Remembrance

Dear Friends,

Benefits of using monotone color schemes are many. It gives a sense of simplicity and harmony to the product and also makes it easier for the artist by eliminating the mammoth task to match the colors to be used.

This is my first attempt of doing a monochromatic art work. Benefits were many but frankly I found it challenging to depict a theme through just one color.

Me being a person who once in a while traces my path back into my memory lane, find that always monochromatic. No candies for guessing why I chose Black here.

An illustration of various stages this journal went through is given below.

Step 1

As usual, nothing in mixed media starts without Gesso. Give a nice coat of Gesso to the pages. I used art basics Heavy Gesso - White on the cardboard substrate.

Step 2

I chose Tim Holtz Layering Stencil - Gears to provide the "mechanical edge" to the monochromatic art work and applied Ranger texture paste through it.

Step 3

The black tone - I wanted to use Distress Sprays - alas I did not have it with me. I went forward with Lindy's Spray. The spray usage was tricky. It was more of a "controlled detonation" so as to avoid landing up with a black sheet in hand! Had to dab out lots and also had to make sure in diverting the color flow to the needed places.

A word of caution

Be very careful when you spray darker shades.

Step 4

To add something from my "floral side" stamped floral image on to the background. Used strips of Tim Holtz tissue wrap melange on the inner edges of the page to depict my theme of "remembrance"

Next was to embellish with Mannequin from Tim Holtz Ephemera pack and square cuts from Tim Holtz Laboratorie paper.

Materials Used

• art basics Heavy Gesso - White
• Tim Holtz Layering Stencil - Gears
• Ranger texture paste
• Lindy's Spray - Black
• Tim Holtz tissue wrap melange
• Tim Holtz Ephemera pack
• Tim Holtz Laboratorie paper

Love

Remya

Linking this to A Vintage Journey - July Challenge.

Altered Empty Duct Tape Rolls - A Tutorial

Dear Friends ,

Altered duct tape roll into a trinket box !

I love to alter things lying around and its quite therapeutic too. Whenever am in dearth of creative ideas I start to do such alterations :) 

There is a tutorial below explaining how it was done.

Step 1

Collect empty duct tape rolls. The Nomads that we are, we do have a big bunch of empty duct tape rolls and we never run out of this.This is typically 2 inches in height.

Step 2

Stick two empty duct tape roll together one above the other using any glue of your choice to give a 4 inch depth to the trinket box.  Did I say earlier that I use GESSO ? Yea, I use it a lot. Have given a wash to the "roll well" with a generous coat of GESSO.

Step 3

Cut two circular card board, one for the base which would be exact diameter of the Duct Tape Roll and another one which would be couple of millimeters. The wider one is to be used as the lid and the smaller one is the base. Glue the base on to the roll and give that too a neat coat of GESSO. The lid is not glued for obvious reasons ;)

Step 4

Now comes the tough part of the exercise. Choosing the pattern paper for the duct tape roll and the lid. This can be contrasting or similar in color but make sure they compliment each other. Embellish the work with items of your choice.

This is my second trinket box - first one can be viewed here. Lazy that I am, was not in a tutorial mode then. :)

Love

Remya

Linking this to Rhedd's Creative Spirit : July Challenge 2016

Handmade Journal Tutorial for Itsy Bitsy and Sizzix Blog Hop

Handmade Journal !

Fellow Crafters !

Good Morning ! Remya here. I am super excited to be engaged into the Design Team of Itsy Bitsy.

Who does not want a repository for all of the things that interest and inspire you - Something thats handy where you could engrave your memories . A Journal is the answer. If its one which is made by your own hands it becomes very special for you !

Lets get started with the tutorial on how to make this Lovely Journal to jot down your memories and store pictures of you and your loved ones. We would also learn to use "We R Memory Keepers Crop-A-Dile" and its buddy "Eyelets" which would give an aesthetic look for your Journal. 

 

Step 1

This journal has seven signatures. Each signature contains tea dyed papers enclosed in Black Card Stock.

I Love to dip every bit of paper to stain it with tea giving it an aged look. Even though I do not restrict myself to any particular style, Vintage always is my favorite. 

Take Black Card Stock measuring 8" x 7.5" and fold it by the longer side making it an enclosure of 4" x 7.5". Make seven such sets. The tea dyed papers measuring 7.5" x 7.25" and fold it too by length making it of the dimension 3.75" x 7.25". 5 tea dyed papers are used per cardstock enclosure hence 35 tea dyed papers in total. You may alter the count according to your requirements.

Step 2

In this step we are getting into creating the bind for the Journal. This is made by Chipboard. Cut two Chipboard pieces (8.25" x 4.75") for the front and rear cover and 1 chipboard piece (8.25" x 2.25") for the spine . Cover it with Black Card Stock as shown aside. Make sure that the edges of the cardstock is folded and glued on to the inside of the chipboard.

 

 

 

Step 3

Stitch each of the signature at the center fold on to a thick cardstock (8" x 4.25"). The length of this card stock is a bit lesser than the spine and the width is in excess by 2". The width is excess so as to ensure that it gets equally glued on to the front and rear covers to give a firm grip.

Now arrange this bundle on to the Spine centrally. Glue it (2" on to spine and 1" each on front and rear cover) and wait for it to dry completely before proceeding.

 

 

 

 

Step 4

Once this has dried up, glue pattern paper of your choice on the inner side of the covers. For this we have used double sided tacky tape.

The signatures are not decorated so that we could jot down things on it or paste some lovely pictures.

Step 5

To give a unique and classy look for the spine externally we decided to make a "Shoe-lace pattern".

For that take a pattern paper of your choice (8.25" x 4.25") and Black Card Stock of same size to reinforce its strength. Stick them together. 

Fold them and Cut in center so you have 2 equal pieces

Arrange the 2 pieces together and punch holes equidistant. This helps to punch holes on both papers together and we would not miss symmetry while weaving.

For Punching holes we use We R Memory Keepers Crop-A-Dile. Its a very convenient and easy to handle tool. With this tool you can punch holes of various diameters depending on the product you choose. Convenient rulers are present so you can figure out exactly where you want to punch the hole for your projects.

You can use it to punch through

1. Paper and Card stock
2. Thick chipboards
3. Leather
4. Thin tins

We can add beauty and strength to the holes by using contrasting eyelets.

A word of caution. To fix the eyelet, keep the Eyelet in the position as shown in the Crop-A-Dile. Make sure that this is adhered in order to safe guard the tool.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Step 6

Now lets start to tie the "shoe-lace" along the Eyelets. 

Ribbons standing in for Shoe-lace. For more clarity  I have taken pictures to show how to do it too. Stick this onto the spine. 

Decorate the front and rear cover using pattern / decoupage papers of your choice.

Your Journal is ready for filling with you memories ,  thoughts and pictures of your loved ones.

 

 

Materials Used

1. Black Card Stock
2. Pattern Paper -Yorkshire Pudding 
3. Pattern Paper -Tis the Season 
4. Decoupage Paper -Vintage Postcard 
5. We R Memory Keepers Crop-A-Dile
6. Eyelets
7. Glitter Gems
8. Ribbons
9. Chipboard
10. PVA Glue

Please leave a comment here on my post and  I will select one lucky winner who wins this Sizzix die

Love, 

Remya


Hope you have gone through the blog posts of the Design Team members. Find below the links for your ease.

Itsy Bitsy Blog
Tanvi
Sharada
Gopi
Lekha
Remya < You are here !

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