More Ground to Cover

I am experimenting more and more with digital ground. (If you haven't checked out my first post on the subject you can here.) I have a paper mache book box that I thought would make a good surface to play with. I started by covering it with old dictionary pages, inside and out, lathered it with gel medium and carelessly slapped down the pages. After the pages were decoupaged, I laid crinkled tissue paper on top for extra texture.

I learned from the paper mache mailboxes (my first experiment with digital ground) that it works best when applied with a little spritz of water and then quickly dried with the heat gun. You don't have to dry it completely, just enough to bring out most of the cloudiness.

Inside cover

I knew that I was going to work with neutral colors, brown and beige but I didn't have any brown spray ink. (I wasn't going to use paint to do this, I wanted spray ink, like distress stains.) So I grabbed me an empty spray bottle. Filled it halfway with water and then added a good squirt of Walnut Stain Reinker. (This is my ingenuity working here. Or my frugal side. Idk which one) 

Using the heat gun, I manipulate the ink around the surface to create a watercolor effect. It also allows the ink to dry thicker in some spots than others which looks really awesome. When dry, I Distressed the edges of the book with Tim Holtz's Vintage Photo distress ink to add a bit of wear and tear appeal. You could really go in a number of directions with this project but I decided that I liked it just the way it was: simple and vintage. 

I tore a square chunk out of rubber cabinet grip and a psych of cheese cloth for the base of my cover. Then just layered my embellishments in an order that I liked. I used an old rusted hinge thingy and paper crafted flowers to be the center and added some grunge board garnishes to accentuate the hardware. 

And this is it! 

This mini book is 4" wide 6" tall and 1.5" thick
Available in my Etsy shop!