My DIY Wedding part 4 - the Guest book

               

            

I wanted to have a guest book which will also be a photo book and a memorabilia book, so I bought this craft book and start my cover!

This cover is make of original soft Sculpey, (the one you bake), and painted with oil paints. Why oils? because it stays liquid for long and is greasy enough to be "sponged or brushed" and enter in all creases for the cover


For this you would need :
- a book like the one in the pic under (amazon, michaels, joann etc) - with a spiral binbing you can open
- sculpey like this
- oil paints for adding volume and details
-  brushes, sponges, towels..
- sculpting tools (or knife, scalpel, needle etc)
- aluminum paper and your oven
- paper, crayon
- glue gun

First, you need to find your design. you should draw it once on a paper or on your book cover to see how it fits. Then, take your book and open the spiral binding (to do so, return your book and look for the opening of the spiral, they sell machines to open these (cinch tool)  but in the case of a large stiff spiral as this one, you should be able to slightly open them by hand and slide that cover page out )


Then start to kneed some of the dough. Then grab an aluminum sheet or parchment paper big enough to cover the front page. On it, lay a thin layer on sculpey, like a very fine pizza crust. Cut the excess around to match the shape of your cover. That will be the base you cover.

From there, start to add your design to that thin layer.
Tip: add the most important and large figures first, work on the details after.
You can use any tools you like. This sculpey is very solf and easy to shape 









It took me hours to achieve the look that I wanted - but when I decided I was done, I finished by adding the holes for the spirals.
For that, slide your Sculpey cover onto your detached cardboard book cover. With your finger and a pen aim for the holes and pierce through the aluminum to recreate the holes. This is also the time to check if the shape of your sculpey cover still match you cardboard cover. If not, you can cut the excess or reshape what you want better .

Turned the oven on to 275degres and delicately slide the aluminum sheet onto a baking plate and put it in the oven for 12-15min depending on the thickness- 
 & Let it cool down.

After that you can start the oil painting application. In my case I didn't want to much colors but I wanted to add volume to the shapes so I added a layer of brown (burnt sienna) all over the cover, insisting on the creases. When it's entirely covered take a towel, fabric scraps (q-tips!) and start to remove all the paint you just applied. Doing this will let the paint dry only in the creases/depth and get your white color on the parts the more in volume. Let dry at least overnight the brown paint. To add more contrast I did the same thing but reversed with white. With a sponge and a brush I added some light where I feel the light should be hitting.

If you want you could also add hint of other colors like I did for the hair, leaves etc. with that sponge or brush to the areas you'd like using the same technique. (again, wait at least a day between each colors)

To finish glue the cover to the cardbord cover using a glue gun (or any strong glue). The sculpey may have bend a bit at baking time but you should be able to bend it to the page using some weight overnight.
After that you could varnish it if you want, but it is not necessary.
Attach the full cover back into its spiral, add a bow and voila!
If you have questions please let me know!