DECEMBER DAILY: 2016 Album Cover

The time has come again to start December Daily prep work.  Which means...another fun album cover.

This year, I ordered an album, Décor 8 mini-kit, and some silk screens.  I plan on incorporating past years' supplies as well.  Use what you have...or at least try :)

(photo courtesy of aliedwards.com)

I started by applying gesso to the entire album with the intent to mute the bright red letters. 

Created my compass heart.

Then started to sketch out my design, trying to work small.

 I wanted to use Danielle Donaldson's "Be Still" class technique with winter foliage and flowers.

  Once sketched, I watercolored the images.

Applied details with pencil and white marker pen.

Adhered my compass heart. And mission complete

 

Some of the tiny details include snowflakes, stars, tiny flowers, and the number "25"

I completely love this!! 

Not sure how I will complete the rest of the album, but for now, I am HAPPY!

DECEMBER DAILY 2015: Album Foundation

It's not that "time of year"; but I am so excited to spend the holidays with Tony and document each moment. Thus, I jumped right in! Who knows... Maybe the stores setting up the holiday decor already have me in the spirit. 

I wanted to make my own book but with pockets. I grabbed a few packets of 6x8 clear pockets plus a few pieces of wood strips and fabric and an old card. Each page was taped together to another page or item in different tape (washi, masking or duck) then grouped together as signatures. 

I then grabbed an old hard cover book and pulled out the pages. (Save these..they make great use for mixed media). I snagged the book for a deal at an antique store. Such history and character ...love antiques. Especially ones for $2. 

Longfellow's most famous poem is probably "Paul Revere's Ride".  I remember having to memorize this in Mrs. Nielsen's class at good ol' Elm Tree School (yes, I went to a country school with a class of 5 until 7th grade?!?!) Believe it--- It happened. 

Ok, I digress. I did a book binding technique I learned in Kate Thompson's class and then secured it in place. 

I plan on using either holiday music sheets or pages from Longfellow's book to cover the ribbon. 

I opted for a book to cover the outside binding as it didn't go well with my covers I created. 

The pocket pages stick out of the book but will be covered when I adhere the cover pages.... 

Which is my favorite part of the entire book already. Julie Fei-Fan Balzer did a similar technique for an art journal...so I did my own spin for the holidays. 

I took an image Ashley G made and altered a few aspects and traced it onto the wood cover. 

And then just began wood burning my heart out. 

Note: do not set iron when cooling on anything it can burn. Lesson learned. 

I used the point for smaller details but soon discovered the ball point attachment was much easier to maneuver. I used the Creative Versa-Tool. 

I added a small silver embellishment with an angel near the title. And then found a design to use for my back cover. I love being able to embrace and incorporate my faith. 

I still need to change some aspects but it is a phenomenal start!!  

I added watercolor and some metallic paint to elements and sealed with tar gel. The "G" is a metal letter. 

I wanted to incorporate simple zen tangles in the process to learn another side to doodling. 

So far, so good!

Update: added details to interior covers. 

JOURNAL COVER: Thanksgiving 2014

After I booked my trip to Nebraska for Thanksgiving, I knew I wanted to document the days in a SMASH album. I have been doing this for the past 2 trips utilizing my Instax camera film...and I love the results....plus it gives me a simple canvas to doodle and art on throughout the trip and flights. .Just have to do a few simple prep pages to satisfy my creativity.

 

So the cover idea came from Balzer Design's blog post about foil tape art.  Instead of using cardboard cut-outs, I opted to use my handwriting and cut out foam stickers.

(I adore Jen Osborn's handwriting, so I stole some of her font style letters.)

 Then stuck them in place, and took foil tape over some images...and cheetah print duct tape over others. 

One thing I learned is going vertical with the tape makes it easier to shape around the letters and images.  The SMASH album already had an imprint on the cover so I just rubbed into the design as well.

Nervously, I painted over the entire book using white gesso and acrylic paint.  I wanted a solid base so I wouldn't worry about the paint chipping off the tape.

And then I added my color. It appeared much brighter when it was wet...then dulled quit a bit when dried.

Time to sand...also learned pieces of sand paper work better than the block sander.

Some areas I sanded down too much so it dulled the shiny tape.

So I decided to brighten areas up by highlighting with neon red and pink and adding a real leaf.

After a few days, the leaf turned a dark maroon probably due to the gell I used to adhere it, so simple solution was to doodle on the leaf. 

And that is the cover with more to come I am sure.  As I complete the album, I tend to go back and add more to the cover, but it is the startt and my favorite part. The other prep work I put into the albums is prepping pages with gesso or absorbent ground mediums so I can use watercolor crayons or markers ,pastels, etc..