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

Scrap Your Pet Challenge

Hello, Diana here sharing another layout of our dear Sammy, I bought that holiday neck piece for him to use this past Christmas, and he was fascinated with it, it’s like he knew how adorable he looked and even posed for the camera.

Remember this challenge I posted HERE. I would like to share two lovely layouts made by Jean and Michelle

He hearts the lake by Jean

Kitty by Michelle

Aren’t there Furry friends the cutest?

Thank you ladies for participating in this months challenge, you always amaze me with your beautiful layouts.

=Di

June's Art Journal Friday

Welcome welcome! When did the summer arrive? Here we are at the end of June and it's time for another Art Journal Friday :)

Same rules apply as usual - all welcome! Create a page or pages around the theme for this month, and if you can come and share your creations with us at our Ning site - lots of love to be had!

This month's theme... I thought after going with a quite emotional theme last month, this month we could look at something a little less emotive - technique! An integral part of any journal page is the background, and for me it's often the part I have the most fun doing :) for this month's page I decided to gesso the page as usual and then drip different coloured alcohol inks onto it in blues, greens and golds. I LOVED this effect :) and because of the gesso it didn't bleed through the rest of the pages (as it will do if you don't protect your page, look out!)

I'd love to see what your favourite techniques are for creating backgrounds on your pages - are you a gesso girl? Do you love using acrylics, or do you prefer watercolours, or collage? Or a mixture of them all? Let me know!

If you'd like to share your background with us we have an Art Journal Friday group over at our Ning community where you can upload your page, leave some love and receive some back :) come visit and say hi!

Happy Friday :)

Gayle xx

A Few Albums

Hi, Diana here to show you 3 personal projects I’ve been working on.

I've mentioned before my weakness for Cute Owls, I found this book at Target and couldn't resist not buying it; it is made out of recycled materials.

I am traveling to visit my family and thought of using it as a Journal book about my vacation. I decorated the cover and glued some nice pattern papers to the inside pages.

I’ll be visiting the same cities from my September trip, I’ve already made a travel journal for that trip and decided to try and do something different this time, there will be more journaling and less photos, and lets see if I can manage to add a minimal of embellishments to the inside pages, that is going to be a challenge.

My Next project is a Summer Mini. I downloaded THIS Free Class at Big Picture; it is called “10 Summer Photos to take right now”. I just love the photo ideas given there and decided to take the task, it will be great to use my camera more this summer, and since I’ll need somewhere to house these photos, I made this mini album

All the papers and that cute Kite are from Echo Park-Walk in the Park collection, as extra embellishment I added a Maya Road chipboard shape, a Sun flashcard from K and Company, colored Bakers Twine, Gems, Alphas and a Beach Ball flair from American Crafts.

For the inside pages I used a 7 Gypsies chipboard album that I’ve been hoarding for years.

Since the papers are double sided it was very simple to decorate both sides of the page.

Both of these albums are still waiting to be filled with photos, journaling and need some final details, I hope I’ll be able to share the inside of them once I’m done.

And finally I’ll like to share the cover of a project I started in May, sorry I can’t share the inside because it is a class I purchased also at Big Pictures and wont like to give away the creators hard work, but you can find out more about it HERE. The class name is “A Week of Life Lists”; I did some personal changes because I plan on making this a yearly thing.

I got this Fancy Pants Brag Book as a prize from sb.com on NSD, being stuck to the computer+craft table has its advantages ;) and decided to use it for this project.

Here is a close-up of the cover. The Journey title is a Donna Downey fabric stitched word.

This is my introduction page for May, I made sure to mark the start date (because it’s my birthday ;)

This last project is part of my goal to scrapbook more about me, we all know that feeling of our craft being focused a lot on our families, and personally I also make albums, cards and projects to give as gifts to family members. I’ll be sharing a few projects and ideas next month that will inspire you to make something about you J.

Hope I was able to bring some inspiration to your day.

Till Next Time

=Di