Valentine Acetate Book featuring an Altered Domino

To officially launch my new Blog I'd like to share with you all a Valentine Acetate Book I created for a swap hosted by my Mom (Val Snaith) on my Yahoo Group called DominoART. 

If you're interested in trying your hand at altering dominoes you are very welcome to come and join my group at 

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dominoart/


I hope you'll all enjoy my creation and be inspired to create your own.  If you have any questions please don't hesitate to post them here and I'd also appreciate your comments 

too ;-)

To create my project you'll need the following supplies

Valentine themed rubber stamps - Studio G minis

A sheet of acetate - overhead transparency/printer sheets will do.  

Black StazOn Ink

Adirondack Pigment Pens

2 styles of Valentine themed scrapbook paper

3D heart shaped alphabet stickers

2 mini gold brads

Standard hole punch

Small hole punch

Rectangle hole punch

Xyron permanent adhesive or glue stick

Double-sided sticky tape

Red ribbon

Judikins Diamond Glaze

A standard domino

Sharpie markers

Fine Gold Metallic Paint Pen

Ancient Page dye ink

Heat gun

Scissors

Bone folder

Ruler

Glue dots or E6000 glue

Step-by-Step Instructions

I started my project by first deciding how big it should be.  On a piece of scrap cardstock I traced the outline of my standard sized domino and then made the width of my book cover about half an inch larger and the height about 5 inches.  From there I created the 3 tab pages.  The tab pages stick out beyond the cover.  The size of the tabs was determined by the size of the heart alphabet stickers I used so make your own based on the stickers you intend to use.  Once you've got your page dimensions all worked out make templates from cardstock.  Use the templates to trace out the pages onto the acetate sheet.  I used an ultra fine black Sharpie to trace and left the black outline visible when I cut out the pages.  The tracing and cutting is a bit tricky with acetate because it's so slippery so you might want to get a feel for it by practicing on a piece of scrap first.  

TIP:  You can also stick the acetate to the template with a piece of re-positionable sticky tape to help keep things still and straight while cutting.

Run one sheet of Valentine themed decorative paper through a Xyron to add permanent adhesive to one side and then attach the other sheet of paper to it, forming a thicker two-sided piece of decorative paper.  Use the book cover template for the acetate to trace out 4 decorative paper pages of the same size and cut out.

Once you've got all the pages cut out, stack them and clamp them all together (I like to use simple wooden clothes pegs as clamps) and punch 3 rectangle 'holes' in the left hand side margin.  You might need to punch the holes in sections depending on how thick your paper and acetate is.  Once the holes are punched score the left hand margin on all pages to help them fold open nicely.  I like to use a ruler and a bone folder for this purpose.  

Now that all the construction is done it's time to decorate!  Rubber stamp the acetate pages with various Valentine themed images using black StazOn ink.  Put all the pages in a safe place and leave them alone for a few hours or over night to allow the ink to dry.  I recommend that you don't attempt to heat set the acetate coz it will just melt and crinkle - unless of course this look appeals to you, then go ahead and have fun experimenting!  


While waiting for the acetate pages to dry you can stamp the Love Ticket image onto a piece of decorative paper with any black dye ink (but I used Ancient Page) and cut out.  

To create the semi-circle cut-outs on the ticket I used a standard hole punch.  You can put the ticket to one side to dry (or heat set) while decorating the domino next. 

I used an ivory standard domino, new and shiny right out of the tin and stamped a portion of a 'source unknown' rubber stamp onto it with black Ancient Page dye ink.  Heat set the ink with a heat gun and colour the image with Sharpie markers.  Add little details with a fine point gold metallic pen.  Edge and colour only a portion of the sides of the domino with a black Sharpie.  Seal the design with Judikins Diamond Glaze for a nice shiny glass-like finish and put aside to dry.  Cut some red ribbon and using more Diamond Glaze or your favourite glue, adhere the ribbon around the domino.

While waiting for the domino to dry you can now go back to the acetate pages and colour them with Adirondack Pigment Pens, you could also use Sharpies if you wanted to.

TIP:  If you're using stamps without writing then you can stamp the images on the BACK of the acetate pages.  The image will then be reversed but that doesn't matter depending on the design of course.  This will then allow you to colour on the FRONT of the pages with the pigment pens.  Otherwise, stamp the images on the FRONT and colour on the BACK!  The reason for keeping the colouring separate from the stamped image is the alcohol in the pens will re-activate the dried ink of the image and make colouring messy or impossible.  Especially if you just want to colour over the whole design like I did here.  The same was done with the text images to give them some colour too.  I used 3 or 4 colours in the red/pink/purple range depending on the image.  Let each page dry again after colouring them.

Before assembling all the components together to create the book first decide on the placement of the Love Ticket on the cover and punch 2 tiny holes through the ticket and the acetate and secure in place with a small piece of double-sided sticky tape and 2 mini gold brads.  Hold all the pages together and thread the red ribbon through the punched rectangle 'holes' to form the binding of the book.  Finish off with the ribbon on the front side of the spine (top and bottom) then fold the ribbon over the edges and adhere to the back cover with a piece of double-sided sticky tape.  To secure the ribbon and just to finish off the over-all look I glued a strip of matching decorative paper over the ribbon on the back cover to hide it all.

Embellish the book cover with the altered domino and add the heart stickers to the tabs (my stickers spell out the word 'Love').  I used glue dots to adhere the domino but E6000 will do the trick too.  

Now you've got a cute little acetate book to fill with love notes, photos or little love poems to give to your sweet heart next Valentine's Day.  I hope you enjoyed creating it!

Leigh S-B

The Sharpie Domino Queen