The Art of Meditation

Hello all!  What a fantastic response to the first ever challenge at the Mini Album Makers Challenge blog - thank you so much for sharing your amazing handmade books.  Unbelievably, it's already the start of October, and time to start a new round of book-making creativity, so it's inspiration time.

As will always be the case, any handmade book is welcome, but it must be a new creation.  The team are ready to kick off the month's inspiration with our own projects, so do check out the amazing work over at Mini Album Makers but, before you go, here's mine in more detail.








It's a simple tag book, with pages which are designed to offer moments of reflection and calm - thoughts to meditate on, and a gentle, serene atmosphere to encourage that meditation.

And I have to confess, the making of it was also very meditative and soothing - lots of batchwork and repetition.









There's variation as you move through the pages, but only limited variation which gives the whole thing a very calming effect.  (Remember you can click on the photos for a larger view.)

One of the main things Autumn wanted to encourage with this new bookish challenge was the sharing of "how-to" details so, after a few short-but-sweet posts, we're back to the more usual Words and Pictures length.  I'll try to keep it quick, but you might want to grab a cup of coffee if you're going to accompany me.

A pair of MDF tags (12x6cm, so quite small and neat) form the outer covers, and some cheap luggage tags serve for the pages.

I'll start with the inside and then move to the covers, as that's the order in which I made it all.






I decided that all my pages would have some PaperArtsy weathered crackle.  It's a layered glaze process so for the backgrounds I used French Roast Fresco paint for some and Pea Coat for others - and in some cases they ended up with both.

Next layer is the Crackle Glaze itself.  I usually just put a blob right on the surface I'm covering and spread it out with a palette knife - the thinner, the better.







Once the glaze is dry you can add the top coat.  (You can dry the glaze with a heat tool if you're feeling impatient - it will still work... it's the top layer which you really have to leave to do its thing for the best results.)

If you apply the top coat of paint (Snowflake and Chalk Fresco mixed in this case) with a brush you get one kind of crackle - a painted wood crackle effect.  (It's still mid-crackle-action here.)













And if you sponge it on, you get a sort of porcelain crackle variation.













Over the top of that I did a bit of dipping and dabbing into some Distress Ink - Stormy Sky I think.














Next was some stencilling, front and back, various letters and numbers from stencils by Scrapcosy at PaperArtsy and by Andy Skinner.















I also added some text stamping using my word stamps and French Ultramarine Archival Ink - very much just background detailing.

So far, that's all tags getting the same treatment on all sides.










The next element is present on every tag but only on the "front" side, and that's some flower stamping.

These delicate wildflowers are by Inkylicious, done in Ground Espresso (the Archival version), and I wasn't too worried about "perfect" impressions.







After this, the pages start to vary a bit - though still within similar configurations.

So there are some pages which have one of my quote stamps (all from PaperArtsy EAB01 Trees and Flowers) stamped on the rough internal side of one of my money envelopes.













I tore round the words, layered them over some frayed cheesecloth...













... and clipped them in place with the Idea-ology mini paper-clips.

They've actually also had some glue underneath to keep them nice and firmly in place.















Other pages followed a different path...  Firstly, I added strips of Tim Holtz Design Tape pretty randomly.
















I was also folding the strips over rather than tearing them off - that way the reverse side of the page gets some decoration too.
















Then to each of these pages I added some of the indispensable Paper Dolls (with watercolour pencil shading for them to stand on), and the equally indispensable Small Talk stickers...
















... carefully chosen to provoke thought or meditation or set you up for the day, according to what you might need.















As I said, it was already a meditative process creating these tag pages...













... and very satisfying to see them all laid out together, both front and back.














So, now to the covers.  I started with some texture paste through a Viva Decor stencil... more wild meadow flowers to echo the ones inside.













I put a coat of gesso over the whole thing and then added some DecoArt One-Step Crackle Glaze in various places.  You can see it here with the crackle still wet, gleaming in the light.













Once that was all dry - check out that crackle! - I started adding DecoArt Antiquing Creams - adding, allowing to dry, and wiping back with a damp cloth.













I did it a couple of times until I was happy with the look.  The great thing about the Antiquing Creams is they'll always wipe away until you seal them, so you can play for ages.












And don't panic - you're probably going to wipe almost all of it away, leaving it to provide great shadows in all the nooks and crannies and crackles.














When I was almost back to white, but with those brilliant lowlights around the texture, I used Distress Paint (Stormy Sky again) and Distress Crayons (Pumice Stone, Frayed Burlap, Walnut Stain I think - though I could be wrong) to add more colour and shadow.
















I'm really pretty pleased with the end result...















... especially that aged crackle...














... and the subtle blue grey tones...
















... which work so well to match the colours inside.














A couple of ChitChat stickers set you up for what you'll find inside - thoughts for the day, as many or as few as you need depending on your mood.













The back cover remains just as it is, so that's available for fingertip meditations - allowing your sense of touch to join in with the present moment.














A large book ring, made slightly less shiny with some Mushroom alcohol ink, provides a simple "binding", and I added some sari ribbon as well as some Distress-dyed crinkle ribbon, all knotted together with some rustic twine.






I love that you can take the words or pictures as a prompt for thought... or there are always the flowers - Nature is extremely conducive to meditation.

Or you can simply allow the barer reverse sides to create space in the heart and brain, heading for the stillness which lies at the heart of any meditative practice.

The very act of finding the time in the day to turn a few pages of this little album is also a version of creating space and stillness - the art of meditation.

And that, finally, is pretty much that.  I think you've seen almost every page now, at least from the front... it's a good thing these book posts are only due once a month!

Thanks for bearing with me through the long post - or if you just scrolled to see the photos, I hope you enjoyed that too.

Do hop over to the Mini Album Makers Challenge to see the beautiful books my lovely team-mates have made to inspire you, and we hope you'll be coming to play along again this month.











There's another fantastic sponsor prize, this time from Gypsy Soul Laser Cuts.  They have some great designs to play with.

The sponsor prize will be randomly drawn, but the Design Team will also be selecting a winner who will be invited to join us as a Guest Designer.  Happy bookish crafting all, and happy October!

The act of meditation is being spacious.
Sogyal Rinpoche

With nearly the full set of Inkylicious flowers on display, as well as some of my own word stamps, I'd like to share this at Frilly and Funkie where the request is to Show Us Your Stamps
I'd also like to play along with the Anything Mixed Media Goes theme at Mixed Media World