Book of the Undead

If you have been following my blog or even just looking back over previous posts, you will have seen a few posts on my step-daughter's Zombie themed 21st birthday.
In this post I wanted to share the mini album I created for her for one of her presents. Her main present from her Dad and I was going to be a little late, but I wanted her to have something from us on her birthday. In the past it has become standard party practice for us to pull out a visitor's book for everyone to leave us a message, but this time I decided to create something that was personal to her and that went along with the Zombie theme.
We gave it to her earlier in the day and then left it out at the party so that family and friends could leave a message in it for her. We will print out some pictures as well and then she can add these to her book along with any cards or other memorabilia she wants to keep.
The book includes three signatures of five leaves of Kraft carstock (10 double sided pages per signature) bound and stitched with bakers twine. I held the three signatures together by entwining the tails of the bakers twine in the spine as well as adhering them together with structure strips that I usually use in any construction pieces I make.
The cover was recycled cereal boxes covered in Kraft cardstock. I thought about using chipboard but settled on the cereal boxes as I wanted the album to have a flexible cover almost like a soft cover Moleskin journal as this would give it a more aged looked quicker.
I decorated the front cover with letters cut using the Cuttlebug "Olivia" alphabet dies. I ran all the letters through my Xyron 150 to make them self adhesive - my tool of choice for anything like this as I know they are guaranteed to stick without fail!! Once they were adhered in place to form the title "Book of the Undead" I smeared a light layer of Atelier Modelling Compound around and over some of the letters.
The back cover I also smeared with a thin layer of the modelling compound with my palette knife, then I used the end of the blade to dig scratches down the length of the album as if it had been used as a shield against attacking Zombies.
Once the modelling compound had dried I generously coated the cover all over with Lindys Stamp Gang Mists.
I used - Starburst Set - Sweet Treat - colours - Cadbury Milk Chocolate and Dark Chocolate Truffle; Starburst Set - Haunted Halloween - colours - Hags Wart Orange and Screamin' Banshee Black and Moonshadow Set - Blue Label - colours - Long Johns Silver, Golden Doubloons, Jolly Roger Red and Crow's Nest Copper.
I used the colours generously across the cover in patches of colour for texture. In some areas one colour was lighter than another and in some areas I purposely over-sprayed to create areas with drippage. The drips of blood were created by dripping Lindy's Stamp Moon Shadow - Jolly Roger Red mixed with Dylusions Cherry Pie Spray Ink.
I carried the blood drips into the signatures inside as well as adding some "blood" spatters on the odd page through the journal.
To finish off the cover I edged the spine and both covers as well as lightly accenting the die cut book title with Tim Holtz Distress Inks in Vintage Photo and Walnut Stain.
To add the pages throughout the journal, I distressed the edges of each page (quite vigorously) with my Tim Holtz Distressing Tool and Tim Holtz Tonic Scratcher Tool. I then applied generous amounts of watered down Tsukineko Walnut Ink and Terra Cotta Antiquing Solution which I left to air dry overnight and the next day. (I applied so much that the signatures were actually sitting in a pool of excess liquid which soaked up into the porous pages through the distressed edges over night).
Once everything had dried and the signatures were adhered inside the cover, I stamped images throughout the journal using various stamps... most of which were my recent purchases at SENZ. You can see more of them here. I then added a generous supply of journal blocks and tags which I had printed out from a number of digi-printables websites. These included Ephemeras Vintage Garden, Prima Marketing and How to Haunt Your House (Dot) Com. All images used were "freebies".
I really loved the end result so much that I could have quite easily kept it for myself. I did giver her the album, but may just have to make another one for myself.

Two versions of the front cover - taken with and without the camera flash. The picture above without the flash, shows more of the detail of the lettered and depth of the colour but the picture below taken with the camera flash just shows off all the brilliant luminosity of the micas in the Lindys Stamp Gang Mists and is probably a more true reflection of the actual colours. It shows the more "leathery" look the journal cover has.

This time the back cover with and without camera flash. Same as the front cover, more detail above, but more shimmer and a truer colour with the flash. The bottom picture also shows the "scratches" more clearly.

Just a couple of the pages from inside the journal. You can see the dripping blood above. The intense red from the Dylusions Ink Spray blended with the shimmer and depth of the Lindys Stamp Gang Starburst Mist to give me a really fabulous looking red blood which just stood out from the Walnut Ink and Kraft Cardstock.

This page really shows the beautiful distressing and aging I was able to achieve from the watered down Walnut Ink and Terra Cotta Antiquing Solution. I love the "water stained" look combined with the drippage, blood stains and stamped images. And then the printables images all fussy cut and edged with Tim Holtz Distress Inks just finish the book off.
Sorry only a couple of pages, as I only finished the morning of the birthday party... so didn't have much time for photographing it. I did take a video of it, but I'm not sure how clear that turned out as I used my web-cam. I'll add a link to my YouTube channel once I have posted the video.