Hi there everyone and happy Saturday!! Who is ready for the holidays? I'm almost there...and since it's been a quiet few days I'm hoping to get in some crafting time next week. How about you?
Today I'm here to share a few journal pages that I created last weekend. (Does anyone else have a hard time not making two pages at once? I just can't help making these big 'ol spreads...love 'em!) This post is stock full of photos and details so sit back, relax, and enjoy browsing!
I created these pages in my
Dylusions Journal, which is a the best journaling book out there...a full 9x12 inches of paper goodness! I started by applying
white gesso to both pages. While the gesso was still wet I attached a few random pieces of tissue paper newsprint. I love the tissue paper because it gets all wrinkled when it's dry...fabulous!
Once the gesso was dry I grabbed a few paint dabbers (I used
Cloudy Blue,
Willow, and
Eggplant on these pages) and got crazy! I used a brush to apply the Cloudy Blue to the top of the page and then just dumped some Willow on the bottom and rubbed it around with my hands (your fingers make great blending tools!)
And for some serious contrast I added the Eggplant. Love the dark against the lighter colors. I smooshed (technique term) the paint around and let everything completely dry before moving on.
Next I used the
Mini Cursive Alpha stencil and
Vintage Photo Distress Ink to add another background design element. I'm a huge fan of text so I love the addition of the random text over the page pages.
Then I grabbed my new
Donna Downey stamps from Unity! These babies are huge (look at the size of those flowers!) and are perfect for large projects. These definitely aren't the best pick for cards because of the size. You're going to need to get altered to use these stamps! Yippee! I stamped the
Hollyhocks stamp in the background but there were some changes that came up after I stamped these and I'll explain that change further down in the post.
I next stamped the
Poppy Background stamps in Archival Ink on my page for placement. (After I finished the pages I wished that I had stamped the flowers across the entire bottom of my pages...next time...)
My next step was to do some paper piecing with these beautiful flowers. Since the images are large, they were super easy to cut out. I used paper from the
October Afternoon Farm Girl paper pad. I used
Matte Medium to glue the paper flowers to the journal page and just colored the stems with my
Distress Markers.
At this point I noticed that the Distress Ink I had used to stamp the Hollyhocks image was not drying on top of the paint so...change of plans! I used a paper towel to gently rub the ink away, which just added more beautiful color to the pages, and then I used the
Chevron stencil and a Gold paint dabber (gold is the perfect addition to any page) to add a bit more design.
You can see that great gold accent on my final picture (click on any picture for a closer look). The final steps included added a butterfly, using the
Layered Butterfly stencil from The Crafters Workshop, a hand drawn "trail", and black paint circles around three words that were printed on the tissue paper and still visible, "forgive," "time," and "flourish." Cool, right? Did I want "drippage" from those circles? You bet I did but there's no India Ink in my studio...do you think I'm going to get some of that ink? You better believe it! But
black acrylic paint did the trick this time around! My last bit was to add a sentiment (from my BFF Tim...ok, he's not my BFF but he should be, shouldn't he?)
Overall, I was happy with the page but feel like it's still missing something...I think I'm still a bit hesitant to go too crazy with the elements but I'm getting there and the best part? I'm having a blast! Come on and get altered with eP!
Enjoy and best wishes for a joyful and blessed holiday!!
