Cristarella Creates: April 2018

Altered Mixed Media Book

I am Getting so Addicted to creating these books! they are so much fun! I just run up to my local dollar tree and grab books there. $1 thats all I pay. I'm go look in some trift stores next time i'm out and about too!

I start off with the cover, if its a funky one! if not leave it be. here I covered it with Prima Finnabair (Mermaid Teal) with modeling paste.

Now you start to form your book. I like to rip out pages, almost half, I go through each section through out the whole book.

Now I take out more pages and glue them back in with gel medium. I use a palette knife swipe my page and slap it back down.I flip the pages so the torn edge shows. I do this every couple pages and go through till I find my middle. then I start the other side.

Here I show How I add Ribbon,lace,Cheeseclothe,sisal,moss.Just about anything in arms reach that will add depth and texture.

here is what it looks like with everything added and in the middle where I liked it!

Now to add your Items and figure out your composition, I used Flowers from Little Birdie, Using gel medium I adhered them down.

Close up

here you can see I fussed with the pages to give more texture, I rolled the corner by adding water and rolling it with the end of a paint brush.

Now I added some resin peices I made using a Stamperia mould. How cute are those little shells and sea life? I also added Finnabair art stones regular and mini in size. I love the texture they add!

after everything is down and dried, I covered the whole thing with Clear Gesso. you need this step in order for the colors you add next to not absorb into the pages. The gesso will help them sit on top.

Next I used a coffee infused water I make, I took a paint brush and aged my pages. you can use a wet wipe to help soak up some of the coffee in areas. Wet wipes are your best friend when making these!

And Now I covered the whole thing with white Gesso! you can still see the age of the pages through the white I love the effect it gives!

And now to add the color! it will look worse before it gets better! I used quite a few different kinds of color methods on this one. I used Nuance Powders in (Lagoon) and (Aqua marine). you shake your powder on and spray it with water. See how the blue in all over the pages? use your baby wipe to dab it up. I used Prima color bloom spray in (Deep Teal) also,

I dried that with my heat gun and added nuance powder in bright green. I used a make up sponge and went around the paged with more white gesso.

Now I took Mint green from finnabairs patina effect pasted and added it along some flowers, then did the same with the Rust effect paste. I also took some rust effect and watered it down and took it all along the edges of the flowers.

Now here is where it gets finished ! last touches! Dry brush the whole thing with more white gesso! it pulls out all the texture in the flowers and art stones!