A Walk In The Park

Hello again !

Well we're well into October and heading towards all the cool celebrations that this time of year brings - Hallowe'en, bonfire night, Yule, Christmas ...some of my favourites! Losing the evening sunlight to darkness is offset by bright decorations, starry skies, good food and great fun. I love this time of year!

This weekend just gone, mum and I visited a local park for a little stroll, enjoying the beautiful colours and textures of nature. I took a few photos of wildlife and trees - both mum and I love our little cameras.

There ya go ... nice and blurry there for ya! Anyhoo - as mum and I are celebrating all happy things at the moment I decided to make her a quick little journal of the day we'd had at the park. I deliberately used different sized heavyweight papers as I kind of wanted the book to look like a collected pile of random papers when it was done - like a pile of leaves. I used my little Pogo printer to print some little photos of the day, which were journaled on the reverse of the pages. On the front, I cut some vintage images from books and papers and collaged them on painted backgrounds. I used my limited selection of Golden fluid acrylic paints as I wanted a really nice, smooth painted base. I cut my own tree bark stencil, and a little feather stencil - more for the collection! I cut some strips of waste chipboard, put holes in them with my crop-a-dile, and glued them to the sides of the pages for a binding method: I really wanted it to look rustic. So, here be pictures -

I added circles, feathers and co-ordinating stickers (on the tree page - K&Co 'Poppy Seed') to represent the falling leaves, blowing seeds and tiny birdie feathers that were floating about that day. I also added a few oriental collage elements as there is a chinese bridge and pagoda on one of the lakes in the park.

I made two covers from cardboard wrapped (like a mini album, or book cover) in DCWV Green Stack papers, bound with twine and ribbons and decorated with chipboard flowers from K&Co's Wild Saffron line. I don't have a piccy of the finished book as I wanted to wrap it up prettily and post it to my mum as a surprise - which she received today. Well done posties!

Hope you enjoyed that... As always if you have questions or comments, please feel free to leave them here or email me direct and I'll get back to you asap. I'll leave a list of materials used below in case it's useful for you. I'll be back soon with new Etsy products for you to look at! Hope you have a beautiful week full of colour and happiness! - hugs from Shroo :) xxx

Materials used in this project:

• *Golden fluid acrylic paint
• *Decoart crafter's acrylic paint
• *Black & white Signo Uni Ball impact gel pens
• *Windsor & Newton Galeria Heavy Carvable Modelling Paste
• *Claudine Hellmuth Studio multi-medium (matte)
• *Ranger Crackle Accents (on the hearts)
• *Treasure Gold gilding wax - 'Brass', 'Aquamarine', 'Emerald'.
• *Chipboard off-cuts
• *Heavyweight designer paper off-cuts
• *Collage elements: vintage book pages, designer paper images, ephemera, leaf from the park!
• *K&Co 'Poppy Seed' stickers and gems
• *Homemade stencils (tree bark & feather)
• *Chestnut Products acrylic satin lacquer