Memory Book For Lisa

Hi Everyone!  It's Sue Lelli here today to share a memory book I made for a sweet friend who is moving.  I learned how to make this book in a Dina Wakley class I took recently (I KNOW, Lucky Me!)  Warning ~ LOTS of photos:

Front cover - All of the pages are made with Ranger watercolor paper.  The rose was made using the Prima Floral Rose Stencil ~ LOVE!  The gold dots are Wendy Vecchi's Studio 490 metallic gold embossing paste.  The gold on the rose petals is Inka-Gold which I rubbed on with my finger.

If you look closely, you will see that I used Inksessentials sticky back over the tag that binds the book and I applied Dina Wakley Heavy Body acrylic paint with the stencil OVER the sticky back to make it disappear into the page.  I sewed the sticky back down just to make sure it would stick there forever - even in the Florida humidity!

On the first two pages I made circles with the Mini Ink blending tool.  It makes the perfect sized circles.  I also applied DW paint through the TCW Chevron Tiles Stencil with the mini blending tool.  I learned this works so much better than a paintbrush with paint because you can control the amount of paint and eliminate seepage I always get using a paintbrush.

 On these pages I applied the paint through the Dina Wakley Plastic Canvas Stencil to make a colorful border.  You can see the binding and half of an envelope peeking through the pages.

 Here the DW paint was applied through the TCW coffee splotch stencil.

Here I used the heart from the Dina Wakley Basic Masks stencil which is both a stencil and different masks!  Brilliant product!  There are actually 3 hearts but one is covered by the photo.

Here I used the TCW Chevron Tile stencil but this is the paint that was left on the stencil after I used it.  I pressed it onto the pages and brayered it to make the paint spread evenly.  The solid yellow circles were again made with the mini blending tool.  The open circles were made using the paint cap from a TH Distress Paint.

The border was just painted on and the heart was made with the DW basic mask stencil.  There is a heart on the page that was masked but when I put Lisa's photo on the page, the heart was covered.  So I made another heart to put on top.

The last two pages were stenciled with Wendy Vecchi's Add a Stencil.  The paint blobbed in a couple of places so I just added a dot of paint in the centers and made them look like mini flowers.  The stitching you see will be covered up with an envelope of personal notes written by her friends.

Another rose from the Prima Stencil and my FAVORITE of all time stencil EVER made by Wendy Vecchi - Barcode Stencil.  EVERYONE should own this FABULOUS stencil!  I'm thinking I am going to buy a second one for when I wear this one out!

Also do you see the hot pink dots on the back?  It is Art Anthology Dimensional Crystals in Peony.  LOVE the subtle texture and pop of colors it adds!

This is what the back and front of Lisa's book looks like when it is wide open.

A couple of process photos:

The tag that becomes the book binding stamped with text and painted through the TCW Chevron tile stencil.

What the stencil looked like after I used it over and over with the Dina Wakley paints!  FYI - I am a clean mixed media artist and a must have for me is the Inksessentials Craft Scrubbie!  It takes the paint right off.  I like clean stencils - I know - weird!  LOL!

Here is the tag that becomes the book binding.  Each folded watercolor paper page gets tied to the binding through two holes with waxed book binding thread.  I used different colors and will be hanging charms off the strings at a later date.

I also find I like using a smaller piece of a non stick craft sheet to put my paints on.  Yes I bought a second craft sheet and cut it up!  I clean this with my scrubbie, too!

I not only bought the mini blending tools but the replacement foams as well.  Dina gave us such a GREAT tip!  She said to just throw the foam in your paint water and when you go to wash them, the paint just comes out.  You can dry them and use them over and over!  No more dried up foam for me that I have to throw away because I just left them on my craft sheet!

Here are the pages (from the inside) all tied to the accordian manila tag.

Here's what the book looks like from the back all tied up BEFORE the sticky back is added.

WHEW!  Are you still with me?

I had so much FUN making this book!  It is going to be filled with photos and messages from Lisa's friends in our neighborhood.  I hope it brings back memories of all of the great times we had when she lived here!