Book trio with shelf unit by Sharon Nettleship

 Hi there and today I'd like to show you my very first kit of the month project for Tando Creative. This is a great little project with endless possibilities of colours and themes and I had a lot of fun making my books and case. 

The Base 

I gessoed my base pieces and then let them dry. Using my finger I dabbed texture crackle paste over all the parts including the Nature letters. The letters are Tando's block serif greyboard. I let this dry and then added distress oxide and gloss sprays. 

Autumn Book

For my Autumn book I applied little strips of book paper all over the cover. For the Tando greyboard leaves I again applied the texture crackle paste with my fingers. I then applied a layer of gesso. 

I used gloss sprays to cover it all (including the inside and spine) and then accented it all with gold wax. I've used gold paper fasteners and black elastic to make a little enclosure. 

Whilst out walking I came across these little pine cones with foliage so I thought they would look good in my Autumn book. I've adhered them to the inside boxes. The sayings have been printed out from my PC and I have just added a little ink and gold wax. I also put some tiny signatures in each of my books. 

Ocean Book

 

 I gessoed my Ocean book first and once it was dry I stencilled a wave design with fine texture paste to the two inner pieces. I coloured the book with distress oxide inks in ocean colours and sprinkled some water over it to add some texture. Next I added randomly some frantage shabby blue embossing enamel. 

I made some little embellishments with air dry clay which I coloured with cosmic shimmer powder and silver wax. 

I added the seahorse and two shells to the spine. 

I adhered the rest to the insides of the boxes and again added the sayings and signatures. 

I didn't have any white fasteners so I embossed them with white embossing powder. 

Flowers & Butterflies Book

I worked straight onto the book for this one. I used strokes of chalk and fluid acrylic paints and then added some silver wax. 

I used Tando flowers and butterflies for embellishments. I dry embossed the larger butterfly and flowers with an embossing folder. I then used the same colour paints to decorate them and some silver wax.

The larger butterfly and two layered flowers were added to the spine. 

I then added the embellishments and sayings to the inside of the book. 

I've used silver embossing powder to colour the fasteners to match the book. 

Here is my finished piece. I hope you enjoyed my step by step and have a go at designing one yourself. We have a great Facebook group Tando's Creative Zone where we'd love to see all your makes. 

Tando products used:

Mini trinket box/book trio with shelf unit  

Alphas sheet style block serif

Distress Oxides

Shabby blue embossing enamel 

Flower & leaves embellishments

Butterfly embellishments

All other products are from my personal stash.