Fantastic Friday: Craft - 'Raven'

This is the craft project that ‘distracted’ me from writing ;) After the last bit of crafting that I’d done, I was eager to continue; I’d forgotten how much I enjoy it. And I think it’s a good thing to get back into this instead of spending all my free time writing.

This idea came to me pretty quickly – make a book around the short story I’d written based on Edgar Allan Poe’s ‘The Raven’.

It was a little out of my comfort zone in that I wasn’t going to be using ‘pretty’ papers and embellishments, and I wanted to keep the whole look understated.

Getting the papers ready...

I was going for a ‘used’ look and thought the packing paper that usually comes with an Amazon order would work; I used that to cover the brown cardstock that formed the cover of the book.

Wrapping cardstock with brown paper; I used PVA glue

I wrote the title onto vellum and attached it onto the paper before gluing that on the cover as can be seen on the first picture. Typically of me, I managed to smudge the writing but consoled myself that it goes with the whole ‘used’ theme. On the inside of the cover, I collaged torn pages from an old dictionary, vintage images and added a black feather.

The stamp on the picture of the house, which is attached with 3D foam, is from a collection I have of vintage ephemera – I couldn’t believe that it’s of Mr Poe himself!

I printed two patterned papers from a digital collection, and glued them together – DIY double-sided paper! I printed another two pages, glued them together, and printed the story directly onto the papers. The images I found on good old Pinterest.

I matted the image on torn mulberry paper; the lace is part of the paper's design

The stained effect is the 'pattern' on the paper. I tore the edges and inked them in keeping with the 'used' theme

I covered the image with vellum to hint that maybe there was something secret and unusual about her transformation

The last page and inside back cover. The blue clock faces are cut from another design; the smaller one is mounted on 3D foam. I cut the image of the green clock face in half and attached each half to either side of the covers

The back of the book

To finish off, I attached the pages to the cover with ribbon. Personally, I’m really pleased with how this turned out.