A TREAT of a project from Debra V.

RubberMoon Arts is very excited to share this TREAT from the original Moon Goddess, Debra Valoff!
Here Debra shares with you her creative ideas and process for repurposing art and imagery into fabulous folders you can not only have fun making these but you can use and enjoy them every day. Your office supplies never looked sooo good!!

Having lots of wonderful mail art and snippets of projects/ideas I wanted to do something with it that I could enjoy, rather than being in a box that only gets looked at a couple of times a year.  Since I use file folders a lot I figured they would be the perfect way to see all of my fun mail often and serve a useful purpose at the same time.
So the first thing you need to do is select a bunch of loot that would work and that you'd be willing to cut into. The cutting wasn't as hard as I thought it would be because I knew I was turning it into something else that I could still enjoy.  Another huge plus is getting to use small snippets of art that would otherwise be difficult to use.
Luckily office supply stores carry a nice selection of colored file folders so select a color that will compliment your chosen pieces.

Next select pieces that will work for your folder and arrange them in a pleasing way for you. Don't overlook the backs of envelopes or little play pieces you stamped and buried in a pile. After they're the way you want, dab with a glue stick to keep them in place.
*I secured mine in the end by stitching them down so if you don't plan on using a sewing machine please take more time and use a good glue to attach them.

There are tons of great decorative tapes on the market and if you're like me, you probably own half of them! Go grab some and get busy attaching pieces here and there.

Now grab some awesome RubberMoon stamps and embellish some of the blank spaces that are needing attention. Since my folder is a dark color I decided to use a lot of white ink (which I had to cover with a spray fixative since I didn't want to emboss). I also ran a sewing marking tool through some black ink for more added interest and some consistency. (The dot dot dot tool I used in a recent Lynn Whipple class and I want to use it on everything now!)

My last step was to stitch the paper pieces down using a zigzag stitch ( 3.1 wide, 3.1 long) with black thread. When I finished, the back side of the folder wanted to curl but I simply put weight on it for an hour or two and then it was fine.

TA DA!!!
All done and ready to use.

Thank you Debra, your art and projects are ALWAYS a treat!

RubberMoon loves Tombow! #tombow100

Hi. It's me, Kae Pea! I was pretty thrilled when Tombow asked me to join in on the 100 days of Tombow blog hop! My participation in this hop helps a great cause ($100.00 worth of product to the Council for Arts Education for each person participating) and well, you know that I love a good artsy challenge! I have used and loved Tombow products for a good number of years and RubberMoon Art Stamps and Tombow supplies are a match made in crafting heaven!

Tombow sent me such a nice package of things to play with, including Tombow dual tip markers, a Stamp Runner adhesive roller and a wonderful box of Trojiten colored pencils. Aren't they great?

Products from Tombow

 As soon as I saw the great box that the pencils came packaged in, I knew I wanted to make a travel art box!!

So I got started right away....I pulled out a few extra materials....

Materials used in this project:

1. Tombow Dual tip markers (in assorted colors)
2. Trojiten Colored Pencils from Tombow ( and I used the box they came in to create this project!)
3. Tombow Stamp Runner adhesive roller
4. white glue
5. white gesso
6. a flat paintbrush
7. a few RubberMoon stamps (including a small Ultimate Red Rubber Palette)
8. (2) pieces of coordinating decorative papers and a scrap of cardboard (for insert)
9. assorted colors of acrylic paint
10. a black inkpad

 

I cut my scrapbook paper to size and a piece of cardboard to line the inside and set it aside.

    I opened up the box and laid it flat. I  brushed white glue all over the outside, making sure to cover the entire box.

I covered my entire box with one piece of decorative paper. (though you could collage lots of different pieces too.)

 

Make sure your paper is smoothed down well and glued on all edges....

Next, I used my Tombow Stamp Runner adhesive and ran some adhesive on my cardboard insert and the inside flap of the box so I could line both with more of my coordinating decorative papers.

Adhere your papers...and glue your covered cardboard into the bottom of the box.

 YAY! Now the box is covered inside and out and it is time to Stamp, play and COLOR!!!

I dry brushed avery small amount of white gesso onto my outside cover. I just did this to break up the pattern of the paper a bit so my stamped images would stand out a little better. I was very sparing and only did very light coverage.

and then...I stamped my chosen RubberMoon Stamps using black waterproof ink.

and colored the images in using my Tombow markers and colored pencils!

I also took my favorite paint splatter stamp and "inked" it up using acrylic paint.

I squeezed out a bit of paint onto The Ultimate Red Rubber Palette and spread it out evenly using a sponge brush to make a thin layer of paint. I then tapped my stamp onto it to get paint onto the stamp...

I repeated this process three times with three different colors of paint (cleaning the palette between paint applications). It added so much fun, colorful texture and was just what I needed for my artsy pencil case. See?

I finally added just the right sayings to the back and the inside and then filled it with some art supplies to take along with me so I can make art and journal wherever I go....

back of my artsy pencil case

front of my artsy pencil case!

Ta da!! 

 RubberMoon + Tombow = Paper Craft Love

 I hope you enjoyed this project! I know I sure did!

Thank you Tombow!!

Sending Moonbeams,

Kae Pea

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