WHEN THE SPIRIT MOVES YOU....

BOOK COVER

for a prayer book

Rosin paper, oil pastels, acrylic gold paint

Lots of elbow grease

Several years ago, my sister and I attended an art workshop hosted by Lynn Perrella. She taught us this interesting technique where you take rosin paper (it's the paper that roofers use) and you spread a thick coat of gesso on it.  While it is still wet, you take your texture tools--bubble wrap, combs, stencils, sponge, paper towel, ...anything that will make an imprint in the gesso. Once you've added the imprints, you let it dry.  This could take awhile due to the thick coat of gesso.  We used Portfolio oil pastels to add the color.  Lynn swore by this product because it is inexpensive and they work well.  You take the crayons and cover all of the gesso...overlapping colors and such.  Use lots!  Then comes the workout...take a clean rag and start blending the colors.  Go over it and over it and over it until you get a look that you like. You can rub it to the point where you see white ridges from your imprints and that looks really nice.  I even sprayed ink with a stencil.  I wasn't sure that would work on top of the oil pastel, but it did.  (Chemistry was not my best subject in school and when you start mixing different mediums...it's kind of like a chemistry experiment)!

Then you can add rubber stamps, collage materials...anything you want to it. The back of this book cover is a little different from the front. 

 The front I kept fairly simple.  I used a tree-of-life stencil which is barely noticeable in the background.  And I added gold paint to make a cross embedded in the tree.

This book cover I made for a pamphlet-sized prayer book we use in the summer at our church.  For whatever reason ( I don't know) these booklets don't have covers so I made one to give to our Rector for her copy.  Here's the inside....

I used a sheet of scrapbook paper inside.  After you rub the oil pastels into the rosin paper, it no longer feels like paper....it almost feels like leather.  It's an amazing product.  The one thing I did do...to make sure our Rector doesn't end up with any blue fingers...is I sealed it with some matte decoupage.  I loved making this book cover...and I have a huge roll of this paper.  Fun to play with...I highly recommend it.