Hidden words

Miniature, small, tiny, hidden, secret.

The theme over at PaperArtsy is miniature art and when I think miniature the words above come to mind. A small tiny book hiding secret words.

I started with a sheet of 12z12" heavy Kraft card.  Over this I scrapped a layer of sand gel medium.  This dried transparent and gives a really fine grainy texture to the card.

Over this I added French Roast, Crackle Glaze and Nougat (all paints used are PaperArtsy paints).  I  watered the Nougat down a tiny amount to help cover the large area, in some places it was very thin and in others a bit thicker and that worked for me as I was looking to create lots of layers and texture.

 Once this was dry I gave it a good hardish sand with sandpaper to remove some of the Nougat.  I then sealed these layers with Satin Glaze. This layer sort of transformed the card into a more softer malleable medium like leather.

So we've got 5 layers on already time to add some more.  I knew I wanted to use a fairly neutral palette (my favourites) the next layer to add depth and contrast was London Night through a damask stencil, not a neat even coverage (when do I do neat and even!), but missed some areas to create the shabby decay look.  On top of this layer I added Chocolate Pudding through a dots stencil, aiming for the places where I hadn't put London Night, but also over the top of some of the damask stencilling as well.  

Now we have 7 layers and they weren't quite gelling together, the layers were too obvious and not melting into each other to create a softer colour scheme over the roughness of the sand gel (picture above) After three washes of Snowflake that softer effect was achieved (picture below).10 layers of paint and texture medium in total!

Finally some text stamping from the HP1304 plate in Coffee Archival finished the front. To soften the stamping I gently wiped the the stamping with a wet baby wipe  I painted the back of the card in Blush.

It looked so good I was sorely tempted not to cut it up, but I was brave and did. I cut 2" wide strips and then scored at 1" intervals to make a concertina folded book.  Along the folds (in and out) and the edges  I added Frayed Burlap Distress Ink.

My hidden secret word was DESIRE (I also want to make PASSION and LUST and possibly ENVY) and I knew I wanted to add layers of texture under each letter.

I used a baby wipe to smear Nougat on a spare piece of Kraft and stamped the alphabet a few times from EEG02 in Coffee Archival. For each letter there is: a piece of cream sari ribbon, some painted book text, a small piece of brown tissue paper and finally the letter.  I went over the letters in black pen just to make them stand out more. I also drew round the letter with a brown pencil to frame it.

The last thing was to add some eyelets to the front and thread though some suede ribbon.  Over the eyelets I dripped some Espresso alcohol ink and also dripped a little along the folds. 

It really is a touchy feely thing and when I make the others I may well mount them on a canvas, open, visible, no longer secret and hidden.

Hugs

Jo

xx