Alice In Wonderland Secret Book by Mark

Morning all Mark here and I am finishing of my Guest Designer spot this month with an Alice in Wonderland secret book using the MDF Plain Cover Book Kit-Style 1.

I would like to say a great big thanks to Calico Craft Parts and The Ladies on the DT for having me along this month, I have thoroughly enjoyed my month playing with all the goodies I was sent. x

I have used the small ATC sized book, Ok confession time, I was working on the medium sized book but num nuts here, after gluing and base coating the book I managed to knock it of my craft table and it of course had to land on the corner and broke my cover off :-(.

Anyway,  grabbing the smaller box I just down sized my idea and made the better half a little secret valentines card, I got her tickets to see a modern version of Alice In Wonderland and they fit perfectly inside.

The book has been decorated with the Decoart Media Fluids and a little bit of their crackle paste.

The cover of the book was given a couple of base coats with Decoart's Media Tinting base and the Image was stamped. Using a small Shabby Diamonds stencil the crackle paste was applied using a pallet knife.

After being allowed to dry naturally, the crackle paste can not be forced as you will interfere with the cracking process.

A lot of the colours in the media line are transparent or if watered down a little can become so. This means you dont have to worry about covering the lines of the stamped image.

The media fluids go a long way when painting like this o I used a fine detail brush and just dipped the tip into the unscrewed cap to pick up paint, even one drop of paint on the craft mat ill be to much.

To give an aged look to the book I blended dark to light starting with raw umber followed by some Quinacridone gold and finished with a little transparent yellow oxide. Using a stiffer paint brush I really worked/scrubbed the paint into the surface leaving a nicely blended finish.

To paint the crackled diamonds I placed the stencil back over the diamonds and stippled the paint using a stencil brush. This helped keep the paint of the main part of the book and also left a nice shabby look where the white can still show through in places.

A little bit of washi tape fit perfectly round the box part of the book, I didnt distress this down as I quite liked the contrast and the subtle colours of the tickets.

The inside of the box and inside cover have been given a dirty stamping of a couple more Alice images.

To get a toned distressed look to the image start by inking the stamp with a Sepia archival ink colour then lightly swipe a little Black archival ink across the stamp in places.

Using a safety pin as a clasp to hold the book closed a little clock charm was also added.

Luckily I survived Valentines Day so I guess she liked it ;-).

Thank you all for stopping by and joining me this month as I have shared my little makes. Keep checking back to see what the ubber talented Dt come up with next.

And again a big thanks to Calico Craft Parts and the Dt for having me. xxx