We don’t eat a lot of take out, especially now that I’m working from home but I have amassed quite a collection of fortune cookie fortunes over the last several years. You know, because someday I’m going to do something with them.

They sat in a jar for a very long time, along with quite a collection of gift cards with zero balances. I kept the gift cards for the same reason. Someday. Something.

As I was cleaning off a shelf recently I also found a stash of children’s board books that I had picked up CHEAP. Again. Someday. Something.

The someday has come and the something has been created. Whoohoo!

This Mini Mixed Media Art Book with Fortune Cookie Fortunes was exactly what I needed to 1) use up some of my stash and 2) involved enough to be a two part post for the Design Memory Craft Blog.

I’ll only share how a few of my favorite pages were created here but you can go over to their blog to read how I made the whole thing – Part 1 and Part 2.

Here are some of the supplies I used and there are other supplies listed with each page description.

Supplies:

• Chunky board book – mine measures 2 3/4 inches by 2 3/4 inches
• Origami paper
• Chinese character rub-ons
• double sided adhesive tape runner
• water
• Tacky Dots – Aileen’s
• Odds and ends to embellish your book with
• Sand paper
• gesso
• paintbrush
• paper punch – corner rounder

The first think to do is to rough up the smooth surface of the book with a little sandpaper. You don’t have to sand off the images (in fact, they look kind of cool peeking through the backgrounds) just get rid of the smooth surface so the gesso will stick better. Sand all surfaces inside and outside the book.

Wipe the whole book down with a barely damp cloth.

Cover all of the surfaces with gesso. Let dry.

While the gesso is drying is good time to sort through your collection of fortunes and set aside the ones you might like to use.

Let’s start with the cover. I used an Art Grip Aquarelle #126 to color around the edges of the front of the book, spine and back page and then used a water color brush from one of the Mixed Media kits to wash over the outside of the book distributing the color.

You can see the color from the pencil on the right hand side of the book and the other edges show where I used water to distribute the color. No need to worry about the middle of the front and back covers as we will be covering them with paper.

Select a piece of origami paper and cut it to size. I used the corner rounder to follow the curves of the board book.

To finish off the cover I went around the edges of the book with the PITT artist pen big brush in Pale Geranium Lake, let it dry and then went over that with the PITT artist pen in gold.

Add the rub-on image, the fortune and small Chinese coin. The coin I used had two small loops on either side that I cut off and then sanded the edges (it’s from an old package of Pixie Press antique metal charms from Darice if that helps).

I love the fortune that reads, “You will be showered with good luck tomorrow!” A fortune that is as optimistic as I am! 🙂

Are you ready to create and decorate on the INSIDE?

To create the background color I did the same thing here as on the cover (actually, I used this technique of coloring the edges and washing that color over the page on every page with small variations).

On these two pages I used the Art Grip Aquarelle in numbers 143 and 147. The darker 143 at the very edges and then the 147 toward the middle.

I created the hillside and trees with the PITT artist pen big brush in May Green and the sun with another big brush in Dark Naples ochre.

For the trunks of the trees I used a PITT Pastel and then a white PITT pastel to create some texture in the sky.

Add origami paper, fortune that says “The world is a beautiful book for those who read it” and a rub on.

Edge the pages in gold.

I used several products to create this background.

Art Grip Aquarelle watercolor pencils number 125, 117, 163, 105, and 168 for the grass and sky along with shading from the PITT artist pen big brush in Dark Naples ochre.

I stamped the tree with Saddle Brown Staz-On ink and edges the page in gold.

The fortune reads, “For everything there is a season”.

For the last set of pages. I kind of got stumped here and had to put my work away for the night. Sometimes you just have to walk away for a while. You know?

I’m not normally a major PINK person but I really liked the way this one turned out. The fortune reads, “Nobody can be exactly like you.” and I thought that needed a big, ol’ bright pink heart.

The color wash background is created with Art Grip Aquarelle # 119.

I drew the heart free hand and used the Art Grip Aquarell #125 to draw it with. I brushed the color toward the center. I layered several layers of the same color until I got the look I wanted. Then I used a stamp from one of the Mixed Media Sets and the PITT artist pen big brush in Deep Scarlet Red to stamp the image into the center of the heart.

Can I just tell you how much I’ve come to love the white PITT pastel? It’s great for outlining. Yes, outlining. Often people think that when something is outlined that it needs to be done in black to make it really stand out. Sometimes, though, that makes it look too “cartoony”.

The while pastel in this case makes the background lighter so that the bright pink heart stands out just as it is.

More origami paper, a rub-on Chinese character as well as the word “laugh” and edging in gold. We’re almost finished!

I loved this fortune for the back of the book. “Fortune Not Found: Abort, Retry, Ignore?”. Cracks me up!

For the finishing touch I used my crop-a-dile to punch a hole into the last page and threaded a small tassel I had on hand through the hole. For me, it was just the little bit of EXTRA that this project needed.

I may go back in at some point and add more elements or even more fortunes… but that is the good thing about creating art for yourself… you can add to it whenever an item comes along that looks like it really needs to be a part of this project.

Do you do that too? Add to pieces when you find something too delicious to resist even though the project has been done for a while?