Mixed media handmade art journal

The Tando chipboard sheets are so versatile and they can stand up to a lot of battering. In the making of my handmade art journal it certainly did that!!.  I wanted to experiment and as sometimes happens I reached into my DIY cupboard to find something to have fun with.  The first thing that came to hand was a tube of  'No More Nails'.... ok it's meant for putting up shelves etc lol... but I thought I could have more fun with it than that. 

So I plastered it all over a piece of 6x6 Tando chipboard and then squished it (technical arty term) with my fingers, a comb, a bottle top and a pen until I got a design I was happy with.  It takes a fair while to dry so you have plenty of time to move it about.  I left it for a couple of nights to dry solidly and then used acrylic paint to add colour.

I ended up really pleased with the result and although I bent the chipboard in all directions to create some cracks it sprung back into shape really easily without warping.

I purposely did not use a spine for my book as I wanted to be able to see the stitching but a thin piece of the same chipboard could have been used to create one and would have been a sturdy protector of the spine.

The back cover of my art journal above is covered in a blend of acrylic paint only slightly textured as I wanted the journal to lay perfectly flat when I opened the cover and not wobble on the table. Below is a closeup of some of the texture.

Thanks for looking
hugs
Chris xx