Playing with dominoes

There are some fun challenges around at the moment and I decided challenge myself to make something very different. The challenge over at Paperartsy is "miniature art".  As I read Leandra's brilliant blog post one suggestion really stood out to me....altered dominoes. Do have a look at her post here I went upstairs to see if we had any, but I think ours from years ago were wooden and I wanted the white plastic ones. I couldn't find them anyway.  After a lot of searching I managed to find a set in a local toy shop.

For my non inky blogging friends who may not have seen this before, it is the plain side which gets altered. Some people turn these pieces into fridge magnets or pendants or even swap them. I decided I would like to turn mine into a little accordion book. Leandra gave a great link to a tut here. My dominoes were a slightly different size to the ones in the tutorial so I adapted my page sizes.

I decided that I would try using my alcohol inks to give a base colour. I had a practise run first and this lovely pattern emerged.

I used this piece to practise stamping, sealing, colouring etc and once I was happy I made  2 backing dominoes for my book. I love the way the colours blend and mottle, it's a fun technique.

Next I used some small stamps.

I also added some T Holtz remnant rubs and added some colouring which you will see later in my finished piece.

To make the accordion pages I blended some distress ink and added some flicks of water.

I have a great mini calligraphy stamp I won in the Artistic stamper challenge last year and it was the perfect mini size for my book pages.

I decided my little book would be for my dear Mum for Mother's day so I had a sort through some spring like stamps and also used some apt Tim chit chat words. My Mum loves trips to country houses and gardens so I wanted to incorporate this.


It was then time to put everything together......................................here is my finished project.

 These are the front and back dominoes

 Here is the little book all tied up with ribbon, this is the same ribbon I used for my Mum's 80th a couple of years ago so this makes it even more special for her.

 Shall we pull the ribbon and open up..............?

 This is the inside stamped up with some lovely English country garden images and appropriate chit chat words. She enjoys days out and holidays seeing our lovely countryside.

 Our Mum's are so very special

 as is the world we live in

I would like to enter my project into the following challenges;

PaperArtsy Topic 4; miniature art Thanks Leandra for the amazing inspiration you gave for this challenge.
The Artistic Stamper spring is coming I get 2 entries as I used their great mini calligraphy stamp
Frilly and Funkie vacation time mine is a representation of a mini break to an English country garden on a warm spring day...sounds perfect..even if we have a few more weeks to wait.
Simon says stamp Wednesdays anything goes
Simon says Work it Wednesdays
We do doobadoo spring greens
Natalie and Amy Flowers
That Craft Place Mother's day/anything goes
Country View crafts anything goes
Penny Black and More blossoms and bows


I think my Hb is looking at our box games in the cupboard out of the corner of his eye now, wondering if the Scrabble or Rummikub pieces are safe.............now there's a thought! I also found a tiny box which  a perfume sample came in.....hmmm...lots of ideas. I do love miniature things, as does my dear Mum. I hope she likes her little book, it was made with lots of love.

Happy 1st March everyone, what lovely times are ahead of us, nature is waking up and it is indeed a beautiful world.

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x