Holiday Album

Holiday Album

Hallo There!

This is one you can take with

you and insert the ephemera as

you go and add a few pictures

when you get back.

You might want to get a cuppa

at this point....

Craftyfield is going to show us

how to go about a Midori style

book:

"The trend for Midori books has reached 

our British shores, an offshoot of the recent 

popularity of planners. Personally, although I had

 trouble giving up my pocket diary, 

all my planning is digital. 

Still, I saw potential in the Midori for

 a book of sorts, that would suit the

 commitment phobe in me. 

The Midori uses elastics as binding, and,

 with this system I can add and remove pages 

without fuss. Moreover they don’t need

 to be all the same size!

I enlisted Mr Google to answer the question

 “What is Midori?” in a clear and concise manner:

“Midori” refers to a particular Japanese brand 

of traveller’s notebooks, which also makes

 several supporting products such as 

various types of refills, standalone notebooks, 

stickers, and the like. “Fauxdori” is a blanket term 

generally used to define traveller’s notebooks

 that are not made by Midori. 

[becomingsleek.com/midori-vs-fauxdori]

So strictly speaking I made a Fauxdori….

Today I am showing you how I made and 

decorated the cover for my Fauxdori and how 

to make a simple notebook. 

I selected a heavy calico for my cover and

 gessoed the fabric both sides in preparation

 for painting in acrylics.

For smaller Fauxdori you could use already

 prepared canvas, such as Texture mounted

 sheet by Stix 2 which you can decorate anyway

 you like and even use with your printer.

Dimensions:

I decided on my pages size to be 

8” tall and 6” wide 

so I created a cover 9” tall and 14” wide.

I cut a piece of heavy weight calico

 11” tall by 16”, adding 1” all round for a 

“seam allowance”.

In the metric system, the cover will be

 23cm tall by 35cm and require a piece of

 fabric 28 by 40cms. 

This will accommodate A5 notebooks.

If you want to create your own book in a 

different size, use the formula:

Height (of finished book) = page height + 2(1/2”) margin

Width = page width x 2 + spine + 2(1/2”) margin

Add seam allowances if you are wrapping 

the fabric or paper over to the wrong side. 

The spine will depend on how many notebooks

 you want to fit in but I suggest 1" (2.5cm) minimum.

I applied paints and spread them with a 

painting knife (you can us old credit cards instead). 

I tackled one side at a time to avoid the 

paint drying too quickly.

Adding layers of paints in blue and white

Stencilling with acrylic paint and the Drop Screen

 stencil by Imagination Crafts.

Stencilling with Grunge Paste and 

Tim Holtz Sunrays stencil and a DIY stencil 

die-cut with a Mixed Media Thinlit.

 (In the end I didn't use Andy Skinner's

 Route 66 stencil.)

Stamping :

I used Archival inks in Blue and Brown 

and also acrylic paints with several 

Paper Artsy sets

As a final touch I used Color Bloom 

sprays on the Grunge paste.

Backing the cover:

 I cut a piece of sturdy card measuring

 9” by 14” and tidied up the excess material, 

including the corners. 

In the Midori style I rounded the corners

 of the cardboard although with the fabric 

on top it will not look completely rounded.

I used liquid glue to stick the cardboard

 to the canvas.

Now onto the binding. 

The notebooks or pages will be held by elastic

 cords threaded through holes in the cover. 

The picture shows the sequence to 

follow when threading the cord. 

First find the middle of the cover and make 

3 pencil marks ½” from the top of the cover, 

in the center, ½” left and ½” right 

of that the mark.

 Repeat ½” from the bottom. 

The cord will need to be at least 4 and a half

times  the height of the Midori cover.

 Make the holes and set eyelets if you wish

 to minimise the wear and tear on the holes. 

An additional hole in the middle of the spine

 will be used for the closure of the Midori.

Thread the elastic cord for the closure with

 both ends on the inside of the cover, making sure

 you have enough room to go over the book

 before tying in a knot. 

To prevent fraying you can pass the

 ends briefly through a flame. 

You can add charms before threading.

 All threaded now... 

I have left quite a bit of length on the

 cords at this stage as I want to "live" with 

the book before cutting the excess. 

The edges are rather rough but I decided 

not to line the inside as it would have made the cover

 more bulky and not supple enough.

The classic Midori would contain standard notebooks,

 shop bought. Today I will show how I made my 

own version of a notebook, more of a sketchbook 

really, since I used watercolour, cartridge papers

 and some of my own Gelli prints. 

In a future instalment I will show you 

other inserts I made for my Fauxdori.

Gather your pages and cut them to the same height.

 My Fauxdori will work with standard A4 pages, 

folded in 2, but I cut mine to 71/2" (19cms) because 

the Gelli prints had an unsightly blank margin. 

Fold the pages in half and score them, then line

 them up together and staple them in the middle.

I can open my stapler as you see in the photo 

to reach anywhere on the page and then I 

have to close the staple myself with pliers or similar.

All stapled and the stapler back to closed position.

 With the notebook bound, I cut the pages 

to the same width with a craft knife and a ruler.

 
To put in the Midori open the book to the 

middle pages and place under one of the 

elastic cords. 

Simple as that!

 Photos of the finished book. 

The spine...

 The back...

The front...

And the "notebook"..."

Supplies:

DecoArt Paints:
Stencils: 
Stamps: 
Ink: 
Sprays:
Glue:
Eyelets:
You'll find the cord in haberdasheries.

Wow Craftyfield that is a fantastic

tutorial!  Thank you very much

I'm looking forward to more!

In the meantime I shall be starting

a Fauxdori of my own and to this end

I have bookmarked this page as

there is no way I am going to

remember everything - I did think to print 

it out but in consideration of the

environment I think the bookmark

will suffice.

These would also make rather nice

presents wouldn't they?

'Till tomorrow

Mickie xx

Bokeh

Bokeh 

Hi there!

How're you doing?  Trust all

is going to plan in your corner

of the universe .....................

To round off the week's bokeh

techniques we have Angela Radford

to show us how she goes about it

Get comfy and prepare to enjoy:

"This is an official name for a specific photographic  effect.

It comes from the Japanese word for 

haze : 'boke'  and blur: Boke-aji.

It is basically the aesthetic quality of images 

out-of-focus in a photograph. 

Crafters have found ways of reproducing this effect without a camera.

There are various ways of achieving this effect 

with both wet and dry techniques. 

The one I am using today is probably the most messy 

but I know that my crafting friends out there don't mind 

getting their hands dirty! 

So here goes.

For this technique you are best using watercolour paper 

as we are going to be getting it nice and wet.

So first you will need to attach the paper to a craft mat 

with masking tape as the paper is likely to warp when wet.

Next cover it thoroughly with water,

lots of it as you need the paint to spread. 

I have started adding colour here and it shows quite well 

that the paper is very wet.

I have used Paper Artsy fresco paints for this 

and you need to add enough water to them 

so they are more like a wash 

then apply them around the paper  

allowing them to blend slightly.

It may look a little dark at this stage 

but remember it will go lighter when dry. 

You can blot it if you wish to remove some of the colour. 

Remove the masking tape and dry it by either 

leaving it to dry naturally or use your heat gun

It should now look something like this:

If the paper has distorted I place it under my craft mat 

for a couple of  hours which will flatten it out again

Now you can start to add the dotty images 

though actually you could use any shape you like 

but I like dots as they are easy to find in different sizes. 

You can use a stencil or dabbers for this. 

I used a white pigment ink at different intensities 

until I was satisfied with the coverage.

And it's time to decide how you will use the Masterboard.

But before I do that I have another practice piece that I tried 

to see how this technique would look with coloured dots too 

and here is part of the Masterboard I made but what do you think?

These would make great background papers for all kinds of projects.                                                                                        

I decided to use sections from both Masterboards to make a card

I needed a background so decided to try the technique 

on a black card blank and I really like the effect.

I played around with the layout for a while before making 

a decision about the design. 

It was during this stage that I decided to use both Masterboards.

I used small dew drops from my stash 

to finish the card which just adds that 

little bit of sparkle which is so perfect 

for this technique.

Hope you enjoyed watching me make this. 

Give it a go, it's great fun to do.

Happy crafting,

 Angela x"

Materials used:

Fresco Finish Acrylic paints by Paper Artsy.

Watercolour Paper

Black card.

Stencils.

Dies.

Stamps.

Distress Inks.

White Ink.

Dabbers.

Smoothies.

Masking tape.

Heat gun.

Echo that Angela!  

Many thanks for a super project.

I'm off to make some master boards 

So very useful to have in your stash, 

especially if you have limited time

or, like me, an awful memory.....

'Till tomorrow

Mickie xx