Butterfly Mini Book

Hello everyone!  So glad you stopped by today.  I have a super fun project to share using some of the newest products from Sin City Stamps, and my favorite technique I learned from Finnabair, aka Anna Dabrowski.  As you will see, this technique allows you to use whatever supplies you have on hand, whether or not the colors match.

Supplies Used:

Sin City Stamps:  Butterfly Chipboard Book, Gears Die Cuts, Gears 3 Die Cuts, Animal Print Stencil
Love of Butterflies, Art Journaling with Terri Sproul 2,
Paper flowers and embellishments (Recollections, Prima)
Metal gears (Tim Holtz)
Ink Sprays:  Seven Seas, Chocolate Covered Cherries (Tattered Angels); Cut Grass, Funky Fuchsia (Dylusions)
Ink Pads:  Encore Gold Metallic, Versafine Smokey Gray, Vintage Photo distress,
Metallic Creams:  German Silver (Baroque Art); Olive, Gold, Copper, Black (Craf-T Products)
Glue n Seal (Ranger)
Hard Molding Paste (Golden)
White Gesso (Ranger)

Directions:

Front Cover:

First of all, I want to show you the quality of these laser cut wood book covers.  These are the most sturdy substrates, and you will be able to embellish these with heavy-duty embellishments without losing stability.

Adhere die cut gears and clock hands with glue n seal to front cover.

Apply hard molding paste through animal print stencil and let dry.

Adhere flowers and metal embellishments, as shown, and paint everything with white gesso, let dry.

Spray cover with ink sprays, dabbing some of the colors off, and re-spraying until you like it.

Blend colors a bit with a damp paintbrush and dab off more with a paper towel.

Apply metallic creams to the die cut gears, flowers, and metal embellishments (gold), clock hands (green metallic), stenciled areas (black and gold metallic) and add some gold metallic around the edges.

Cover metal filigree butterfly with German silver metallic cream and adhere to cover, as shown.  Lift wings a bit for dimension.

Glue chain and metal hanger to center of butterfly, as shown.  Add small metal clock face, lightly inked with brown archival ink, and tiny pearl to center of clock hands.

Here are a few more close-ups of the front cover embellishments.

Inside Front Cover:

Stamp large butterfly onto die cut butterfly book page with grey ink.

Color with colored pencils, distress ink, and add a bit of clear Wink of Stella pen to white flower petals and butterflies.

Stamp small swirl design around the edge of the paper with Encore gold metallic ink.  Adhere to inside front cover.

Back Cover:

Adhere ribbon, lace, die cut gears, paper flowers, leaves, and metal embellishments to cover with Glue n Seal.  Let dry.  Trim excess lace and ribbon.

Paint entire piece with white gesso and let dry.

Spray cover with ink sprays, dabbing some of the colors off, and re-spraying until you like it.  Blend colors a bit with a damp paintbrush and dab off more with a paper towel.

Apply metallic creams to the die cut gears, flowers, and metal embellishments (gold), clock hands (green metallic), stenciled areas (black and gold metallic) and add some gold metallic around the edges.

Inside Back Cover:

Paint inside back cover with white gesso while adhering die cut gears.  Allow to dry.

Spray cover with ink sprays, dabbing some of the colors off, and re-spraying until you like it.  Blend colors a bit with a damp paintbrush and dab off more with a paper towel.  Apply metallic creams to the die cut gears.

Add a few metal gears and clock face with brad over die cuts, as shown.

Here you can see the back (left) and the front (right) side by side.  There are several die cut pages inserted in the middle to be decorated as you choose.  

I hope you enjoyed my project this week, and that you will hop on over to the Sin City Stamps store to see all of their new and wonderful products.  They have so many items to go along with your stamping needs and you will fall in love, as I have, with them.  Also, check out the coupon page for their whopping 40% off everything in the store sale, through December 22nd.  And there is also a design team call going on right now.  You can get all the details here.

Have a wonderful weekend,  a very Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year too!

Barbara