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Sunday, 12 June 2016

Altering Papers a step by step for "beginners"

Hello lovely visitors and welcome to you all. I am sharing the first double page of another little book with you today:
After the last little book I did I was approached by several people whether I could describe in more detail how I go about altering the papers I used for that one. I know many of you will be quite familiar with how to do that, but for those who are just in the beginning of your crafting journey, - here is a step by step on one way of how you can do this.
I start by choosing papers that are roughly in the colour tones of the scheme I have in mind already. I wanted this booklet to be quite grungy and vintage of course, so the Indigoblu Belle Epoque Mixed Media card stack was perfect for this. I used the 6 x 6 size and this is one of the papers and my very first step was to cover each paper with a coat of clear gesso. This adds tooth and seals the papers which are quite glossy..
I then covered the central part with heavy gesso and while still wet dabbed my finger in it to create a stucco like texture.
To make it slightly less stark I then added some Titan Buff acrylic paint, I used the Golden brand here but you could use Decoart Media Fluid acrylics or Distress Paint in Antique Linen or indeed any other brand you may have. Blend it out with a baby wipe, to avoid hard edges.
Next add a few spritzes of a spray ink. I used Distress Stain Spray in Weathered Wood, but again, use what you have on hand. Using a spray adds depth and interest and will highlight textures, but have a baby wipe on hand to mop up any unwanted areas.
Next I added some stenciling along the edges, using a mix of Archival ink in Sepia and Distress Ink in Rusty Hinge. I also did some background stamping, again using Sepia Archival ink. The stamp I used is a Tim Holtz one from the Curiosities collection.
Next I wanted to add some imagery back in. I usually do this either with stamps or sometimes with the top layer of a paper napkin. In this case I used some scraps of rice paper.I adhered them with mat gel medium that makes them almost translucent. I purchased  the rice paper (as well as many others) on ebay HERE. This lady has the best selection I have been able to find!
Time to create some embellishments. This could be anything of course. In this case I stamped and die cut some elements from a Heartfelt Creations collection. I used a previously coloured bit of a manilla tag. After taking this photo I coloured the grapes still with a coloured pencil.
I decided to stamp and fussy-cut a butterfly as a companion piece to the butterfly that was already on the paper. I coloured it with the same colour inks I had used before, Rusty Hinge and Sepia Archival and also added a touch of Paper Artsy metallic glaze for a little shimmer.
And here you can see how it all fitted onto the page. The final step was to add a quote. On this occasion I used a quote from a Cloud 9 collection of clear quote stickers that I have had in my stash forever, but I found you can purchase them HERE . Oh and I also added some stamping around the edge, this is a Limor Webber stamp produced by Indigoblu.
The page on the other side was done in a very similar way. I just added some texture paste through a stencil still and some strips of fabric for texture,  and obviously used some different embellishments.
Here is a close up of the embellishments still so you can see them a bit better.

Well, I hope this was useful for some of you. There are several more pages to follow still but I will keep those for another day. Have fun crafting and above all enjoy what you are doing. You never stop learning!!

Thanks for your visit like always

26 comments:

  1. You are so kind to share your fabulous tutorial Astrid x the pages are quite stunning with all those amazing layers and textures, stamps and dies.
    The pages are quite spectacular

    Tfs and best wishes
    Annie x

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  2. Wonderful pages, your book will be a treasure. Have a nice day, hugs, Valerie

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  3. Thank you so much Astrid for sharing your steps to creating your beautiful book pages. Your step by step instructions are very clear and I am sure very useful to all levels of crafters. Mo x

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  4. Amazing alteration and thank you for sharing how you made it so beautiful

    Love Chrissie xx

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  5. Beautiful pages Astrid! Love those little vines you added and your colours are dreamy as always! hugs :)

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  6. A brilliant step by step - it's always great to see those layers building up. It really shows why it is that your work has such depth and beauty. So generous and lovely to keep sharing that knowhow and, as always, the pages themselves are simply gorgeous. Hope you're having a lovely Sunday.
    Alison x

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  7. Fabulous page and love the step out and details to the process. I love seeing/learning what everyone does because art has so many ways of becoming and you always learn something new. (Which I did today) from seeing others process. Thank you for the inspiration and lesson today!

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  8. Gorgeous page, and fantastic tutorial. I love your vintage designs. Take care, xx

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  9. Great pages Astrid! Love all the inky goodness and fancy butterfly! Thanks for sharing your creative process!

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  10. Thank you Astrid for your detailed tutorial. The pages you created are both gorgeous. All the layers create amazing texture and colors, and a depth which is so beautiful. Have a lovely afternoon and evening Astrid !!
    oxox Dorthe

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  11. I always learn something wonderful when you share your awesome techniques. Your pages are gorgeous, as always, and I so appreciate you taking the time to share your process!

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  12. Thank you for your wonderful tutorial - no one does it like Astrid! In fact, I think your blog should be named "Astrid's Art"!
    Sandy xx

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  13. I love these pages, Astrid! So beautiful! Thanks for sharing.

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  14. Beautiful pages and a great tutorial on how you achieved the look.
    Yvonne xx

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  15. Thank you, thank you Astrid. Wonderful tutorial - thanks for detailing each process. This is a lovely page in all ways and it was a pleasure to see it evolve. I found the way you used patterned paper especially helpful and gives me the 'courage' to try it myself! Thank you. Valda

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  16. This is so amazing too, great way to alter papers, great tutorial as well :)

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  17. Thanks for sharing your techniques Astrid. To watch your Art evolve step by step is a wondrous process. The finished product is beautiful :D

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  18. Fabulous pages Astrid and thanks for sharing the process and the inspiration.
    Avril xx

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  19. A super post Astrid and great to see all your different steps.
    Julie x

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  20. Love your steps and post Astrid xxx

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  21. Wonderful post Astrid, love to see your pages and your step by step! Fantastic! Barbara

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  22. This is totally amazing as always Astrid, and your album is absolut gorgeous as everything else you ever do. I love your work, and this is no different, it´s just perfect and soooo beautiful.And this tutorial is sooo easy to understand, that everyone should be able to make this now, and thanks sooo much for doing this, you´ve just saved me the time to explain this to another friend, as I couldn´t have done it this well anyway, so thanks for doing that.

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  23. Beautiful pages, lovely details, fantastic use of colour, everything about this is amazing and awesome! Thank you for the step by step, you are saving me time with your tutorials xx

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  24. Thank-you for sharing all these details Astrid. I must admit that journalling is not something that I'd be good at or try but I do like seeing others' pages and this is a fab tutorial to see how it is done by the best. Nicola x

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  25. Beautiful - glad I came back to take a look - great tutorial! Chrisx

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  26. Fabulous creations as always! Thank you so very much for the steps and detailed photos. I always wanted to know how you created the pages and am grateful to you for showing us how....

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