I’ve not got much decoupage paper left from my goodie box from Trimcraft. I was rooting around in my altered art drawer, full of bits and bobs that I think I can upcycle, and found a stash of scrapbooks-in-a-tin from Woodware. I thought one would work well as a mini-album so decoupaged the tin lid and the included concertina pages. Matched up with some Bazzill paper for matting, I created this:
It’s taken some time, but I’ve finished the journal I handmade last year and finally got round to taking and editing the photos of the finished article. I intended to journal each day before going to bed, but got a little behind whilst in New York as our room was so small that there was actually nowhere to work on a flat surface, and there was no communal area I could use either. Consequently, by the time I got to Boston, and there was space to work, I was already five days behind. Then life on the road for the final few days also meant I was doing other things at the end of each day. So it meant finishing off the work once I got home, but that brought back good memories of a lovely, and much needed, holiday.
As a format, the piano hinge worked very well – I was able to slide out each of the sticks in turn to work on the pages individually, which was far easier. The fold out sections added a little more space, and the wallets somewhere to put the various bits of ephemera that I collected along the way. With techniques from collage to napkin decoupage, hand drawn typography to watercolour illustrations, it was fun to put together. I would have liked to do more urban drawing, but for speed, mini-photos had to suffice.
Sit back, with a cuppa of your choice, and holiday vicariously as you work through the journal 🙂
This is a shockingly late, shameless promotion for all that is Ken Oliver. We’ve been Facebook buddies [like him here] for a little while (after all there aren’t that many gentleman crafters at shows and we need to stick together), and I have had the pleasure of saying hi a couple of times in person at trade shows. This February he was here in the UK promoting his new ‘own brand’ crafting goodies, and he was kind enough to do the whole selfie thing with me, demonstrate his new Color Burst watercolours and give me a promo pack of 12×12″ Studio series of papers and a 6×6″ sampler pack of his other papers.
I thought I’d use the 4×6″ journal cards sheet from his Studio collection to start off my new Project Life scrapbook, and they worked perfectly. The papers are printed on a satin finish light cardstock which feels smooth to the touch. There’s no bleed through from the Sharpies I used for some of the handwritten text, which is a bonus when working on double sided papers. As one might expect from an artist that’s been in the trade for years, the designs and colours used all work together beautifully. One slight hitch I noted when gluing things down – the satin finish does resist water-based liquids a little, as I found when I was using Zig Memory Systems two way acrylic glue. Something to be aware of, though that didn’t turn out to be too restrictive in practice – it might be more of an issue if spritzing with water/Color Burst (something I’ll test out).
Ken was also demonstrating his Color Burst watercolours. These are fine crystalline colours, conveniently dispensed from fine nozzle bottles. They appear to be similar to Brusho crystals (becoming very popular in the UK) in their reaction with water, both to make a watercolour paint, and in spritzing on the page to make vivid backgrounds. Where Color Burst beats Brusho, in my opinion, is the finer, more even crystal size and the fine nozzle capped bottle. I’ve knocked over a holed Brusho pot into my distress ink pad storage box, and the turquoise crystals continue to find their way into projects, much to the annoyance of my Tuesday night ladies… The reverse of my Project Life page shows a couple of samples from Ken’s beautiful Watercolored Memories 6×6″ papers (top left, bottom right), and the rest are Ken’s own demo sheets showing the vivid colours and dynamic reactions of the crystals with water on watercolour paper.
Thanks to Ken for having a chat, demoing his fabulous products, and especially for the goodie pack. Sorry it’s taken me so long to fulfil my promise to post about our chat!
I really have used up all the papers I was sent for this month’s projects by Jones Crafts. This 12×12″ layout uses the last of the Sandy Toes Collection. The largest ‘porthole’ is actually hiding the bit I cut out from the ‘Flip Flops’ sheet for the clock face for my beach hut, framed with a circle cut from the ‘Sandy’ sheet. I stuck a square of the ‘Ocean’ sheet behind to fill in the hole. The rest is made up of elements from ‘Beach Bum’, ‘Waves’ and ‘Sea Shells’ sheets.
Reliving a summer memory is lovely, while the sun is shining (although far from hot!). I’ve just done this 12×12″ layout using what’s left of my Kaisercraft Sandy Toes Collection after I’d made the beach hut clock. This was Esther’s first visit to a beach, and Charlie just loves playing at the water’s edge. I’ve used a Project Life style, but without the pockets, so that best use is made of the 3×4″ cards featured in the collection.
No apologies here if I have any of the facts wrong. I’m really not a football fan, let alone a No.1 Fan, but when working with Good Ol’ Sport papers from Graphic 45 for Jones Crafts, I had to come up with another idea. And what better sporting achievement to immortalise in scrapbook form?
I swiped thinned gesso over the background and splattered some more, drying before I edged with Vintage Photo Distress Ink. I used my Silhouette Cameo and Connect plugin for Illustrator to convert the crest into a cut file and cut it from the papers. Unfortunately, my transfer paper was a tad too sticky and removed the printed layer in places. I think it lends an athletic sports fashion distress finish, so coloured the torn bits with a mix of Faded Jeans / Stormy Sky / Chipped Sapphire Distress Inks. The fox head is coloured with Scattered Straw / Mustard Seed Distress Inks. Add the rest of the elements from the coordinating chipboard die cuts, die cuts and stickers, and embellish with soluble black pencil for shadows.
Oh the challenges of working on a design team with themes that really don’t come naturally!
My final post featuring the Kaisercraft ‘Now Boarding’ papers, for now anyway, as all the projects are were made for display at the Craft Hobby & Stitch International Trade Show at the NEC, Birmingham starting tomorrow. Jones & Co. will be on stand L26 for those that are attending – pop by and say hello!
The first layout above features the ‘Terminal’ sheet as the background, with additions from the ‘Cabin Crew’ sheet – including the punched discs at the bottom covered with Ranger Glossy Accents. A couple of embellishments from the ‘Collectables’ pack have also been added, with everything being edged with Pumice Stone distress ink. Glossy Accents has also been added to the sentiment.
The second layout features ‘Luggage Carousel’ sheet as the background, with foreground elements from the ‘Check In’ sheet. I created the cutout in Illustrator, offsetting and merging the text to bind with the circle, and cut out on my Silhouette Cameo. The pictures are printouts mounted on large buttons from the Jones Creams Value Pack, and then covered with Glossy Accents. The foreground letters have been coloured with Stormy Sky distress ink, whilst everything else, including more ‘Collectables’, are aged with Pumice Stone distress ink.
Featuring more of the Bella Celebrate Paperz, this mini-album is constructed from one 12×12″ sheet, two 3×4″ project cards, a couple of 3D stickers and die cuts and lots of memories. It’s a hand bound, three signature booklet with the folio tied into the cover using ribbon. With plenty of room for journaling names, dates and recollections, this mini-album could also be included in a bigger layout. Making info follows the gallery.
It’s been quite a while since I did a 12×12″ scrapbook layout… but my recent receipt of the DT goodie box from Jones Crafts has inspired this layout featuring the Bella Celebrate Paperz collection. This is the first of many DT projects in the run up to the Stitches trade show for Jones Crafts. It includes several designs of double sided pearlised 12×12″ sheets, die cut collections, 3×4″ and 2×4″ foiled project cards as well as coordinating organza flower brads and 3D stickers. Read on for making information…
