Altering book with Sizzix:)

:) Hi again Sizzix fans!
I love journals and altered books - they give me more freedom and less time pressure than mini albums, which - in my opinion - should be planned as a limited project, focused on one color palette and topic. I enjoy creating pages in different styles in one book, trying new ideas, new colors... or swap the journals with friends and inspiring and challenge each other.
The project I'm sharing today is one of those "Travelling Journals" - also called "Round Robins" and it is made on the base of the very old and very beautiful book I bought in the charity shop in Ireland. I did't want to over paint it - rather underline and enhance it's natural beauty and Sizzix dies were very helpful with that!

Here is my book before I started:

And here is the final version - Travelling Journal inspired with old family photos - altered cover and a double page with an envelope for photos which I'm sending to my friends with the book.

The products I used are listed below:
- 657837Sizzix Bigz XL Alphabet Die - Word Play
- 657828Sizzix Sizzlits Decorative Strip Alphabet Die - Stenciled
- 658289Sizzix Framelits Die Set 6PK w/Stamps - Banners
- 658295Sizzix Framelits Die Set 4PK w/Stamps - Postage Stamps
- Ranger: Glossy Accents, Crackle Accents, Archval Ink: Library Green, Jet Black, gesso.
- Tim Holtz: Metal Tabs, Corners and stickers, metal embellishments
- Luminarte: Silks  - acrylic paints
- other: lace, twine, washi tape, tea stain, pencil, crafting glue, piece of kraft paper and chipboard, circle punch, brown paper bag.

The letters on the cover are cut out from thick chipboard, glued, painted with metallic acrylic paints (Silks), soft pencil and finally coated with Crackle Accents (Ranger). 

The floral motive on the cover is coated with Glossy Accents - just like the metal embellishments I used for this part of project. It works perfectly both as solid, clear glue and glossy coating. 

Inside of the book I made a freestyle page with envelope that contains the photos for this travelling journal project. I wanted to leave as much as possible of the natural color of the old paper - I only added some tea stain, stamping in 2 colors and a bit of gesso.

Stamping and free-hand doodling reflect the style of the book - when I bought it it was already having a lot of handwritten notes inside, highlights and underlined texts. I loved that and it was my inspiration for the pages in the book
The letters were made using Tim Holtz "Stenciled" Decorative Strip used as a stencil - fun and easy technique!

The background under the photo and decorative elements are made with Paula Pasual Framelits dies and stamps: Banners and Postage Stamps together with a bit of gesso, pencil doodling and shading.

I hope you found some inspiration in my project - it is packed now and ready to go - I will give it to my friend on Sunday! Yay!
xoxo
Finn