I read are chock full of information and inspiration, and I want to be able to easily find certain projects, chapters, and favorite passages again.
When it’s a beautiful, hardcover book, I can’t bring myself to dog-ear the corners as I might be willing to do in a magazine.
I tried Post-It tabs to mark my pages, but my books would look pretty sloppy on the shelf.
Finally, I hit on the idea of booksmark sets, which can also be arty and attractive.
I wanted multiple bookmarks, but they could not be too bulky or fall out of their places when the book was open and being read. They also needed to be pretty indestructible because my art books get handled a lot. Sheer Heaven came to the rescue, as usual, and the only challenge was to make the bookmarks as beautiful as the books they would inhabit.
You can make as many bookmarks in your set as you like - it won’t make a difference in the ease of handling them. These supplies and instructions are for a set of four. If you want more in your set, just multiply the materials. I have made sets of up to twelve, and they work just fine. Obviously, sets can be redivided as necessary, and each can be used individually if you wish.
For four bookmarks:
One half sheet of Sheer Heaven (5.5" x 8.5")
Heat Tool
Appropriate rubber stamps. I used a set of Stained Glass stamps from Art Neko
Watercolors or other transparent paints
Small Pointed Round Brushes
Eyelets
Fringe Benefits (hangs loosely and does not fray at the ends) Available from us at Cre8it.
Cut the half sheet of Sheer Heaven in half, then each half in half again. This should result in four pieces - each measuring 2-1/8" x 5.5".
This size will accomodate the stamp image and leave nice margins at the top and bottom.
Prepare a mount for the stamps.
We are using Simple Mounts and double stick tape. We will be able to use the same taped mount for all four stamps without having to change the tape.
You don’t have to cover the whole stamp area with tape - just a couple strips in the middle of the mount will do fine.
Stamp and emboss each stained glass image in black on one of the Sheer Heaven pieces.
Tips for heat embossing on Sheer Heaven: Hold the heat tool at least 6" from the Sheer Heaven and move the tool as you emboss to prevent warping. Using clear powder over black ink allows you to see the powder melt easily so you don’t overheat. I used a piece of Fun Foam under the Sheer Heaven to insure a good stamped image.
The embossed outlines will make the painting easy.
Paint each section with clear water - tinted with a small bit of color so you can see exactly where you have wet the paper. When each section is wet, feed in more intense color with the tip of your brush.
As the deeper color spreads into the wet area, guide it with your brush into the edges until the area is evenly covered.
With a clean, damp brush, pick color up again from the center of each area. This will give you a shaded effect which is much more interesting than plain flat color.
The flower on the left shows the areas wet with tinted water. The two darker flowers show the effect of adding darker color and picking it up again from the middle of each section.
You can make your painting even more dramatic and “painterly” by feeding a second color into parts of the sections while the first color is still wet.
Here I have added a little lavendar to the blue sky background.
Blend the colors gently with the tip of your brush. This will make the piece really resemble stained glass.
