Ten Years and PaperArtsy Bird Stamps Accordion Book Tutorial

 

Hi friends!  I know it's been far too long.  I have taken a sabbatical for the past year to both care for my mom and recharge my creative batteries.  

My calendar popped up a reminder for June 3 that it was my blogaversary and I looked and saw that it had been ten years since I started SewPaperPaint!  WOW!  

I wanted to share a fun tutorial with you based on inspiration by Karen Stamper and Traci Bautista from this year's Sketchbook Revival Binge Fest.  What fun!  

My friend had spent the weekend with me for some creative fun and we decided to work in our accordion books following Karen Stamper's process of adhering various paper elements and masking/washi tapes to a long accordion paper, then adding inks or watercolor, spraying and letting the drips run free.  Oh my this was fun!  We both made two panels and I could have made ten.  Ha ha!

I really wanted to turn mine into a completed work.  Karen uses her pieces as a base for future architectural drawings, but that wasn't traveling - I've become such a homebody!  

Meanwhile, I was so inspired by Traci's use of a dagger brush and the way she held it upwards to produce beautiful, fluent leaves.  We had used a bottle of liquid watercolor in black by Blick and had a lot left in our little jars days later.  I thought it would be beautiful to add some of the leaves and happily reactivated the dried color with my wet brush.  It worked beautifully, though the black does turn quite blue when very wet.  

I fussy cut my practice pieces I had done on book pages and adhered them for a variety.  

I wanted to add some other imagery, so I picked out a set of Sara Naumann bird stamps by PaperArtsy, ESN66.  I stamped them in Versafine Clair Morning Mist (deep grey).  

This awesome quote is from a Dina Wakely Typed Ledger Sentiment Stack.  

I decided to make covers for my accordion.  I cut chipboard to size and adhered more book pages & even a die cut castoff with Liquitex matte medium.  I braywered white gesso lightly onto each panel.  

Then I mixed a bit of white gesso with modeling paste and spread through two Scrapcosy stencils by PaperArtsy, PS108 and PS319 randomly for added texture.  

I used my very old Fiber Scraps e-z Walnut Ink Tintz (shown at the top of this post) and more of the liquid watercolor in black by Blick to add more drips.  

I cut out another leaf practice piece and stamped another bird to finish my cover.  

I painted the edges of the chipboard with my white gesso, then glued the accordion panel in place and left heavy books on it overnight.  I adhered the Sari ribbon I get from Felt Better on Etsy between the layers.  I am so pleased with the finished result.  I am very thankful to the entire team at Sketchbook Revival, especially Karen Abend for this wonderful journey.  I hope you enjoyed seeing this grungy little art book.  xx, Autumn