Hello all! I simply can't believe that it's May already, but here we are starting a new challenge at Mini Album Makers, so I suppose it must be!
As always, we'd love to see any handmade books/albums/journals that you create this month. My lovely team-mates are sharing some inspiration to get you started, and here's my offering.
Our sponsor this month is Lindy's Stamp Gang, and I've been playing with some of their wonderful sprays to create this journal.
The basic structure of the book is made with the brilliant Eileen Hull Journal Die - it's so incredibly useful if you like to make books at all.
I used it to cut some sturdy cardboard and covered that with plain white cardstock, also cut with the die.
I started with some spritzes of the new Distress Resist Spray (done inside a large cardboard box so that the sticky spray wouldn't contaminate anything nearby).
Over this basic resist splatter, I applied three Lindy's sprays - a Flat Fabio spray in Danny Zuko's Denim and two Starbursts (full of shimmer), Creme Brulee Cream and Tainted Love Teal.
For the inner covers, I simply mopped up the leftover D.Z.'s Denim and T.L. Teal by dabbing the journal covers down into the spare ink.
I started to play with adding some gears to the cover, and decided I'd like some ink spray which would echo those colours more closely...
... so I added some droplets of a Moon Shadow Mist in Incandescent Copper.
The large clock face is a Tando chipboard piece which actually used to be part of an old ATB project, now dismantled. It was already almost the right colour, but I added some of the same Lindy's sprays to make it tone in fully.I also smeared on some additional coppery shimmer with my fingertips, dipped into DecoArt's Worn Penny Metallic Paint.
One of the hands is a Tando hand, and the smaller one is a metal addition, and there's an actual watch part right in the centre.
Once I'd glued my chosen copper gears into place (some Idea-ology, some from cheaper sources like Ebay)...
.... along with the fabulous little ART bolt, which is one of the Prima Mechanicals...
... I still thought I'd like just a little extra something going on, so I reached for DecoArt's Liquid Glass and used that to add my little bubbles around the gears.
It starts out slightly cloudy, but as it dries it becomes completely clear so you get these wonderful little waterdrops which catch the light beautifully.
I spent some time trying to decide on the best Quote Chips to add to the cover, and once I was happy with the size and the sentiment of each of them...
... I used Sepia Archival ink to add a little framing colour to the words, and edged them with the Worn Penny paint.
By the way, isn't the shimmer from the Lindy's Stamp Gang sprays amazing?
The ribbon was already a reasonably good colour for the project, but a little more gold than copper, so I gave it a good spritzing with the Incandescent Copper spray.
It's a satin ribbon rather than my usual seam binding, so it didn't hold the colour completely, but enough to allow it to tone in properly.
I applied double-sided sticky tape underneath the ribbon to keep it in place, and simple bow fastens it at the opening side.
There's no tape holding the ribbon down at the spine - it needs to be free to move as you open and close the notebook.
My signatures are made up of cheap(er) watercolour paper, and I've used some dark fine twine to fasten them into the journal.
The pages are still free to slide in and out to be worked on, and more can be added very easily.
It's a simple, elegant binding, and I rather like how it looks.
I hope you like it, and I hope you'll be inspired to create a handmade book of your own this month.
As I said, our sponsor this month is the fabulous Lindy's Stamp Gang, who will be offering a $25 voucher to our winner, so come and play along if you'd like to get your hands on some of these magical sprays (or any of their other amazing products).
Any style is welcome at the Mini Album Makers Challenge, and do check out the inspiration provided there by my fabulous team-mates. We hope to see you there some time in May.
I'm leaving you with double trouble - two final photos of my Clockwork Notebook, because I couldn't decide which lighting I preferred!
The clock always ticks. There are times you don't hear it, and there are times that you do.
David Levithan
I'd like to play along at the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge where the theme this week is Time Out
And there's also just time to squeeze it in at That's Crafty Challenges for the Going Round in Circles theme
