Deco book page

This is one of the pages I am doing in a round robin of deco books. There are 16 of us and this is the seventh page I have done, the 8th is drying as I write!


Page is painted with Stewart Gill Byzantia paint, no name for the colour, it was a sale item! I gave it a coat of Jo Sonya Opal Dust to add glimmer, then painted the chipboard letters purple and adhered those. The image is fantasy film, using an Enchanted Gallery stamp inked with Stazon and ironed. Don't forget to put a layer of greaseproof or silicone paper between your iron and the fantasy film!


Another fanatsy film embellishment, on a stamped background. I used Pearlescent Crimson Brilliance Ink and a Stampcamp stamp for the background.

A deco book

I haven't had a deco to work on for a little while, then this one arrived. It was completely bare, i was the first person to work in it. Daunting, or what. I looked at the blank page for nearly a week before I managed to put some paint on it.

Finally, I coated both sides with Stewart Gill paint, then adhered a piece of fantasy film (mother of pearl) with gel medium, then ironed the page between 2 sheets of baking paper. It has left a kind of mother of pearl effect on the page.


I stamped over the fantasy film using Ranger archival ink in grape, and used the same ink to stamp the words above.


The back of the page is also 2/3rds covered with fantasy film, and the purple piece is a piece of glossy cardstock, stamped with an image (Diva Impressions) in Brilliance, dried and rubbed all over with purple dye ink. The Brilliance resists the dye ink.

Sweetpea's deco

I was looking for something new to try, and wanted to use an interesting background. Rachel Bland made a gorgeous background for the background swap a while ago, so I thought I'd give her background technique a try. I covered a piece pf copier paper with 2 Radiant Rain dauber colours. One daubed much better than the other, so in the end I took the dauber off and used a paintbrush... I let the paper dry, then crumpled it up and smoothed it out again. At this point, I was supposed to spray it with webbing spray, but my webbing spray is inaccessible, so I just smooshed a Galaxy Gold Brilliance inkpad over it to highlight it. I added some crumpled gold paper and some stamped embellishments.

For the back, I used the same paper, but made the embellishment by ironing fantasy film onto a stamp inked with Stazon. The stamps are both by Stamp Diva, and remind me of some Paperbag Studio ones, but I like the sentiments on these. I added my name using a child's dymo machine!

Autumn's deco

This page is for Autumn's book.
I know Autumn likes mermaids and I did
consider them as the theme for this page,
but decided that as many friends have sent a mermaid
to Autumn this month, she probably has enough
mermaids right now! I decided on women, instead...

I used a page from a Welsh book,
some stamped tissue, some textured card,
and a Little Beauty sent to me
by Carol Sweeney (see blog links)






For the back of the page, I sprayed the card with several
shades of blue colourwash, and it was very bright.
I felt it needed to look 'older' to go with the front,
so I gave it a wash of walnut ink to age it.
I stamped it with a texture stamp from Hearts in Touch,
and framed a Crafty Individuals transparency
with a frame made from a Crafty Individuals
'framed bird' stamp with the centre removed.

Sweetpea's deco book

I worked on a couple of pages for Sweetpea.
I had seen Annette in Oz (see blog links)
do some work using cuttlebug folders
in a slightly different way,
and wanted to try for myself.



I quite like the textured effect,
but need to work on the technique some more,
as I like the way Annette's colours blend
more than mine!!!

I also had a play with laminating fantasy film,
to get a slightly firmer embellishment than the
kind I get when I iron it onto stamps.
The sheets are stiff, and can be stamped on.

I found out it gets some interesting striped effects
as it gets heated inside the laminating pocket.

I also found out that Brilliance ink takes even longer
to dry on laminating pouches than it does
on shrink plastic or acetate...

Deco book for Dawn

The purple theme continues!!! And although it looks like there's some pink in there too, that is just the way the Fantasy Film reflects light at one angle - it doesn't look pink at all when viewed from a more direct angle. Scanning this stuff is useless, it reflects too much, so I 've resorted to some photography instead.


The background is made by spraying a couple of Tattered Angels glimmer mists and a Sticky Fingers ink spray onto a craft sheet, then the card laid on top and swirled a bit.

I stamped over it using Brilliance ink and one of may favourite stamps, from Stamp Camp.


The embellishments are made by laying stamps down, inking them up with Stazon, laying 2 layers of Fantasy Film or Stewart Gill Glitterati film over the image, a layer of greaseproof or silicone paper ontop, and ironing it using a dry iron at moderate heat. The heat fuses the layers fo film together and heat sets the ink onto the film.

Another Deco Book

I seem to be having a bit of a purple phase.
This is not like me at all!!!
I quite like the way it's turning out, though.
This deco page is for Carol C.
Hope she likes it too.



The panel at the bottom of the back
of the page is a piece of Shimmer Sheetz,
with text stamped onto it.
The colour of the sheet changes around the ink.
Neat effect - would be great if you could
see it on the scan!
The image inside the gold 'frame' is
a little girl, but again the
scan isn't showing it up very well.

Deco Books

I've been working on a few deco books, trying to make each very different. I also wanted to experiment with some of the paints, techniques and unused stamps I have in my stash! All these pages had to feature the word 'art' somewhere on the front - and it's more obvious on some than others!



This is a double page spread for Chrissy. I painted the pages with Golden iridescent copper paint, stamped the veining with Brilliance galaxy gold, the spotting with Stazon turquoise, and embossed the main stamped images (Crafty Individuals, Diva Impressions, Art Specially for You) with Moonglow midnight teal embossing powder. The hearts were punched from glossy black card sprayed with Radiant rain gold. The pages are edged with Golden's gold mica flakes.




The front and back of Fiona's page. I painted the page with Golden micaceous iron oxide, which has a gorgeous subtle shimmer. I stamped the veining with Brilliance platinum, then added the images. The fish (Curtis Uyeda at Paula Best) is stamped and embossed in gold, on black cardstock, and the little girls (Diva Impressions) are stamped and embossed in white, on paper which had been sprayed with a range of shimmery colorwash sprays.





Carol's pages were washed with watered down colorwash sprays. On the front page, I doodled with a white pen before washing, and it acted as a resist. The image on the front is stamped and embossed with Moonglow midnight obsidian embossing powder, the then dragonfly is embossed for a second time using Kaleidoscope embossing powder - this is sparkly and changes colour the longer you heat it.

The back of the page is overstamped with Stazon turquoise and Invoke Arts stamps - which I purchased while I was with Carol in Portland last year! The photograph is one I took earlier this year, and it is backed with some tyvek and framed with part of a Crafty Individuals image stamped on transparency. The 'forever' stamp is Cat's Life Press (I think!).

Deco book spread

The owner of this book wanted a double page spread.
The previous pages were sea-themed,
so I took my inspiration from that,
and continued the theme...

Stamps are by Stampington.

Remember you can enlarge the image by clicking on it.

Deco pages

Just a couple more deco pages for the
NGS yahoo group deco book round robin...

Deco pages

I'm involved in a round robin deco book swap,
but my muse deserted me....

This morning I got up at 4.30 a.m.
and found inspiration!

I had created a small digital collage
by taking a photograph of a flapper
and using the 'watercolour' filter,
adding a clock,
and changing the colours.

I really like the result,
so you'll probably see it again on other things!

The background of the page is
micaceous iron oxide - it gives a lovely fine shimmer.
I stamped over it with Brilliance ink, and then added the collaged image.

On the back, I used one of the Little Beauties
we've been swapping over on CC Swaps:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CCSwaps

This page is in a Deco where the owner
specified an Asian theme,
and covered the pages with pages
from an Asian newspaper.

I stamped some Basic Grey paper with Japanese text,
and then stamped and embossed with a
fish stamp - I love this stamp!!!

Another deco page

I've had some kind of flu-like virus for a few days and had begin to think my muse was sicker than me as I wasn't even feeling up to making art - but I am feeling a little better today and have done some art - first the photo collage, and now this deco page. I am pleased with it. I hope the owner likes it too.

Another deco book

Another deco book is on it's travels, this is my contribution:

I painted the page with Golden micaceous iron oxide,
then stamped a scroll with Brilliance platinum planet,
added 3 flowers,
stuck a skeleton leaf down with gel medium,
then added a paper clay lizard that
I had also painted with micaceous iron oxide.

For the back of the page,
I used a brass stencil and some
Dreamweaver stencil paste
(which is way too gaudy)
then stippled over the stencil paste with
Brilliance inks to dull it down a little.

Deco Book

Here is my page in somebody else's Deco book...




I covered the cardstock with metal tape, added colour with alcohol inks, added a packing tape image transfer, framed it with some german scrap and stamped some leaves.

Deco book round robin

Next Generation Stampers yahoo group are running a deco book round robin - where each person sends a small book to a random person on the participants list, and then waits patiently for their book to be sent on to other participants until it is full of beautiuflly decorated pages and sent home....

I wondered about whether to buy a book, make a book or use a book somebody had made for me. I remembered that I had been given a beautiful little book by Margaret Rogers at Art & Soul in Portland, and realised it would be perfect for this purpose.

It is such a pretty book that I have hesitated to use it for anything mundane. making it even more beautiful by decorating all the pages seems like a great idea! I created a sign in page - it's a bit plain, and I may add to it before mailing my book out to the first person:

And then I felt I couldn't let it leave home without decorating a page of my own,
so I did a quick double page spread: