Blossom & Bloom

One of my favorite ways to spend the day is playing in my art journal. Since there are no rules in art journaling you can follow your whims and just see what happens.  If you don't like it you can always paint or gesso over it and start fresh.  Often times I'll do a little here and a little there over time, and this is one of those spreads.

These pages started out with a layer of gesso and then I moved on to paints and Distress and Archival Inks.  I painted dictionary paper and cut circles from it, edging them with Distress ink before stamping the new flower stamps by Darkroom Door on them.  

I received the new Tim Holtz Mini Filmstrip die from EP last week and I've already used it on three different projects!  I like the way it grounds these pages.  I used my Xyron 900 to adhere them with repositionable adhesive (a good choice because as you see, I decided I wanted to move the large circles partially under instead of over the filmstrip.)

This shot shows the chicken wire stencil a few layers down, which I used with gesso before coloring everything.  I linked all the stencils at the end.

 I repeated that in two other sections, following the rule of thirds.

The frame is also by Darkroom Door and I used some ancient stickers for my title.  That's it for me today.  Thanks for visiting!

Marjie Kemper

InLinkz.com

Canvas

Hello,  Anneke here.

This is already my last post as a guest designer for the eclectic Paperie blog. 

For today I decorated a burlap canvas with fabric flowers. These canvases are available in the eP shop (click) in different sizes. Mine is 6"x6".

 I covered the burlap with a subtle layer of gesso first.

To decorate the canvas I used 2 kinds of linen fabric, a few paint chip samples and some packaging material that's a little different form corrugated cardboard.

I colored the fabric with Dylusions Ink Sprays.

Glued a strip of the 'cardboard' at the bottom of the canvas. 

Cut two circles out of the fabric for each flower.

For the flower centres I used some linen cord .

Cut the stems and leaves out of paint chip samples.

Supplies from the eP shop

Canvas Corp-Stretched Burlap-6"x6"

Dylusions Ink Spray

Fresh Lime

London Blue

Vibrant Turquoise

Lemon Zest

Before saying goodbye I want to thank you all for your visits here and for the nice comments on my work. 

Thank you very much!!!

And a special 'thank you' to Kim for giving me the opportunity to be one of the guest designers. I really enjoyed it!

Altered Art Journal

Good morning friends!! Julie here with a little project I've been working on.  Ok, confession here, this is really for our Altered Book challenge way back in February - eek!!! I'm so so slow with these altered challenges, it takes me forever to get my idea, and gather supplies, etc.  But, I was so excited about the project that I thought you'd like to see my end result!

I've mentioned here before that I recently took an online class from Christy Tomlinson and as part of the class we need to practice making backgrounds using paper, paint, stencils, rubons, doodling, embossing paste - basically whatever works and inspires you.  I picked up a vintage book for $1 and decided to turn it into an art journal.  The book is a smaller size which really works well for me as the larger art journal sizes intimidate me - lol!

First I removed all but a few pages, I left the cover page in since it had the owners name and date (1895!) and of course I kept all the book pages for future use.  I then cut a bunch of cardstock to size to make my "signatures" - basically pages folded in half to add to the journal.  I used some white, some cream, some of the illustrations from the book, some of the pages from the book and I added little tags and glassine envelopes in some of the pages.   I did an internet search and found a guide for sewing the signatures together - it was really simple and felt so cool to be actually sewing a book together!  When it was all done, I glued the pages into the book binding using a bit of gauze as a stabilizer.

Now comes the fun part!  First I gave the cover a good coat of gesso and then started adding paper, tissue, book paper, whatever I could find to make the background.  Then got out the paints and started adding some color and texture.  In the end, when you paint the girl, a lot of the background gets covered up, but that's ok - it's all part of the process!   This was my first time ever painting a person so please excuse her slightly lopsided head - lol!   The rest was all about adding texture with writing, rubons, words, more paint, etc.

Here's a pic of my first page in the journal - it was really a great chance to play and experiment with some of the great new stencils and sprays in the eP store!  I think I'm not quite done with it. :)

That's my project, I hope maybe my process inspires you a little to try something new - it can be tons of fun!!

Lily Bee Design - Persnickety 6x6 Paper Pad	Claudine Hellmuth Studio Mini Acrylic Paint Sets - Metropolitan	Claudine Hellmuth Studio Mini Acrylic Paint Sets - Urban
TCW 6x6 Template - Mini Flower Piercing	Claudine Hellmuth Studio - Artist Brush Set	Claudine Hellmuth Studio Gesso
Dylusions Ink Spray - Calypso Teal	Tim Holtz Distress Paint - Antique Linen	Distress Stain - Fired Brick
Picket Fence Stain	Studio 490 Embossing Paste	Inkssentials Foam Blending Tool
Prima - Donna Downey 6x6 Art Stencil - Chevron Grunge	Prima - Donna Downey 6x6" Art Stencil - Floral

InLinkz.com

Grateful for You

Good Morning Friends

Donna-Marie posting today.

I have a rather long post today due to the many parts to my new project so grab your favorite morning beverage and take a tour...

I wanted to make  a gratitude box for a special friend and here it is...the outside anyway.

I painted the outside of the box with Black Gesso and sanded some of the edges away for a shabby look.

The inside gets a lot more interesting but first take a peek at how this box started out...

 

 ...As an old phone box.  I just recently bought a new cell phone and kept the box.

 

I loved all the compartments and that good size pocket (as seen above) was a nice spot for a mini book.  I like how all the pieces stack back up neatly inside.

The color was a bit odd but when I received my G45 French Country Paper Pad it all clicked!!

 

A gratitude box starts with this saying:

In Gratitude for who you are

I wanted to give you a gift of

Love

Joy

Wisdom

Laughter

A light in the dark

A lucky rock

Peace

The key to happiness

A star with a secret

A feather from an angel’s wing

A wish

A dream

And a kiss

So here they are...

 

I printed the saying and placed it in the section above and

 Each of the wishes are represented in the box

 

 Here they are all placed out

The 14 wishes are represented with these little trinkets.  Some of them are Tim Holtz items, some are common items you may already have.

 

Love = Wendi Vecchi Door with love and a metal heart

(this piece has been glued to a mini pocket which holds some paper items listed below)

Joy = Paper Heart that says joy tucked in behind the door

Laughter = a mini comic strip tucked in behind the door

A light in the dark = candle

A lucky rock = rock

Peace = is the peaceful scene with a Tim Holtz tab attached to the top that says "found"

The key to happiness = Tim Holtz Key

A star with a secret = Tim Holtz Star and a rolled up secret tied with a string

A feather from an angel's wing = white feather

A wish = Tim Holtz bottle with glitter

A dream = is the metal tag next to the door that says "dream as if you'll live forever"

A kiss = candy kiss

 

The only one I left out showing was wisdom. 

For this portion I created a small fold out book full of Donna Downey Empowered Words.

I made a small fold out card stock paper backing and glued my section onto it.

Each section was matted with G45 paper and a kraft corrugated piece.  On top of the corrugated pieces I adhered with Matt Medium more stamped images, Donna Downey Wayward Blooms, Poppies, and Wendy Vecchi Daisy Stamp.  These images were stamped on white tissue paper and adhered down...I love how the corrugated texture comes through.  I used Ranger Archival Black Ink for the stamped images and inked with Dylusions Post Box Red Spray.

 

This center portion got some black gesso added with black beads.  (not sure I like it but it's there)

 

 This mini book fits perfectly into the portion of the box that once held the instruction book.

Everything here folds up neatly and stacks into the box...for a box of gratitude!!



I topped of the box with a paper text rose that I made.  The rose also got inked with Dylusions Post Box Red Sray ink and Lemon Zest.  I added tags from G45 French Country and more G45 French Country Paper.  I inked my edges with Black Soot Distress Ink.

I hope you enjoyed today's project and I truly hope you get to make a gratitude box for someone special!! :-)