Virginia England's Potions Tunnel Book

Virginia has created a Halloween themed Tunnel Book using the 6″ x 6″ version with the circular tunnel. She’s outdone herself again and I hope you enjoy her tutorial!

Potions Tunnel Book

Supplies:
Joggles 6″ x 6″ Circular Tunnel Book
Assorted Stencils
Dylusions Paints – Squeezed Orange, Pure Sunshine, Tangerine Dream, Crushed Grape, Fresh Lime, Melted Chocolate, Black Marble, White Linen
Gel Press Plate
Assorted Texture Tools
Brayer
Lace
Fringe
Dylusions Ink Sprays – Squeezed Orange, Crushed Grape, Slate Gray
Tim Holtz Distress Paint – Frayed Burlap, Black Soot
Spray Bottle of Water
Rubber Gloves
Joggles Collage Sheets – Halloween IV Minis (401132), Cats and Bats and Trees Oh My (401066), Halloween Shades of Grey I (401125), Halloween Shades of Grey II (401129)
Markers – Pale Orange, Pale Green, Pale Gray, Pale Purple
Gold Glitter
Scrap Piece of Copper
Alphabet Stencils
Stylus
ScorTape
Black Foam Tape
Clear Glue
White Glue
Hot Glue Gun
Faux Flowers
Prills – Silver
Assorted Beads & Charms
Black Artist Paste
Tim Holtz Distress Ink Pad – Antique Linen
Lindy’s Stamp Gang Starburst – Teapot Purple, Sweet Violet Purple Teal
Assorted small text Rubber Stamps
Gold Gel Pen
Tim Holtz – idea-ology – Small Talk
Small scrap piece of Black Card Stock
Scrap piece of Leather or Faux Leather for Tiny Book Cover – 1.5” x 2.5”
Scrap piece of Copy Paper for Tiny Book Pages – I cut 4 pieces at 1 3/8” x 2 3/8” and 2 pieces at 1 3/8” x 1 1/8” to cover the Magnets on the inside of the Tiny Book Cover
Piece of Twine or Embroidery Floss to Bind the Tiny Book
Large Tapestry Needle
2 small Flat Magnets to hold the Tiny Book closed

I began by coating all of the Book Pages using the Gel Press Plate with Dylusions Paints.
I’m not going to go into the entire process here. If you need further guidance than what I provide here, Barb has a video that gives you the basics or you can always find videos on YouTube.
NOTE: I do NOT clean the Gel Press after each print. Just keep adding more paint. You’ll pick up some of the old paint on some of your prints, but that’s ok, even desirable!!!

Dylusions – Pure Sunshine, Tangerine Dream & Black Marble. Notice they get a little muddy, which was good for the look I was trying to achieve. Although I love the bright colors of the Dylusions paints I really wanted something that would give a creepy haunted forest look. Also I did not precoat the chipboard with anything. I wanted the color of the chipboard to help mute the colors.

I did run a few texture tools through this before I printed it, but it’s difficult t see in the photo. The printed piece shows a bit of the texture.

Before adding more paint to the Gel Press surface I used the brayer to re-distribute the paint.

Upper Pics: Using Dylusions – Tangerine Dream, Fresh Lime and Black Marble.
Lower Pics: Using Dylusions – Crushed Grape, Black Marble and White Linen.
Again I re-distributed the paint on the Gel Press using a brayer

Dylusions – Fresh Lime & White Linen. Texture tool marks are more visible using the lighter colors.

Dylusions – Crushed Grape & Squeezed Orange. After printing this one, instead of rolling the brayer over the entire surface before applying more paint I left it as is.

Dylusions – Fresh Lime and White Linen. Notice after spreading the paint you can see the image from the last print? This makes for great texture. Again leave the paint as is after taking your print.

My HELPER….[rolls eyes]

Dylusions – Pure Sunshine & Black Marble. Notice I didn’t over brayer this one. I left the colors a little bold knowing I would be picking up the color from the last print as well.

Note when you are trying to pick up color from the last print you may have to leave the chipboard on the Gel Press for a little bit…half of a minute maybe. This will allow the paint to grab the chipboard for better transfer. Again leave the paint on the Gel Press as is.

This time I did not add any additional paint. I wanted to pick up more of the paint still on the Gel Press. See how I placed the chipboard and printed only on the top and along one edge with part of the circle printed?

There is still more yumminess on the Gel Press so I printed from it again.

Ok that’s enough from that one. Added more paint. Dylusions Fresh Lime, Pure Sunshine and White Linen. Swiped some texture tools through it.

I took a piece I had already printed using Black and White and printed it again. Interesting…but not sure I like it. Time to pick up more of that left over paint along the edges.

I picked up the paint along the edges on a few of the pieces of chipboard I had already printed on.

These I’m very happy with. I will keep these as is.

These?…Not so much…I’ll work on these some more. Remember if you’re not happy with what you have you can always add more layers. And if you TOTALLY hate something just slap a coat or 2 of gesso over it and start over. Nothing is totally ruined! The next few pics are more of the same.

I don’t think I need to give more commentary on these. Other than I did use some stencils on a few of these too.

This is the piece that will be the front Cover of the Book.

These are the pages once I finished with the Gel Press Printing.

This is the back cover of the book. Set aside to dry. Time to dye the Lace and Fringe.

You will need about a 4 inch piece of Lace. Although here I used a much longer piece not knowing exactly how much I was going to end up using for this project. That’s ok, I’ll use it for another project. And I used about a 2 inch piece of Fringe.

Dylusions Ink Sprays – Crushed Grape, Squeezed Orange and Slate Gray. Tim Holtz Distress Paints – Frayed Burlap & Black Soot. Spray bottle of water.

GLOVES!!!….as you’ll see I did NOT wear gloves….d’oh…slaps self on forehead.

I began by applying some of the Distress Paints, then spraying on the Dylusions Ink Sprays. I then sprayed with a bit of water. It looks like a yucky mess.

Rub the pieces in the puddle of ink. And REMEMBER to wear GLOVES!!! Place between paper towels and press out most of the liquid.

The results. I like it. Set aside to dry thoroughly. Let’s work on the Front Cover.

Make the “Potions” sign using a scrap piece of Copper ( or just a piece of Cardstock will work if you don’t have any Copper laying around)

Using some small Alphabet Stencils (or draw them by hand) and a small stylus print the word “Potions” on the Copper. Using a medium tip stylus manipulate the letters from the back to give a 3-D effect on the front. Again take the small tip stylus to outline the letters and give them more dimension.

Cut out the “sign” using not so straight lines. I used a metal tool to make a border on the Copper. But you can just use the stylus to do this if you don’t have a metal tool. Next I heated the Copper using a heat gun. I love how the heat changes the color of it.

CAUTION!!! – If you heat the Copper be sure to hold it with a pair of tweezers or needle nose pliers. IT GETS VERY HOT!!!! Do not over heat it or it will turn to a silver color. Heat it just enough to get the oranges and purples.

Once it is cooled spray it with a fixative. Handling it will remove the “coloring”. And if you look you can see mine no longer has the awesome coloring on the cover that it had here. I forgot to coat it…. 🙁 (see next pic)

Using Black Artist Paste and a Brocade Stencil add texture to the Front Cover. Set aside to dry.

String some beads and charms onto twine or embroidery floss. Tie ends together. ( My pic shows some striped paper and a medallion – I did not use either of these )

Using hot glue attach the Lace across the top and layer the Fringe over the bottom of the Lace to the left.

Position the “Potions” sign over the bottom of the Lace and partly over the Fringe. Attach using Black Foam Tape. I didn’t care for the Fringe being so straight cut on the bottom, so I randomly cut the ends to be jagged. Attach the string of Beads and Charms using hot glue to the left of the “Potions” sign. Attach a few Faux Flowers using hot glue.

Cut out some Bats and the Walking Cat from the Joggles Collage Sheet – Bats and Cats and Trees Oh My.

I attached the center bat using Black Foam Tape. The bat on the Flower I attached using hot glue and the cat I attached with white glue. I did not glue down the Cats tail or head. Randomly squiggle some clear glue on the cover and sprinkle with Silver Prills.

To make the “Spells” Tiny Book I used a piece of Faux Leather Paper for the cover. Cut to 1.5” x 2.5”. Folded in half it will give you a 1.5” x 1.25” Book Cover. I cut 4 pieces of Copy Paper 1 3/8” x 2 3/8”. Fold in half you will have Book Pages 1 3/8” x 1 3/16”. Before assembling the Book I distressed the pages using Tim Holtz Distress Ink pad – Antique Linen.

Assemble the Tiny Book using a large tapestry needle and a piece of twine ( I used one of the strands from the Fringe I used on the Front Cover). With the Cover folded in half and the pages folded in half, insert the pages into the cover. Pierce two holes in the fold, each about 1/4” from the top and bottom. We will call the top hole “A” (not to be confused with A-hole). And the bottom hole will be “B”.

With the needle threaded, insert the needle up through “A” from the outside of the Book. From the inside go down through “B”. Again go up through “A” and once again down through “B”. Tie off the ends on the outside of the Tiny Book. Trim ends, but not too short.

Stamp some small text on the pages. Cut out some images from the Joggles Collage Sheet Halloween IV Minis. Using just parts of a few of them add them to the pages. I hand wrote in the Title “Spells” and also made a “Spells” Title for the front of the book using a Gold Gel Pen and Black Cardstock.

I also used Tim Holtz idea-ology Small Talk – “those who don’t believe in magic will never find it”. I cut them into single words and placed each one on their own page. These pics don’t show it, but I used a charcoal pencil to shade around each of the words and images I placed in the book.

Once I had the Tiny Book made, it wouldn’t stay closed…..grrrrr. So I attached small flat magnets to the back and front of the book and covered them with additional pieces of copy paper. Also distressed and stamped. Problem solved!!! OK….back to the Tunnel Book Pages.

Using Lindy’s Stamp Gang Starburst – Teapot Purple and Sweet Violet Purple Teal – I sprayed and dripped the colors on the “pages”. And since I had the cover finished already I just put some on my fingers and smeared it on the cover. Not showing each and every page here, just them stacked so you can see the Lindy’s sprays on them.

Ok on to adding more “texture” to the pages. On this page I used a larger Harlequin Stencil and both Dylusions Paint – Tangerine Dream and Black Artist Paste. I staggered and overlapped the design. I also used Tim Holtz Harlequin Stencil.

A couple more examples of some stenciling I added.

The results of all the texturing I added using Stencils.

I added a bit of extra color to the Collage Sheet images using Pale Orange, Pale Green, Pale Gray, Pale Purple. Cut out designs from the Joggles Collage Sheets -Halloween IV Minis (401132), Cats and Bats and Trees Oh My (401066), Halloween Shades of Grey I (401125), Halloween Shades of Grey II (401129).

NOTE: I wanted more depth than the Tunnel Card provides on its own, so most of the images are attached using Black Foam Tape. I wanted it to appear as though you are looking deep into a Haunted Forest.

Another NOTE: Any of the images that will be showing through the cutout I “colored” (sorta) on the backside so it wouldn’t just be plain white paper when you turned the pages. Here I lined up where I wanted to place the image. Carefully holding it in place I turned it over and drew a pencil line so I would know where to place my foam tape.

Front and Back of page with images (sorta) colored on the backside.

This one I lightly drew some lines on the pumpkins and added the gold glitter dots to the backside.

I cut out the tree and colored the backside using a Pale Gray Marker and used a Charcoal Pencil to add some texture. Once I glued it to the page I trimmed off the pieces overhanging the edges. The pumpkin is attached using Black Foam Tape. That’s the basics.

Next are the pics of the entire Book showing the placement of all the elements I used. Remember I attached most of the images using Black Foam Tape to give it more depth.