Window On Your World Tunnel Book Tutorial

Hello everyone and thank you for stopping by.  It's Deb here with you today to share a tutorial on how I made my Winter Wonderland tunnel book for our Window On Your World challenge.

Grab a cup of your favourite beverage and let's get started.

Cut a piece of 12" x 12" scrapbook paper in half so your have two pieces measuring 6" x 12".

Score both pieces on the long side, starting at 3 1/2" and scoring every half inch up to 6 1/2".

Fold on the score lines as shown.

The 3 1/2" segments will become the front cover of your tunnel book and the 5 1/2" segments will overlap to form the back cover of your book.

Adhere the back covers together, making sure that the back of the tunnel book is 6" wide from score line to score line.

We now have the cover of our tunnel book completed, set it aside for now.  Cut 4 pieces of cardstock, each one just a smidgen less than 6" square.  Set one 6" square piece aside for the time being (sorry, forgot to take a picture of that step!).

Select 3 graduated nesting dies, I used circular dies that measured 5", 4 1/2" and 4".  Center the 5" die on one of the 6" square pieces of cardstock and die cut a window.  Place another piece of 6" square cardstock behind the die cut opening, lining up all of the edges, and center the 4 1/2" die in the opening.  Die cut the window on the second piece of cardstock.

Place the third 6" square behind the piece with the 4 1/2" window and center the 4" die within the opening.  Die cut the third window.  Set all of the die cut pieces aside for the moment.

Ink the last piece of 6" square cardstock with Distress inks in shades of blue, dipping it into puddles of ink until you are happy with the colour.

Ink more cardstock with Distress inks in shades of green in the same manner and die cut two Tree Line die cuts.  Die cut the Winter Wonderland stag from sanded Classic Kraft Stock and add the wreath around his neck if you'd like (the wreath die is from the Village Christmastime die set).

Overlay the 4" die cut window onto the inked background so that you get the placement right and adhere the Tree Line die cuts, overlapping and offsetting them slightly.  Adhere the deer on top of the Tree Line die cuts.  Add some snow along the bottom if desired with a white sparkle embossing powder.

Apply double sided tape to the back of the background panel and adhere it onto the back cover of your tunnel book.

Stencil a design onto the front of the 4" die cut window piece (this is Carta Bella's Holly stencil).  Die cut some Mini Holiday Greens from more Distress Ink coloured cardstock.

Adhere the 4" window onto the front of the 1/2" accordion fold that is closest to the background, centering the window top and bottom and side to side.  I found it easier to use a liquid adhesive for this step so you had a little play time to make the sure the window was centered properly in your tunnel book.  Adhere the die cut greenery around the opening, making sure that it doesn't obscure your focal point.

Stencil the 4 1/2" die cut window  piece with a design of your choice (this is Simple Stories Happy Trials stencil) and stamp and die cut some Mini Swirly Snowflakes.

Adhere the 4 1/2" window on top of the next 1/2" accordion fold in our tunnel book.  Adhere the Mini Swirly Snowflakes on top of the window, staggering them so you can still see the Mini Holiday Greens die cuts behind.

Stencil a design on the last 5" die cut window piece.  Make sure that whatever stencil you use has a repeating pattern as we will be continuing this design onto the inside covers of your tunnel book (this is Tim Holtz's Starry Layering stencil).  Die cut some stars from sanded gold Metallic Kraft Stock.

Adhere the 5" window on top of the last 1/2" accordion fold in your tunnel book.  Don't glue the stars around the outside quick yet.

Line up your stencil with the pattern on the 5" window and continue to stencil the pattern onto the insides of your tunnel book covers.

Adhere the die cut gold stars around the outside of the 5" window, staggering their placement so you can see the layers below.  Cut more Tree Line die cuts from green inked cardstock and adhere them on either side of the tunnel book covers.  Die cut two Woodlands trees from green inked cardstock and adhere one on each side, over top of the Tree Line die cuts.  Add a small gold star to the top of each tree if desired.

Decorate the front covers of your tunnel book with more Tree Line die cuts and some Mini Paper Snowflakes die cuts.  I designed the covers to overlap slightly but if you don't want them overlapped trim a 1/2" off each cover so the meet in the middle (probably best to do that before you decorate the inside of the covers!!).  Dye a piece of ribbon with Distress Ink to tie around our tunnel book to keep it closed and you are done.

Here are a few closeups of the completed Winter Wonderland tunnel book.

Hope you enjoyed seeing how it came together and that you will consider joining in our Window On Your World challenge, you have until December 5th to enter.  Thanks so much for stopping by today and as always, happy creating!

Deb xo

Destination Inspiration - Terminal 2 with Autumn

Hi there!  Autumn here, arriving at Destination Inspiration with a lovely travel bag of goodies to play with.  Here's what we've packed:

Product: Sprays

Technique: Stamping

Colour: Blue & Brown

Substrate: Wood or Chipboard

I went to my favorite substrate, this altered address book to which I added chipboard pages to make into an art journal.  

I must confess, I was right at home with these colors and products.  Stamping is my favorite thing and I tend to lean towards a blue/green palette - always with the addition of browns.

I removed my pages from the binder gave a rough brushing of gesso.  I stenciled the Small Wildflowers stencil by Darkroom Door onto my pages, with Liquitex light modeling paste.  I love this paste for working with sprays because it soaks up the color and leaves such beautiful contrast.  I was anxious to see how Lindy's Stamp Gang Flat Fabio sprays would work over sponged Distress Oxides, so I sponged on some color roughly.  I sprayed over the blue DOX with Lindy's Danny Zuko's Denim and spritzed with a little water to let the color bleed down the page.  I turned the pages upside down and spritzed the bottom with Lindy's Sandra Dee Sepia and let it bleed into the blue.  

Because my stenciling wasn't dry, I accidentally scraped off a portion of one of the flowers.  I decided to scrape off each other flower to make highlights and really liked this look - happy accidents!  :)

I perched a the house stamp from the Darkroom Door Home Sweet Home set atop the tallest flower.  I added two die cut Prima leaves and a die cut Tim Holtz Wildflower die cut.

I blended the wildflower die cut with the stenciling.  Here you can see where the spray colors meet.

The Tim Holtz paper dolls, layered over Tim Holtz doily die, remind me of my Grandma and her oldest sister.  There were 13 children in the family living on a farm.  When Pearl, the oldest child, went to work at the local mill they were able to buy flour for bread and shoes for the first times in their lives.  When they were much older, they loved fashion, after being raised so poor.  But their hearts were always humble and grounded.

I stamped the Gazette texture stamp in the background in DOX and spritzed it to get that faded look.  I used one of the $1 alphabet stamp sets to add the text.  I really like how the DOX changed the properties of the sprays and I was able to get the beautiful "spritz and fleck" look.  

I hope you're getting inspired by Terminal One with Alison and today's stop.  Join us next Monday for even more ideas with this month's travel bag contents.  And don't forget our current challenge, Think Inside or Outside the Box.  One lucky participant will win a $25 gift certificate to the Funkie Junkie Boutique.  We truly hope you will play along.

Destination Inspiration Terminal 1

Hello dear friends and fellow travellers, - this is Astrid, delighted to start you off in this our birthday month with our first Destination Inspiration post.
Like always, we have some wonderful goodies in our travel bags this month:

Substrate: Canvas

Colour: Turquoises & Teals

Product: Acrylic Paint

Technique: Layered Stencils

So here is a little canvas I put together to share with you:

I started by choosing a selection of acrylic paints in the two colours, it's a mix of Paper Artsy and Distress Paints.

 I put  them down in pretty random fashion, just adding some yellow for a bit of contrast, drying carefully between colours to avoid mud.

Next I selected a few different stencils, a couple of Tim's Layering stencils, a stencil by Seth Apter and the word came from a Crafters Workshop stencil. As March is the month when Spring starts here in the Northern Hemisphere, I decided to give my canvas a Springtime feel.

I used a mix of products to stencil with. This is what I love about layered stencils, there are so many different options. I used paint, Archival Inks, Distress Crayons and even some Distress Inks for a subtle effect in the background.

Below some close ups of different corners:

Time to start working on the foreground. I decided to work with Tim's Wildflowers, both the stamps and the dies. I stamped the chosen stamps on tissue paper, always a good trick when you want to add more than a bit of background stamping to a canvas.

I went around the stamped images with a water brush, this helps to tear around the stamping and creates a feathery edge, which helps to merge the stamping in the background. I adhered them to the canvas with matte gel medium.

Next I die cut a selection of the flowers and painted them in a very dark teal (Paper Artsy Inky Pool)

Then all that was left was to put it all together.

I added a strip of tissue wrap around the bottom of the canvas, to anchor my flowers a bit. Wrapped some twine around, including a bow, a sentiment (cut from some scrapbook paper) and a few metal elements for a bit of additional interest.

A little fussy-cut butterfly to add to the Spring Time feel.

Some subtle background stamping, I never seem to be able to create a project without a little bit of that, usually using a text stamp or two.

And of course on a canvas, you cannot forget about the edges. I went around all the sides of the canvas with some Hydrangea Archival Ink, just to frame it a bit and add some subtle shadow effect, and that was pretty much it.

Well, that was the first stop of our Destination Inspiration this month. Hope you'll come back next Monday to see what one of my teamies has made, and of course we would all love you to play in our birthday challenge too!

Have a super crafty month and thanks so much for your visit today!

xxxxx

Astrid