Time To Take Flight ~ Stamps and Stencils ~ New Challenge

Hi everybody! It's time for a new challenge over at the Stamps and Stencils blog. Time To Take Flight ~ Stamps and Stencils ~ New ChallengeSue is our very talented  host for this month, and she has chosen the theme, 'Time To Take Flight'. Wow! so much scope with this one. This is what Sue has to say......

For this challenge I would like to see anything relating to flying, so this could be a bird or a butterfly or it could be an inspirational quote that includes words relating to flying ! As always, please remember we are a mixed media challenge and you must include either stamping or stenciling or both !

I was about to reach for my birds and butterfly stamps,( sounds like I'm quite organised !) when a little sketch book caught my eye. I like these soft backed, A5 size books. They're very cheap and have quite good quality cartridge paper. I think they're ideal for doodling, or trying out ideas and not so precious to use, as some of the more expensive journals. They're also nice and lightweight, so are great for travelling with.......see where I'm going with this....? That's it my idea was born, a travel journal.
This is the book before I got started...

It has a Kraft card cover and I think, it's by Derwent. As the cover was pretty inoffensive, I decided to just make a panel which I could attach to the front cover. This speeds up the 'altering' process and also ensures that the inside pages and back cover remain nice and pristine. Rather than following my usual 'go to' techniques, which generally involve gesso, matte medium, book page etc, I decided to have a little Alcohol Ink fun. It was quite fortunate that the paper I use with my Alcohol Inks, happened to be just the right size for the cover.

I applied various  shades of blue Alcohol Ink using a blending tool. I then placed a 'sun ray', Layering Stencil, over the top half of the paper and used a clean felt pad with Alcohol Blending Solution, to remove some of the colour....

 I also applied some yellow ink, to suggest the sun bursting through the clouds. I forgot to photograph this stage though. I then proceeded to stamp some images onto the background. Initially, I didn't want to add any dimension to the cover, so that it would be easy to travel with, however, after playing around with my stamps and adding on some rub ons, I thought it was lacking a bit of Oooomph, when I had a little brainwave......

I die cut this wonderful globe, It's by Tim Holtz for Sizzix, I gave it a coat of Flitter Glu, and added Mega Flakes to the surface. Unfortunately I couldn't capture the lovely glisten of the silvered surface, in my photos. I also stamped the airplane with black Archival ink, onto a piece of silver card and embossed it with clear embossing powder. I cut it out carefully and started to layer up the design, securing everything with Matte Medium.

To finish off, I used my sewing machine to stitch around the edge before attaching the panel to my book with Matte Medium.

This was a fun project to do, and proved to be a relatively quick way of transforming a simple journal, well, that's if you take off the time for making cups of tea, day dreaming, looking for misplaced stuff, and tuning into the craft channels! Hey ho, I'm still getting used to this retirement malarky !

Now, we would love to see what you can make for our latest 'Time to Take Flight' challenge. Just hop over to the Stamps and Stencils blog, where you'll find some wonderful inspiration from the rest of the team. Follow the instructions for up loading your mixed media project and who knows, you could be a winner or one of our fabulous top three. Look forward to seeing you there. x