“An Ocean Tale” Altered Book with Clay covered Dominos by Deirdre E.

Start with 4 brand new travel size dominos. Drill a small hole in the upper left corner of two of the dominos. Pull off a piece of white quick drying clay and roll into a ball about 3 inches or so in diameter. Press one side of the ball into purple Staz-On ink (Tsukineko) Twist and fold the ball over and into itself to create purple swirls. Separate into 4 equal pieces and flatten them into rectangles to fit onto the face of each of the 4 dominos.
(See Clay Picture One)
© Deirdre

Ink up a seahorse stamp in the same purple ink, lay the stamp down and press the clay covered domino onto the stamp then lift off. Use a straight pin to extend the drilled hole through the clay then use scissors to cut away any excess clay and line the edge of the domino with a silver sharpie.
(See Clay Picture Two)
© Deirdre  Repeat steps with the sand dollar stamp. With the remaining two dominos use a long mermaid stamp and press the top half of the image into one domino and the bottom half of the mermaid into the other domino. Trim excess clay and edge with silver.
(See Finished Clay Pieces)
© Deirdre  Let dry over night.

Next prepare a purchased board book. We will only need 4 pages, so count off 4 pages then glue the rest of the pages in the back together with E500 glue. Use an Exacto knife to cut out two rectangles in the glued pages measuring 2.5” x 1.5”. Next use white primer paint (Gesso) to cover the front, back and all 4 pages inside.
(See Book One)
© Deirdre

Now let your imagination take over to decorate the book pages. First page for this book is painted blue-grey (Crafters Acrylic Paint) Random stamps, stamped across the background in purple. A mermaid stamped onto cardstock is attached (Modge Podge) as well as a mermaid poem.
(See Book Two)
© Deirdre

Page two is painted in light and dark purples then an abstract image of seahorses are attached as well as a seahorse poem.
(See Book Three)
© Deirdre

Page three is painted in a soft coral color, a hand folded mini-envelope is stamped and attached as well as an appropriate saying and 3 pieces of cardstock with sand dollars stamped on them are also added.
(See Book Four)
© Deirdre

Last page is painted a light blue, mermaid pictures are attached with another mermaid poem and hand colored silver swirls are added. The two dominos with the mermaid image are glued into their respective places in the two holes on the last page.
(See Book Five)
© Deirdre

To finish the inside of the book cut two pieces of blue and green fun yarn, about 24 inches each. Run the yarn through the holes of the seahorse and sand dollar domino, pull the yarn through and tie a knot right at the domino letting the excess yarn hang loose. Open the book to the seahorse page. Wrap the yarn around the binding of the book and knot at the bottom so it will stay in place. Do the same with the sand dollar domino matching it to the sand dollar page. These dominos can be moved to mark other pages but are tied into place as directed.

Now finish the cover by coloring it a light blue with green streaks. Ink up alphabet stamps with purple ink and write the name “An Ocean Tale” across the top. Cut bits of blue cardstock and stamp with random swirls then attach to the outside edge of the cover. Lastly, glue on a few shells and pink and white pearl beads.

This is just an example, let your imagination run free, glue and add and embellish to your hearts content!!

Group Art Galleries
Main Gallery
Stamper's Corner
StampTalk

Contact Us