Lynne Perella : new stamps in a fancy fold out book

Well hello there, Liz here bringing you a project using some of the fab new PaperArtsy products that have arrived at Crafters Cupboard. The excitement while waiting for these yummy new things has been palpable!!

I wanted to make a fancy fold-out book that showcased the new Lynne Perrella  LPC028 stamp set,

and the new Eclectica limited edition set of fresco pain.

And here's what I came up with:

 

 So for the step by step!

First, get some good quality cardstock or watercolour paper.  I have used a vellum surface 300gsm mixed media paper by Strathmore.  Cut it into 6" x 4" pieces. You will need 4 pieces, that we will be decorating back and front.

 

Paint 1 side of each card with each of the paints from the set - Seaweed, Chutney, Chartreuse and Tikka. On the Chartreuse page (the lightest green colour), add scrapings of the seaweed paint with a credit card.

 

Do the same on the and Tikka card with the chutney paint:

 

 Using your grunge paste add texture with a stencil on both these cards.

Dry thoroughly, and your pieces will look like this:

 

Next, get out your archival inks to add colour to the raised paste areas.  I have used potting soil, orange blossom and monarch orange, swiping the pads straight onto the raised areas.  Then use some sandingpaper to lightly grunge the paste in some areas.

Now its time for some dylusions to emphasise the "low lights".   I used ground coffee and squeezed orange.  Spray and mist liberally with water to get the colours to run.

Put these 2 pages aside to dry thoroughly, and start on the pages painted with Chutney and Seaweed Fresco paint.Apply a super-thin layer of crackle glaze - putting it on with a credit card. Dry then apply a thick layer of Tikka and Chartreuse respectively.   Leave it to crack, it won't take very long, and you can help it along with a heat gun.

To really highlight the texture on your pages, apply Treasure Gold with your fingers and buff with a paper towel.  I used Florentine (a gold colour) on all pages, and accented the brown pages with Royal Amethyst, and the green pages with Green Amber.

Flip the pages over to paint the backs as these will be seen.  As I knew I would be mixing up the different "fronts" so that both sides of the book were visible when flattened out, I wanted something reasonably plain on the back, with good coverage to hide the mess I had made while making the fronts!.  I painted the back first with a coat of French Roast, and then with Chocolate Pudding that I thinned slightly with water - I just made sure that I put it on with a very wet brush.

(The pages on the right have just a coat of french roast, the pages on the left have the thinned coat of chocolate pudding.  It dries matte, the photo was taken while the paint was wet.)

Put these aside to dry, as your backgrounds are complete!  Now for the decorative elements.

Grab some old book pages and some transparencies (if you don't have transparencies handy, plastic packaging will work just fine) and stamp a bunch of images from your plate with archival black ink.

I realised after I had done this that I was not going to have quite enough images from the one plate, so I also stamped the image on the top right of LPC018 (another gorgeous Lynne Perrella plate).

Carefully cut windows in 3 of your cards, making sure to keep the inserts, as these can be used as mounts on the plainer sides of the card. Secure the transparencies with double sided tape, and back the 2 larger windows with stamped bookpage (making sure that the stamped images are facing outwards as their own "page")
.

Arrange the cards as you would like to see them once the book is completely folded out:

Then, using an appropriately coloured washi tape, join them together leaving sufficient room between each one to allow it to fold.  One "join" has to be missed, so numbering the pages 1 to 4 clockwise from the top left you do NOT join pages 1 and 2, as these will be your covers. 

As you can see from the picture above I have joined page 1 to page 4, page 4 to page 3, and page 3 to page 2.

Add additional stamping to the pages as desired - I used the script stamp from the LPC028 plate and stamped with Archival Fern Green, and Brilliance Moonlight White (but any white ink will do).  I also stamped an image with white ink onto the mounted insert (top left in the picture below) and with archival black onto the frame on the bottom left panel - you can stamp easily straight onto a fresco paint cracked surface!

 Then I got stuck into the embellishing!  I used black german scrap which I sanded and Tim Holtz Ideaology border stickers to frame each page. Don't worry if you don't have these - you could stamp borders onto cardstock and cut them out, or you could diecut borders and colour them. 

I then coloured the borders with Fern Green Archival Ink.

I stamped some words in white on one side and sealed the entire piece with Glaze to really make the colours "pop".  Here are the 2 sides of the book completely folded out:

I hope you give this project a try.  It's great fun to play with your products and create a mixed media piece of art!

'Till next time!

Liz

New Paper Artsy Design Team Releases

Hi there! Teresa here letting you know that the Crafters Cupboard design team is busy busy busy with the brand new release from Paper Artsy. In this release are new stamps, stencils and limited edition paint sets.

I couldn't wait to get my hands dirty, and here's a set of note cards I whipped up using one of the new mini stamps JOFY Mini 38 and the new set of Eclectica Lin Brown paints:

 I stamped the image with Versamark onto kraft cardstock and embossed it with clear embossing powder. Then I dry brushed some of the new Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylic Paints over the top and when it was almost dry, I wiped the paint off the embossing with a baby wipe

To finish the note cards off, I rummaged around my scrap box for papers, cardstock and ribbon to match the paint colour and voila! A set of four cards.

Stay tuned over the next couple of weeks as the design team showcase more of the new releases.

Valentine Treasure Box

Hi there - Teresa here bringing you a Valentine's day project with an old world vintage feel to it.

I wanted to design something that could hang on a wall year round, and something that wasn't necessarily girly.  This is what I came up with:

Read on for step by step instructions:

The Shadow Box can be found here : Shadow Box

Step 1
Paint any areas of the Twiddleybitz shadow box you don't intend to cover with paper. I have used a deliciously vintage purple colour of Fresco Finish acrylic called Squid Ink here, and applied with with a sponge:

Step 2
Cover the front frame of the shadow box with paper. I have used Paper Artsy's Thorndon Hall paper pack:

 

Step 3

To give the frame more texture, I mixed some of the Squid Ink with Grunge Paste and applied it through a Brocade stencil:

Step 4
Once dry, I applied some Treasure Gold and buffed with a soft cloth:

Step 5
I used the Brocade stencil again to sponge some gold ink onto the backboard of the shadow box. I just did the edges because that's all that will be visible when complete:

Step 6
It's then a matter of stacking some papers to create dimension. I have mixed some Squid Ink paint with water in a Mini Mister to create my own spray, and used this to alter some of the papers:

 

Here I have used some heart shaped Spellbinders dies and some gauze to create a central focus:

Then I added a key cut from some of the patterned paper in the pack with ribbons tied around it, and then added some gold tassel trim:

Step 7
The finishing touches included:

A flourish cut from chipboard with a Sizzix die and some chicken wire coloured with Butterscotch alcohol ink, and some sticker alphabet stickers:

A couple of little corked bottles and a rolled up 'letter':

and lastly a tattered flower made from the sprayed patterned paper:

I hope you've enjoyed my vintage love project!

Password Journal

Hello Everyone from Joan 

This is very simple bookbinding that was prompted by my different passwords for so many things.  I was sick of resetting them, so I have been meaning to do make one of these for ages.

All the products used in this project can be found here:

www.crafterscupboard.com.au

Journal

Firstly, I decided what sort of size I needed for this password book.  I found an easy template to use that would be not too big – about A5 so I could print off the template for the middle pages in A4 and then fold in half. Thanks to http://serialcrafting.blogspot.com.au/2012/10/password-organizer.html for the template.

I then trimmed the pages down to fit my desired size – approx. 2cm off both ends and 1cm off both sides.

I decided that the easiest way to bind the cover and pages together would be to do a simple 5 hole pamphlet stitch.  You can check this link out http://www.designsponge.com/2013/03/bookbinding-101-five-hole-pamphlet-stitch.html

I measured up 5 holes evenly across the cover using a paper ruler and then lined it up on the pages from the inside. 

I then pushed an awl through the hole lot (5 times).  I threaded some crochet cotton double and I entered from the centre – I wanted some beads on the outside. If you want the knot not to show on the outside, start from the inside. I secured the knot at the end making sure that the stitches were firm but not tight.

Cover.

I just couldn’t help myself (they were burning a hole) so I had to use the Paper Artsy Eclectica stamps (Darcy series 1).   I sprayed some Dylusions dyes (bubblegum pink, white linen, sunshine & black marble). I coloured in the leaves around the heart and the zipper tag with Wink of Stella pens. Because I had to use the zippered heart I then fancied a stencil skeleton as they go together anatomically (TCW), and then I scraped through some black glitter paste.

I layered the heart as it became lost behind the skeleton, cut along and curled the “torn” line.  I then layered and mounted this to the Password Journal. 

 I now just need to fill it in all the pages with my passwords.Hope you all enjoy this project as much as I did!

Until next time,

Joan

Fun with Glitter Paste

Happy New Year to all! Teresa here with some ideas on what to do with a fantastic product called GlitzCraft Glitter Paste.

The first thing you need to know about it is that is by far and away the CLEANEST way to have glitter end up on your project! It's a paste (as you can tell from the name), which means it doesn't end up all over your workspace, in your hair, clothes and all over your face. It's also fast drying - fantastic for impatient crafters like me!

Being a paste, it is wonderfully easy to apply through a stencil.  Here is the Silver Glitter Paste on black cardstock using a palette knife through the Silhouette Script stencil:

You can see it goes on lovely and thick to give an opaque finish. The edges are also sharp and neat.

  

The next project is a tag:

I applied Dusty Pink Glitter Paste through the Circle Explosion stencil in the background. I then used a thin paint brush to apply Coral Glitter Paste on the spaces in the letters of this Darkroom Door Journey stamp.

I then grabbed a chipboard flower and applied glitter paste leaving a rough 'heaped' look:

The last thing I did to this tag was rub some Glitter Paste onto some cotton lace. It adhered really well, and dried with some flexibility so it didn't flake off when I stitched the lace to the card on my sewing machine:

I wanted to see how this product performed on acetate - I must say I was impressed! Here's a card with an acetate front:

I applied the Glitter Paste through the Fancy Feathers stencil, and not only did it adhere well, I was impressed at the sharpness of the images:

This product is fantastic:

- easy and neat to apply
- easy to clean up (it all washes out in water before it's dry)
- gives sharp images though stencils
- can be used in a variety of ways
- dries quickly (I'm talking two minutes! Even faster with a heat gun!)
- comes in a wide variety of colours

You can see Crafters Cupboard's full range here. This product is a wonderful addition to your mixed media arsenal.

Thanks for dropping by today!

Mixed Media Mini Book Workshop

Hi Folks

Just a quick note to tell you about an exciting new workshop series we have coming up later in February, which will take place over 2 consecutive weekends (Saturday 22nd Feb and Saturday 1st March) in Berwick.

You'll learn new techniques, including how to make card look like leather,  using texture and mixed media (fabric, metal, paper, to name a few) to create a double mini book with a nature theme. You'll be making your own embellishments, including the use of some natural materials - I've already seen the book made up and it's an absolute treasure ! I'm itching to make one myself  as this project has a real twist to it, and the techniques can be applied to bigger projects once you've learnt the basics.

The cost includes materials, so just bring along yourself, your lunch and your tool kit and be prepared for a busy day !

As there is a lot to this project, the two workshops will run from 9.30 am through to approx 4.30 pm. Pop along to the website and book quickly as places are limited - you will be delighted with the mini book that you make, you'll get to meet a new & talented Tutor who has joined our team in 2014, and as well as having fun, you'll learn a lot !! Go here  to book your place !!

Here's some photos to give you a sneak peek of what's to come

See you soon. ...

Jennifer