The Scottish Governess – ATC Bookcase

Hello Lockdown buddies,

So we are all staying home together and hopefully staying safe and sane.

Today I have a quick and easy tutorial for you using minimal supplies to make this cool little bookcase for your ATCs or in this case, my little mini books!

Here’s how it came together:

A few weeks ago I painted a few different elements with white gesso, including this bookcase in preparation for upcoming projects. So this time I am working on the bookcase.

I knew I wanted to cover it in collage paper so this time I decided to use one of my own designs, so I printed off a few sheets using a lightweight paper in my printer.  These are made using vintage ads from many places but one in particular caught my attention as it was for a governess, which always makes me think of Jane Eyre.

A governess is a woman employed to teach and train children in a private household. In contrast to a nanny, she concentrates on teaching children, rather than caring for their physical needs. Her charges are of school age rather than babies.

The woman in the photo is not a governess but she does remind me of one from that same era.  Also included are ads for bookbinders, schools for boys, and other educational type advertisements.  So I started by tearing up some of the sheets, choosing the images I wanted for each side.  Then using collage medium (or matte medium), I started applying the paper to the bookcase base.

This is a relatively quick process but you have to take care not to trap any air bubbles underneath! I covered all of the outside and inside of the bookcase but only the front panel on the drawer. I wanted the rest of the drawer to remain white.

I decided to change the colour slightly and make it more vintage looking by wiping Burnt Sienna Fluid Acrylic paint diluted with a little water on it. These fluid acrylics dry very fast but you can help it along with a hairdryer if you don’t like waiting.

I found this little wooden knob in my stash, complete with screw, so I just attached it to the drawer using the predrilled hole in the front of the drawer.

Once everything was dry, I painted all the edges using Black fluid acrylic paint.

To protect your bookcase, add a couple of coats of varnish, gloss or matte, your choice. Then you can fill it up with all your favourite ATCs or little books.  If you are interested in making little books like those shown, you can find a tutorial here.

I hope that you found this tutorial useful and something that would be fun to try yourself.  Let me know in the comments.

Challenges

PROJECT RECIPE:

ATC Bookcase – C56L
White gesso
Collage Medium
Printed Collage Paper by Empire of the Cat
Fluid Acrylics – black, burnt sienna
From Stash: knob for drawer, paper for printer

I started something new for April and continuing:

Since we are all stuck inside and can’t leave the house, I thought I would try and do two things:
1. use this time to finish any unfinished projects
2. use as much recycled materials as possible (I do this a lot anyway) but also not to buy new stuff!
So, with that in mind, I will note the above on any posts, if applicable.
UNFINISHED PROJECT – NO
RECYCLED MATERIALS – YES – the knob for the drawer,

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