Crunchy Kraft

I was so pleased to see France as the one of the guest designers for this semester PaperArtsy craft school (it sort of feels like craft school doesn't it, inspiration, new techniques etc).  I have long admired France's work so it was a joy to see her take on using PaperArtsy products.

I loved how she used the crunchy waxed kraft paper for the cover of the notebook, so here is my take on it.

I found in the supermarket a nice kraft notebook with a good solid cover, it had a design on it but I used a mixture of Stone and Mocha Mousse Fresco paints to make a nice fawn colour and covered both the front and back.

I added some Brushed Corduroy and Vintage Photo distress inks on the edges, sanding and water flicking to get a distressed look. Stamped some numbers in Coffee Archival.

I had the piece of cotton already on my desk primed with Snowflake Fresco and it fitted perfectly on the front.

I took a piece of crunchy, stamped it and then scrunched it. Smoothed it out and then brayered it in Stone.  Scrunched and smoothed again and added a little bit of French Roast with the brayer.

I couldn't find my tracing paper so used a piece of handmade paper that I had knocking around. I stamped it with Coffee Archival using Background Plate 3.  In places I sprinkled some WOW embossing powder in Earthtone Pepper (loving some of the shades of the WOW embossing powders especially the Primary Bark and Earthtone Pomegranate, they aren't bright and quite shabby in tone), just to add a differing shade and of colour, it's quite subtle and probably won't pick up on the photo.

These were sewed on to the cotton in toning thread.

The kraft tag had a thin layer of Stone scrapped on with a credit card and then a thin layer of Mudsplat.  this was sanded to distress and then in coffee Archival I stamped Mini 62 all over.  On top of the Mudsplat I stamped Mini 69 in Versamark and used Frantage Aged Ivory Embossing Enamel. Some eyelets, wire coloured with alcohol inks, a button and some string to finish it off.

And finally ribbon, yes a lot of ribbon.  I've had these spools of ribbon knocking around for a log time in a box (found them whilst trying to find the tracing paper). I basically found the end of each spool, held the ends in one hand, yanked it all out and cut lengths which I tied on the wires. Once they were all on I gave them a haircut to shorten the length. 

So thank you France for the inspiration, but don't aks me what I'm going to use it for!

hugs
jo
xx