Magical Moon Journal Cover

Hello Fellow Lovers of Paper Art!

I am so excited to share the project I made for the Design Team Kall over at the Kraaft Shaak. I am also a bit apprehensive because I have never submitted my work for a design team before. But this project was fun and creative, so no matter what happens it was worth it!
As those of you who follow me know...I have been doing A LOT of art journaling lately. I have pages and books strewn everywhere in my studio! But none of them have beautifully decorated covers! I think of all the color pages inside..then see the plain ickyness of the outside and say..nooooo! So I decided to decorate one :)

I started out with a mixed media spiral bound book from Canson that I purchased at Walmart. I have been using it to do my moon journaling pages in. I made a sketch right over the cover using a white Stabilo pencil so that I could see where to put my next layer. A black pencil would have blended into the graphics on the cover too much.

I wanted my journal cover to be really dimensional so next I added a product called Creative Paperclay. This is an air dry clay that is made from paper pulp mixed with some binder. It is easy to sculpt and can be softened and blended to a smooth edge with water. To make my sculpture I made 'snakes' of clay, rolling them between my hands, and then applying them to the cover. I blended the edges down to the cardboard with my finger dipped into water. Then I left the finished piece out to dry for a day.

Once it was dry...I started to paint it. I used Liquitex Basics acrylic paint in Burnt Umber for the tree and then I used Prima Heavy Gesso in white to cover over the blue & black background.

I really wanted my scene to seem as if the moon was shining over a magical forest of trees never seen before...so I made the logical conclusion that I should use my Lindy's Stamp Gang Magicals powders. I decided to blend these rich pigment powders into Liquitex Gloss Medium because I didn't want a matte binder to dull down the shimmery effect of the Magicals. Excited to try this out, I blended some Catttail Copper Brown from the Autumn Leaves set into the gloss medium and then dry brushed it over the texture on my tree. Then I did the same with a bit of the Red Hot Poker Orange from the same set. I LOVE the result!

Next I painted the background. I was going for a dreamy sunset look. I used a aquabrush dipped into my pallet of Liquitex Basics paint. The colors used were Cerulean Blue Hue, Medium Magenta, Cadmium Red Light Hue, Cadmium Yellow Medium Hue, and Deep Green Permanent. Using a aquabrush with acrylic paint gives almost a watercolor effect.

Now I wanted to deepen and blend my background more, so I went in with some similar colors of water soluble crayons over my acrylic and then blended them out with my Aquabrush and some Titanium White Liquitex Basics paint. The crayons I used...I don't love...but they are what I have. I HIGHLY recommend that if you buy water soluble crayons that you get Caran d'Ache Neocolor II. I have these in a few colors and they are very full of pigment and not waxy or crumbly like the ones I used on this project.

For the next step...I got so involved and excited...I forgot to take decent pictures! I blended more Magicals powders from my Autumn Leaves set into gloss medium and painted them over the top of my sunset to create this shimmery glow. It also deepened the colors some making it look even more like sunset in my magical forest! The colors I used were Ponderosa Pine Olive, Tibetian Poppy Teal, Red Hot Poker Orange, and Autumn Maple Crimson. One magical color I didn't have was a real yellow gold to go over the yellow area of my sunset...so I substituted Pebeo Studio Acrylic Paint in Iridescent Precious Gold...then went over that with my gloss medium to make it as shiny as the rest.

I knew I wanted to create leaves for my tree as well..so I tore some text from a book and used the extra mixed magicals on them. I dragged the color over the pages using a used up itunes card to make a shimmery translucent color.

Once everything was dry again. I folded my colored text paper into an accordion and cut out leaf shapes.I used tweezers to pick up each leaf and dip it in gloss medium before placing it on the cover. Then I used my finger dipped into the gloss medium to smooth down the leaves. Once I was happy with all my leaf placement...I used Tim Holtz Alterations die called Typeset to cut out some letters from my leftover colored text paper. I stuck these down with gloss medium for the title of my book.

I hope you have enjoyed the step out of my journal cover and are inspired to make your own! Here are some close ups of the magical dimension this process created :) 

<3 Shel

Products Used:

Creative Paperclay

Liquitex Basics Acrylic Paint

Aquabrush

Prima Art Basics Heavy Gesso

Lindy's Stamp Gang Magicals in Autumn Leaves

Liquitex Gloss Medium

Pebeo Iridescent Gold

Water Soluble Crayons