Colorful & Grungy Travel Book Using Eillen Hull's Passport Die.

My Favorite Eileen Hull Project 

This is a post I did a year ago but thought it would be great to bring the tutorial to my blog. Sizzix is having an awesome sale on Eileen Hull dies this weekend & you will want to pop over there after looking at this fun tutorial on how you can create this colorful  & grungy travel book.

Grungy, inky, luscious Passport die book!

Let's Get Started Creating

Using the Eileen Hull Passport die from Sizzix with mat board as my base seemed a good place to start. Have you ever had an idea that was fairly simple but as you started to create inspiration took over? I love when that happens, only it makes for a tough tutorial! I will try and keep the steps simple. 

Adding Southern Ridge Trading co. chippies to check placement. 

Cut 2 covers and a spine from white mat board. I placed my chippies onto the cover of my album for placement (list of supplies at end). After running my covers through an embossing folder it was time to add colour.

Embossed folder with Eileen's Starlight Folder

Spritz the outside pieces with various blue Glimmer Mists. When mist is dry, use a hard foam piece with just a bit of white acrylic paint. Carefully swipe across hitting just the high emboss points. Repeat until emboss pattern shows nicely. If you streak too much paint, just wipe quickly with a baby wipe to fix. Dry.

Adding Utee makes the cover have a resin look & protects the surface.

 Now for the magic! Dab entire cover with Emboss It, or Embossing Ink, and UTEE (ultra thick embossing powder). Use a heat gun until UTEE melts completely. Let cool. Do 2 coats for the outside covers and 1 coat for the inside. 

Let's add some color to those chippies!

Putting the Book Together

For the spine I stamped with Distress ink & heat embossed with UTEE. Once that was cool the spine was covered in a light coat of Glimmer Glam, so the stamped image would show through. One of the things that is great about Glam (other than the glitter) is it acts like a glaze, so if I sprinkle copper embossing powder in random spots, it sticks. Once heat set it creates a very cool, shiny, looking spine. For the chippie gears, I spritzed with Chalkboard and sprinkled some emboss powder then heat set. The bird was painted with Glam and the hinges with Glam & sprinkled with a bit of copper emboss & heat set. Time to assemble. If you want your piece to look like a book adhere spine to the outside of the front & back covers. To show more of the cover, adhere spine on the inside. Use a strong glue. 

Travel paper for the inside signatures.

Now for the signatures. One of the reason I love this book is it is so simple to put together. I made 3 signatures (sections) layering 4 pieces of paper in each.

7gypises have the best travel paper!

I did sew through the center of each signature but you don’t have to. It was just a matter of pulling wax thread through the spine, adding some beads and tying off the thread inside the middle section of each signature.

My finished book, I love it!

The final touch was to add a ribbon to hold the book closed using a metal gear. This book would be great as a mini art journal, scrap book, travel book… endless possibilities!I hope you get a chance to buy this awesome die & make your own book! My team mates are doing a blog hop of their favorite projects you can follow along!

Pam

Lisa

Anne

Julia

Posting on Sunday:

Nicole

Tracy

Supplies:

Sizzix - Eileen Hull Passport Die, Starlight Embossing Folder & Mat Board
Tattered Angels - Glimmer Mist, Glimmer Glam, Chalkboard Mist
7gypsies - paper from the Wanderlust collection & ephemera
              -kraft card stock
Ranger-Emboss It, Utee, copper emboss, Glossy Accents
Southern Ridge Trading Co chippies- Swooping Birds
                -Medium Gears
                -Iron Hinges 1 
Waxed Linen Thread & beads. 

Crescent Cardboard Photo Mat Board Project

Hello Blog Land. I have a technique post up today on the Southern Ridge Trading Co. Hop on over to see step out photos & how I made this project. These Crescent Cardboard photo mats are a great way to showcase a family, vacation or pet photo. 

This photo was taken a Tall Ships event on Stanley Park in Vancouver, BC. It was a lovely day to spend time with the kids and now I have this beautiful metallic, texture filled project to showcase it. I played with the Finnabair line of products by Prima for this canvas. they covered the chippies beautifully and left them with a lovely shine. 

Here is a close up of the fabulous texture and the Art Stones that added that rocky shore look. This was a fun project and I am entering it in the Mix Media Place Challenge for this month. I was inspired by the blues & greens of their mood board as well as the quote. 

Travel & spending time with my family is what sets my soul on fire, and I love these tribal chipboard feathers! This mood board is so stunning I might have to do another project!! I hope you get a chance to play along!

Mixed Media Travel Journal

Hello Blog land! I am here today with a mix media travel journal. I made this project as a sample for Eileen Hull's booth at Creativation 2017. This is one of Eileen's new dies that debuted & it is a beaut! 

The Journal die has endless possibilities for fun. For this project I used the paper from 7gypsies to make a travel journal. The cover is from their line of Mixed Origins paper spritzed lightly with Glimmer Mist so the pattern shows through. I covered it in ephemera and made a super cool flower using Eileen's Heart Petal die. The scissors are from the new Architextures lines from 7gypsies. I am going to use this to make a smash book kind of journal from our adventures at Creativation so the scissors were very appropriate. 

The inside of the book looks like this, & allows for 3 signatures to be added. The beauty of this system is that the signatures can be taken in and out allowing for easy editing or to change them out if that is what you want to use it for. 

I layered 3 groups of papers together & sewed down the center page. Then all I have to do to insert it in the journal is open the booklet to the center and slide it into the elastic band. 

I added some fun ephemera, tickets and stamping just to get the book started. This is the perfect little project to take to a crop or for an on the go project. The idea was to work on it at Creativation but we were either going at a hundred miles an hour or asleep!

One of my new favorite things to do is to spritz lined paper with a few Glimmer Mist colors. It makes the paper all shimmery & crunchy. This type of book is a great place to use up all those saved up travel pieces!!!

Here is another shot of the cover so you can see all the quirky fun! Aren't the scissors so cool? They are dimensional and lightweight perfect for this kind of project! 

My favorite part of making these books is adding beads to the spine! Just adds so much lusciousness!! My team mates have some great projects up on Eileens blog so you will want to go check out their posts & leave them some love!! Until next time... keep arting!

A Grungy, Texture Crazy Canvas

Hello Blogland, I have a grungy, texture crazy canvas for you today! I cannot believe it is over a month since Creativation2017, the annual trade show for all things crafty and hobby. The Southern Ridge Trading co. booth was full of amazing projects that all my team mates made. We all made a canvas that was supposed to reflect our styles, it hung on the wall in the booth which was a nice tribute to the team and looked very cool showing our unique & individual styles. 

Here is mine. I showed my kids and told them "it is a little over the top" my son's comment was "just like you mom". Very true. My basic philosophy like it or not is, more is better. However I just love this. It totally reflects me. The photo is a selfie taken in my messy scrapbook room. It is jam packed with texture and rich color. Lots of detail and metallic pops of lusciousness. The chippies are just fabulous to work with and take lots of wet product beautifully. Touches of glitter, crackle & micro beads. You can go check out a tour of this canvas with lots of close ups here. Hope your day is inky!