Technique Challenge: Mini-Book

Today I'm participating in the Blockheads Technique Challenge for this month and showing you the mini-book that I made. When I saw the challenge and thought about the stamp sets I have, my favorite quote immediately came to mind. D.H. Lawrence once wrote, "When I see the sea again, will the sea have seen or not seen me?" So, I ran with it!

For the cover I used some blue mulberry paper that I've had since, oh... since dirt was new. I distressed it a little using Peeled Paint Distress Ink and Broken China Distress Stickles.

For the inside pages I wanted something that looked watery, that was semi-opaque as if looking through water. I went with vellum. One caveat with using vellum is that you have to be very careful when stamping because the paper is a little more slick and it's easy to smear images. It also takes inks a lot longer to dry (particularly on a humid day, as was the case when I made this).

I cut pieces of vellum large enough that I could fold it in half before folding it again to make the pages. This gave me the opportunity to color on the "wrong" side of the vellum and have it show through. I then began by swiping Distress Ink in various colors on my non-stick craft sheet. Then I spritzed the inked sheet with water and ran my finger through it to make it swirly and blobby (I declare "blobby" to be an official word). Then I lay the vellum on it and presto-change-oh!! I had the mottled, watery look that I was after. I waited for it to dry and then folded it in half to make the pages.

You can see that the ink and water made the paper ripple, but for this project I didn't mind. In fact, I really liked the way it made it look.

Stamp sets used were:
Grunge It Up
Sea Shells With Round Frame
Seascape - Fishes
ATC Years Ago

For the ink to make the starfish, seashells, fish, and seaweed, I used Brilliance Ink Pads in the following colors (respectively): Pearlescent Poppy, Pearlescent Beige, Crimson Copper, and Pearlescent Olive. The seashells I did on a separate piece of vellum. I stamped on one side, then colored the other side using a white pencil and a bit of pink marker at the "hinge." Then I cut them out and glued them into the book.

I chose the middle as a place to put my quote. I really like how you can see the other pages through it. I stamped the wave using StazOn Opaque White Cotton. I colored it in on the "wrong" side of the page, letting the marker go outside the lines on purpose to give the wave even more depth.

For the following page, I stamped the seahorse using StazOn Timber Brown Ink. The sand dollars were stamped on a separate piece of vellum using Brilliance Lightning Black ink. Then, same as with the shells, I colored them in on the opposite side using a white pencil. After I cut them out and glued them in, I added a dab of Liquid Pearls White Opal to the centers.

Finally, for the last page, I first stamped the face and waves, again using  StazOn Opaque White Cotton. I stamped over the face again using  StazOn  Black. Then I colored in the lips and the eyes using markers.

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial and I hope you'll join us this month for the  Blockheads Technique Challenge!