My little DS needed to get a scrapbook done for her job the next day! I mean - an entire scrapbook done in one night. As she sat on the floor sorting out all the letters, picts, and ephemera, I started finding background paper and stamping on them.When I was done stamping on the background pages and waiting for her to fill her scrapbook up, I started taping some of the pages in a book together. I used some 1/2" masking tape that I had gotten online. I stamped all the right sides of the pages with the wooden rulers stamp with Distress ink. I then took some Adirondack color wash and sprayed all the pages. There was some overspray on the inside of the covers. The look turned out better than I expected. I really liked the color of the just the sprayed pages. I tried not to wipe the spray too much. Just dabbed with an old rag. The wooden rulers stamped images bled some from the color wash. I overstamped the rulers with another color. Okay, what now? I did not want to put a lot of embellishments on the pages. I did not want the pages to be bulky. I wanted flat pages. This is the first time that I have wanted flat pages. I have always been the ephemera/embellishment queen. I liked putting a ton of "stuff" on my pages. I am beginning to like less "stuff" on my pages and am leaning more towards texture. I thought that I needed the embellishments because I am a visual and tactile person. I am finding out that I don't need a lot to relate what I want to say on a page. Does this mean that I am evolving out of the Newbie stage? Anyway, since I had stamped all my DS's background pages and had done nothing else, I thought about just putting my favorite stamps in the AB and that would be it. I did add a little texture with some Magic Mesh - that got torn out later to reveal the unaltered page underneath. I finished all that while waiting for my DS to finish her scrapbook. I did a little journaling the next day and put in comments about why I liked a particular stamp. The covers took me a lot longer to finish than the book itself! I did not like just the sanded leather finish. I added on the stamped images and gessoed over that. I then took some Golden's light molding paste with some punchinella for the front cover texture. I used my finger and applied the molding paste to the back cover. Used a knife to make the swirly designs. The little mosaic pieces are from Michaels. I played with it until I liked the look and the feel of it. I just got some beeswax. Hmmm. Maybe, I will play a little more later on. Anyway, the book feels done to me - for now. Thanks for reading and viewing! Altered Belly