This week was all about glue and the sheer numbers and varieties out there... and honestly... if you ever have a question about a certain glue just go to Elizabeth's lesson for this week and you will have your answer!! I don't have a heap of different glues like Elizabeth does... it's one of those things that removal companies do not like to pack and ship from continent to continent, so what is on my desk is what I have bought here or smuggled into the country... because one thing you learn is that glue is not cheap.... nope, not cheap at all!!
So the first page was using a glue stick... oddly, I was fully expecting this to be a big mess but as it happens it ended up my favourite glue for pasting large areas together! I made a little pocket out of one of the pages that I torn out previously and used this for keeping the tag safe.
The tag has the details of the type of glue and how I applied it.
This page used Aleens Tacky Glue - it is thick and heavy and I wouldn't use it again for this particular job.
Tag with description.
Mod Pedge is my go to glue for many things and I actually like it but for large areas like this it didn't do very well... the page was wrinkled and Mod Podge smells bad.... :(
I have it in matt, gloss and a shimmer but it didn't beat the glue stick for doing an entire page.
This page was glued with Gel Medium... and though I have had it for a while I was not sure how to use it, it goes on so smoothly it is lovely, and I mixed some gold paint with it to go on the front of the pages and it gives a fabby effect... I think I would use it for decorative purposes rather than large gluing jobs... the costs would be prohibitive and the pages dry a bit wrinkled.
Tag with description for the Gel medium.
Gesso... yep, Elizabeth made us use Gesso to glue the pages together!! First of all, at midnight last night I was playing 'hunt the gesso'... I knew I had some, but it wasn't where I thought it should be... in fact it had disappeared and I took the scrap room apart looking for it... it was one of the 'smuggled' in things as it still has a £8.50 price tag on it!!
So to my surprise, it did indeed glue the pages together... but left wrinkles and a very hard page.
So I had this huge mess going on... and decided that I would have a play with coffee... it took a couple of coats of coffee to give this colour and I made a couple of 'love' letters from copy paper and love the effect I got, the paper dries very crackly and brittle... like very old paper... I needed to do this to get over the stress of making a mess on lots of pages... but now I have lots of time to decorate them and hopefully pretty them up a bit!!
this is a close up of the letter...
it looks like a really old letter... I had to sand the folds to make it look old and well-read.
I love the love letters.
ReplyDeleteYou are getting into this project and it looks like you are having lots of fun.
Toni xx
Awesome, love the coffee technique. I did that to some of my papers and they smelled sooo good. lol
ReplyDeletehugs, Marjo
I can't believe it! I'm "dyeing" coffee papers as I type. Yours is gorgeous.
ReplyDeleteI was quite impressed with your handling of the pages and I was also impressed with your description of each glue. That is what I'm looking for. It is a way to show how awesome some glues are when used to glue pages together and how horrible other glues are.
I had heard gesso was quite expensive in other countries. I had NO idea that you paid more for your little jar than I did for that big tub of mine (2500 mL). And I promise, this is the ONLY time you will HAVE to use gesso.
I'm surprised your gel medium didn't dry flat and pliable. Golden's reputation is supposed to be superior, but my Liquitex was a DREAM to use. If I had the money, I would use it for everything. However, since I don't (and YES, glue is expensive), I will only use it when I absolutely can't use anything else.
By gum (oops, sorry about that!) you're off the mark with this week's homework!! Love the pockets you made for the tags on the glue treatments, how clever, and also the page from your "big mess" cover up!
ReplyDeleteWow - you really jumped into this lesson quickly. I barely finished reading it! Reading your glue results was so informative....I wonder if mine will be similar - the weight of the paper pages might make a difference. Your idea for the coffee page and love letters is just excellent - so creative! Can't wait to see more of your book.
ReplyDeleteOh Annette it's gorgeous - the book is really coming together, I agree having tried a multitude of different glues my favourite by far is the good old fashioned glue stick!
ReplyDeleteoh Annette, you had me laughing aloud at your comment in Elizabeth's blog and i thoroughly enjoyed this post too. so funny that you "needed to do this to get over the stress of making a mess on lots of pages". i was actually wondering whether i could skip the glue experiment assignment but seeing how you have complied encourages me to do so too! your love letter page is sooooo lovely!
ReplyDelete