Rubbing on more love...

You may not believe this, but the truth is, not until after I posted the Hubster's card yesterday did I realize that I've had purple and red on the brain and that I've also apparently been working hard at using up those rub-ons. I just didn't realize I had a running theme in my art head, winkwink.

This is the front of a composition book that I altered the cover of, a week or so ago BEFORE making the card. As you may know, I *name* all of my journals. I plan to call it my 2Hearts Journal. There is graph paper inside of this one.

Here is the back cover, altered. I used Stencil Girl's peacock feather stencil and grey Lumiere paint. I plan to one day highlight the feathers and color the center *eye* of it, but I lost the patience to do it that day.

I began the altering with laminating some KIMemories scrapbook paper onto the existing cover, then applying some rub-ons right from the sheet (same ones I used on the Valentines card I shared yesterday).

See that white roll of floral tape in the next photo, underneath the little washi tape rolls? You'll see more of that white tape later on....

Then I got out my stencils and my acrylic paints. You can see a grey sunray burst at the top and bottom -- that's the one stencil I tried to apply with grey Stazon. Chewed up my dauber. Switched immediately to paint at that point. The purple hexagon o's in the middle is the next stencil I used.

Washi tapes I chose from to line the binding edge, at the end.

Close-up of the sunray burst stencil using Stazon ink -- not recommended unless you are using the reinker and a sponge.

And although I forgot to take a photo of this step, I added a stencil of circle clusters to the top left and lower right, using the grey Lumiere. You'll see what I do with these background areas later.

The next thing I wanted to do was to apply strips of masking tape lengthwise, to create texture and depth (and strength). 

But, my masking tape was too wide and I did not feel like cutting long strips.

My eye spied some white floral tape just laying around, so I thought, why not? Masking tape will work just as well, if that is what you've got  (I have used it before in the past, so I guarantee it.)

Close-up of the circle clusters peaking thru the semi-transparent floral tape. There is also a bit of sparkle that comes off of the tape...kinda cool.

What I did thruout the altering was, I brushed on a coat or two of my beloved Royal Coat Decoupage Glue / Sealer, after doing anything to the surface. Laminate the paper, brush a coat. Apply rub-ons, brush a coat.

Stencil on some paint, brush a coat.

Brush a coat, adhere the tape strips, brush a coat...

And then, I punched some cardstock with my scalloped heart punch and used the negative with some white acrylic paint and a dauber to stencil the two hearts.

And brushed a coat...

Next, I used the negative of a smaller punched heart with red acrylic paint and a dauber to stencil another heart on top of each of the first ones...

And brushed a coat. (I should add, I let each coat of Royal Coat dry anywhere from an hour to overnight. I worked on this comp book for several days in spare moments...).

Like I said, I will be doing more to the back cover later, but I wanted to get something on there and coated and sealed to protect it. The back cover usually gets more use / abuse.

Finally, I added the washi tape and then daubed on white and red *dots* all over, all sealed with the Royal Coat. The RC dries to a hard shell that protects, is NOT sticky like Mod Podge can be, and can easily be collaged / decoupaged over as I have shown. This is why it's become my go-to adhesive for mixed media projects.

It's like a dollar more than Mod Podge (and made by the same company, Plaid), usually sold right next to the MP's, and I think of it like it's Lincoln-Mercury compared to Ford. I'll gladly pay that extra to not have a sticky mess and to get a hard shell coating with just 3-4 coats that dries quickly and clearly.

I've gone back and checked old journal pages I've coated with Royal Coat, and they are not at all sticky. In fact, NOTHING I've used RC on is sticky. That proves it to me.

Okay, off my soapbox now. Sorry, I get passionate about it.

I'm going to go ahead and enter this journal cover in the GC138: Masking Tape challenge over at Gingersnap Creations blog. One of their design team samples used washi tapes, and floral tape is pretty much flimsy gummy masking tape, just skinnier, so hopefully it won't be disqualified.