Altered Notebooks

 

About a week ago I picked up two fifty cent notebooks with the intention of altering the covers. This past Sunday I saw a blog post from Simon Says Stamp that showed an altered notebook and that's all it took for me to be inspired to try one! I went through my stash and picked things out to use. I was so inspired that I made two!

I flippin' love how both turned out! I haven't done anything to the back covers or the inside front and back covers. I'm not sure yet if I plan to or not. If I do I'll just cover them with patterned paper from one of my Tim Holtz papers. If I was giving them away I would, but if I'm going to use them I don't really need to. When the paper's gone I just have more art for my craft room!

 

I've posted photos below of my progress along the way creating both of these notebooks. 

It takes awhile with all the drying time. 

 

I added gesso to both covers. 

 

I went through my stash and added patterned paper, dictionary paper and ephemera using distress collage medium.

 

After the collage medium dried, I added some white paint. 

 

After the paint dried, I used stencils to add distress grit-paste. 

 

When all was dry, I added several different acrylic paint colors. 

I spritzed a lot of water to move the paint around and dried in between the colors. 

 

After all the paint dried I added some distress crayon with my finger in vintage photo with my finger. 

 

For the second notebook, I added gesso first and then die cut some leaves using a die from Simon Says Stamp and added acrylic paint. After the paint dried, I added the leaves using collage medium. 

 

Once the paint dried, I added more paint drying in between layers. 

 

When all paint layers were dry, I smudged some distress crayon in places with my finger. 

Below are the products I used. I missed adding a few products in the photos, but I've listed all the names below. 

 

 

 

I thought I had lost the dictionary pictured above! I would have been so sad if I hadn't been able to find it! I use dictionary paper for a lot of projects.

I cleaned my craft room a few months ago and put things where I thought they should go. Three times now I have been looking for a particular item and haven't been able to find them. When I clean I purge a lot and I'm always thinking I've gotten rid of something that I want to use. Thankfully, I have had to rip my room apart on several occasions but I have found the items that I've been looking for!

Thanks for stopping by!

Products used:

These were the products not pictured:

Simon Says Stamp: Clustered Leaves die

Tim Holtz Distress Paint - Vintage Photo

Tim Holtz Distress Oxide Ink - Vintage Photo

Products that were pictured:

Tim Holtz Distress products:

Crayons - Vintage Photo

Grit-Paste

Collage Medium

Paint - Picket Fence

Paint - Vintage Photo

Tim Holtz Idea-ology products:

Quote Chips

Hardware Heads

Fragments

Ephemera Pack - Snippets

Layers - Collector

Layer - Remnants

Paper Stash

Design Tape: Butterfly

Design Tape: Postal

Tim Holtz/Stampers Anonymous Layering Stencils:

Gradient Hex

Grid Dot

Linen

Gradient Square

Gradient Dot

ARTplorations Stencil: Happy Flowers

Master's Touch Acrylic Paint:

Scarlet

Virdian

Permanent Black

Violet

Yellow Med

Titanium White

Phthalocyanine Blue

Ranger Glossy Accents 

Find Joy Mixed Media Canvas

 

Right from the start I'm going to mention that I'm not a huge pink and purple fan. I have nothing against the two colors, they just aren't ones that I'm drawn to naturally. 

The background on this canvas was made probably well over a year ago. I've had this canvas and another one just waiting to have something done with them. At the time I was playing around with distress inks (I don't remember what the colors are that I used) and they turned out a little different than I expected. I just set them both aside knowing that someday I would get back to them and create something. 

I used a stencil called mini bricks by The Crafters Workshop with some Golden light molding paste on both corners of this canvas. The paste picked up the color on the canvas. 

I stamped randomly around the canvas with a Tim Holtz stamp. I don't have the name of the stamp as I don't have the packaging anymore. I then splattered black soot Distress ink over the canvas.

 

 

The flowers are from Little Birdie. I believe I picked them up at Tuesday Morning. 

The metal frame I've had in my stash for awhile. It's from Momenta.

I used Tim Holtz Quote Chips for the sentiments. I cut two sentiments apart. 

The photo is from an ephemera packet that I picked up back in 2013 when I went to a show called Junk Bonanza that is held twice a year here is the Twin Cities area. 

 

I thought the quote fit the photo. The two women look like friends having a good time!

Now I have one more project off my list! 

I have another canvas that is almost finished. I have everything ready to go to finalize it, but I have to wait for the molding paste to dry. I will share it once I'm done with it. 

Thanks for stopping by!

Home Of The Brave Mixed Media Canvas

 

I love Americana decor. I love flags or anything with a flag.

At one point I had quite a few pieces. We had a four-season porch and I had all of my decor on the walls. When I had to down-size after my husband passed away I just kept a minimal amount. I knew I'd never have the room for it wherever I would move to. 

This small mixed media canvas will find a home in my craft room.

 

I actually bought all the products for this canvas two years ago! When I saw this project on Tim's blog I knew I wanted to make one. Here's a link the Tim's original blog post. He has a tutorial on his blog and he lists all the products that you will need for this project. 

I have so many projects that I want to work on or finish. I now have the time to do that!

 

 

Before die cutting the stars I adhered bits of memorabilia to a piece of chipboard. 

 

 

 

 

After I diecut the stars I adhered them together. 

 

Once I watercolored the flag and the statue of liberty I was ready to assemble all the pieces.

I love how it turned out!

I didn't sew around the edges of both of my panels. I was too lazy to set up my sewing machine. I was going to use some stamps that I have that are stitched lines, but after looking at the panels I like the way they looked without stitching. 

Thanks for stopping by!