Mini Dragon Notebook & Pencils

My third dragon themed project this week are two mini dragon notebooks and pencils. I created these using The Dragon Within Breathing Courage & Creativity Collage & Mixed Media Mystical Dragons digital download Kit from Opulence by Design Crafts.

It has 40 pages of backing papers (10 x 8 PDF)  - including textured prints, beautiful prints and panels for your projects, toppers and embellishments, mystical affirmations and dragon inspired greetings, quotes and sayings.

For this project I chose these dragon images as I thought that they would make perfect notebook covers and I will make note cards with the other images shown. 

I also picked the pale green dragon scales paper and the rest of the dragon skin rice paper to decopatch my pencils. The greyboard stripped from a hardback envelope came in very handy too as this will make the covers for my notebook.

I decopatched some spare pencils that I had with a strip of the rice paper using some Cadence satin magic bond & seal. A great way to jazz up any dull and ordinary pencils that you have lying around, especially for kids.

I don' tend to measure with projects like this but I know it had about a 1cm spine and I left a 1cm border all the way around. The great thing with these silicone crafting mats is that you can use the square as a guide and your project doesn't slide around either.

I mitred the corners before gluing

Then I made the pages for my book with copier paper. Each signature has three pages.

My little books have been stitched with wax thread 

I have given my books a light coat of Cadence satin magic bond and seal and added glossy accent to the dragon eyes.

I thought that these would be great for my neighbours two little boys who love dragons.

This collection is ideal for notebooks and also follows on from my dragon themed journal and decorated dragon box.

If you want more inspiration and demos from Opulence by Design, follow the links below. Amanda is a very talented designer and has a wide selection of kits and crafting sheets that can be mixed and matched with your own crafty stash.

 opulencebydesign - YouTube

or Instagram Opulence ByDesigns

Have a great day, whatever you have planned for yourself.

Happy Crafting

Decopatch

I discovered decopatch after an evening crafting with a few friends.

    

Decopatch is a decorative funky kind of papercraft, very much like papier mache, only much cooler nowadays. Decopatch is a modern twist on decoupage, creating a vibrant piece of art or allowing you to breathe life into tired objects in need of a re-vamp.

  

A4 sheets of decopatch tissue paper can be purchased in a mixed pack or individually from craft shops or online. The ones above are an example of what I used on Ralph





Next........came Junior...I was asked to make one in leopard print

Before you know it you find you're slightly addicted.  So with leopard print decopatch paper left over I decided to decorate my daughters dvd box which was looking rather tired.

This wooden fruit bowl I found in a charity shop for 50p. It was tired and shabby but I liked the shape. So I used some bronze/gold crackle decopatch paper to give it new life and sealed it with a coat of decopatch varnish.

I then found myself looking at things to upcycle at car boot sales. I found the perfect children's wooden chair for my next project....the only problem was...it was pink! A quick lick of paint solved that and I decided to decopatch it for a special little boys birthday. I finished it off with a couple of coats of waterproof decopatch varnish to seal it and some wooden letters to personalise it.  Its still going strong today.

My next project was a bit of an experiment using a papier mache mask.  Instead of using tissue paper I decided to use an old music sheet from an old music book that a charity shop had in a box for 25p. I needed to use more glue to get a good adhesion as the music sheets were quite thick. I finished this off with some braiding, crystals, mesh, silk flowers, feathers and mini fascinator. The theme in my head was a venetian mask.

Then I discovered IndigoBlu!  I watched Kay Halliwell-Sutton demo one of her Mannequin slap it on starter kits and was blown away. She stamped onto tissue paper and with some ink and some lush paints from her collection, created some stunning pieces.  I used one of her mannequins and large embellishments for the top of the mannequin, along with some vintage tissue paper to decorate. I finished off with some crystal beaded trim and a few embellishments.

http://www.indigoblu.com/kits-c93/indigoblu-slap-it-on-kit-c96/indigoblu-slap-it-on-starter-kit-with-mannequin-p641

Feel free to leave a comment and if you have any questions on my projects or materials used.

Happy Crafting