Home ~ a book in a tin inspired by Vera Lane Studio images

Hi everyone! Those who have been following along for the past while already know that I have been on a mission which I call "Holy Cow! Use it, already". This self-assigned mission is me giving myself both permission and the challenge to use things which have been in my stash for a while, either forgotten, hoarded for the "special someday project" or just acquired in a moment of weakness...LOL. Today's project for the Vera Lane Studio design team uses a little 3.25 x 1.5 inch tin with an even smaller (3 x 1.25) accordion book inside that unfolds like a bunch of tickets. It's been in my stash for ages and today is its day to be filled with Vera Lane Studio Tall Town images.

I used all 6 of the Tall Town houses for this book, leaving the first and last panel for one of the sentiments from the same digi set. The houses were coloured with a limited palette of Prismacolor and Polychromos pencils. I wanted the houses to coordinate and also pick up some of the background colours. Each house was fussy cut leaving a narrow white border and matted on three sides with black cardstock. The bottom of each house was simply inked with black Big Brush Pen to add black without adding any more length.

Each panel was either given a black punched star for the background or tiny stars somewhere on the house. Above, you can see the tiny stars adhered as the flower centers.

To create the background, I began by spritzing the joined tickets with Lindy's Shabby Turbine Teal Starburst Spray and water, followed by Lindy's Van Dyke Sepia Moon Shadow Mist which I blotted with paper towel to keep it light. On the back, I stencilled some harlequin designs and script stamping with Coffee Archival and inked the edges of both front and back with the same ink. Black pen was used to doodle a frame on each panel.

The sentiment from the set says" Home is where your story begins". I printed the words and cut them apart, matting them with black. The word "Home" was placed on the first panel as the title of the book. It was adhered over a book text heart which had been dry brushed with gesso to knock back the print. The rest of the quote, minus the word "is", was adhered to the last panel along with another of the black punched stars to mark the end of the book.

I decided to keep the tin fairly plain. Pool and Patina Alcohol Inks were added to the top of the lid and once dry, a fixative spray was added. Jet Black Archival Ink was used to stamp both script and splatter dots over the ink. A metal puffy heart was adhered to the center of the lid using E6000 glue. To keep the book closed while inside the tin, a length of seam binding was wrapped and tied in a simple knot.

This is the cutest little project and I love how those houses are the ideal shape and (thanks to the magic of digi stamps) sized to fit perfectly on these tiny pages. Above is a terrible photo of how the book looks stretched out. It's about 23 inches long when all 8 panels are unfolded. 

Thanks for stopping by today. When you get a minute, pop by both the Vera Lane Studio Etsy shop and the VLS Facebook group where you are sure to be inspired. We'd love to see what you are creating with the plethora of VLS images.

Life is good; so is art.

Bonnie