Moleskine Notebook

This month's Make It Take It challenge on the Craft Stamper blog is wide open for interpretation since "Anything Goes"! The only rule is that it must involve stamping. I've decided to submit a little Moleskine notebook I did and keep my fingers crossed that it's a winner.

This was a fun little project. I had previously stamped on the cover of this notebook but wasn't too happy with the result. I decided to try stamping something new on watercolor paper and figure out some way to attach the panel to the cover.

I chose to use some clear stamps from Martha Stewart which I stamped in black Archival ink. I chose this ink since it is permanent and I knew I'd be adding watercolor later. Before doing any watercolor, though, I decided to try sprinkling some masking fluid randomly over the surface so that some spots would stay a nice crisp white.

After the masking fluid dried, I had fun with several colors of Distress ink, rubbed on my craft sheet and diluted with water. I colored the butterflies first. After they were dry, I created the background, allowing colors to bleed together on the wet paper.

When everything was dry, I rubbed the dots of masking fluid off, revealing the white dots. I really like the way it looks. 

Now I had to figure out how to attach it to the cover of the notebook. My experience has taught me that it would be really tough to glue it down so that there was no danger of the edges ever lifting. I decided to try machine stitching to see if I could get through the thick watercolor paper as well as the stiff cover of the notebook. It worked wonderfully, and I really like the way the black stitching looks around the edges. (I used a corner rounder on the two right corners since those corners were also rounded on the notebook.)

Even if this doesn't win this month's contest, I'm still quite happy with the way it turned out!

Till next time,

Immi

Stenciling + Stamping

I'm squeaking in under the wire here for a submission to this month's Make It Take It Challenge with Craft Stamper Magazine.

The only requirement is to incorporate stencils. I chose to use a couple of stencils to create the green and purple background. First, I used a piece of sequin waste. I applied Distress Peeled Paint ink with an ink blending tool through the holes to some white cardstock. Then I selected a Heidi Swapp stencil and sprayed her Color Shine spray in Amethyst on top of what I'd already stenciled.

The sentiment is from a new Mama Elephant stamp set I recently ordered (Merci). I stamped it on a smaller piece of white cardstock with Hero Arts Black dye ink. Then I stitched it down the left side of the panel onto some black paper. 

The Merci set also includes a few small flowers and leaves. I stamped those on a scrap of white cardstock, also using the Hero Arts Black ink. I cut them out and layered them onto my stenciled background using Glossy Accents.

To help my stenciled background stand out against the white cardstock base, I mounted it onto some black paper with a subtle grid pattern.

Till next time,

Immi