Marsha Valk: DIY Accordion Fold Mini Journal

Hi there! It’s Marsha Valk here! I'm a crafter from the Netherlands. I especially love creating mixed media projects, printmaking, stenciling, collage and stamping.

I’m super honored to be a guest at the StencilGirl blog, and I have a fun little mono printed and doodled accordion fold to share with you today.

Watch the video to follow my process:

And here are the written steps:

Step 1:

Take a sheet of 11³/₄” x 16¹/₂” drawing paper and cut it into strips of 4¹/₈” x 16¹/₂”.

Cut more strips if you want a longer accordion fold!

Fold the strips into an accordion.

Step 2:

Cut one square of the accordion to about an inch. Use this strip of paper to adhere the two accordions together to form one big accordion.

Step 3:

Hand-cut a couple of masks to use to cover up parts of the gel printing plate while mono printing. I made two: a circle and a rectangle.

I used two scraps of paper to cover my 5” x 5” Gelli Plate. I drew a 4¹/₈” x 4¹/₈” box in the middle of both scraps, and then I hand cut the shape I wanted, making sure I stayed inside each box.

Step 4:

Choose three colors of acrylic paint and start mono printing using your favorite stencils.

Alternate colors, stencils and hand cut shapes and masks.

Use repositionable adhesive to adhere the hand cut shapes to the accordion fold temporarily.

Don’t worry about imperfect prints. You can alter them with watercolor and doodles later on!

Step 5:

Take out your favorite waterproof pens, a watercolor medium and a couple of colored pencils and doodle away!

I choose the same colors as I used for mono printing. I also used Ecoline Brush Pens and a water-brush instead of traditional watercolors.

Step 6:

Cut two chipboard squares, slightly larger than 4¹/₈” x 4¹/₈”.

Cover the chipboard squares with paper. I used the sheet of paper I used to roll my brayer clean during mono printing!

Adhere the chipboard squares to the ends of the accordion fold.

Enjoy your day!

Marsha Valk

Supplies by StencilGirl Products:

Clustered Leaves by Cecilia Swatton

Kunst Masken 1 by Andrew Borloz

Ancient Marks by Suzi Dennis

Santiago Mini by Nathalie Kalbach

MesaVerde by Nathalie Kalbach

Batik by Nathalie Kalbach

Other:

Drawing paper 100 lbs, 11³/₄” x 16¹/₂” (Lana Dessin 220)

Glue stick

Scraps of paper at least 5”x5”

Gelli Arts Student Gelli Plate 5”x5”

Brayer

Acrylic paint (Talens Amsterdam: Primary Magenta, Primary Yellow, Turquoise Blue)

Repositionable adhesive (Scrapbook Adhesives E-Z Dots)

Black waterproof pens and markers

Watercolor medium (Talens Ecoline Brush Pens: Light Yellow, Magenta, Turquoise Blue)

Colored pencils

Chipboard