Dreamer's disease

Hello everyone,

anyone else here who is as addicted to old books as I am? I love to include vintage paper to my projects or even journal into old books directly. The spread that I want to share with you today is made in one of those books.

Before working in an old book, you should make a few preparations. I always seperate a few pages to get some space for my layers so the book can be closed without getting too bulky. And I glue two or three sheets together, depending on the texture and thickness of the paper. This helps to make the surface sturdier. I also prefer to prime my pages with gesso as I'm often working with fluid mediums like inks or watercolor.

I chose the girl in the paper boat as my focal image, just because it's one of my all time favorite stamps. I created layers with gesso, texture paste and Distress Oxide Sprays. To keep that vintage look of the spread I tried not to add too much color. Some background stamping made everything come together.

To finish it off, my page just needed a quote and "you've got the dreamers disease" was the perfect one. I stamped it onto a piece of old book paper (one of the sheets that I seperated from the book), and sewed it onto a piece of cloth that I dyed with Oxide Ink spray. I always like those sewing or stitching accents in my projects. If you don't have a sewing machine you can always add them by hand.

Here you'll find the stamps I used for my project:
Banksy Child Fishing In Paper Boat (19939)
You've got the Dreamers (20354)
Postcatd - ATC size (19931)
Row of numbers (20170)

Other materials:
- Old book + additional page
- Gesso
- Texture paste
- Versafine Ink (Onyx Black)
- Archival Ink (Coffee, Garden Patina)
- Oxide Sprays (Cracked Pistachio, Wilted Violet, Walnut Stain)
- Stencil TCW554S from The Crafter's Workshop
- Sewing machine and piece of old cloth


I hope that my spread inspired you. See you soon!