"Beautiful Faces" Album

Hello everyone!!!  I hope you are having a great day.  

My next project has begun.  Back in 2015 I made an album called "Old Age".  You can find it in the 2015 archives on the right hand side of the blog.  I have decided to make another album called "Beautiful Faces".  It is turning out to be an extensive project and it will be a lot of mixed media techniques with pictures of beautiful faces from around the world.  

Today I will be showing you the front cover of the album.

 I haven't decided how to complete the back and spine.  I may cover it with canvas just to keep it simple.  As I finish a couple of pages, I will show you how I completed them.  So this will be a section by section posting until I have finished the complete album.

  

Next are the basic steps to completing the cover.

I first painted the entire surface with white gesso for protection.  I then did some mixed media techniques to give the background lots of texture.

First I took a product called "string gel" and mixed some fine ground shiny material that I found at Micheal's called Decorative Filler.  The string gel is thick and dries very hard and firm.  I let this dry.

I then added some netting that I have had for some time just in a few places.  And lastly, I used a stencil with dots and applied some modeling paste here and there.   I also put modeling paste in several places using a spatula only.   Let all of this dry completely.

I then painted the whole surface with black gesso.

I then dry brushed various colours of Finnibair's Art Alchemy paints onto the surface.  I didn't completely cover the surface with any of the colours.  I dry brushed them on here and there, even slightly going over the first one.  I mainly used rich turquoise, and light patena.  When the paints were dry I sprayed first with Prima tea stain spray, let it dry, then came back with a shimmerz turquoise spray.  You have to judge for yourself how you want this to look.  It is all a matter of layering your colours.  You can always go back and add colours, which is exactly what I did when I had completed the cover.

The next step is my favourite.  Selecting and adhering the embellishments.  I pulled out lots of items from my metal collection.  I did keep adding other pieces as I went.

Below is how it looked before I painted everything in black gesso.

As you can see above that I layered everything and made sure that every item was touching another one.  I started at the upper right corner with the metal corner piece and went out from there.  Its okay to put some things on top of others.  I did add some paper flowers here and there but mostly I used metal items.  To adhere them down I used Art Basics (Finnibair)  Heavy Matte Gel.  This is amazing as a glue.  Nothing will fall off when you use this.  A lot of the items you see are used for making jewelry.  Just go for it.  You can't make too many mistakes.

When all my embellishments were added I then painted them with black gesso.  From there I used several colours of the Art Alchemy paint - the blues, pinks, brass, even red.  I just dry-brushed them on here and there.  I also dusted on some mica powder in a few sections.  You get a better result if you let each colour dry first and just keep adding more.  Below is a couple of closeups to show you the final result.

There you have it.  The start of a new album which will be on my table in my family room along with my old age book.  This is something I have been planning for some time.  I will keep you posted on its completion.

Until next time, this is Donna again wishing you a safe and prosperous week.

HAPPY CRAFTING

"Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony."

                                                                                                Ghandi

8x8 Album

Hello everyone!!!!

Today I decided to show you an 8x8 mini album that I created.  I love making these types of albums.  They are great for a gift for a close friend or even for a bride and groom.  I have just completed another one which I am giving to my nephew and his fiance to use as a personal album to put some of their very favourite pictures in it.  

I cut the actual album cover from heavy chipboard and covered it first with quilting batting and then with a fabric which I picked up from a local quilt store.  I cut the inside pages 8" x 8" . Below is the front cover.  

I like to use lots of chipboard items to decorate, layering of papers, and of course lots of flowers.

I am going to show you all the pages inside.  It will be difficult to describe each page, so I hope you can see from the pictures.  Some pages have flip out sections and I will indicate these as we go.

Inside front cover and first page

The inside front cover has a wood frame which I embossed white.  Kept it in the centre and then added my flowers up the left side.  Added some chipboard items.

The first page I used a piece of needlepoint grid as an accent  on the left side.  Added my flowers at the top.  I like to group flowers and usually use odd numbers.

Back of page 1 and front of page 2

Again lots of embellishments and paper layering on both pages.

Both these pages are to be opened up by untying the string bows.  Below shows the back of the first page opened.

Back of page 2 and front of page 3

Back of page 3 and front of page 4

Back of page 4 and the inside back cover

The paper I used for this album is the Prima  "Garden Fable" collection.  The flowers and chipboard items, frames, metal pieces and greenery were all from my stash.  Some I painted to get the right colour.  I cut the inside pages slightly smaller than the cover piece because I knew I was going to be using a lot of raised embellishments on the inside pages.  This allows the pages to lay even and not cause the cover to pop up when closed.

Until next time, this is Donna wishing you a safe and prosperous week.

"HAPPY SCRAPPING"

"A wise man will make more opportunities than he finds."

                            Frances Bacon