Anything but Cute - First Anniversary - Celebrate Your Style - Guest Designer!

I was surprised,  honored and scared thrilled when Pamellia e-mailed me and informed me that I had been voted one of their favourite artists of the year and asked if I would like to be a Guest Designer for the Anything But Cute First Anniversary challenge - Celebrate Your Style.

  I am rather new to Mixed Media and tend to be clean and simple in my designs.  I absolutely LOVE books - reading them, holding them, shopping in book stores for them and making them! So I created a little 4" x 5" x 1 1/2" book for my project today.

 It all started with Eileen Hull's Passport Die from Sizzix.  I cut it out of Little Sizzles Black Matboard.  Then I die cut the same pieces (covers and binding edge) out of Natural Sticky Backed Canvas and adhered the canvas to the front of the black pieces.

 Next I stenciled the covers with two Stencil Girl Stencils using WV Black Embossing paste.  I used Talaya, Goddess of Rain stencil on the front cover.

and Eve, A Modern Woman stencil on the back cover

The next two steps I forgot to take photos of.  After the embossing paste dried, I painted over the covers with Black Acrylic Paint.  

(I learned this black cover technique (without the crackle) in a Wonderlust Class led by Kate Crane - see that book here)  

When that dried I covered both covers with Deco Art One Step Crackle and they ended up like this.

I just LOVE the subtleness and texture of the embossed stenciling when it's all black.

I cleaned the stencils by putting them on a piece of computer paper and wiping off the embossing paste with a baby wipe -  and look what I ended up with!   I've saved this to perhaps use on a journaling project some day!

I wanted the book binding piece to be a different color than the covers so I painted it with Nutmeg Folk Art Antiquing Medium.  When that dried I added a coat of the DecoArt One Step Crackle.

Now onto the pages for my little book.

I die cut the pages out of white cardstock using the same Passport Die and sprayed them with a variety of Ranger Distress Spray Stains - mixing Salty Ocean, Tea Dye, Carved Pumpkin and Wilted Violet.  These 3 pages fold in the middle (see the holes for threading them into the book in the centers?) and create 6 pages or 12 surfaces - as I sprayed them on both sides. You could add at least twice this amount of pages to the book if you wanted.

Then I gathered several stamp sets from a variety of designers and started stamping.  Here's how they looked before I bound them. 

I later added Small Talk stickers to many of them - you'll see them in photos below.

On these two pages I used stamps Rusty Cog, Scale, and Vintage Clock from Finnabair/Prima, Let the adventure Begin and circle stamps from Eclecticia3 Everything Art, She believed she could from Scribbly Women/Dina Wakley, Impression Obsession/Birds on Trees and Handwritten Thoughts -Tim Holtz/SA.

Don't forget to Fly and Flowers Collect Moments mug are Finnabair/Prima, Use Your Wings from Dina Wakely Scribbly Insects,  blocked sentiment from Dyan Reaveley The Right Words,  Stay Kind from Handwritten Quotes by Dina Wakley, lace and bodice stamp from Eclectica3 Everything Art CCA01/Paperartsy

Butterfly and oval shapes from Eclectica3 Everything Art CCA02 from Paperartsy, sentiment "Adopt the pace of nature - her secret is patience." Emerson, from One with Nature/Simon Says Stamp, Industrial Lamps from Indigo Blu, You radiate beauty from Face in the Crowd/Dina Wakley.

Woman and You Are Enough from Face in the Crowd/Dina Wakley,  Stay Strong from Handwritten Quotes/Dina Wakley, lace from Eclectica3 Everything Art CCA01/Paperartsy

I wanted to be able to tie my little book shut - so I added a piece of Idea-ology Trimmimgs Lace. First I glued the edge of a spray-stained piece of cardstock (I used on the inside of the covers)  onto the edge of the binding piece.  Then I glued the lace over the liner and adhered the cover over that (being sure I had the designs right side up as I added each cover!).

A little tricky to explain but hopefully you get the idea from the photos.  Here's one cover together with the lace going over the binding.

And repeated the process with the other cover.

I used clothespins to hold the edges while the glue dried.

Then I tied each signature into the book using Jute String in the colors of the stains I used on my pages. 

 The Passport Die instructions show to adhere the overlapping edge of the binding over the cover - but I didn't want to cover any of my stencil - so I adhered it under my cover pieces.

I tied each piece of Jute String in a double knot and added my initials using Idea-ology Type Charms.

Here are photos of the pages in the book - where you will see  I added some Small Talk Stickers to some of the pages.   

My overall theme in images and sentiments is affirmation and being positive, strong women as we go through life.  The sentiment across the butterfly stamp says "be where you want to be"

Here, you can also see the result of adhering the edge of the binding piece inside the cover - it covered some of my stamping (I should have stamped on it after putting it all together!) - I added a little strip of spray-stained cardstock on top of the edge so it blended in with the inside cover a little better!

Small Talk sticker - today is full of possibilities.  

I drew around each sticker with a black Stabilo pencil and then rubbed over it with a wet finger to smudge.

Small Talk sticker - everything has beauty

Small Talk stickers - we are fearless, independent and original.

Small Talk Stickers - leave a little sparkle wherever you go.

Small Talk Stickers - be your beautiful self,  fall in love with as many things as possible.  I added the sentiment "Live in the sunshine, swim in the sea, drink the wild air."- Emerson from One with Nature/Simon Says Stamp on the last page.

 So I hope you have enjoyed seeing my little Mixed Media Book.  

Please join us in the Anything But Cute special First Anniversary challenge and Celebrate YOUR style!  You'll find the challenge, all the details and some very inspiring projects from the Design team here.

And I wish to express again - my appreciation and thanks for being invited to be one of the Guest DT's for this auspicious occasion!!  Thank you Pamellia and the rest of the team!!


I'm also linking my project to the following challenges:
STAMPlorations - Stencil Sunday

Country View Challenges - Use a Stencil

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Stencils

 

Stamps:  Handwritten Thoughts - Tim Holtz/Stampers Anonymous, Industrial Lamps - Indigo Blu, One with Nature - Simon Says Stamp, The Right Words - Dyan Reaveley/Dylusions, Birds on Trees - Impression Obsession, Don't Forget to Fly, Collect Moments mug, clock face, Rusty Cog, scale face - Finnabair/Prima,  Handwritten Quotes, Scribbly Women, Face in the Crowd, Scribbly Insects - Dina Wakley, Eclectica3 Everything Art EEA01 and EEAO2 - PaperArtsy.

Paper:  white - PTI, Little Sizzles Black Matboard - Sizzix, Sticky Back Canvas - Ranger.

Ink:  Ranger Distress Ground Espresso (sponged over covers and pages)  and Black Soot (sponged over binding)

Accessories:  Passport Die - Eileen  Hull/Sizzix, Wendy Vecchi Black Embossing Paste, palette knife, One Step Crackle - DecoArt, Nutmeg Folk Art Antiquing Medium, Large eye embossing needle, Idea-ology Trimmings Lace, Jute String, Type Charms, Small Talk Stickers, Ranger Distress Spray Stains Salty Ocean, Tea Dye, Carved Pumpkin, Wilted Violet, Zutter corner rounder, Talaya and Eve Stencils - Stencil Girl,