stephanie, how does your garden grow?

A smash book for Stephanie who needs some inspirations to get herself going again!

 

Here is a simple sample of how I did this. 

NOTE: Remember, I was making this up as I went along and there’s no pattern, just a desire to change the thing and a basic understanding of the skills I already possessed that could be applied to the process. 

TL/DR: This isn’t a tutorial, just a walk through of what was done.

 

Altered Notebook Journal

(helpful hint: this method is a little messier and requires a little more preparation if you plan on altering a soft bound notebook or composition book because the paint and gesso will go around the covers and will try to enter through stitching on the spine of the book.)

 

Any spiral or hard bound notebook with a sturdy cover will do.

I chose a used notebook with a spiral binding and “divided” it into sections and glued a few pages together between each section to create dividers that were a heavier weight than the regular pages.

I gesso’d the covers and used texture paste through a stencil to create texture and depth.

The covers were stamped and painted and drawn and embellished with metallic and glitter paints and then sealed with outdoor modpodge.

 Homemade washi tape and an envelope make an exceptional pocket.

I cut and folded cardstock and punched holes to feed ribbon through to create pockets on the dividers and then embellished with flowers and butterflies.

  

To make my own washi tape, either micropore medical tape or white painter’s tape are the best,  I used painter’s tape on a smooth surface cutting board and painted and drew with black pens until I was happy with the designs and then let them dry. If you are like me and try to make and use only what you need then you can leave this on the board while you’re using the tape for your project. If you’re really good at storing things and remembering to use them again these tapes can be peeled up and wrapped slowly and carefully around a drinking straw so that you can utilize them later.