Sunday, February 26, 2017

Mixed Media planner - in progress

I'm following a tutorial making a homemade planner/art journal. The tutorial is called Studio Saturdays: Mixed Media Planner. It is in three parts. The first part is making the cover. The second part is making the pages. The third part is decorating the pages.

Since making a good collage or cover to a book requires layers, it requires time. This is because when you apply a wet medium you have to wait for it to dry. Some Youtube tutorials show the crafter or artist using a hair dryer or craft dryer to speed up the process. I just use air and time.
  • The first layer was Liquitex matte medium. Let dry.
  • Second layer was Liquitex matte medium. Let dry.
  • Third layer was collaging on some papers. I used Spanish dictionary pages and some tissue paper with musical notes. Let dry.
  • I applied acrylic paint in dark blue. Let dry.
  • I applied acrylic paint in light blue. Let dry.
Now it's the next day.
  • I applied orange paint. Let dry.
  • Next will be adding a white paint, let dry. Then I'll stencil a design over that, let dry.
Making books is not for the impatient. Which I am. After all that I can get started making the pages. Here is how it looks so far, the last two steps of adding white paint and a stencil pattern are not finished yet.




I'll be covering over the spine so the previous title won't show through. The specs were specific in that we must choose a book cover that was from a book that had at least a 2" spine...but I knew that meant making lots of signatures of pages, and stitching in a complicated way, a task that I usually mess up. So I chose a smaller book and when I get to the part about attaching signatures to the cover I'll figure out what to do then.

But now it's time to make my weekly pancakes. Have a nice Sunday everyone!

5 comments:

Grace to You said...

Love the splashes of orange, one of my favorite colors. Can't wait to see what you do with the pages!

I made a altered book years ago and on the cover I adhered a clipping from a magazine that said, "Do Not Open," which is evidence of my weird sense of humor. :) The other day my son moved it to get to a book underneath it and he commented to me, "You know, when you first made this, I saw that sign on the front and I thought something bad would happen to me if I opened it." Mission accomplished. :D

(It probably goes without saying, but he did indeed open the book eventually and nothing bad happened to him.)

Elizabeth Prata said...

I love the sly humor on your cover!! So funny. Also hilarious about your son ;)

I plan on working on the book tomorrow, Sat.

Grace to You said...

How on you progressing on the book?

Elizabeth Prata said...

I messed it up so I'm at a standstill. I got all excited to try out some new techniques, so I decorated the back inside cover with a collage. But...I forgot that the signatures' back page will have to be glued over the back inside cover in order to adhere it to the book. So I either need to paste over my collage,or I have to tear it apart so as to allow for the signature to be adhered, which I hate to do. Sigh. This is why I really, really stink at any fine motor skills or things that require hand-eye coordination.

Grace to You said...

I hate it when I do stuff like that! And I do it all the time...if there's any way to make a mistake I'll find it. :) If it was me, I'd fuss at myself the whole time I was tearing the collage apart, but after it was done and I had recreated it on another page, I'd be glad I took the time to save it.