Vintage Gel Printed Accordion Book Tutorial

Hi everyone and happy spring!  I've enjoyed some playtime with my mom this spring and we've done a lot of gel printing.  I was trying to think of a way we could use our stash prints and decided we should make an accordion book.  I picked one of my favorite 8x10" prints and cut it in two to cover two pieces of 4 x 6.5" chipboard, wrapped around the sides with mitered edges.

Here is my pile of gel prints.  Honestly, I didn't put a dent in this set alone!  This project didn't take as much printed paper as I had hoped...  But it was a fun project nonetheless.

I cut two pieces of white cardstock and scored them to fit inside and adhered the overlap to make the accordion panels.  Then I glued these to each cover and covered with gel prints measuring slightly smaller than the covers, 

I looked at my wooden stamp display and was inspired by this darling Character Constructions girl and called up a good friend and asked to borrow some of her doll stamps so I could complete my book.  Thanks Barbara!

I stamped all of my dolls onto book pages and added a bit of watered Tea Dye Distress Ink to give them a slight coloration.

Next I dipped all of my die cut Tim Holtz Wildflower in a combination of Tea Dye, Walnut Stain and Rusty Hinge Distress Inks.  

I mixed in my favorite scripture stamps with other favorite old wood mount stamps.

I always enjoy stamping on old paper.  Here I tea dyed some graph paper and it was a great backdrop to the scripture.

How many of you still own these stamps.  Personally, I treasure mine!  Both my friend and I have them on display in our art rooms.  

Here's a shot of mine from last year.  I've since changed things up a little, but still love this image.

I also took some free vintage label images and overlaid a typed font scripture and printed it.  I love the look and pop of aqua!

My finished book is a little busy, but fun to inspect.  I really hope it has made you smile today and has you considering how to incorporate your old stamps into your current work.  

I finished the book off with a sari ribbon binding.  

I just loved this particular gel print and was happy to make it the focal point of my book.  Happy crafting!  xx, Autumn

 

Free Printable Promises Digi Stamp for Rainbow Inspirational Cards

 

Hi friends!  Today I have a fun project to share with you.  I've been gifted some beautiful inspiration card stacks over the past couple of years and have noticed that them for sale in stores a lot too.  I came across a neat 4x6" wooden recipe storage box at the thrift store and snatched it up.  I finally decided to get busy creating some inspirational art to fill my box.  

For these cards I used some favorite Jofy stamps by PaperArtsy and hand lettered sentiments.  I've uploaded these Promises Sentiment to share with you.  You can download and print your own HERE.  (Note: it will look all black because there is no background, which will allow you to overlay the text onto an image if you so choose.  But on white paper it will show as black text.  :) )

You may remember my first two cards I created for Sweet 'N Sassy Stamps HERE.  Scripture stamps make it so much easier of course, but this time I wanted to do some hand lettering and really enjoyed the personal touch.  I used ProCreate on my iPad.

I made some layered bright gel prints for the bases and added stamping from JOFY92, including the scallops as "clouds."  The rainbow is from JOFY110 and I colored it with brush markers and water.  The tiny text is from Eclectica Mini 88 by Scrapcosy.  Now the fun part will be to trade these with friends and fill up my box!  I look forward to sharing more soon.  

For more inspo on these fab rainbow stamps see my last post HERE. xx, Autumn

PaperArtsy Scrapcosy Spring Tulip Cards

Hi friends and happy Easter weekend!  I’m so thankful that He is risen indeed!  I had a little crafty time with some friends and we had a good play with Raquel’s/aka Scrapcosy stamps by PaperArtsy. 

I picked out some pages from Raquel’s Art Journal Volume 1 collage book and lightly brayered first a darker color of PaperArtsy Fresco Chalk Acrylics. Then lightly brayered a lighter color. For the green page I used Granny Smith and Peppermint. Sadly, I didn’t note the other colorways. :(

I overstamped the tulips from ESC31. 

I then stamped images from ESC30 in the background using coordinating colors of Distress Oxides. 

I colored each flower with colored pencils, using white as a blender and to make the colors pop against the background. 

I finished each card with stitching and crocheted lace. And added a stamped sentiment from ESC29. I hope you are inspired by these grungy spring makes and have a wonderful Easter weekend. xx, Autumn 

 

PaperArtsy Jofy Mixed Media Gel Printed Cards and Topflight Stamps Birthday Blog Hop

Hi friends!  Thanks for stopping by today for the Topflight Stamps 7th birthday.  To celebrate, I’ve teamed up with some great designers to showcase celebratory projects using the unique products available at Topflight Stamps.  Please hop along with us and see all the beautiful talent from this group of amazing designers!  There is a master list of Hop stops on the Topflight Stamps blog! We are also Hopping on Instagram! You can start at the Topflight Stamps account @topflightstamps.  Did we mention there will be prizes?!

I've created a series of artsy mixed media cards using Gel Press printed backgrounds and fabulous stamps by PaperArtsy.  I fell in love with these moody prints I made using a combination of Fresco Chalk Acrylics in Sargasso, Bougainvillea, and Slimed.  I didn't use any stencils for these backgrounds, just vivid color.  I was able to get color variation on the plate by using my 2" Speedball Brayer and adding color in small sections to cover the gel plate.  

The focal stamp set is by Jofy, set JOFY112, an absolute joy to work with!  I stamped in black Versafine onto my prints, then again onto Bristol and colored with my Prism brush markers.  I fussy cut the leaves only and used foam tape to add them for dimension.  

For my backgrounds I did some white embossing with the Jofy branch and a fun mini stamp by Tracy Scott, EM61.  I also used mini stamp EM58 in black to resemble washi tape.  

I sewed around each of my panels and finished with some paint pen scripty doodles and sticker sentiments.  I just love how these cards turned out and hope they inspire you today!  

GIVEAWAY DETAILS: Of course, it wouldn’t be a birthday celebration without prizes!  Topflight Stamps is giving four lucky winners $50 Gift Certificates to the store.  Two winners will be chosen from commenters on the blog hop and two will be chosen from commenters on the IG hop.  For a chance to win, make sure to visit the stops on the hop and leave a comment by April 1st.  Winners will be announced on the Topflight Stamps blog on Monday, April 3rd.  (U.S.A winners only due to shipping issues.)  Good luck my friends!  Meanwhile, check out the fabulous birthday sale and have an awesome spring! xx, Autumn

How to Use Painty Papers to Create a Junk Journal

 

Hi everyone!  This year I've made a goal of getting more into mixed media art and less into cardmaking.  MM has always been my passion, but not necessarily my priority, so I'm working to change that. The process will include lots of exploration and I'll share with you what I can.  I've signed up for the Cathy Nichols Joy of Painting course for 2024.  One of the bonus courses was on creating large free paintings on giant papers.  I've been doing free paintings for years, but the idea of painting onto large papers was super exciting to me so I had a play with a friend and we ended up creating a pile of free paintings or painty papers...

I just love seeing them all rolled up.  I shared a video on Instagram with more details @sewpaperpaint.    Below is the paper I used to create this new journal.  The paper we used was thick and white and similar to kraft paper/gift wrap/package wrap?

I used the back of a watercolor paper pad to cut my two chipboard covers to 8.75x5.75", which is just larger than a sheet of paper folded in half.  I wrapped the two pieces of chipboard with the art paper, AFTER taking good photos/scans to use for other things (see below).  I mitered the corners and covered the inside (end papers) with neon gel prints.  

I had a small scrap of the painty paper left and made some scallops to decorate the end papers.

I created a closure by making a paper button, inspired by Francisca Nunes and tied a piece of sari ribbon to the back cover to wrap around the button.  

To create the spine, I cut a piece of cardstock 8.5x4.5" and scored from 1" to 3.5" every 1/8".  This creates a nice flexible "round" spine for the book.  I then glued the unscored 1" sides to the inside front and back covers I had made.  On the outside I adhered some beautiful vintage fabric over the cardstock, adhering only to the covers, not the actual cardstock.  I then repeated with the inside using the same fabric.

I used my Crop-a-dile to adhere three gromets to the top and bottom in increments. These simply tie around the tea stained copy paper inserts I made and stapled together using a long reach stapler.  I mixed in some folded book pages and clear page protectors to use as pockets to create really unique inserts.  

It was so much fun making this journal and I hope to fill it with everything I learn from the year long Joy of Painting course!  

I mentioned making copies of my painty papers...  Well here is how I used some of those!  First, I'm creating color charts of my experiments so I can easily reference the colors when I need inspiration for a new project...  I simply die cut a square from a large sheet of thin chipboard and used the negative space as a view finder to look for happy moments within the paper to cut out and highlight as shown.  I added in the PaperArtsy Fresco Chalk Acrylic paint colors to coordinate by finger painting!  FUN!

I used some of my prints to create some envelopes for my journal.  The flowers come from a practice painting I made and color copied.  It was fun to dig out my old envelope making templates from the 90's!  

I also covered some tiny composition notebooks from the Dollar Tree, which you can buy in bulk HERE.  I gave the notebooks with a matching neon pencil to my artsy friends for Valentine's Day.  I hope you've enjoyed seeing these projects, as I've had such fun creating them!  xx, Autumn