Altered Book Cover March Challenge with Heather Thompson

 

Welcome back, I am sharing a fun altered book Cover I made for Andy Skinner Altered Book Challenge Made with tons of Creative Embellishment products and I just sat and painted and blended trying to get some relaxation in.

I made a short video of the creative flow of this project, sometimes I don't ever know where it is going to go. But I first started out with a focal point, which was the face. I did try and find something a little creepy and dark. I love these eyes they are so mysterious.

 

I have a ton of old books. I love anything old, rugged and worn, I originally started with some white gesso. Once gesso was applied I stamped the background with the Distress Type stamp and the Andy's cracked up stamp.

I noticed the red of the old ink was bleeding through so I applied a Layer of clear gesso due to the bleeding of the ink from the old cover. Then repainted with white to hopefully stop the bleed.

Using the distress checkered stencil, I add more texture to the background. On the binding of the book I stencilled the Barbed Wire stencil. This helps pull in the frame I decided to use later.

After that was all dry, I started to blend with primary blue, primary yellow and some cobalt teal. Blending until I get a bold background I like.

I added a little crackle to the face, set aside to dry and then started blending some quinnacridone gold on the background to grunge it up some. Then when the face was dried, I added a "dirty wash" to the face to highlight the cracks.

I find the banners out of my stash to add a title and pull the grunge circle frame from CE to frame the face. Using the Quinn Gold, Transparent Yellow Oxide and Burnt Umber to paint the frame.

I dry brush the banners with the rendition stencil. I touch up the white, I know they aren't straight but I don't mind. I will just layer them with ribbon, tape, binding, metal chains and old Norwegian paper. Them being offset with be hardly noticeable.

Once the frame is glued on and the layers are glued on, I add some paint to pull the whole over all look together and then glue the frame on. I add twine to the title and adhere them.

I need to cover the inside of the book, I find some old morbid paper from the late 1800's. Using Matte Vanish I decoupage the inside covers of the front and back of the

This turned out pretty neat, maybe not so dark, with the bold background but the face does make a person fear the unknown.    

Thank you for stopping by today, I hope to see some entires in the March challenge. Don't for get to hashtag #marchchallenge

Dont forget to join the Facebook Group the Darker Side

Heather 

CE Andy Skinner Cosmic Shimmer Super Matt Varnish

CS Andy Skinner Structure Paste

CE 7x7 Stencil By Andy Skinner Redemption

CE 9x2.5 Stencil By Andy Skinner Barbed Wire

CE 4.5X3 Stamp By Andy Skinner Cracked Up

Paint

CS Andy Skinner Artist Pigment Paints Quinacridone Gold

CS Andy Skinner Artist Pigment Paints Cobalt Teal Hue

CS Andy Skinner Artist Pigment Paints Raw Umber

CS Andy Skinner Artist Pigment Paints Transparent Yellow Iron Oxide

CS Andy Skinner Artist Pigment Paints Paynes Grey

CS Andy Skinner Artist Pigment Paints Prussian Blue

CS Andy Skinner Artist Pigment Paints Primary Blue

Portal to The Unexplained Altered Book

I loved messing around with altered art. I want to share a interesting and creative Altered book. To access the unexplained the variety of cogs and gears must be manipulated to open the portal. Unlike other books this book opens differently.  

 From afar, I wanted the viewer to see the differently elements protruding, almost trying to escape from the gateway from beyond, to draw them closer. Once closer, I wanted to focus on the portal itself. My goal was to make the viewer want to venture into the distance, into the unknown realm within the book.

 

To open "The Unexplained", the various cogs and gears must be manipulated to unlock the portal, which then allows the user to dive into the unknown.  With peaked interest and curiosity, the viewer is now emerged completely within "The Unexplained".   

 

 It is unexplained, the primal drive we have to go further and further into the unknown. The risk we take to explore further in to the depths of our art and our passions.

   

 Once inside, the viewer is still curious by protrusions of the unexplained emerging from within the book. Drawing us further and further into the deep depths of the unknown.

 

It spikes our interest and we dive deeper with in our imagination and with the art in front of us.

 

Have a great creative Day

Supplies:

Andy Skinner

Industrial Elements 

DecoArt Media

DecoArt Media:  Texture Sand Paste, Matte Medium, Crackle Paint, Decou-page Matte.

Fluid Acrylics: Quinacridone Gold, Quinacridone Burnt Orange, Yellow Iron Oxide, Diarylide Yellow, Carbon Black, Paynes Grey, Burnt Umber, Pyrrole Red,

Tando Limited Creative

Stampendous

Andy Skinner Curiosity Stamp ASCRS04, Andy Skinner Unexplained StampASCRS09, Industrial Industrial Stamp ASCRS03

Decoart International Design Team

Hi everyone,

Before I share the past couple of weeks stuff with you I would just like to announce the formation of the Decoart International Design Team.
The team has been put together with six very talented individuals and myself.  
For the moment the focus is on bringing you in-depth tutorials related to mixed media and altered, we already have a good few to share with you too!  They can all be found at our new home http://decoart.com/andyskinner/ along with bio's of the new design team members.
Much thought and work goes into these tutorials so I hope you enjoy them.


Last post I promised free printable clock face designs for you to download and use on my reversible clocks, these are now online and ready for download here http://www.andyskinnercrafts.com/printables.html

While I was at it I also uploaded lots of vector threshold pictures that you can use in your artwork, these can be found here http://www.andyskinnercrafts.com/threshold-printables.html

Here are a few examples.

Ok finally two pieces, the first is a steampunk version of my reversible clock using Decoart Metallic Lustres.

Andy finally my Voodoo for Dummies Book with secret draw using a threshold image transfer, got into allot of trouble with this one ;)

Thanks for reading.

Andy

You know when you've been Tando'd!

Some of you may know that the last online Book of Secrets workshop this year has just started and bookings will stop as of 12pm tonight.

Putting this workshop together is where my love affair with Tando Creative chipboard first started, I loved the thickness and the way it held up to everything I chucked at it... and I mean everything!

My next discovery was the fantastic durability of their stencils and as they are manufactured from 350 micron plastic, I have never had one tear yet and they are used by so many in workshops around the country each week that they certainly get put through their paces, hence when I decided to design my own stencils Tando Creative was the first and only place I headed.

So today is the start of my week over at the Tando Creative Blog be sure to check out the design team projects over there this week. I decided to make a special Book of Secrets but with a difference to start this week off, lets call it a book of parts.... Tando parts!

I wanted the book box to to look as if it had been discovered laying on the sea bed or in a shipwreck for hundreds of years,  this was achieved by applying many layers of Decoart Americana and Traditions acrylic paint.

Steampunk Background paper from Rob Kleeman http://www.flickr.com/photos/robkleeman/

In this close up you should be able to see the many textures and layers going on giving a decayed appearance.

For the reverse of the book I decided to apply Decoart Modeling paste through some of my stencils, you get a lovely smooth surface with great detail,  also great depth can be achieved because of the amazing thickness of the stencils.

After applying some crackle and a few washes of acrylic paint it was antiqued by painting with Raw Umber and wiping it back before the paint was dry.

Here are a few recent projects posted to my Facebook just to keep you up to date.

Made this on my demonstration at the Craftbarn... I think its close enough to Halloween to be acceptable?!?

Finally here is page three of my Altered peter Rabbit book.

Thanks for reading,

Andy

Brayer Backgrounds and Voodoo

When Gelli printing I clean the acrylic paint from my brayer onto a sheet of paper as I think most do, these can make great backgrounds, the one below I glued to a book box.
I then started to decorate with my Skulduggery and Voodoo Stencils using Decoart Modelling Paste scraped through the Voodoo Stencil for dimension.

Here is the nearly finished Book Box.

It was aged afterwards with Decoart Traditions Transparent Red Iron Oxide

Thanks for reading,

Andy..... Oh P.S

Those on my workshop yesterday will recall that I painted my nails on one hand with Iridescent Pink paint??  Well I stopped at the Motorway services on the way home and was happily eating my burger when I noticed people staring, then giving me strange looks and muttering to one another.... Yep you guessed it... I forgot to scrub it off!!.... Hey just call me Twinkle in future..... actually don't!  lol!!