I was lucky enough to be a member of the latest Master Craftster team, given the opportunity to try out a bunch of Elmer's products. One of the projects I created using the products I was sent were these little journals with prepared
paper. No need to wait for backgrounds to dry, I can jump right in!
For this project I used the following materials...
- CraftBond Permanent Dot Runner
- Elmer's Painters - Neon
- X-ACTO Gripster Craft Knife
- X-ACTO Corner Rounder Punch
- X-ACTO Self-Healing Cutting Mat
- Pages from discarded old books
- Scrapbooking paper
- A stapler
- Paintbrush
- Water
I
like to use old paper in my work. Old paper is quite different than
modern paper. It generally has a higher cotton content, absorbs pigments
better and is more durable. Sometimes old paper can be quite brittle,
but often it can be crinkled, folded, squeezed with nary a tear. It's
great fun to work with!
For this project I began by saturating an old page with some water.
I let the water absorb for a few moments and then started to dab the page with the Elmer's Painters acrylic paint markers.
I added more layers of paint and water.
Using a cloth I dabbed at the painted areas. I also smudged, rubbed, squished, folded and even crumpled some pages.
I did a fair bit of experimenting with the Elmer's
Painters. If you shake them up and down, they will not leak BUT by
quickly and firmly flicking them I managed to get a bit of a splatter on
the page. I also tried dipping the tips in water, then dabbing on the
page, the paint bled and spread much more than when I simply applied
directly to the page. I continued to work and experiment until the
desired effect was achieved.
I'm pretty impatient so I like to iron my pages dry.
Ironing any pages that you crumpled up has the added bonus of giving a
nifty textured effect.
Next, I trimmed up my pages to the desired size
using the X-ACTO Gripster Craft Knife and the Self-Healing Cutting Mat.
When it comes to cutting straight clean lines, nothing beats a good
sharp X-ACTO blade and steel ruler. Be sure to do your cutting on a
self-healing mat. They're really useful and will save your work surface a
lot of potential damage.
For these books I simply used a folded piece of thick, double-sided scrapbooking paper for the covers and stapled the edge.
To finish them off, I used the Corner Rounder Punch.
I know it's a small thing but I think the rounded corners add a nice
little touch. Finally, using the CraftBond Permanent Dot Runner I
affixed a small mixed media twinchie and ATC to the covers.
Ta da! Now to pop them in my purse and start doodling!
You can hop over to the
Elmer's board on craftster.org to see all the sponsored projects.
Here's the other projects I completed...
