Hello...Can I Get Your Number???

Hello and Happy Thursday!  We have another special guest with us this month, the incredibly brilliant Susan M. Brown from Amazing Crafting Products.  She created with the January kit and this is one of her projects.

{Warning:  This is a very picture heavy tutorial post.  Susan was very detailed in her project steps}

Hello... Can I Get Your Number??? Amazing Address Book by Susan M. Brown {sbartist}

Amazing Crafting Products Creative Team Leader and designer Susan M. Brown {sbartist} combines the Frog Dog Studio January Kit and Amazing Crafting Products – our new Partner "In-Crafting". 

Included in the January Frog Dog Studio kit is a wooden mini-album from Genuinely Jane Studios in the shape of an old-fashioned telephone booth which Susan has transformed into a fabulous hanging telephone/address book... complete with a recycled spool of paper for notes and handmade embellishments, too! 

 

First up I prepped and painted the wooden phone booth panels that would be front and back covers to my address book and began to apply Liquitex Acrylic Ink in Pyrrole Red to the edges of the panels.

I found it worked better to brush a light coating of water to the wooden panels, then apply ink for a streak-free finish. The water helped the ink seep into all the crevices and make the brush strokes disappear.

These beautiful beads that were included with the ephemera in the kit... did you know they come apart into 5 sections??!! Yippee - now I won't be possessed to mold them to make 1/2 bead portions for embellishing.

I mounted and prepared the "Telephone Book Page" exclusive Frog Dog Studio Stamp onto my strips of recycled paper using the Clearsnap, Donna Salazar Mix'd Media iNx Stamp Pad in black. I rotated the stamp in different directions to fill the page. Then I overstamped using the phones and telephone lines from the "Communication 4x6 Stamp Set to create a stamped collage that will line the inside cover of my address book.

I trimmed my completed collage to size and edged with a Warm Red Cat's Eye Chalk ink. Using glue stick {my glue of preference for book building} - and a generous "slathering" I adhered my collage to the inside cover. 

This panel is complete!

OK - Now my apologies for this being so photo heavy... but I'm all about the little details!

AND I have a little **TIP** to share... what if you are in the throws of creating and you don't have an acrylic block in reach? Look around on your worktable for some packaging that a cling mounted stamp will fit to. I did have an acrylic block handy... but it was 5 x 7 size {way to large for stamping small words and such}.

Clearsnap is pretty smart by providing a super smooth cover that a cling mount stamp sticks to perfectly in a pinch. I used the cover to stamp my word phrases, pressing lighter than normal and it worked great! 

A note: I always do a practice stamping on a scrap paper first before stamping onto my work.

I cut a two sections of the Bazzill Basics Paper Perfectly Pleated Packet to fit the width of the cover and stamped S.O.S and telephone lines on top. Then I added "ring a ding a ling" underneath where the first pleated border will go.

Using a black journaling pen, I filled in any gaps in the imagery resulting in stamping over the pleats. Now you know my secret!

Using red-line double sided tape {great for holding together items on rough & painted surfaces}, I adhered my two pleated borders. Now I'm ready to prep for making my phone embellishment.

Now it's time to break out the Amazing Mold Putty!

You can make a mold using rubber stamps, but there needs to be some preparation. There is a chemical reaction when contact between a rubber stamp and Amazing Mold Putty happens, so you need to generously apply a protective layer of petroleum jelly to the stamp before pressing into the mold putty to create a mold. I also warm up each part of the mold putty by working it in my hands to help accelerate the curing process once mixed – so that I can remove the stamp as quickly as possible. I prepared equal amount of parts "A" and parts "B" of Amazing Mold Putty, then coated the rubber stamp with petroleum jelly.

Now combine the two parts of Amazing Mold Putty together until there is no visible swirls and until it is a uniform yellow color. Shape into an oval and smooth out any finger prints or marks in the surface of the putty as that will become embedded in your mold image if left that way.

Gently press stamp, face down into the mold putty and press into the ball while at the same time bringing up the sides to create a sidewall for resin to be poured. When you have it the way you like it and the desired depth, set it aside to cure for 10-15 minutes.

While this sets up - I will jump back to my address book!

OK - now I'm ready to start assembling my address book. I whipped up some address pages on the computer and printed them onto 2 1/2" x 14" strips of 100% recycled paper – perfect width to fit inside the covers and I could get two pages out of each strip {I work in the printing industry and this paper I've saved from a freelance job I did a while back - 100% recycled paper is really expensive and the leftovers were perfect size for mini book pages}.

I printed rows of capital letters onto a piece of the Stick-on Canvas that was in the Frog Dog Studio December Kit. I have a heavy duty laser printer that I have tested printing on canvas prior - so please don't try this on your printer unless you know that it can do it. This will make quick work of having custom tabs on my address pages.

I used a page from an old cheapy address book as a template to follow for my page formatting.

With my pages and tab letters printed - I'm ready to paint!

Using the Liquitex Acrylic Inks in Prussian Blue and Pyrrole Red - I placed some ink onto my craft mat  along with a cap of water to dilute the color.

Picking up a little ink and water, I began to paint alternating red and blue stripes for my letter tabs.

Painted stripes completed. Cut between each color stripe and separate individual letter tab strips.

Fold strip of painted canvas letters and remove backing.

Bend and place fold over/around edge of page and press adhesive in place.

I placed alternating color tabs for each letter and staggered between a few blank pages.

Completed tabs.

I punched pages to add a Zutter binder ring.

It's not a complete project if I'm not repurposing something that was headed for the bin...

for this part of the project, I'm repurposing a receipt tape spool that I will wrap blank paper onto and suspend from the bottom of my address book for a fun message center feature.

Using glue stick. I glued blank strips of recycled paper into one long strand by overlapping at the end with glue stick. I tear the edge of the overlapping paper so that the overlap blends away.

Now I have one continuous length of about 10 feet of paper – so fun!

Affix long strand of paper to recycled receipt spool using color coordinating washi tape.

I went back and added washi tape over the seams where I glued pages together, then wound it all up onto the spool. I finished of the ends of the spool with two halves {one on each end}of the same beads used on the cover adhered with E-6000. There is a small hole where I can feed wire through the bead so I can suspend this from the bottom of my address book base. I've repurposed a pencil from IKEA with the washi tape and wire hanger also so there won't be any searching for a pen.

Now for the finishing touches and to create my cast resin phone embellishment!

I've dusted the mold with Alumilite Pearlescent Powder which helps ease in release from the mold,

plus it gives a beautiful sheen to the Amazing Casting Resin piece.

Combine equal amounts of Amazing Casting Resin parts "A" and "B". Pour in a separate container to mix thoroughly and it will go from cloudy to clear when completely combined. This is my mixing cup which has many, many layers of cured resin in it. Once the resin is cured - it's solid and will not affect the next mixed batch.

Amazing Casting Resin turns opaque white as it cures.

Remove cured cast resin piece and trim excess while it is still flexible and sand edges with emory board. Due to chemical reaction of contact between rubber stamp and Amazing Mold Putty, there is some pitting and some pieces of mold stuck to the cured resin. This along with the petroleum jelly is easily washed away with soap and water. Dry resin piece completely before proceeding.

Paint blue ink on and buff away with paper towel to expose relief detail.

I rubbed, then buffed a little of the black ink onto the piece to add a little extra depth, then glued the phone embellishment and two halves of beads onto cover using E-6000.

The completed Address Book and message center has recycled bits and a little bling, too!

You can find more of Susan Brown's work at her blog... sbartist : painting in the dark.

WOW - what an amazing project.  Thank you Susan for sharing that with us.  If you are looking for more inspiration, please be sure and visit the Amazing Crafting Product blog.

Thanks for stopping by!  Have a great day.

 

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