Collaged Greeting Cards

This is just a short post today to share some new greeting cards I made using acrylic paint, some bits of old leftover pages of text from a previously altered book, tissue paper and a black sharpie marker.  I start by using a 9" x 12" sheet of watercolour paper which results in 6 cards since the window on my trifold card blanks are 3" square.

DIY: Home-Made Washi Tape

Before I get to the home-made washi tape, I wanted to share the improvements I've made to my new 'Journal on the Go' (see original post here for more details about how and why I made it).  Since taking Joanne Sharpe's great Letter Love 101 online class, I just couldn't stand looking at those plain pockets.  They just begged for some lettering on them!  I also added a belt loop to hold my new home-made washi tape!  Keep reading I'll tell you all about how to make it.

Mouse over photo to see the 'before' image.

This is dedicated to my new cyber friend, Heather, who lives in South Africa and can't get her hands on washi tape (no local shops carry it and none of the online vendors will ship to South Africa).  I've heard about this idea in a few places, and today it was time to try it.  It was easy, fast and really inexpensive.  I started with some double sided tape that I got at the Dollar Store and some tissue paper that I had saved because it was still 'like new' Yes, I can be a bit of a pack rat but it's environmentally friendly!

I pulled out my ink pads and stamps and just started stamping on the tissue paper.  I love black on white to contrast all the other colours I use in my journalling, but you could use coloured ink pads if you prefer.  I personally like StazOn but use whatever you prefer.

These five stamps are especially great for this.  They're the clear ones that you stick on the acrylic block and I simply lined all five up side by side to make the printing really fast.

The next step is to turn the tissue paper over and put the two-sided tape on the back, smoothing it out as you go (sorry, I forgot to take a photo at this stage).  I don't worry about a few wrinkles because I actually like the added texture and interest.

You're now ready to cut the tape out.  Just cut along the edge of the tape.  This is a great activity to do while 'listening to TV' (I hardly ever actually watch TV anymore. LOL).

If tissue paper is good, why not old dictionary pages?  I get old books at a wonderful recycling depot called Wastewise which recycles all sorts of things for incredible prices.  I can get old hard cover books (also great for altered books - learn more here) for 50 cents!

One thing led to another and I pulled out this 'love' paper which is actually the inside of an envelope that I took apart (Thanks Diane. The birthday card you sent me last month is still bringing me Joy!).  I know you can get some beautiful printed tissue papers so you could make some washi tape with those too.  I'd love to hear your ideas for what else we could use to make our own unique, inexpensive washi tape. 

Here's my new stash of washi paper.  You'll notice some coloured pieces.  Those are some bits of old book pages that were used when I was making background papers.  Nothing goes to waste!

Here's the washi 'stash' all neatly organized.  I rolled them, secured them with little binder clips (another Dollar Store find) and put them on a large binder ring.  This is why I had to add the belt loop to my Journal on the Go!  The shorter pieces were just tucked into one of the pockets.

It's been a very busy couple of days.  In addition to the above mentioned pursuits, I also made some more beautiful background papers.  If you want to know more about the process, check my previous post here.

Altered Book / Journal

An old credit card was used to scrape
the paint.  Also added tissue tape in a
long strip and short pieces (these had
a calendar on them).

A while back I started playing with the idea of altering a book to make a journal.  My first obstacle was to overcome my horror of defacing a book.  Having said that, I decided that using an old hardcover (fiction) picked up at Wastewise (a wonderful recycling depot in town) wouldn't be too terrible (unless of course you are the author, in which case I give you my sincere apologies).

The first step was to remove some of the pages (randomly throughout the book - not all from one section) to allow for the added bulk that the paint would add.   I then glued together 3 pages at a time and stitched around the edges using a zigzag stitch on my sewing machine.  You can get to within about 1 1/2 - 2 inches from the binding.  This gives you good sturdy pages with which to work.

Brick pattern was created using a stencil.  

Circles (look like page reinforcers) were

made using the wooded handle of an old

foam brush (remove the foam and plastic

part and you're left with a short dowel 

with a hole in it!

The next part was the hardest for me because it required a lot of time and patience.  I covered each page with gesso, but because you don't want the pages to stick together you have to wait for each spread to dry before you can go on to the next.  At this stage I used a light covering of white gesso, allowing some of the original text to show through.

Stamping was done using rubber
stamps with acrylic paint. 

Inktense pencils give wonderfully
vibrant colour.

Now the fun begins.  Using acrylic paint, Inktense watercolour pencils, markers (I like Copic markers), white gel pens, black gesso, etc. I began to play.  Again this takes patience because you have to wait for pages to dry before you go on to the next spread or before you can begin to journal on the fun backgrounds that you've created.

Background ready for some sketching 

and journaling.

I love using white printing on the black gesso for a change of pace.  I really like the effect.  (Note: I found my white gel pen worked much better on the black gesso than it did on black acrylic paint.  I also like the more matte finish of the gesso.

Markers were used to colour in some 

doodles on this page.