations you make using this great idea for creating an Art Journal cover.

Until next time,
Cheers,
Anne