A new journal

Good afternoon folks.
Busy waiting for things to dry at the moment so thought I would share this weekends make with you.
During the course of things I quite often end up with unfinished bits and pieces, things I work on in a class for example to show techniques but generally don't finish them.
This is one of those things. A half finished book cover that was just lying there; leftover bits from my Burst kit.
Not any more though as I made this with it

 I was feeling kind of lazy so, instead of making the pages as I often do, I used a spiral bound journal and covered the spiral with some white polycotton to "hide" it and then attached my covers to that. I decided I didn't like the existing colour I had painted them originally so covered everything including the fabric with a coat of gesso and a couple of layers of Americana Blue Mist acrylic paint. When that was dry I added some further layers of washes with Traditions, Quin Gold, Red Oxide and Purple. To add further interest I sprinkled with salt and left to dry.

 When it was dry I removed the salt and used sand paper to scrub some colour away to reveal more of the blue to give a more distressed look.

 I I stamped over the surface with my Fantasy Background stamp in Plum Archival ink. Keeping it nice and random and faded in places.

 To add further details I used my Winged Pattern Mask and gilding wax to some areas.

 I added a collection of tattered flowers, metal embellishments and old jewellery to the front.

I decided that the back looked a bit too plain so I added a flower to the back too with some leaves and used some old chain to link the two pieces together which has the added bonus of giving interest to the spine of the book.

So, you can see how nicely everything flows when the book is open. I like how the fabric works and hides the spine too being nice and flexible without being too bulky.
So, another journal ready and waiting for the pages to be inked in.........
Speaking of that, who is playing along with The Craft Barn Quotes and Lyrics challenge? The new word went up on Sunday and this is my page for it (Follow the link for more details)

Right, that's me done for today; back to work time!