Compendium of Curiosities 3 Challenge 13!

This is a photo heavy post, so get comfy if you have the time.  Although I cannot tell you all the details on how I made this worn journal cover, I can show and tell the extra bits which I did to add to my project that are not in Tim's book on Page 35!  Go to Linda's blog to see more ideas by the Curiosity Crew for inspiration.

I started with a brand new Cover.

 Covered it with Gel medium

 Then adhered a sheet of gift wrap tissue paper which I had scrunched up.

 When the front was dry, I glued the inside and wrapped the paper round the cover.

 Now I had a textured cover, inside and out!

I started on the front cover with distress paint and water which takes an age to dry, but I prefer it to air dry than help it with a heat gun as it seems to dry more interesting when left to its own devices!

 You can see how much paler it dries below! 

 Once this was dry, I had run out of patience so I did the inside with a thin layer of paint and blended it with a baby wipe.  This showed up the wrinkles nicely.

 Once this was dry (which was quick!) I lightly smeared some bronze paint dabber onto the raised areas of tissue paper around the edge of the cover, inside and out.

 Then I set about making the decorations for the cover and shopped my stash for trinkets.

I added distress embossing powder to the clock die to make it look rusted.  

Here you can see how I plotted my layout before adding my stencils.

 I discovered a great thing about this stencil, if you stencil it straight first, you can angle it the second time and get a full second clock at the top!

as per below!

 This is the finished base for the front of my cover.

 The inside looked like this before I added the cut off piece of clock die.

 I used a brad though my ribbon, the buckle and the clock die to anchor it all in place.

This is how it looks from the top

 The clock face from the remnant rub fitted perfectly inside this Spellbinders cog die.

 For extra texture I added some flat backed pearls.

 The safety pin on the spine acts as an anchor for the excess ribbon once it is buckled up.

 The Antique bronze distress paint that I added to the metal cogs and word strip look  almost gold in these photos, but they are quite copper in real life!

 I added the off cut from the front clock to the inside cover of the back page.

 This is the buckle closed, as if the cover was full inside.  I am still working on the contents!

 Tim's buckle is such a clever piece of idea-ology.  Functional and good looking!

So this is my cover, inside and out.

If you want to join in this challenge, get yourself a copy of the Compendium of Curiosities 3 and go to page 35.  This is an odd numbered challenge, so the sponsor for the lucky draw prize is Inspiration Emporium who are giving a generous $50 voucher!  Tim and Mario sponsor an awesome selection of goodies as the prize for the person's project chosen by the Curiosity Crew.  To be eligible for this prize, you have to comment on every Curiosity Crews members inspirational piece and stick to the few rules Linda stipulates....