Mixed Media - Altered journal cover

At the end of last week I saw a fab idea over on The Altered Page and spent some time in the wee small hours wishing I could attend Seths workshops before considering what I could do to alter an A5 size journal I was given recently.  The next day Cheryl Baker mentioned in a Facebook group that she had just finished a canvas and done a tutorial on her blog (click her name to visit).  WOW I was then really fired up to give it a go and THEN Hels Sheridan posted her Sunday stamper challenge which this week is 'stitch in time' and I had already planned to put in some big cross stitches somewhere on my piece.  It was meant to happen!

The Layers

I started with a piece of fine muslin torn slightly over sized and adhered it to the book front and spine using a good coat of adhesive I had left over from a diy project.   I used this was because I had previously tried to use it as a texture paste on cardstock and discovered it dried with a crackled chalky finish.  I put another coat of adhesive over the top of the muslin leaving some areas uncoated and laid down my second layer, a bit of torn packaging with a corrugated core.  I clamped the card in place and left the whole thing to dry overnight.

I was a little disappointed to find when it had dried there were no cracks but I was already loving the texture.

I then added another layer with die cuts using Sizzix Alterations dies and twine ensuring I did nothing to prevent the book from opening properly when finished.  I painted over the entire thing with gesso and left to dry before adding another layer.

While waiting for the above to dry I painted the other embellishments with gesso and stitched a huge cross into the piece of hessian.  Once dry I added texture paste through a Tim Holtz layering stencil and adhered the other pieces.

Finally came the scary bit because I wanted to paint over the entire piece.  I had tested various combinations on a piece of card and decided to go with an assortment of distress paints including a metallic.  Once the paint was on daubed fairly randomly I spritzed the whole thing to get some marbling going, then while still wet sprayed very lightly with some colorwash spray, some great chemistry happened at that point as the spots of spray bleed into the paint. Before drying I used a mica spray to add some sheen.  At this point the paint was very wet, using a heat gun moved it around more than I liked so I left it to dry in the sun.  

The back of the book using crackle paints as well as distress paints and colorwash and cosmic shimmer spray.