I love Tando chipboard sheets they are so versatile and can stand up to a real battering and in the making of this handmade art journal they certainly did that!! As is often the way I had a rummage in my DIY cupboard and came across some 'No More Nails' and I know it's meant for putting up shelves lol ( or sticking men to walls if the advert is to be believed ha ha ha).... but I thought it would be fun to experiment so I squished (arty farty term) some all over my piece of chipboard and then attacked it with my fingers,a comb, a pen and some bottle tops.
It takes ages to dry so I had time to have a real play before I left it for a couple of nights to dry rock hard. It dries so hard you could hit it with a hammer (although I didn't try it...don't think a black eye would be much fun if it bounced back at me..lol) When it was dry I used various acrylic paints to add colour...
another experiment but I loved the result.
I could have made a spine for my art journal with a slim piece of chipboard but decided I like the look of the stitching so just made front and back covers. I just used a thick layer of acrylic paint in various colours for the back cover as I want the journal to lay completely flat when I open the front cover. I am going to use the journal for sketching and will probably only draw on the right hand pages leaving the left hand page clean to protect my sketches
I had so much fun messing around with this that I am sure I will do this again and I totally love the texture ...it's great for something to be tactile as well as good to look at. Below are a few close ups of some of the pattern and texture.
hugs
Chris xx
