Bloom - Steampunk Altered Book

Hello fellow Warriors, Sandra here with a straightforward step by step for you of my altered book cover. Here is my finished project.

I have lots of art journals of all different shapes, sizes and types of paper, but I recently bought an old, unloved, book from my local charity shop which I intend to use for some journaling and memory keeping through the summer. I thought to begin with I would decorate the cover.

I began by adding some texture using  modelling paste through a large text stencil from Americana.

While I was waiting for the paste to dry I collected together the elements I wanted to use to

decorate my cover. After arranging them on the cover I took a quick photo on my phone. This helps me remember the placement of all the elements. Then I began to adhere them, one by one, with 3D Matte Gel.

I have used mainly Tando chipboard cogs and hearts, some Art-Cutz laser cut images, and some pieces from Scrapiniec. Also a few metal embellishments from my jar and a steampunk resin heart from an Artful Days kit. When everything was dry and safely stuck, I added more texture with the gel and some art stones.

This gave me the distressed, grungy look I wanted. After drying I coated the whole arrangement with black gesso. But you could use any black acrylic paint you have to hand. Be sure to cover as much as you can and push the paint into all the nooks and crannies!

Fortunately it doesn't take very long for the gesso to dry and this seals everything ready to accept more paint.

The next step was to highlight some of the elements, firstly with white gesso and then with PaperArtsy Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylic in Caribbean Sea. A favourite colour! I use barely any paint at this stage to dry brush the elements; building the colours as I go.

I continued to add layers of colour with my Media Fluid Acrylics using mainly Cadmium Orange Hue and Quinacridone Gold to build a rusty covering. 

Next I decided to go in with my Liquitex Glass bead gel to add more texture. While the gel is still wet I also added some Stampendous embossing powers; Chunky Metallic Seasonings and Fran'tage Aged Teal. After heating these gave a fabulous look of molten metal patina which I like very much.

A close-up for you.

Finally I continued dry brushing with DecoArt Metallic Lustres in Cosmic Blue, Copper Kettle, Rose Gold and finally, Silver Spark. These are quite possibly my favourite metallic finish waxes. They seem to stay soft and creamy. The silver I have is almost mouse-like! I have almost every colour now!

I added a few more little embellishments which I hadn't wanted to paint and voila!

A new art journal to fill this summer.

If you are still with me, I hope you enjoyed this walk through my process and are inspired to get your glue and paints out this weekend. I would love to see what you are making.

One final picture for you, and until next time . . .