how to’s

There are a couple more pour paint canvas books with witchy themes in the Bootique now.  This one has the outside covers in flow paint with a witch I've cut from an old photograph and spooky-foofed up. 

The inside covers are covered in old paper and the interior pages are a grey, parchment style card stock, ready to be embellished.

This book has the same type of cover.

Instead of it being a kit for you to finish, I've gone ahead and journaled it throughout, myself.

Here is a close up of our sorceress, with her magic wand made of a trimmed pipe cleaner and topped with a vintage rhinestone spray, with its wire wrapped around the pipe cleaner.  She has old lace wrapped around her dress, and a hat made from card stock that I'd painted.  

TIP- When adding a gown to a photo, it is often easiest to cut the person in half after cutting her out of the background.  You will want to stretch the fabric around the figure and secure it with glue to the backside. And arms are often in the way. I either cut around the arms, or in this case, I simply cut the lady into two pieces, added the lace, and glued the two parts down onto the book to reassemble.

And it looks better if you do away with the stark white edges of the cut out person by running a light brown marker or ink pad over them.

The "fastener" on the book is a vintage brooch.

TIP- Old brooches look great on the side of a book to create the illusion of a closure.  But, they sit unevenly.  Take a pair of pliers and twist off the pin back.  This one still had a sort of stump where the pin had attached in the center, so I punched a hole in the cover and added glue to the rim of the hole, then pushed the raised bit down into the empty space for the brooch to sit evenly  More glue was added to the back of the pin that met with the cover.  

The first page is simple, I've used an ad from an old magazine for a funeral home (Thinking ghostly here). The leaves and flowers are glued over the hole I'd used to attach the brooch onto the front of the book.

TIP- Lots of lace adds a lushness to a journal.  I like to start a book with some trailing from the first couple of pages.  And add it to different sides of the pages throughout the book, on this page it is on the side and bottom.  To hide the pleat, I've added a flower.

The ghost if from an E-zine I did with Beth years ago.  It was called ROMANTIC GOTHIC GHOSTS and included full directions, tips, plus a lot of images to download and print. It is still available here: http://bethleintz.typepad.com/workshops/, scroll down, there are two zines to buy, the first one is a Xmas theme and the ghostly one is at the bottom.  

 

My book features both copies and originals.  It has vintage paper and scrapbook paper.  The sepia girl is a color copy of an old photo, glued to original, vintage text, simply accented with a velvet ribbon and velvet pansy for nice textures.

The next page is scrapbook paper, with a girl cut out of a black and white copy of an old photo.  I've used marker on her flesh to make her look "wicked".

TIP- I find it easier to color the people before cutting them out of the photos.

And I use a blendable marker in lighter green, then a slightly darker green where you'd apply eyeshadow, for depth.  Marker also works for lips, but please use a red colored pencil to get a realistic blush look.

Add 3D elements like the cameo or hair bow for accents.

The moths are cut from copies of images found on Romantic Gothic Ghosts, glued onto plain, gray scrapbook paper with black ink around the edges.

TIP- Simply done pages can add a lot to a book. Not every page needs to have a lot going on.

Next, is another girl I'd treated to a wicked tint.  Her dress is lace, and her hat is cut from other paper and added to her head after she is glued to the background of vintage texts, layered on the page.

TIP- Striped socks are an easy way to change a girl into a witch, just color the socks with marker in a basic color and draw the curved lines with pen.

On the left is scrapbook paper from a Halloween book, with a spiderweb. I've drawn over the web with a metallic pen.  The girl and her cat were cut from a black and white copy, and colored with markers and glitter pens, then a bow was added to the cat.

On the right, a small envelope was covered with a vintage image, color copied and accented with glitter pens.  It has a ribbon wrapped around it, and then was glued in place.

TIP- Use envelopes and pockets in your books to tuck away treasures or surprises.

Another simple page with a big impact, bat themed scrapbook paper, topped with a copy of a poem, and a cut out of a grieving woman.  Her dress has been accented with glitter pens.

The paper used on the right was also from the Halloween scrapbook pad that I had, but I have added a few hand drawn branches to the background. The pumpkin was drawn onto sheet music, colored with markers and glued down to the page and moss was added over it. The words were printed in black and white and colored with gold marker, then highlighted with glitter pen.

TIP- Hand drawn or colored elements, whether free hand or done by coloring stamps or stencils, add a lot of interest to your pages.

The raven is a printed copy, with the bird itself accented with glitter pens, and the background left with its matte finish.  The bottom of the page is trimmed with tattered lace, topped with velvet ribbon.

TIP- Your lace doesn't need to be pristine.  Old and tattered bits add character to a book.

The witches on the other side were ladies from an ad in an old magazine. I've added hats made of glitter card stock and millinery blooms.

TIP- For a more finished look, I ran a black ink pad along the edges of the glitter card stock hats.

The same moth image from Romantic Gothic Ghosts that I'd used on an earlier page is used over glitter card stock on this page. It is colored with tones of brown markers and a little glitter.

The same style of layering squares over text was done on the left page for a cohesive look.

TIP- Do not be afraid to reuse the same images or ideas in slightly different ways, throughout your book.  Reusing themes can bring unity to your pages.

I've done a similar thing on these facing pages.  Instead of squares, I've used ovals, layered with the images.

TIP- Not all dangling trim needs to be lace.  Here, I have a knotted ribbon that hangs down past the bottom of the book.

Both of these pages have scrapbook paper as a background.  On the left, I colored the page with a glitter marker in gold, the cut an owl image from another scrapbook page and turned it into a medallion by adding a crepe paper ruffle to the back.

The spider is cut from an image (Romantic Gothic Ghosts) then printed onto a transparency.  

TIP- Photos or images printed onto transparencies or vellum paper can give you a ghostly feel or some nice texture.

Here is another moth, taken from a biology booklet, centered over a gothic arch.  I've used the same vintage wallpaper in two different ways on these face to face pages, along with two styles of gothic arches.

The couple easily became a witch and warlock by tinting their skin and adding hats.

These pages are a patchwork of vintage papers, layered with a flower and an envelope. I've drawn a flourish on the page with the flower and colored the black and white image on the page with the envelope.

 

The last page shows the same moth I'd used on two other pages, one as is, one tinted.  This time it is printed on a transparency.

Velvet leaves were scattered onto the page for texture, and words cut from an old book add atmosphere.

TIP- I make a file of interesting phrases or words and snip them out as I come across them, and save them in the file for later.  If you are specifically looking for just the right words in old books, you will spend all of your time searching and none of your time creating! So, when you see something interesting, snag them then and save them for the future.

I'll be adding this info to my tutorial, "Creating an Art Journal", it is filled with lots of ideas and designs for making your own books.