A minor victory for woman over machine

I have been continuing my experiments with the Golden Mix More Media kit provided by Lynne at The Altered Element for my April challenge. The products themselves are quite easy to apply but I have been struggling to get prepared materials to go through our basic ink jet printer because they need to be flexible enough to make a right angled bend as they pass through.

My latest success has been with mulberry paper. Although preparing it with medium removes a bit of the softness, if mounted onto copier paper it will go through. I found I needed to tape it down the sides as well as the leading edge though to stop it crunching up and jamming inside the machine. I think that's because it stretches and buckles a bit when it gets wet from applying the medium.

I used my printed mulberry paper for the cover of a hand made book. First I gave it two coats of clear digital ground, then printed it using a design from the Artylicious Decadent Brocade CD. Once dry I painted on a coat of UV protective gel medium to stop the colours from fading. I embellished the pattern by outlining with a Sakura stardust pen and added highlights of Stickles.

To constuct the book I used basic copier paper for the inside pages and the back of an old A4 pad for the covers (you need to gesso the chip board because the colour shows through the mulberry paper and dulls the image if you don't) . I followed instructions on how to construct the book from one of the videos recommended in fellow DT member Trace's bookbinding tutorial which can be found here. The fly sheets were printed on copier paper using the same Artylicious design as the cover. Having them coordinate covers up a multitude of sins if, like me on a first attempt, your alignment is not the greatest.

It was surprisingly quick to make this book. Even allowing for drying time at various stages I completed it within a day and now I know I can do it my head is full of ideas for making books that incorporate pre-decorated pages. Oh the possibilites....