ColourCraft: Painted Tyvek Journal Cover by Karen

I have a number of kraft notebooks and I wanted to decorate one for a travel trip but felt the cover was a bit thin to take much multi-media treatment. Tyvek on the other hand is virtually indestructible unless subject to heat so I cut a piece of Tyvek larger than my cover and set about decorating that.

I had a piece of ribbon that I wanted to use as a closure so that guided my paint colour choices: Turquoise, Magenta, Phthalo Green and Yellow Eco Acrylic Paints plus Copper Eco Aztec Metallic Paint.

Using a paint knife, I dabbed on each colour in turn and then used a brayer to spread out each colour fairly randomly. It is important to leave plenty of the layer below visible to have lots of depth and the different colours visible at the end. When applied in thin layers the paints are semi-translucent so layering them also creates different tones than just the colours applied. No need to worry about creases in the Tyvek, I even created some of my own when brayering over it. They disappear when it is glued down and smoothed out.

The four Eco Acrylic Paints I applied with this method resulted in this effect:

And then adding the Copper Aztec Metallic Paint added more depth and a fabulous metallic sheen:

Copper Design-It paste was added through a stencil and left to dry. This gave lots of 3D texture as well as more metallic sheen. (Sorry for the long shadows: Some late afternoon sun after a rainy day!)

Once the paste was dry I glued the Tyvek on to the notebook with Flexiglue spread out thinly with a paint knife, starting with the outside cover and then cutting the corners at an angle and turning and gluing the edges. However, I did not glue about a centimeter along the spine to allow the Tyvek to flex as the book was opened and closed: This might have been unnecessary caution as the Tyvek seems very flexible but better safe than sorry!

I also used Flexiglue to adhere the ribbon.

I covered the inner covers with printed paper to hide the edges of the Tyvek.

Finally I stamped the word 'jounal' on to the cover with Stazon permanent ink and then doodled a bit with some black and white markers. I didn't want to add any embellishments that might rip off when this is being used and being slid in and out of a bag but I know the Tyvek is going to offer good protection. I love the colours, the linen-like look of the Tyvek's texture and the fabulous copper paste!