Against The Grain ~ A Vintage Journey ~ New Challenge

Hi everybody! There's a lovely new challenge over on the A Vintage Journey blog. Sara Emily is our fabulous host and she has called her challenge, 'Against The Grain'. This is what she has to say about it.......
"Most of us love the look of wood and there are a lot of art/craft products out there that help us achieve beautiful wood grain, including stamps, stencils, embossing folders, paper and mixed media products. We would love to see how you add a touch of wood texture or appearance to your vintage, shabby, mixed media, art journaling, industrial, timeworn or steampunk projects."
You can see Sara Emily's fabulous project as well as many other inspiring pieces by the AVJ Creative Guides, using this link.
I've used Eileen Hull's wonderful Passport Die to create this journal with a real wooden cover! This is how I did it......

Some years ago, I bought a bag of mixed pieces of wood veneer. I knew that somewhere along the line, I'd be able to use it! Miraculously, I was able to find it in my somewhat, overloaded, craft room. I chose a couple of pieces that had some visible grain and were not too dark, as I wanted the stamping to show up well. I then ran them through my Big Shot, using the Passport Die.....

I also cut two covers from mount board and adhered them together. I used Book Binding Glue, which worked very well. I put a a mat, with some heavy weights on top of the covers while they dried. I was very pleased with the results! I had a piece of leather in my bits bag, and used this to cut the journal spine. As the leather was quite soft, I decided to adhere it to a piece of soft grey board.......

Once the covers were dry, I used Staz On Ink with, with some of my trusty Tim Holtz stamps, to make a design on the front and back cover....

I also used a pyrography tool to add a few 'distress' marks here and there. The tool is something else I've had for years!! I covered the inside covers with a couple of strips of Tim Holtz's collage paper....

At this point, I was pretty pleased with the way my book was coming together and even more so, once I attached the spine. I used contact adhesive, to ensure a good bond between the leather and the board covers.......

 Before attaching the signatures, I gave the covers a polish with beeswax polish. This really showed the grain up beautifully.......

I used tea dyed paper for the signatures and attached them with some fine linen thread...

 I toyed with the idea of adding other embellishments, but I decided against it, as this project, for me, is all about the wood. and it rather went 'Against The Grain' to add anything else! 

 We would love you to join us for our February challenge. Just hop over to the A Vintage Journey blog with this link and you'll find plenty of inspiration from the Creative Guides, as well as all of the details of how to share your projects with us. I look forward to seeing you there ! x