Tuesday, March 15, 2016

Finding Atlantis Steampunk Journal

This month there are a lot of exciting projects happening over at Eileen Hull's blog! Have you heard of Sizzix Paper Leather and Inksheets? The Inspiration Team has been playing with these great products all month and wowie, there are cool projects to be seen over there.


I created a nautical steampunk themed journal using the Passport Book die. This is going to be part of a much larger project. I have been (very) slowly working on a Configurations Book – steampunk with a 'searching for Atlantis' twist. You can see two other posts about parts of it HERE and HERE. Let's take a look at the journal! (This is a long post, lots of photos! I'll have a tutorial about using the Ink Sheets after all the project photos so hang in there.)

front
The cover is made from embossed brown Paper Leather (two layers glued together) with black Inksheet details (Instructions following. The spine is also Paper Leather covered with copper foil.

back
The inner pages are all cut from white Paper Leather, colored with Tea Dye Distress Ink using the Wrinkle Free Distress technique, and then stamped using various brown and black Ranger Archival Inks. I thought about taking a photo of the enormous pile of stamps I had out for all these inner pages but figured this post was long enough already lol.


The octopus image is made using a die and white Inksheet! The Inksheets act like a resist on your substrate and allow you to use thin dies like stamps! Instructions following…


I also discovered you can use stencils with the Inksheets. On these pages I used the Bare Branches stencil and a gold Inksheet to impress the branches onto the page (plus it acts as a resist!)





I've added bits of "ephemera" into the journal, like the author clipped in letters, sketches, maps and specimens.



Almost done!



So now you may be wondering about how to use the Inksheets. As you can see, you can achieve some really interesting effects with them. If you buy the Starter Kit, you will get the adapter plate to use in the Big Shot, Inksheets, and some dies. They also come in packs of five in various colors.



Method 1: Using a die. Sandwich is base, Inksheet adapter plate, substrate (white Paper Leather page in this case), Inksheet - matte side down, die - cutting side down, regular cutting pad (not shown). The die makes an impression in the paper and transfers the ink to the paper! Since I did white on white here, it didn't show up much until I added the brown ink. The Distress Ink didn't stick to the Inksheet so it makes a great resist. (see the finished page #1)


Method 2: Using an embossing folder. Here I am showing the following sandwich: base with the red tab, adapter plate, embossing folder with paper and Inksheet (matte side down) inside, and regular cutting pad. Later I had a light bulb moment and realized I can just use the regular sandwich for embossing folders and not mess with the adapter plate. Either way works fine.



Method 3: Using stencils. The stencils are thinner than dies so I didn't need the adapter plate. The sandwich is base plate, cutting pad, substrate, Inksheet matte side down, stencil, cutting pad (not shown). You can see another project where I use stencils and Inksheets HERE.




So now we've gone from this:

(I added a fifth set of pages!)
To this:


I used doubled up, heavy button hole thread to bind the pages into the cover. I also only used two sections of the spine because I didn't need the journal to be so thick. Did you realize you can adjust it to your needs? ;-) I first threaded the signatures (pages) and then passed the ends through the holes in the spine. There are different ways you can bind these. I just tied off the threads using square knots and braided the tails on the top knot.

Whew! That was an epic post. If you are still reading you should get a prize! Be sure to check out Eileen Hull's blog to see what the rest of my team mates have been doing this month. Each week she has been posting some really exciting projects. We'd like to see any of your work too! You can share them on Eileen's FaceBook page.

Thanks for stopping by! I'm also entering this card into the SanDee & Amelie's Steampunk Challenge – March, Anything Goes. The supplies I used for this project can be found at Sizzix or Simon Says Stamp. Follow the links below and a shopping you may go. ;-)


13 comments:

  1. Gorgeous Lisa. I love how you used the ingredients . Thee bossing is gorgeous and I love how aged and vintage the pages look. Tracy x

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  2. Wow, Lisa! This journal is amazing! love the fabulous steampunk look and all those great images! I really love seahorses, so it was a treat to see how you altered them! Love it!

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  3. The book cover looks like tooled leather! Crazy good project and tutorial- thanks so much Lisa!

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  4. Oh my! This is so utterly imaginative and inspiring! I LOVE your book and the nautical theme and how you make it look very "real". Soo beautiful!

    Thank you for sharing it with us at SanDee&amelie's Steampunk Challenges!

    Claudia xx

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  5. Wowza! LOVE this book - what a great job with the leather sheets cover - it looks SO REAL!! and all the wonderful stampings on your pages - SO SO Cool and creative!! Julia xx

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  6. Amazing work !!!! I love your book. thank you for your participation at Sandee & Amelie steampunk challenges !

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  7. This is awesome on so many levels! Great project.

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  8. Love love love your journal so very creative...amazing and makes beautiful use of so much of the supplies i hoard...LOL must start using my goodies...you are a great inspiration....hugs !

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  9. What a brilliant little book of wonder! Every page and texture is amazing. Such an inspiration today. TFS! <3

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  10. Stunning, Lisa. Just stunning.

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  11. My most favorite of all! You creative goddess!

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