Gelli Printed Grunge Notebook - WOYWW #290

Hi Friends,

Well today is Christmas Eve already! I am guessing either you have completed your master lists of making or...you are too frantic to visit my desk today. Either way, I do want to wish every one of you a blessed holiday. I am so grateful for those I have come to know through this G+ service of communities and blogging. The positive feedback I have received on my art has inspired me to do more and more. It is exactly what I need..an extended group of friendly artists like me. Thank You!

If you are wondering what in the heck WOYWW is. Head on over to Stamping Ground and Julia will explain how this desk (blog) hop works :)

Now on to the desk.... (I mean continue to the story of the desk...not actually climb on to the desk!)

I know it looks like I am in school again and must write an essay...but actually...I am making a covered book for a 16 year old boy to keep his baking recipes in. The book is surrounded by Gelli prints I made on newsprint that came as packing material. For more on Gelli Printing check out this link.

I wanted this project to be...boyish. By that I mean beat up and grungey and just... not to precious. I chose a couple of the prints without any pink or purple and applied them to the front and back of the book using gel matte medium from Liquitex.

Next I folded in the edges of the paper to the inside of the book and then covered the inside flaps in the same way using more piece of the Gelli prints. I really liked this one which is the back inside flap...I wished it was in my art journal!

For the back spine I added..you guessed it...silver grey duck tape...how is that for grunge!

Next I added torn bits of the leftover prints using the gel medium. I wanted organic pieces that didn't look exactly like anything...but reminded one of food. 

I used a black watercolor pencil around the edges of the torn pieces and blended with a waterbrush to make them stand out a bit more from the background

Finally I added a title printed from my computer in a font meant to look like label tape (I would have used actual label tape if I had it) And then some scribbley white highlights with my white gel pen.

I went over everything again with gel medium to make sure it was all sealed in case splatters of butter and flour landed on it.

Here is the finished book. I wrote a title page inside with the definition of the word 'foodie. I also wrote a couple pages of  baking recipes he uses. I hope he will like it! 

<3 Shel