Saturday Step by Step - The Chemist's Sketchbook

Hi everyone and welcome to a Saturday Step by Step here at Frilly and Funkie. Buttons here to show you how I altered the sketchbook featured as my DT project for the 'Anything Goes' challenge (which runs through to next Tuesday HERE). Let's start with a reminder of how the sketchbook looked when it was finished...

Let's start from the beginning with one plain A4 sketchbook and the panel I made for the centre. Being rather OCD about centralising things I marked out where the panel would go and also masked off a strip down the side of the front cover.

I applied Wendy Vecchi black embossing paste through one of the new Tim Holtz stencils to random parts.

Having dried the paste (it doesn't take long) I filled in the blanks using the Wendy Vecchi brick wall stencil.

Now how's this for a challenge - I added the lighter coloured Distress Paints (Frayed Burlap and Bundled Sage) in patches directly onto the black cover. As you can see, the coverage was really good, showing just how opaque these paints are. They are also very wet, which for this was ideal as it allowed plenty of time to mist them gently with water and blend them well before they dried.

As the lighter colours started to dry I blended the darker colours (Peeled Paint and Walnut Stain) over the top, once again misting gently with water. You may notice that I used a piece of sponge to help blend the paint too, dabbing lightly to move the paint around (again, another bonus of it being wet).

I let the paint dry 'naturally' rather than employing a heat tool as I found this way it allowed the paint to continue to react with the water and blend more. It also seems to start to develop something of a sheen if I use a heat tool, whereas leaving it to dry ensured the finish remained matte. I then added a layer of watered down matte Glue n Seal with a paint brush to protect the surface. This wouldn't be necessary normally but I know how much abuse this sketchbook is likely to face and wanted to protect the cover as much as possible initially.

With the surface covered, I removed the masking tape and then glued on some filigree metal pieces with Glossy Accents (it's strong stuff!). If you add Stickles into some of the recesses it creates a jewel like effect as it dries flat.

Nearly there peeps! With the cover finished attention turned to the inside covers. I dry embossed paper using a diffuser to give a flat portion to stamp on.

I swiped across the raised areas with some permanent sand coloured ink and then stamped chemistry images onto the centres using Watering Can Archival Ink.

Finally I blended Frayed Burlap Distress Ink around the edges and misted the pages to 'set' the ink. Once dry they were layered onto the inside covers.

If you want to see more of the finished results you can find them HERE. In the meantime I hope this has given you an insight into my experiences with Distress Paints.

Thanks so much for joining me. Have a great weekend, hugs Jenny xxx

$17.95 Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz Rubber Stamps - The Chemist	$17.95 Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz Rubber Stamps - Laboratorie	Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz Layering Stencils - Cargo	Studio 490 Wendy Vecchi Stencil - Brick Wall	Studio 490 Wendy Vecchi Embossing Paste - Black	Tim Holtz Ranger Distress Paint - Frayed Burlap
Tim Holtz Ranger Distress Paint - Bundled Sage	Tim Holtz Ranger Distress Paint - Peeled Paint	Tim Holtz Ranger Distress Paint - Walnut Stain	Ranger Ink - Inkssentials - Glue N Seal - Matte - 4 Ounces	4 Piece Antiqued Bronze Filigree Pieces	Tim Holtz Sizzix Texture Fades - Collage & Notebook Set
Ranger Wendy Vecchi Archival Ink - Watering Can	Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Ink Pad - Frayed Burlap	Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Ink Pad - Bundled Sage	Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Ink Pad - Walnut Stain	Tim Holtz Ranger Distress Stain - Antique Linen	Tim Holtz Ranger Distress Stain - Tattered Rose
Tim Holtz Ranger Distress Stain - Brushed Corduroy	Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Ink Pad - Pumice Stone	Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Ink Pad - Peeled Paint	Tim Holtz Ranger Distress Stain - Picket Fence White	Ranger Archival Ink - Jet Black	Ranger Adirondack Alcohol Ink - Meadow
Ranger Adirondack Alcohol Ink - Pitch Black	Ranger Adirondack Alcohol Ink - Snow Cap Mixative	Ranger Inkssentials Glossy Accents