Blue Steel

Hello all, and welcome to October (no, I don't believe it either)!  As it's the first of the month, it's time to start a new challenge at Mini Album Makers.

Sadly, given how busy life is at the moment, this will be my last contribution there as a Design Team member.

I was honoured to be chosen by Autumn to be part of her new challenge just over a year ago, and I've had a wonderful time on the team.

It's been amazing watching Mini Album Makers grow each month, with incredible entries from around the world, and I know it will continue to go from strength to strength.  

So here, for my final offering, is a little journal made with Eileen Hull's Wrapped Journal die and some of Seth Apter's paint colours for PaperArtsy.

Seth is our sponsor this month, so it seemed only right to include him!  For reasons which will quickly become apparent, I've entitled it "Blue Steel".

It's a fairly simple make - constructed along the same lines as my Gentle Journal or the Wrapped Meadow Journal (the Eileen Hull makes it all so easy)... but I'll take you through the steps I followed to create that patchwork of distressed metal.












The die is cut out of plain matboard, and I embossed three panels of white card with Tim's Foundry 3D Texture Fade, to fit the main three panels of the journal cover.  For the spines, I used strips of Design Tape.














These have the advantage of reinforcing the spine, but staying flexible for opening and closing.














Next, I gave the whole thing a coat of Seth's Steel Grey (it's from Set 4 of his PaperArtsy paints).  Here it is once dry.











(While it was still wet, I had wiped the paint back a little with some damp paper towel over the Design Tape so that the design would still show through.)

Over that, I applied a wash of Glacier Ice (the palest colour from the same set).  I applied it with a sponge so that it would have a slight texture.












To create the patchwork of different blues, I used combinations of Double Denim (Set 3), Steel Grey and Venice Blue (both Set 4) in layers.












Then it was time for some dry-brushing with Glacier Ice (Set 4 again) to bring all that lovely embossed texture to life.  You can also see the texture from the sponging now.












So we've got Tim and Seth... time for third male designer to put in an appearance.  I used the DecoArt Media Fluid Acrylic in Metallic Silver to stamp Andy Skinner's fabulous scratchy stamp randomly over the "metal", and also added some of it to the tips of the bolts with my fingertips.












I used a "dirty wash" of Payne's Gray and Raw Umber (thanks, Andy) to add some deeper shadows around the edges of the panels, and around the binding holes.














And finally, I used an Archival ink pad - Coffee, I think it was - to discolour the edges of the cover, and also swept it across the face of the blue steel to catch in certain places for more weathering.











I knew I wanted to use the Idea-ology Hitch Fasteners for my fastening, and I found some black chain in my stash which I altered with the silver paint, with a plan to wrap it around the "doorknobs".  In the long run, it didn't quite work - it was a bit too bulky, and it was hiding my lovely 'doorknobs'.










Instead I used my much-loved fine twine, and fastened on the Idea-ology charms.  It needed something good and weighty to keep it in place, so the key and the Muse Token worked well.

But I did also spritz the twine with water and let it dry in place to encourage it to stay put.  It now holds the necessary position very well, even after wrapping and unwrapping several times.












The Hitch Fasteners got a little touch of Mushroom alcohol ink and a sweep of Archival Coffee.  I love the burnished look it gives them.













I had a journal when I was young which had a tiny lock and key, so you could keep your secret thoughts private... adding the key brought that rushing back all of a sudden.















As you unfasten it and open it up...
















... the secrets locked away inside are revealed.















The interior is covered with some of the blueprint paper from Tim's Dapper stash.













I really like that you can see the industrial bolts holding the Hitch Fasteners in place.














I've made my standard watercolour paper signatures, held in place by the fine twine.  As always, the signatures are unstitched, so that I can remove pages to work on them if I want to.












This time I edged the paper with some Archival ink - it just worked better for the look of it on the outside.














And it means the pages are ready-inked for action when I'm ready to use them.















I do love how subtle the twine is against the metal on the exterior of the spine.  And it echoes the twine fastening on the front too - I like the harmony of that.














Oh, and there have to be words, so there's an Idea-ology Word Band to provide extra inspiration whenever I come to open up my journal to write or play.













The back, of course, is just pure blue steel panelling, where you can see all that distressed metal without any interruption.
















There are some final sweeps of Treasure Gold wax in Pewter along the edges...














... and across some of the bolts, for that final gleam of old metal.














So there you have it... my final contribution for the Mini Album Makers.  I hope you'll be inspired to come and play along this month.  As always, all handmade books and journals are welcome, in any style or genre.













As I mentioned, our sponsor this month is the amazing Seth Apter, and he's offering a complete set of his brilliant Baked Texture powders to one lucky winner.










There's lots more inspiration from my wonderful team-mates over at Mini Album Makers, so do check it out.

Oh, and just in case you missed the exciting Lynne Perrella launch news a couple of days ago, you can catch the Egyptian fever right here...

Thanks so much for stopping by today, and happy October crafting all!

There are three things extremely hard: steel, a diamond, and to know one's self.
Benjamin Franklin




I'd like to play along at the Mix It Up Challenge Blog where they are playing Anything Goes with an optional twist of Monochrome
And let's make this a third and final entry for It's Been A While, the Anything Goes theme over at Stamps and Stencils - those stamped metallic scratches are subtle, but important, so there's my stamping