Indian journal

My apologies, but this is a long post, and picture heavy, so you may want to get a coffee first!

Usually I just play with new stamps and see what happens, but this time I had a new die from Sizzix to play with that created a mini book that I really wanted to try out - I had a slightly crazy idea of using it with the new Indian themed stamp sets  and trying to use all the stamps ........by the time I tried to take the photos, I was sure that it was crazy, but didn't have time to go with anything else for the tv shows.
Anyhow, here goes , and you can decide!



The first pic is of the slip case I made for the book, using the script stamp in black onto a brusho background. The fastening is a loop of plaited embroidery threads with embossed elephant buttons glued back to back over the ends.
 The cover from black card was simply stamped in versamark and gold embossed with the script stamp , and you can see the embroidery threads holding the inner pages in down the spine.



 the diecut pages were coloured as spreads before decorating, so I had to try to arrange them in colour groups before fastening them into the cover. Most of the backgrounds were brusho, but some were distress inks.
The silhouette on the first page was stamped in grey versafine, elephant stamped onto white card and cut out after colouring using the Koh-i-noor paints






 Images gold embossed on both pages, strip of matching card added to create the pocket, and a strip of glitter netting added. Small tag stamped  and embossed in gold, coloured with distress inks

 Images again embossed in gold, coloured with pearlescent paints

 More gold embossing, gold is a colour that I associate with India for some reason, along with jewel colours, which is why all the embossing is in gold.

 Similar to first page on the left, but more of a lighter sky.
Feather stamp is from the I shall be your wings set, stamp covered with mica powders and then silver soft relief paste,. trimmed once dry and glued in place.

Pocket stamped with border stamp from indian textiles set , flower stamp on tag from same set.

The stamp on the right is an older single stamp that has a definite eastern theme, and I thought it fitted with the other sets. It was coloured with brusho used as watercolours

Last page!

Congratulations if you made it this far!

eastern script candle

 I am a sucker for script stamps, so the letter stamp on the paisley elephant stamp sheet from Chocolate Baroque immediately caught my eye!

Having a small candle sitting on the shelf waiting to be used solved the question of what to do with it - decorate with the script stamp.

I stamped the image twice onto white tissue paper with black versafine ink, tore carefully round the edges once the ink was dry then fused them to the candle using a heat gun.




I then made a box to fit the candle using an envelope punch board and black card and the handy calculator from the crafty owl.
Before gluing the box together I stamped the script stamp on the sides using versamark ink and white embossing powder.

Once the box was assembled, i needed something to fasten it, so a trip to my local craft shop was needed. What I was hoping to find was an elephant charm, but they were either tiny or way too big - what was the right size was a pack of elephant buttons -thanks for hunting them out Jane! They were decorated with printed flowers , so I covered them with a few layers of versamark ink and gold embossing powder and then pressed them onto the stamp while the powder was still hot. A strip of plaited embroidery threads was looped and the ends sandwiched between two buttons to make the fastening.




I used what was left of the sheet of tissue paper to wrap the candle inside the box, simply repeat stamping the script in black and grey versafine ink in a fairly random pattern.