project bags

Greetings!

Here are the project bags I decorated for the girls who came to the

Cozy Crop House Mixed Media Weekend.

Everything they needed to make their altered book and their girl on canvas was in the bag along with some take home goodies.

These started out as plain white handle bags I purchased in a pack of a dozen at Michaels. I used Mod Podge to layer on dictionary paper, napkin, music paper, doily, and ledger paper on which I stamped each of their names. A pretty layered flower with a brad in the middle finished it off. It was a fun way to put together the project supplies and a pretty take home for them to use as is or cut up and put on a new project of their own!

The current challenge at Eclectic Paperie is to "do something with a bag" so I am entering this post there.

Thanks for stopping by!

altered book for tags

Greetings!

Today I am sharing the altered book project I taught 

at the Cozy Crop House Mixed Media Weekend.

We altered an old Readers Digest Condensed book to hold 4x6 photo sleeves which are perfect for holding #8 sized technique tags!

We started by deconstructing the book then coating the outside with Golden Gesso. We played with stamping into the wet gesso to add texture. While it's nearly impossible to catch this with the camera, here I've tried to show you. It is a nice subtle effect. (click on photo to enlarge)

After our gesso was dry we applied Distress Paint in "mowed lawn", "broken china", and "mustard seed" using a makeup sponge. We proceeded to layer various background stamps and more paint using bubble wrap and other household applicators. On the front a mask made with a Spellbinders die was used to mask off the center section while Staz-on gray ink was rubbed against the edges to form the frame. Further ink was applied through punchenella to fade out to the edges. 

The bird is cut from chipboard with a Spellbinders die, inked with a nondescript script stamp in brown then coated with Inkssentials Crackle Accents. The word "create" is chipboard I ordered from Want2scrap and is painted with Silks Acrylic Glaze in Sky Blue. The fern is Distress Stain in "peeled paint" mixed with Golden Extra Heavy Gel and applied through the "3 flourishes" stencil by Wendy Vecchi.

On the inside we used a sheet of washi paper by We R Memory Keepers applied with Mod Podge over and under to strengthen the spine. I left the inside covers of my book blank but the girls were having so much fun with the stamps and paints that they proceeded to decorate the inside too!

After punching holes in the back cover we installed album posts to hold the pages. Initially I was going to use rings to hold the pages and I had punched holes in the front of mine as well. Since I decided not to use this method I just put ribbon in the holes of my book. The books the students made do not have the holes in the front.

Now I have a pretty place to keep my technique tags I make and will be able to quickly reference them.

Thanks for stopping by today! 

I'll be sharing the third project I taught in a few days - hope you'll stop back!

Ready to share!

Greetings!

Well, the first Mixed Media Weekend at Cozy Crop House was lovely! Lots of creative, fun time! Now I can share the three projects I taught. Today I am giving you this little sneaky peaky at all three piled up together. We created an ATC, a girl on canvas, and an altered book. I'll share the ATC project today and the other two over the next few days! 

We started with this quick warm up ATC project just to get those creative juices flowing and build the excitement:

We took playing cards coated on one side with gesso, added Tim Holtz Distress Paint to them, spritzed with a little water and moved the paint around using bubble wrap as our painting tool. Next came stamping with background stamps then stenciling with punchenella using Archival and Staz-On Inks. We stamped a fern on then trimmed a butterfly out of a paper napkin and decoupaged it on. After drying came shadowing with the Faber Castell Big Brush Pen in Cold Grey and highlighting with the Scarlet Lime Permaball Pen. Documentation of the event was adhered to the back of the card and all edges were inked in coordinating Staz-On ink. It was a fun warm up and great little token to remember the weekend by!
Here are some of my altered playing cards that were the inspiration for this project. 

On the backs I share an inspirational Bible verse and my blog address.
Eclectic Paperie is having an altered playing card challenge this month so I am entering these there!

Thanks for stopping by today. I'll post the other two projects from the weekend over the next few days so I hope you'll stop back.