Mixed Media/Stamping Books Destash Sale

Hi all,
I have some mixed media/stamping/arts books from my own collection that I am ready to pass on to new owners. All of them are fabulous in my opinion and I've learned alot from them :) I have listed them below with generic pics of what they look like, along with price (about half off their retail price) and # of pages. All of them are gently used and in great shape. If you are interested in any of them, please email me at zaharstudio@gmail.com and I can send you a paypal invoice for total + shipping. Thanks for taking a look!

Artist Trading Card Workshop- Bernie Berlin
127 pages: $12




Layered, Tattered & Stitched- Ruth Rae
128 pages: $13


Bent, Bound & Stitched- Guiseppina Cirincione
128 pages- $12



30 Minute Rubber Stamp Workshop- Sandra McCall
127 pages- $13



Making Greeting Cards with Creative Materials- MaryJo McGraw
121 pages: $12



Greeting Card Magic with Rubber Stamps- MaryJo McGraw
125 pages: $12


Stamp Art- Sharilyn Miller
126 pages: $12



Collage Cards, Mini Books, Slide Mounts & More- Suzanne McNeill
50 pages: $9


Simple Soldered Jewelry & Accessories- Lisa Bluhm
144 pages: $13




The Pop-Up Book-Paul Jackson
160 pages: $13

12 Days of Christmas: Day 4- Hammered Aluminum Art Book

Welcome back to 12 Days of Christmas everyone! Today I am sharing a gift item that I have made. You all know, if you've followed my blog for very long, that I LOVE repurposing old hardback book covers and making new books out of them. Well, I decided to do it yet again and make a mini art/sketch book for my daughter.

But, I do have a surprise for you. As a thanks for being patient with me while I skipped out on my last project to spend time with my hubby, I've made a tutorial for my hammered aluminum technique! You'll see the technique in today's project, and if you want to learn how to do it, you can find the instructions on our new and improving (since we're not done yet) Tutorial Page on the Smeared and Smudged Forum. Just go there and click the button that says Hammered Aluminum; it'll show you how to do the strip and flower.

Now on to the book...

*click for larger pics








After recovering my book cover with deco paper, I used our Inky Dreams stamp set from Smeared Ink to stamp my background ink blotches in acrylic paint. I used some pearl-ex powder all around the edges of the book. I then added the hammered aluminum strip down the front, my feathers, wire, and flower embellishment. The last step was to add in my new journal block. I've included a pic of the back also so you can see how awesome the background stamp is!

I can't wait to see the look on my daughter's face when she sees this, cause I know she'll love it! And I hope you get some ideas for your own projects after you see my tutorial. Now, hop on over to the rest of the Jolly Bloggers by following the links in my sidebar to get some more fabulous 12 Days inspiration.

Smeared and Smudged and Kenny K

Today the Smeared Ink Design Team is hosting a very special hop featuring images from Kenny K, who happens to be the sponsor for two of our challenges at the Smeared and Smudged Forum! Kenny K offers some very sassy digi stamps, and I am personally in love with their images. Although I rarely use digi's, I really can see myself making many projects with these; they are super fun!

Kenny K very generously offered images for our Design Team to work with, and I was lucky to get Star. I adore her, especially because I am part of a very musical family. My husband plays guitar and bass, and we have four of them hanging in our office. I don't play, but I can imagine sitting with a guitar like Star and looking awesome....well, maybe not. If only I looked as good!

Anyway, Star inspired me to make a mini paper journal. You could use it to jot down thoughts inspired by your favorite songs (which is probably what I will use it for), or list your fave playlists or make a band collage book. I used lots of paint and a maraud of background paper. I decided to keep Star black and white to make her stand out from the chaos in the background and just colored in her guitar.









I also used a microscope slide, which we now carry in the new Odds N Ends section of our Smeared Ink shop for altering. It was really neat what I was able to do in just a minute or two, and I can't wait to really sit down and use one of these as a more detailed part of a project. The finishing touches on the cover were some blue microbeads, which we also now carry, some handwritten words, charcoal shadows, and some ribbon binding to hold all the pages together.

I hope you enjoy it and get some inspiration, and if you have the chance before the end of the month, swing by the Smeared and Smudged forum and enter either the Very Sketchy Challenge or the Photo Inspiration Challenge (or BOTH!) for a chance to win some free Kenny K stuff. Also, check out Kenny K's Challenge Blog where a new challenge is posted weekly.

So now on to the list of participating hoppers, have fun!

Tori

Alison

Kelli

Black Dragon

Lady Brayton

Meredith

Kapree

Lisa

Day 21- 31 Days of Halloween: Curious Raven

Welcome everyone to Day 21 of 31 Days! Only 10 days 'til Halloween, can you believe it? Today for my project I started a chipboard book. I've had this thing sitting around since, well, forever, and have never done anything to it, so I thought it would be nice to have a little mini something for Halloween. Not quite sure what is going to go in it, but I will just go with the flow when the time comes. For now, I've just designed the cover.








There is a whole lot going on here, but I'll just tell you that most of it is paint. My stamped image is from Smeared Ink's Quoth The Raven set. There is some cheesecloth added in for good measure, an acrylic window, some more of that cool black netting that I used on my Lonely Boy Torture Book, and some black hemp ties. I also added a couple of pearls, some eyelets, and will add in a red ruby crystal to the raven's eye as soon as I can get my hands on one.

I hope you enjoy! Have fun hopping today, and come back later for the hidden image winner.

Day 20- 31 Days of Halloween: Vintage Halloweenie Notebook

Hi everybody! Welcome to day 20, and I'm happy to report I actually have a project to show you! I am doing a bit better, although still sore, but I had my kids be my go-fers for supplies last night, so I was able to make a simple something for you to look at. It is an altered composition notebook.








You may be asking yourself where the stamped images are...well, each doll body piece is in fact a separate stamp, as well as the face. I distressed each piece a little and I added the black cat temporary tattoo. All the "stitches" were drawn on, and I made the hat out of a temporary tattoo also- it was a spiderweb that I cut up. The hat trim was leftover from my altered doll, and the cute bat buttons, as well as the other buttons, came to me in a prize RAK from Barb at HDH and Oz.

All of the background papers are from Graphic 45. The little side raffia looking ribbon is scrap that I took off of a covered floral wire. And, I think that's about it. I really like the vintage-y look to this, very simple and childlike. I'll definitely be using it to jot down some notes!

So, I also need to apologize to you all since yesterday was supposed to be a hidden prize day. But, to make it up, Vampire Rye from Wild Flower Kids is joining us today! Be sure to check out all the wicked blogs, and if you happen to spot him, email me. I will draw for the winner tomorrow.

Have fun today!

Day 8- 31 Days of Halloween: Lonely Boy Torture Book

I bet that title got your attention! Welcome back to 31 Days of Halloween on the S&S Blog. If you haven't been around for the past 7 days, you can catch up on all the rules and regs by visiting THIS post.

First things first; yesterday we had an awesome hidden prize from Strange Skin, and I'm sure you all want to know who the winner is. We had seven people figure out that Frankie was hidden on Lady Brayton's Blog. I've put all the names in order, and the winner by random # is...

True Random Number Generator

Min: 1
Max: 7
Result:
2
Powered by RANDOM.ORG

The winner is Sugar!! Sugar, you get to choose one digi from Strange Skin's Famous Monster Collection! Please email me with your choice and I will pass on your information. Woo Hoo! Congrats!

So, now for my Day 8 project. I meant to make this at the beginning of 31 Days so I could jot down all my Halloweenie ideas, but it just didn't happen until now. It is a book that I made using an old hardback book. If you follow my blog, you have probably seen my books/journals before and know how I make them. But, if you don't know, what I do is find an old hardback book and cut out the whole page block. Then I alter the cover to suit my needs by cutting to size and decorating, and then I insert a brand new page block that I buy from Hollander's. I love doing this because I can use the cut out pages for other projects (or recycle them), and reuse a cover.

*click pics for larger views

For this one, I wanted it to be a little morbid. I started with deco paper that I grunged up with distress ink and stazon. Then I stamped my crosshatch pattern from Quoth The Raven(Smeared Ink) all over it- I think this is one of my fave background stamps. I completely covered my book cover with the paper, adding mitered corners to the inside to make it nice and neat.

My next step involves a black plastic mesh bag that some of my Halloween decorations came in last year. Yes, I kept it...I keep EVERYTHING, I think it's a disease...
I took the bag, and wrapped it around the front cover, attaching it to the inside but leaving one end open near the spine.

Next, I made a spider web out of hot glue on top of a piece of parchment paper. When dry, I peeled it off in one piece. I took a scrap piece of leather and spray painted it white, then placed the spider web over top of it and sprayed it again in black. This left a spiderweb imprint on the leather, and also colored my spiderweb. The leather slid behind the mesh bag and was secured. The spiderweb was then secured on top of the mesh.



Lonely Boy from Lonely Boy and Puff (Smeared Ink) was stamped into paperclay and left to dry. When dry, I painted him in black and then overcolored in a pinkish-beige that kinda gives me the impression of skin. Eeeewwwww, gross! He looks like a flap of skin on the front of the book! Now you know where I got the title from. Going along with this theme, I decided to string him up with "ropes" and nail them down. To finish off the cover, I added the inner horror saying from our As Death set.



I'm sorry the description is sooooooooo long, but this was a pretty involved project. I can't wait to use it, though, to jot down all of my fun Halloween ideas for this year. This way I have a record of it in case I don't get to do everything. I hope it inspires you to make your own idea journal as well. Have fun hopping through our Wicked Blogs today, and I'll "see" you tomorrow!

Winter Watcher Mini Journal

Today I'd like to share a mini journal that features the Winter Watcher stamp image from Sweet Pea Rubber Stamps. I used the same techniques as before to gut an old hardcover book, and trimmed it to the size I wanted. Then following the same steps in my Flaming Hot Decorative Paper Tutorial, I added a painted background in black, purples, and gray, with some black glitter accents. The image coloring was done with prismas, watercolor crayons, and paint pens, and I finished the book off with some crystal brads, torn paper and frayed ribbon.



I'll be touching up the inside of this journal with some paint before adding into my etsy shop at the beginning of January. if you're in love with this or any of the other journals I've made, be sure to check out my shop soon because I'll be offering some beautiful and interesting hardback journals!

I hope you all enjoyed your holidays this month and were able to share some heartfelt, handmade items with those you love!!!!I'll be relaxing for a few more days, then welcoming in a whole new year of exquisite and fun art. I really look forward to you all joining Smeared and Smudged in 2010!

Home Crafted Holidays Dream Journal

Hello everyone, and thanks for visiting Smeared and Smudged today! I'd like to welcome those of you who are joining me from the Domestic Witch's Home Crafted Holidays, and also welcome back all of my followers and old and new friends. I'm looking forward to sharing my project with you!

This time of year is all about giving, renewal, and enjoyment of life. In the dead of winter, it's hard to believe that Winter Solstice is the strongest time for nature during the year. Everything slumbers and prepares for the chance to grow stronger and more vibrant in the spring; it's a wonderful time!

I thought for my home-crafted gift idea I'd share with you a dream journal that the recipient can use to strengthen and prepare themselves. It can be stored bedside and used as a literal dream book to record dream details each morning, or it can be adapted and used to record dreams and aspirations for the coming year.

To start off, you will need an old hardcover book and a blank text block. If you know how to make text blocks, wonderful! If not, you can find them online from book making stores. I purchased mine from Hollander's.

Cut the old text block out of your cover as shown below. Then place your new text block inside the cover and trim the cover down to fit nicely over your new blank journal. Set your text block aside.

Pick a nice 12 x 12 decorative paper that you want to use to cover your journal. Place your open cover over the paper, and trim leaving 1/2 inch around each edge. Cover the whole back of your paper with glue, and set your cover on top of it face down. Fold the edges of the paper over onto the inside of the cover. Make sure you use strong glue, like bookbinders glue.

The inside of your cover will look like this.

The outside will look like this (with your decorative designed paper on the outside).

Now comes the fun part where you get to add in your own artistic embellishment. If you're not artistic, you can add pre-made stickers, a nice jewel, a flat flower, or anything you'd like on the cover using a strong glue like e600 and be done with the decorating. I LOVE to add my own artistic flair to my projects, so I'll take you step by step through what I did. The most important thing to remember is this is a dream book, so just go with the flow of your creativity! Don't plan too much.

First, I dry brushed some white paint onto the cover.

Then I used paint and gel pens to add some swirls and dots to one side of the front cover. Remember, don't think too much, just let it happen!

I chose the rubber stamp images that I wanted to use, and stamped them with versamark ink directly onto the cover, then poured black embossing powder over them. You could stamp them with just black ink, but you'll see why I embossed them in a minute.

After stamping all my images and covering with powder, I used my heat gun to melt and set the powder.

Then I stamped my word "dream" all over just using black stazon ink.

Now you'll see why I embossed my images. Using my white gel pen, I colored in my wings and the whites of the eyes. Since I embossed, the white did not cover the outline.

On the top of my journal, I used heat and stick embossing powder to add antique silver pearl ex, and clear mini micro beads. Then I punched holes directly into the cover and added jeweled brads.

I also took a flesh colored prismacolor and added a little bit of color to my faces.

I decided I wanted a little more depth, so I used a black prismacolor and blender to add shadows to my images. Here you can see the top two are shadowed and the bottom image is not.

After all my shading, this is the cover I ended up with.

I punched another small hole directly into the bottom corner of the cover and added a star charm with a brad. The brads are visible on the inside of the cover, but they won't be seen when we're done.

To finish off the outside, I wrapped blue and black ribbon and fiber around the spine part, tied it, and frayed the ends.

So now is when you flip your cover back to the inside. Cut two pieces of contrasting paper decorative paper to fit just inside the edged of the cover.

Using your strong bookbinders glue, cover them completely and then place inside.

Your inside cover will now look like this with your own paper. This is what will hide all those brads that we stuck through the cover.

Finally, add glue to your text block and glue it to the cover. If you get text blocks from Hollander's, they have an excellent instruction book that you can get telling you how to glue in a text block, and I highly recommend it! If not you can also find instructions online. You just want to make sure your cover and spine are flush with the block, which is why I lift my side up and then glue.

After gluing in both sides of the text block, you are done! Just place your book under a very heavy object overnight so the glue can set, and then you're ready for wrapping!

Like I said before, you can decorate your journal any way you like, and it makes an excellent gift that almost anyone can enjoy. It's also a great way to keep unwanted hardcover books out of landfills, and the covers can be trimmed to any size. If you're a mixed media artist, you can use the old pages for other projects, and if you're not you can recycle the old book's pages.

So, I hope you enjoyed my journal project and that you give it a try. It's a wonderful gift to give, a great way to express yourself, and just plain fun to make! I'd love to hear what you think about it, so feel free to leave a comment, and visit Smeared and Smudged again soon.
Happy Home Crafted Holidays!

Vintage Girdle Today Journal

The project that I am sharing today is another gutted book that I converted to a journal. I'm loving these text blocks from Hollander's so you'll probably see quite a few little journals and note pads coming from me over the next few weeks. Plus, they make great gifts!

Anyhoo, with this journal I cut the cover down to the size I needed and then painted with a grey and blue crackle finish. I stamped a harlequin background stamp in midnight green down one edge, and then whitewashed the whole thing.

I used the same midnight colored paint and white on the back of the awesome girdle transparency image from Prickley Pear, and then adhered that to the front of the book. Using the same techniques as my mermaid journal, I added in my "I Will" list to both the front and back cover using paint pens.


*click pics for larger views*


"I will listen to good music. I will relax. I will be less critical of others around me. I will take action. I will reminisce. I will be satisfied. I will "be", not "do". I will be honest. I will recycle. I will be a friend. I will be creative. I will be free. I will smile, anyway. I will be like a breath of fresh air. I will rest my weary bones. I will be me."

Then I painted some chipboard letters with the midnight color, added sketchy outlines and jewels, and adhered to the bottom of the transparency. After adding a black outline, some shading with chalk, and some whymsical flowers, I finished off the book with some black yarn and then attached my text block to the inside.



I thought it would be cool to have a journal that reminds me of the things I would like to do and the person I would like to be every day. Plus it sports a rockin' image! I hope you enjoy it, let me know what you think and I'll see you next time.