Sunday 1 May 2016

Hit The Books. . . . . . .

Morning everyone. Today sees the start of a new challenge at Our Creative Corner. Our host this month is the hugely creative Jennie and here's what she has to say:


'Hi! Jennie here with you this month hosting my first challenge for Our Creative Corner

I adore old book paper and old books and I am always glad to be able to breath new life into a dilapidated book which most people would consider throwing out!

For your projects this month we would like to see you searching through your stash for old book paper or books and create a project with what you find. You might want to use papers within your project or you might want to breath new life into an old book by altering it in some way. I hope I have chosen a challenge theme with huge scope for projects small or large.

Whatever you make let us see you give those old book papers or books centre stage!'


This is a wonderful challenge from Jennie and I could have gone in several directions. For my project I finally decided to make a card using pieces of old book paper:


I'm not really a card maker but I needed one for a friend and couldn't find what I was looking for. Help! Nothing for it but to sit down and produce the sort of card I'd hoped to find!

The butterfly is stamped onto old book paper and coloured with Inktense pencils which I used dry. The image is fussy cut and inked around the edges.

A background is built up on kraft card using gesso and stamps. . . . 

. . .randomly torn strips of old paper from a book

. . .text from old book paper removed with sticky tape and applied to the background to mimic washi tape

. . .circles stamped with rubber and bottle tops, stencilled circles and finally some machine stitching in toning colours

. . .lots of tiny dots made with a white pen. There's even some stamped gesso stars if you look carefully!

A sentiment is made using some brown coloured dymo tape and machine. White pen has been used to highlight the tape.

The edges of the kraft card layer are inked for definition and outlined with machine stitching in a toning shade of brown. The white vertical lines are added with some gesso and a credit card. The larger brown dots are made with an acrylic paint pen.

A pen top and some gold acrylic paint adds a touch of bling around some of the stencilled dots. There's even some journalling in there made with a white pen. A wash of acrylic paint (DecoArt fluid acrylics) has been used to add further age to the piece.

A second background layer has been made from old book paper stuck onto card for strength. Gesso comes first to seal the paper. Followed by stamping text with white acrylic paint. Next stage is to add 'stamping' with bottle lids and gesso to make rings and a little bubble wrap stamping in there too to add depth. The final stage is to roughly dry brush with gold fluid acrylic to highlight the texture and dirty up the book paper.


Just love the colour those pencils achieve even when used dry!


I hope you like my latest offering here today! There is lots more inspiration over at Our Creative Corner from the uber talented ladies.

Our wonderful sponsors this month are:




The winner this month will receive a huge bundle of goodies from our generous sponsor!

Thank you so much for joining me and I look forward to your wonderful creations throughout the month.

10 comments:

  1. Wonderful card, Julia! So many details to see and the feel of old books is everywhere!

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  2. Just gorgeous Julia, love all the details and that fabulous butterfly.
    Hugs Brenda xxx

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  3. Hi Julia, what a beautiful card, I love all the details! I can see a hint of Kate Crane influence from our planners. I love the colours on the card. Hugs Jan x

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  4. Cool theme, and love the brilliant color with all the neutrals! Gorgeous!

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  5. Oh what a beautiful card Julia with so many wonderful details, colourss and textures. Fabulous! So glad you enjoyed the challenge. Jennie x

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  6. What a beautiful card Julia, the butterfly is a wonderful focal point and set of perfectly by that amazing background! Thanks so much for sharing it, Deb xo

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  7. Well if you didn't know you were a talented cardmaker before, then I reckon you skipped all grades and were promoted to level extraordinare - Not only are you a cardmaker but a unique and original one too! Such a beautiful, whimsical and grungey card all in one. You definitely will inspire the creativity of many who will look at the "Hit the Books" challenge with this lovely piece, schucks - even I want to make something like this now. I loved the building of layers with the stamping of the pencil crayoned butterfly on the text print, that was my first favourite part - the second was the stamping with Gesso - CUUUUUTE and grungey vintage, loved looking at it - Hugs - Candice

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  8. This is such a pretty card! Love all of the texty bits showing through. Great design!

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  9. Wow, Julia, I LOVE this card! Your friend is very lucky indeed to receive it and it will be treasured! I loved looking at all the details and reading how this was made! Your coloring of the butterfly is just amazing and you really hit the books with this beauty! Inspiring! Hugs!

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  10. Great inspiration Julie. Your card is such an amazing example of 'thinking outside the box' - it's incredibly unique. LOVE it. And... I am definitely ready to pull out my Inktense pencils after seeing your GORGEOUS results!! Your card is WONDERFUL - definitely the perfect creation for our "Hit the Books" challenge. Xj.

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Thank you so much for taking the time to comment. Juliax