The Sacred Book of Runes

Servus and welcome back to Our Creative Corner, dear creative friends!

Claudia here and today I have the (very) great pleasure to introduce to you this month's Guest Designer - Candice aka Tincan Crafter!

Yay! I sooo admire and love what she does - ever since I discovered her awesome blog - Tincan Handmade Craft Deli - and her most imaginative and enchanting art she shares on it. She also likes to share the how-to and I can tell you that visiting her blog never sees me leave without the urge to create something (at least half) as stunning, captivating and clever as she just showed in her latest post! ;)

So you can imagine how happy (and proud) I was when I found that she said "yes" to the invitation for this guest designers spot!

Thank you for being with us today, Candice! Me and the OCC team are so happy to have you with us today! xxx

But now I leave the stage for our oh so special guest - please, welcome Candice, the Tincan Crafter! Applause, applause, applause (*doing the Kermit the frog wave about)!!!

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I have been holding onto an almost unbearable secret for a few months…..

A couple of months ago I was invited to be a Guest Designer for “Our Creative Corner” for September. I was completely floored and excited and so very honoured to have been asked to participate in this way. 

I was challenged to take inspiration from this picture collage as featured at the start of the month. Right off the bat, the knotty tree bark and the vine just jumped right out at me.

After crash-testing a bunch of different crafty ideas, and because I am currently fascinated with all things Viking-like, 

I decided to create “The Sacred book of Runes” as my feature project. 

 

I bet you are thinking – how in Odin’s name did you find a piece of bark big enough to cover a whole book?  I didn’t!! I have an insatiable need to experiment – during one of those experiments I discovered a pretty cool way to create a bark like texture with texturising medium. 

So I am going to share my technique with you today as well as a few other crafty tutorials on how to make the burned Rune Scroll, Carved tooth Charm, Faux Suede straps and Precious Stones that I embellished the book with.

YOU NEED:

• A regular book or journal or whatever you want to turn into an old book of mystical charm.
• Bulking material to create the layered uneven bark bulk – In the past I have used ripped pieces of chipboard, bunched up masking tape, old linoleum flooring that I cut and distressed, basically I use whatever I have on hand, I am a little too into recycling junk into craft materials, so a lot of my ideas of how to create a specific texture really come from me trying to to recycle my house junk.  For this tutorial I used ripped pieces of chipboard.
• Strong glue
• Paint or Universal stain in brown and black.
• Texture paste.  I am a big fan of Dala texture paste (South African Brand)and buy that by the bucket loads but I am aware that Claudine Helmuth and Ranger also have their own brands of texture paste and I reckon those do exactly the same job.  
• A spreader like a palette knife or butter knife in a pinch, anything with a relatively flat surface will suffice
• A skewer stick or toothpick or any pointy, sharp, needle-y type thing.
• Heat gun if you want to expedite the process.

METHOD:

• Get your book out. paint it brown if you want to.

• Decide how much overhang you want off of the book that you are altering.  I didn't bother with too much overhang for this book. If you want a little overhang, cut a piece of bookboard or chipboard, that will serve the dimensions you have decided on. Glue this on the existing cover.  A tip I should add here is that your book will open better if you have a bit overhanging over the edge of the spine, and you make the crease line where the book folds out to open.
• Cut another piece of book-board slightly bigger than that and rip it into strips.  They don't need to be uniform. In fact if the edges are rough and and ripped and shredded – all the better, it will give you all the right irregularities of ordinary flaking bark.
• Start by gluing the strips down, some slightly overlapping, some short pieces, some long pieces some tapered pieces.  You control the look and thickness  of the bark bulk by adjusting your tear and layering pattern.  Alternatively, you could stick bunchy strips of masking tape in a way that it creates bumps and ridges.

• Scoop out some texture paste into a mixing container. You could colour that paste now with the Brown paint or Stain.

• Go ahead and spread that lovely chocolatey mess like icing/frosting on the book that you have covered in bark bulk. Use the palette knife to trowel it in all the little cracks between the glued pieces.  Don’t worry about getting it smooth.  Just plonk it down and make sure you have a good layer of coverage. Using the Palette Knife gently tap the texture paste icing in an up and down motion to create tiny peaks. Take a skewer and etch out random vertical lines. Let this dry thoroughly.  You could speed things up with a heat gun that blows hot air not the one that is just heat.

• You can now take a makeup sponge or a sponge applicator and pick up some darker brown or black paint and burnish over the raised edges.  This will create more dimension and make this look like real bark.

YOU NEED:

• Bathroom sealing Silicone
• Cornstarch or Tiling Grout if you really want get cute,

METHOD:

Measure out a liberal amount of grout or cornstarch. Squeeze out some silicone.

• Mix and knead together until you get a pliable but rubbery texture (like crazy clay but denser and more rubbery). Manipulate it into little rock forms.
• Leave it to dry and harden, it will keep a rubbery texture though so don’t expect it to be very hard

Paint or dye it with alcohol inks or paint. You can also dust on Perfect Pearls for glimmer.  For added oomph you can give it blast of clear lacquer spray paint to make it all shiny.

YOU NEED:

• Thin cardboard
• Distress Ink
• Black Permanent Pen or Calligaphy Pen with India Ink
• Soldering Iron or Incense Sticks

METHOD:

• Stain paper with Distress Ink (you use whichever colour you feel your scroll should be.
• Write the Runic Alphabet on the stained paper or make up symbols that look Rune-like.
• Distress around the edges with Black Soot Distress Ink.
• To make singe-holes – hold a soldering iron to paper until it starts to singe and burn, if you don't have a soldering iron, a lit incense stick will work fine as well.
• Roll up into a scroll and keep in place with some wire

YOU NEED:

• Fun foam cut into strips
• Paint or stain
• Glue
• Cotton Flock for suede look
• ModPodge or Glaze Coat for tanned and polished leather look

METHOD

• Soak the foam in paint or stain solution or just paint it over the top.  Leave to dry completely. Paint a layer of glue over the top.

• Sprinkle on cotton flock.  Dry completely.

• You can adjust the colour by making a light misting spray and misting the strips.

 YOU NEED:

• plastic bead that resembles a tooth or horn
• Alcohol Ink
• Distress Paint
• Sandpaper or a file
• Permanent Marker
• Linocutting tools or engraving tool

METHOD:

• Lightly sand the the high sheen plastic tooth, rub harder in some places this will create a toothy surface for the ink and paint to stick too
• Write your symbols on the bead to give you some kind of guide on where to engrave,
• Use the lino-cutter to scratch or engrave the design into the bead.
• You can darken the engraving with the thin tip of the marker to give it more contrast
• Swipe alcohol ink over the whole bead and rub off some of it so that it creates a worn distressed effect.
• To make the brown wood-like tooth – sand the bead, then apply walnut stain paint all over the bead. Now you can do steps 2 and 3 to finish the look.
• If you want it to be more polished – give it a blast of clear lacquer spray paint.

And that brings me to the end. I hope you will give it a shot.  Thanks again for asking me to be a part of such a fun challenge for such a fun craft blog.

Hugs

Tincan (aka Candice)  

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Now, did I promise too much? Thank you for all these awesome tutorials and that wonderful load of inspiration, Candice! Mwah! XXX

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Dear players and readers, don't forget to join in our actual challenge with my "Autumnal Image Inspiration" - it is open until Sept. 28th, 11:55 pm and I would love to see you play along with me!

Also don't forget to stay tuned for some wonderful Sponsor Spotlight Inspiration throughout the month! Tando Creative are our generous sponsor this time - so there will be a lot of Tando goodness to see! Yay!

Hugs and happy crafting,

Claudia
xxx