Bright and Cheerful Notebook

Hello crafty friends! Happy Sunday to you. It is a beautiful one in my neck of the woods this Canadian Civic Holiday long weekend and I want to share a little mixed media goodness with you.

Nothing like a challenge to get you to use crafty supplies. I finally got a chance to play with Vicki Boutin's Color Kaleidoscope collection which I used to alter the cover of a branded advertising swag notebook. My inspiration was Simon Says Stamp Monday - Bright and Cheerful Challenge. Vicki’s collection oozes that in spades hence that I chose to use it.

Courtesy of my insurance provider, the notebook started like this...

I began by dry brushing gesso on to it in three layers allowing time to dry in between which is when I was doing my fussy cutting of the stamped leaves and butterfly along with the distressing and sharpie inking the edges of the paper embellishments. Once the gesso was dry, I used Vicki's script stencil with texture paste and once that was dry, I added the gorgeous Juicy Pear green watercolour with her watercolour marker, spritzing it with water to make it run where I wanted and dabbing off areas that I wanted to lighten.

Once it was dry, I started to arrange the varies altered bits from the embellishments and sticker book when I decided I needed a banner strip. So I cut a piece of the Beyond Words patterned paper into a strip, banner cut the end and then spritzed it with water, crinkling it up to dry a bit. Once it was slightly damp, I straightened it out to my desired length and look before heat setting it with a heating tool. Once I was pleased with the arrangement, I adhered all the paper pieces, popping some up with bits of scrap cereal box cardboard as I went along. To finish it off and give it a touch of glitter, I used Vicki's Iridescent Glitter Texture Paste.

One of the things that I love about this collection is that the packaging is usable. Yeah for up-cycling! I couldn’t find a paper ephemera size butterfly in the size and colour that I wanted until I spied the one on the package as I was putting the pieces back in the package. It was just what I wanted so fussy cut it out. Ditto for wanting another orange flower. Again, I turned to the packaging to cut out the partial flower which works perfectly when tucked behind another layer.

Here's another look at the finished cover.

Supplies: Vicki Boutin Color Kaleidoscope [branch of leaves stamp, embellishments, sticker book, packaging, Beyond Words patterned paper], Vicki Boutin script stencil, Juicy Pear Watercolor marker, Iridescent Glitter Texture Paste (American Crafts), gesso (Golden), Texture Paste and Multi Medium Matte Glue (Ranger), Obsidian pigment ink (Altenew), black marker (Sharpie), white cardstock and OTIP notebook (Misc.)

Be sure to check out the Simon Says Stamp Monday Bright and Cheerful challenge's inspirational creations by the DT and other participants here.

TTFN,