Mini Notebook by Gemma Hynes

I have a sweet little 4x4 notebook to share with you all today, There is something I really enjoy about the process of making books of any kind. The mix between the precise measurements of the book construction and the messy relaxed decoration that comes after. 

 Steps

I brushed layers of Haystack and Granny Smith PaperArtsy paints over 4x4 bits of board that are the covers of my book. When layering I made sure the paints were still wet so the colors would blend easily together.

Over the top, I stamped a calligraphy mat with caramel paint, When I stamp I try to roll the stamp from one side to the other so I get an incomplete print. 

Over that, I stamped the honeycomb background stamp with Slate paint, still rolling not pressing the whole stamp down for an incomplete print. 

I painted a little chipboard bird from my stash blue and stamped the word Hugs from the greeting stamps set in black Archival Ink. 

I also painted two little hearts from my stash in red before stamping over the top with the Chicken Wire background stamp.  When everything was dry I wrapped some string around the covers and glued the hearts into place. 

I then painted some white duct tape blue and used that to bind the covers together before gluing the bird to the front cover. To finish the book off I added some elastic for a closure and attached the pages to the inside.

xx Gemma xx

The Artistic Stamper Products

Calligraphy mat 11

Honeycomb Background Stamp

Chicken Wire Background Stamp

Greetings Stamps

Owl Tag by Gemma

 I am in love again with all thing crafty and tag related, so I have one to share with you all today that fits in with our challenge theme of Birds and Bees. You can join in the challenge here on the blog or over on the facebook page. 

What I did 😀

I started by placing blobs of Slate, Caramel, and gesso onto my mat. I picked up the paint with a small card and scrapped it onto the tag. sometimes I only picked up one colour and other times all three. I kept layering until I was pleased with the result.

I then stamped over the top with one of my all-time favorite stamps Chicken Wire and Hazelnut coloured ink. When I stamped this I wanted it to be 'bitty' I like the areas of missing ink and different colour intensity. 

Then I spread a thin layer of Purple Rain over my mat and used that to stamp the smallest bee stamp from the set repeatedly over the tag. I stamped quite a lot of bees over the tag I wanted it to be busy but not uniform.

While that was drying I painted some chipboard from my stash scarlet and then stamped over the top with the Honeycomb background stamp and slate paint. I spread the slate onto my mat as I had done with the bees but this time after stamping in Slate I mixed the paint with small amounts of gesso and restamped, I did this a couple of times, before drying and gluing the chipboard to my tag.

To finish I just added some flowers, beads and the metal owl from my stash before gluing in place I stamped onto the flowers with the honeycomb stamp and more paint.

xx Gemma xx

Products from The Artistic Stamper

Chicken Wire Background Stamp

Honeycomb and Bee stamps