Minibook cover and a tutorial with Astrid

Hello everyone and welcome to the blog! Today I want to share the cover of a little book I made recently.

I love making mini books, and this time I thought I would share in more detail one of my favourite ways to make these little books, just out of one piece of 12 x 12" card stock. I used Kraft card, but any card can be used, though it's best if it is two sided card stock.

Here is how to do it:
1. Take a piece of 12 x 12 and score horizontally at 6".
2. Turn the card 90 degrees and score at 4" and 8".
3. Turn the card back to its original position and cut along the line between 1 & 4 and 3 & 6 up to the middle score line as shown on the diagram above.
4. Start folding like this: Fold panel 1 up to panel 2, then fold both behind panel 3, then fold them down to 4, then behind panel 5 and finally up to panel 6.
5. Turn it sideways so the spine is on the left, - panel 1 is single and will form part of the cover; 2 and 3 are together and can be glued at the top to make a little pocket, or glued together completely for a thicker page; panel 5 and 4 are together and can be glued at the bottom, to form another pocket, or be glued down complete again, finally panel 6 is single again and will form the back cover. If you want you can do exactly the same again to make a fatter book, but I left mine just with one piece of card and made two pockets for tags as described.

This may all sound very complicated, but really when you do it its very easy

Anyway, on to the cover, which really is the project I want to show you today.
I cut a piece of card to 5 3/4 by 3 3/4, just the right size to cover the front panel of my little book, I covered it with clear gesso and added some textural elements: A piece of lace, some cheese cloth, a large flower and a strip of corrugated card.

After gluing everything down the whole piece was coated with mat gel medium and then I added some Decoart Crackle Glaze in certain corners:

Here you might be able to see just a hint of the crackle after it had dried.

Next I picked the Shimmerz products I wanted to use:

Vibez Egg Noggin, Before Dawn

Spritz Bamboo Leaf, Chance of Rain

Coloringz: Chocolate Brownie

Creameez: Sage isn't So

Inklingz Spotlight white

Starting with the lightest colour I started to add colours, using the spray bottles and my paint brush

Here is the effect of the first layer of colour just using the spray. I also added some background stamping over the crackled areas. Then with the help of my paintbrush the colours were deepened, around the flower and over the cracks to show them up more. Any excess was quickly wiped away with a baby wipe. This is possible because I had covered the paper with the clear gesso first..

A couple of word stickers and some foiled rub ons finished it all off.

Well, that's it for today. If you want to see more of the inside of the book, please hop over to my blog.

Thank you for visiting like always, and don't forget if you mention my name in the "comments" section of your shopping cart when placing your Shimmerz order you will receive free paint. Shop Shimmerz HERE and connect with us on Facebook, too! Have a lovely creative week! xxx