Thursday, December 11, 2014

Using your stash in a new way.

I am sharing a painted book I made and finished recently. It is a little wooden scrapbooking album that has a swirly cover and three wooden pages. It is made by Kaisercraft.  They have quite a few different designs and styles available. 

I didn't do any preparation other than sanding the edges to make them smoother. I wanted the background layers of paint to soak into the wood so I didn't seal it first but you could if you want a smooth white surface to paint on (either with sealer or gesso). I know that the unsealed wood will eventually make the paintings yellow a bit but I am happy to allow that to happen so it looks old. I used photos of flowers that I have taken so there are no copyright issues and I used Jo Sonja's acrylic paints throughout the project.

This is the book cover. I painted it green then added some patchy gold paint for a distressed look. I also used the gold paint on the edges of the pages so it looks golden when the book is closed. 

 This is the first flower I painted. I went for a realistic style for this one and decided to stay with that for the rest of the book. It is a beautiful Camellia in my garden. The flowers always look so perfect on this plant. It is one of my favourites.


 
 Another Camellia from my garden. They grow so beautifully here in Perth, so I have a lot of them. Sometimes when I am taking photos to use as paintings I take lots of different angles to add interest to the composition.

 These flowers are known as Everlastings or Paper Daisies because their petals are dry like paper and make a rustling sound when touched. I took this photo at a national park's wildflower festival. It was a little more difficult to paint because of the many layers of flowers but I do like to challenge myself.

This is one of my favourite Jonquils from my garden. There are so many flowers on each stem and they last for ages. I had to lay on the ground to get the photo because I couldn't see the flower properly from a standing position. 

These unusual looking flowers are known as a Qualup Bell. I took their photo at the wildflower festival too.

The last page in my book is of some Lisianthus that I was given by my husband. They looked so good in the vase I took a bunch of photos for future reference. It is a good idea to take photos of flowers you receive so you have a stash of copyright free images you can use in any art or crafts you like.

I used a spray varnish to protect the paintings when I finished and now have the book on display in my home. The wooden pages means it can stand by itself and when I tire of looking at one page I can turn it over to look at a different flower for a while. It is a great way to use something from my scrapbooking stash to make art and I don't have to find more wall space for another 6 paintings.