Art Portfolio pt 1

See previous TWO posts for finished photos and a short video.

Because this is such a large project I am going to break it down into 4 blog posts, so please bear with me. This portfolio was inspired by my friend Dede , she mentioned that she had made portfoilos from games boards, so I just had to have a go.

First job, you need to find an old board game. Search the charity shops or search in your attic like me. The game I find was Hero Quest. You will need a game that has a board that folds in half not into quarters, if your board folds in 4 the pieces will only make a very small portfolio. You need a board that is at least bigger than A4 (9inches by 11) but better still find one that will hold A3 (16.5inches by 11.5) this way you can store small and large sketches inside.

If you use a game from the attic, and it happens to belong to your kids, ask their permission before you disassemble it lol

Where the fold is down the centre the paper will be quite thin, so go ahead and slice through it with a craft knife.


You will now have 2 sturdy pieces of card, patterned on one side and usually plain on the other. My board is black on the reverse, yours could be any colour depending on the game.



Because my reverse is black, I used black card stock for the base of the flaps. You should choose whatever colour card stock compliments the reverse colour of your boards.

I used 4 pieces of card each measuring 8.5inches by 11.5 (A4 uk size) you may need to adjust this measurement depending on what size your game board is. The black card should just fit inside the covers like this...



Along one LONG edge of each piece of card score and fold at 2cm from the edge...

and then again at 4.5cm FROM THE EDGE...

your card should look like this... on the other long edge of each piece I round the two corners off.



Now you could paint directly onto the gaming side, but it will probably be shiny paper and may not hold paint very well without a lot of sanding and gessoing first, so I suggest glueing book pages all over the coloured gaming sides. No need for sanding, just go ahead and cover it with pages of text. I decided to leave a black border uncovered.




Do the same with the main part of the flaps, again leaving a border all round. Do not cover the folded Parts.

When the pages are dry, take a stazon ink pad and stamp random background images all over all the pieces. You must use a waterproof ink as you will be adding water based glue and paint on top. It doesn't matter what stamps you use, not much of them will be seen by the end, it is just a starting point, to get some pattern on there.

Now get some colour over the stamps. I used Caran d'Ache Neocolor II watersoluble crayons, but you could use any brand of crayon, or paint. Just make it a thin wash.

You want to still see the book text and stamping through the colour.
If you click this pic to make it larger you will see my background stamps.

Do this colouring on both board pieces and all of the text covered flaps.

and that is all the prep done,next comes the fun decorating part.

You will need lots of images, magazine clippings, patterned paper (either scrapbook paper or home coloured/painted papers) you could even glue bits of thin fabric on there.

I suggest picking a theme, either by colour or by image theme. For example, maybe you want to do a family theme...so pick images of people, animals, house etc...maybe you want a gardening theme, so pick lots of flower images etc

I chose to go with a colour theme, so my images are all random but they do fit into the colour scheme.

You will also need paints, acrylic,watercolour,crayon...whatever you have, you could even just use ink pads if that is all you have.

You will need some matte medium or white glue to attach all your images.

Some stamps that fit into your theme.

and some quotes, have a look on the Internet for some quotes that fit with your scheme. I used art quotes. I used one long one that I spread over the flaps, and one for each cover, and one for each of the ties. you can use more quotes or less, it is up to you.

Check back tomorrow to see how I decorated the covers.