Small Is Beautiful. . . . .

Good morning everyone. Today sees a new challenge at Stamps & Stencils and it's my turn to host this month. Here's what I've set as my challenge:

'For this challenge you are asked to make or alter something small. This could be a tiny book or journal, an ATC or ATB, a small canvas or box/tin of similar size' a piece of jewellery - anything as long as it is small.You must use at least one stamp and one stencil on your project. Please remember we are a mixed media challenge blog and the style of your work should reflect this.'

Here's what I made for this challenge:

A small ATC sized mini journal. 

The back cover which uses the same image in different colour palette.

The pages inside are altered Gelli Plate prints which are ready for journalling.

Mount board has been used to strengthen the ATC's. The edges of all pages have been finished with ColorArte Acrylic Silk Glaze.

Original gelli plate print cut to ATC size. 

Each page altered with stencilling and . . . . . 

. . . . . a thin coat of Transparent Yellow Iron Oxide.

Original gelli plate print. . . . . . . 

. . . . . . after a thin coat of Transparent Yellow Iron Oxide.

This gelli plate print was a rescue print. The original print was too dark with mostly burnt umber and a little transparent yellow iron oxide. To lighten it up, titanium buff fluid acrylic is stencilled through a flower design stencil.

A master board created with a brayered background, various stencilled designs and some stamping using DecoArt chalky paint. This board is used to cut two ATC size pieces from for the journal.

Here's how I made the master board:

Two colours of fluid acrylic are roughly brayered onto 300gsm card.

A variety of stencils, fluid acrylic colours and a white Sharpie pen are used to create random designs on the surface.

DecoArt chalky paint in Everlasting is used to stamp images onto the board - Andy Skinner stamps.

Detail shot

Detail shot

Detail shot

The pages have a thin coat of transparent yellow iron oxide.

The front and back covers of the journal are both made from the same gelli print as shown above.

The image of the girl is stamped onto tissue paper and applied to the gelli print. 

Crackle glaze is applied, left to dry and antiqued with some burnt umber DecoArt fluid acrylic paint. I love how the print still peeks through.

The edges of the cover are stencilled with DecoArt carbon black fluid acrylic. 

The image on the back cover is applied using the same method as the front cover. It was then tinted with DecoArt quinacridone gold fluid acrylic to completely change the look. You can still see a little of the blue peeking through and in the top left corner you can see the stamped image that is blue on pink tint on the original. The cover had crackle glaze applied using the same method as the front cover.

The edges of the back cover are stencilled with black modelling paste. When dry this is dry brushed with DecoArt metallic gold fluid acrylic - this image doesn't show how the gold twinkles unfortunately. The rings holding the pages together are made by shaping some rusty wire around a paint brush.

I hope you like our new challenge and feel inspired to join in! We are a small bunch of ladies who love to use stamps and stencils for fun and we want you to have fun too. Please pop over to Stamps and Stencils to see what my amazing Teamies have made too. It would be wonderful if you visited their blogs too to see more details of how they made their pieces.

It's up to you now!