Altered Book - Dawn Heald

Hi everyone,

This is our second day of the projects 

Altered Book

Today is Dawn's turn...

When I saw this topic I had so many ideas it was difficult to

 choose just one idea. You can make boxes, secret niches,

 shelves, open scrapbooks just to name a few. So I decided

 make an art journal and have a go at the finnabair style for

 the cover. It really is easy to make your own journal.

                  Take a hard back book and with a craft knife remove the 
                inner pages. This can normally be done with just two cuts at
                                            the front and back.

Next cut away the spine with craft knife and ruler. Keep this it

 makes a good bookmark for your journal.

Then make a template for the book binder holes. Keep this as it

 comes in handy when hole punching your journal pages. Cut a piece

 of scrap card the same length of your book, measure and mark

 where you want the holes to go and use a hole punch to make

 the holes.

Then place your template on the book cover and punch through

 the holes already made. Repeat for back cover.

You can guess and punch the holes by eye.

             To create pages for my journal I trimmed some backgrounds

                    made previously, trimmed the book's original dust cover, 

                   and trimmed and glued multiple book pages together and

                      trimmed some single pages then hole punched them. 

             I even started some pages whilst painting this and other projects.

Then it's time to decorate the front cover. Even though most

 of the stamping ended up hidden I still enjoyed the process.

Here is how I did mine.

                

I glued a few layers of torn kitchen roll, let it dry then applied

 two coats of gesso and dried.

Using some Maya Road Spring papers I cut small pieces

 and glued to three areas as shown. Great way to build

 texture in.

I hand rolled some Kaisercraft Texture Stamps and the 

small flower from the Crafty Individuals set on this with 

various Stazon inks.

Then used grunge paste through diamond stencil in a few

 areas. Let dry then glue on some odd die cuts

 here and there.

I Painted some sticky back canvas with flesh colour acrylic

 paint mixed with white. Leave to dry.

Stamp and paint the main image. I changed the hair slightly.

Trim the shape and attach to the cover. Paint it with Ultra Matt

 varnish and then use hot glue to attach a variety of 

embellishments and found objects and shapes from molds.

My metal scrunched flowers are the foil from chocolate coins

 at Xmas.

 Oh forgot I'd glued some lace on there too. Some pieces

 I had previously gesso'd.

I covered the girl image and painted the entire page

 with white gesso. 

I then painted some pieces to stand 

out more.
That was the idea anyway!

Finally I sprayed the entire cover with the Prima Flower 

Bloom sprays. 

 Dried with heat tool and sprayed another

 layer. Dried and coated with gloss varnish.

This is what Dawn used -

Crafty Individuals Stamp Set - Frida

Prima Color Bloom Sprays - Peony, Sorbet, Summer Sky

Kaisercraft Texture Stamps

Imagination Crafts - Diamond Stencil

PaperArtsy Grunge Paste

PaperArtsy Paints

Americana Acrylic Paint -  Flesh Coloured 

White Gesso

Sticky Back Canvas

Martha Stewart Molds

Paper Clay

Hot Glue Gun and Glue Sticks

Stazon Inks - Cherry Pink, Purple, Grey

Decoart DuraClear Matte Varnish

Coloured Pencils

From stash

Odd die cuts and lace pieces

 Found objects, beads

So, what do you think, are you going to have a go?

We'd love to hear your comments!

I'll be back tomorrow with another challenge.

Jane x