July's Art Journal Friday

Welcome back to Art Journal Friday! This month, oh boy, where is the time going?? Are we nearly in August?? Seriously?!?

Once again I invite one and all to join us in an art journal exploration, whether it's the first page in your first book or a middle-ish one in your umpteenth :)

This month, our theme is the earth! To be honest, the UK summer seems to have happened back in April but I am determined mentally to be enjoying the onset of the best that nature has to offer in the summer season. Close your eyes, imagine lush greenery and the warm breeze brushing past you (or if you live somewhere with a summer head outside!) and take pen/paint/paper to page! I am relying on you here people, I need to live your summer vicariously through you ;)

If you're feeling generous and you'd like to share, please post your photos at our Ning group here - looking forward to seeing them!

Happy journaling! :)

Gayle

July Mini Album Tutorial

Hello, Diana here bringing you this months mini album tutorial, the theme is part of my All About You craft campaign, in my next four posts I’ll be giving you ideas on making projects that focuses on you, the one behind the camera.

My album title is “At 35 I….”; I made this before my birthday as a way of remembering how I was at that age, on each page I added what stood out to me about my personality and during that year.

The album I picked for this project is a Donna Downey 4X 6 Canvas Album, I like the nice canvas pages inside and the photo sleeves were perfect to add more pictures.





Today’s tutorial will be on decorating the album cover, as you might know by now I like the look of layers.

Layer 1


Three pieces of paper, one 4X6 cardstock piece and two pattern papers with a punched out border to add extra decoration, glue them together as shown on the step 2 image bellow.

Layer 2
Glue a piece of lace all across the paper piece, add ribbon long enough to tie a knot or a bow, tape each edge to the back of the paper. Glue the complete piece to the album cover.

Layer 3-Upper Part
I used Maya Roads Chipboard Scallop Mini Triangle Banner, painted them with Jenni Bowlin’s dabbers in Malted Milk and Stick Candy and added a finishing coat of Glossy accents. The banner is put together with a piece of twine.

Layer 3-Bottom Part
A pink doily that will be under the number 35, and some cute flags that are part of the decoration.

Layer 4
I applied the same paint and glossy accents to this Maya Road Chipboard Tag, and added an orange scalloped circle under one side just to give a pop of color.

Layer 5
A nice rose with leafs for a feminine look. Once the rose is positioned where you want it to be tie the ribbon in a knot or bow.

Layer 6
Time to glue the letters for the title, I also added a few flower brads and gems.
The front of each page has my topic and a photo to match it, on the back a few journaling lines with an option to add more inside the craft envelope.

A few more of the inside pages.

A side view of how it looks with the picture sleeves.

Once again I hope I was able to inspire you and that you’ll make an album with a very important theme “you” :)

Till next time

=Di

Inspiration Monday!

Hi again everyone! Julie here with a second post for today! Inspiration Monday snuck up on me and I wanted to share July's Inspirational image with you so you can be inspired to create this week. The image is from Take A Walk On the Creative Side. I love the vintage girls! I need to get creating!


If this image inspires you, come on over to the Monthly Inspiration Group and post what you were inspired to create! We'd love to see it!

A few little minis

Hi! It's Julie here today with a quick little post about minis, and I don't mean mini albums. I am talking about mini cards! I love to make small cards (smaller than 4x5). I think they are a great way to use some scraps and cheer up someone's day. I have two minis to show you today.


On the card above, I used scraps that I found in my scrap drawer and I do not recall the manufacturers of them! I just played around with the layers and did my sewing BEFORE I adhered the layers to my card. There's nothing wrong with sewing on your card base but be aware that your sewing will show on the inside of your card. I had also used my Fiskars border punch on one of the scraps to add a little design element. I used Hero Arts and Papertrey Ink stamps to complete the card!

This card also used some scraps. I used Hero Arts stamps on this card, as well as my Fiskars border bunch and some Hero Arts metallic gems!

I hope this inspires you to make you own minis today! They are a lot of fun to make and even more fun to give!

A little gift for the man in your life...

This is actually a father's day gift but I couldn't share with you earlier due to some camera problems! I think something like this would make a cute gift for a birthday, father's day, or even a thank you gift (change text as appropriate!).

The journal has a grungeboard cover, coloured with Distress inks and sealed with Mod Podge; I added some travel-themed stickers from my stash (I think they're by SEI). I also added part of a card clockface (Tim Holtz) just because I like it!

The card was also made using a Tim Holtz die-cut for the black cog silhouettes, with cogs stamped in gold ink on the background and the caption added using a Dymo label-maker.

I do sometimes find it hard to make something masculine that I'm happy with (I am addicted to adding flowers to most things!) but was quite happy with this, although when I find my black StazOn I want to grunge up that cover a little ;)

Happy Friday!!

Gayle xx