There Be Dragons In The Male Room

     This time the challenge at The Male Room is to make a masculine project with something recycled. This was a great opportunity to fold another book, I had this dragon pattern in my stash so all I had to do was find the right book.
     Once all the pages had been folded it was time to set about decorating it. This was when I discovered that in my haste to fold I had chosen a book with a glossy printed cover, every thing I tried didn't work very well. Acrylic paint scratched off, so did gesso, so did marker pen, it was driving me crazy, then I remembered aluminium tape.
    Now all I had to do was decorate the cover with texture, ready to be covered with tape. The back has a mosaic pattern made with a Sizzix die, I kept all the little bits that are usually thrown out so now I have a cardboard stencil left for another project.
     The front has a collection of shapes, including a hand drawn dragons head cut from an old cereal box. The spine just has the word dragon in die cut card, as not much else would fit.

    I covered the whole book cover with pieces of aluminium tape overlapped at random, I found this easier than trying to lay down neat strips.
    On the front cover there are tiny 'rivet' marks added to some of the joins, this was done using a ball tool. 
    Once all the tape was on the book it was time to paint over it. Black acrylic paint dabbed all over the tape was left to dry completely, in the past I have rubbed the paint off while still damp but this time I wanted a much more aged, grungy look.

    When all the paint was dry it was then time to rub some of it off, mainly on the raised areas to give the impression of wear over time.
     The inside covers could then be covered as they had tape ends showing and splodges of paint. To do this I used some textured wallpaper, I thought it looked a bit like dragon skin. It was painted with acrylic paint and then knocked back with black ink. Once the ink was dry I rubbed over with some gold gilding wax.
     All that was left was to add some corner protectors to finish off. I'm rather pleased that all the items used for this project have either been recycled or were already in my stash.

     Please pop over to The Male Room and take a look at all the DT inspiration, then come and join us with your masculine, recycled project.

I would like to enter this project in the following challenges:

Through The Craft Room Door - Anything Goes   (W)
International Art & Soul - Use Stuff You Already Own   (F)
Not Just Cards - Anything Goes   (M)
Eclectic Ellapu - Anything Goes    (M)