Tando 6 inch Ring Binder - by Zoë Sanderson

 Today I'm sharing the steps and stages in transforming a bare Tando Kit to something both useful and to my mind attractive.

For me the start looking at the basic kit and thinking about what to use with it is the beginning of a journey that might go in any direction!  Having a good look at the kit and getting a feel for it is important in getting a feel for the direction to go in.  Once the ideas start to take shape you can start to stamp and colour.

Of course I had to experiment this time the first stage was to stamp and emboss the cover.  For the embossing both black and clear powders were used.  The result is a worn looking image, that was further aged and distressed with a blending of different coffee coloured inks.

The light must have changed for this picture because the camera settings were not changed nor were colours/light edited later.   Hay Ho at this point a gold ink pad had been run over the edges and hinges of the cover.  An application of Viva Maya gold had been brushed over the two stamped images.

The last element of the aged distressed process was a rough application of clear crackle glaze.  I spread this with a pallet knife leaving it in different thickness over the board.  As the glaze dries the cracks appear being bigger and more obvious on the thicker parts.

Time to start dressing the cover up.

From a bag of assorted Tando shapes four pieces had been selected for embellishments.  To get a good cream finish they were painted with Viva Ceramic effect.  This medium is a thicker finish which can be applied to any surface including glass, plastic and metal.   I'd also got some more stamps out used on card coloured and fussy cut.  

When fussy cutting you need to keep as close to the outside line as you can even cutting into it, unless you have embossed the image a cut into embossing will possibly lead it to start flaking off.   The art of cutting is also to move the card in the open scissors rather than opening and closing the blades while moving them along the card.

A variety of stamps from different manufacturers were used with Archival coffee coloured ink to stamp little sentiments, then the gold ink pad dragged round the edges.

The inside was painted with black gesso and then some very old printed paper cut down to fit over.  Gel Medium used to attach the papers both below and above it for a good secure hold.

Prior to working on the inside a slit was cut in the hinge on each side and ribbon threaded through.   A fussy cut stamped image attached to the right front  making a bridge there ribbon was passed under to meet up with the piece on the other side and tie the cover closed.

I'm really pleased with this it is wonderfully inky, messy and textured and was great fun to do.

Products used

Tando 150gram Offcuts these are great to have to hand and are useful for all sorts of projects.

Tando Ring Binder for 148x82mm stencils

DecoArt Clear Crackle Glaze

Stamps, ribbon and other mediums from my personal stash.