Memory Book

Memory Book 

Hi, Shelagh here again. 

The memory book is a variation of my exhibit for the Clarity Challenge Design Team for March, I thought I'd try the New Design Club 'Tree of Life' as it reminds me of a banyan tree - still on the tropical theme. (The filigree leaves are parts of deconstructed earrings - I'm always on the lookout for such items when supermarkets have price reductions.)

Materials:-

• Canvas x 2
• Black Gesso
• Kraft cards DL, Gold Mirri Card, white card, Clarity black coated card
• Stencil - Clarity Tree of Life (New Design Club 3)
• Grunge Paste
• Stamps - Clarity Palm Leaf, Letterbox 
• Inkpads - Versamark - Dazzle, Versafine Onyx Black; Ranger Distress Peacock Feathers, Mowed Lawn, Salty Ocean
• Gold detail embossing powder
• Micron pen
• Mod Podge

Instructions:-

Canvas (Covers)

1. Paint the canvas on both sides with black gesso. 
2. Mask off the root portion of the stencil to only reveal the tree. Tape stencil over dry canvas and apply grunge paste.
3. Once dry, paint with more black gesso. When dry, apply gold gilding wax. (I added some silver gilding (a misnomer!!) wax to tone down the gold. (You can see from my photo there is some grunge residue near the foot of the canvas; I was going to sand it away but decided to leave it to add some interest.)
   
4. Front and back of canvas were painted with Mod Podge.

Pages:-

1. The pages were made by cutting down Papermania DL Kraft cards, punching tabs from scraps, adding black panels to front and back and mirri board panels to inside pages.
2. Clarity NDC palm leaf was stamped over white card to fill panel using Dazzle then heat embossed with gold detail powder. A mix of Peacock Feathers, Mowed Lawn and Salty Ocean were blended over each panel then edged with a black alcohol marker and mounted onto gold mirri. (I made two extra panels which were then cut down and edged with black as before to provide the mounts for the front page labels.)
3. Pockets were made from scrap Kraft card and outlined with faux stitching using a micron pen.

     

     

     

  

   

   

I made a variety of pockets and a number appropriate labels, the latter using the Clarity Letterbox. 

I can't believe how little time this took to assemble compared to my first book, perhaps because I knew the path to follow!

Thank you for dropping in and hope to see you visiting my blog again.

Any queries and I'd be delighted to help.

Bye for now,

Shelagh  ;~}

Anything But A Card

Shelagh Metselaar

Clarity Stamps Challenge 25 – Anything But a Card

A Passage Through India

Hi, Shelagh here.

My project for this month’s Clarity Challenge ‘Anything But a Card’ was only ever going one way although I have an alternative should time run out - but thankfully not! My friend from Brunei days - we first met over 35 years ago – has a birthday pending and is spending it visiting India. My idea - a Memory Book in which she can scrapbook her journey. The project has taken a few weeks to put together and as ever, my planning followed the old teaching path starting with:- a) what ? b) where ? c) how?

I selected a canvas - I wanted to trial some new techniques (for me) – and the rest took trial, error and plenty of mistakes and patience. (I'm sorry I don't have step-by-step this month but there is a photo for each 'chapter.')
(The tags and butterflies are purely to add interest and to hide the rings.)

Materials:-

·         Clarity Stamps:- Palm Leaf, Remountable Parakeets, Letterbox, Hot Air Balloon – medium and small; caravan, bird, small palm tree from Summer Shades Set, Speech Bubbles, Remountable Cheese Plant, Wild Flower Corner, Toucans, NDC Pocket, Ornate Church

·         Clarity Stencils:- Seed Heads

·         Cardstock:- Clarity- Theuva, Black Coated; Kraft card-card blanks

·         Canvas x 2

·         Pebeo:- Black Gesso, Gilding Wax - gold

·         Inkpads:-Distress Inks – variety; Versamark, Versafine Black Onyx

·         Embossing Powder – Gold Detail, Clear Detail

·         Grunge Paste

·         Mod Podge

I went ahead happily stamping, masking, blending until all areas chosen were covered. I used Kraft cards cut down to size for the pages and scrap pieces to create the tabs. The panels were stamped on Theuva card and mounted on Clarity Black Coated card. Pockets, frames, books were made as retainers for travel memorabilia.

Notes & Quotes 1

Stamps - Parakeets, Speech Bubbles from Remountable Elegant Ladies, Letterbox

Inkpads - Spiced Marmalade, Picked Raspberries, Seedless Preserves, Squeezed Lemonade

Notes & Quotes 2

Stamps - Palm Leaf

Inkpads - Mowed Lawn, Peacock Feathers, Salty Ocean

Notes & Quotes 2

This is a little notebook to record memorable conversations and quotes from the trip.

I cut some printable vellum, rounded the corners and made a note book with a pocket inside each of the back covers. The pages were stitched together, something I learnt to do at a SCEA summer school in Germany over 30 years ago and a technique I have had little opportunity to use since.

Notes & Quotes 3

Travel 1

Stamps - Small and Medium Hot Air Balloons, Remountable Christmas Banners (one of the blank ones)

Inkpads - Weathered Wood, Squeezed Lemonade, Mowed Lawn

Travel 2

These pockets are for ticket stubs and travel bits and pieces.

Accommodation 1

Stamps - Caravan from Summer Shades Set

Inkpads - Iced Spruce, Salty Ocean, Mowed Lawn, Squeezed Lemonade

Accommodation 2

These corners are doubled up to contain accommodation memorabilia.

Stamps - Wild Flower Corner

Inkpads - Picked Berries, Spiced Marmalade, Mowed Lawn, 

Distress Markers

Flora & Fauna 1

Stamps - Toucan, Cheese Plant

Inkpads - Weathered Wood, Mowed Lawn

Spectrum Noir Pens

Flora & Fauna 2

These little frames are for photographs.

Sights & Sounds 1

Stamps - Ornate Church, Small Palm Tree from Summer Shades

Inkpads - Squeezed Lemonade, Mowed Lawn,Pine Needles, Weathered Wood

As I don't have the Taj Mahal stamp and  wished to create a type of high edifice, I masked off part of the Ornate Church to create the towers.

                                                                  Sights & Sounds 2

These little pockets have extra room for USB sticks etc.

Stamps - NDC Pocket, Palm Tree as before, bird from Summer Shades

Inkpads - Spiced Marmalade

Front and back boards:-

Each canvas ‘Grunge Pasted’ over the ‘seed-head’ stencil. Once dry, black gesso was applied over all; and once this was dry, applied to the other side. Gilding wax was applied over the grunged area of each canvas, particularly around the edges. A Cropodile Big Bite was used to punch holes for the ring connectors.
                                                                      Outside Covers

Stencil, Grunge Paste, Black Gesso, Gilding Wax, Mod Podge

Inside Covers

Stencil, Black Gesso, Gilding Wax, Mod Podge

The seed-head stencil was then placed over this flat side of the canvas - front and back, then gold gilding wax sparingly applied. 

Finally, back and front of each canvas was painted with Mod Podge to offer some  resilience to wear and tear.

A few tags were cut, stamped, coloured and attached to the rings, along with butterflies from the Butterfly Tree set.

Et voila! Here we have one Indian Holiday Memory Book.

The Box

I had attempted to make a box using Kraft card but the A4 was too small to accommodate the book. Since I save all my gift boxes, I went on a search looking for one from a particular perfume brand which I thought would fit the bill; however instead I found a perfect match which had contained culinary spicy sauces.

Sorry - I omitted to photograph the before, but here we have the box top coated with black gesso, masked off equally on all four sides before being stencilled through with grunge paste.

The box was masked off then stenciled and grunge paste applied to four sides, painted with black gesso then gilding wax rubbed over the top. The base was painted with black gesso; when dry the stencil was placed over, first having masked off a border using very low tack masking tape then gilding wax applied through the stencil as before.

The final touch was to black gesso over the entire interior, gilding wax over the stencil (as before and above) on the inner lid, then Mod Podge applied to all areas inside and out.

This completes my memory book and matching box.

Thank you for visiting and I hope this gives you ideas to make your own Memory Book.

Cheers,

Shelagh  ;~}