Spellbinders Mixed Media Journal cover

Hello everyone, thank you so much for having a look in here at this very busy time of year! I hope you have survived the first part of the festive season!
Let me start by wishing you all the very best for 2014!!! I hope you will have the most amazing creative year and that you will get closer to realizing your dreams!

I have several aims and dreams for the world in general of course, but also for my creative journey, one of them being to journal more regularly. So what better start than to create a cover for a brand new journal.
One of the things I love about Spellbinder dies is that they can be used in so many different ways, and for this project I chose to use them to add dimension to my Mixed Media cover.

These were the dies and other products I used:
Dies:
Radiant Rectangles
Grateful Lattice
Persian Motifs
Tattered Blossoms (Heartfelt Creations)
Font One Uppercase
Fantastic Flourish 1
Medallion 6
Les Papillions
I realize this is a lot of different dies, but these could be substituted for any other ones you might have in your collection.
Other products:
Paints:
Antique Linen
Iced Spruce
Bundled Sage
Frayed Burlap

Embellishments and other products:
Molding paste, Gesso, Muli Medium (Matte), Crackle Medium, Embossing Powders, Treasure Gold gilding paste, Walnut Stain (Tsukineko), Some background stamps, script stencil, paper flower, selection of cogs, little key charms, some bits of lace,Derwent Pastel Pencil.
First I cut a piece if 7 x 9" mount board to form the actual cover of my journal.
Next I used my Grateful Lattice die and made it into a stencil, by cutting it out of an old cereal packet.

I used it to create some texture onto the largest of the Radiant Rectangle dies which was also cut from some packaging. While the texture paste was still wet, I stamped into it with an old text stamp.

I then cut some of the other dies I wanted to use, all out of the same strong cereal packet card. I love how it shows up all the detail of the dies. Here is a selection of the ones I used:

Next I adhered them to my mount board, adding some further stenciling and a few little cogs and some strips of lace for further interest. When I was happy with the composition I covered it all with a thick coat of Gesso.

Time to add the first layers of colour in my chosen pallet.

So far so good, - time to add some letters. I cut them from the same material, coloured them and added texture with crackle paste, embossing powders and paint to give them a metallic appearance.

Here is a close up, so you can see the textures, this is what I love about mixed media!

Time for some more colour and shading to add depth.

Nearly there, - it just needed a bit more to focus the eye around the page, - a flower, cut from old book paper, came to the rescue.

I cut about 5 flowers of the same size, glued them together and then added another flower from my stash to the centre, adhered it to the page and gave it all a few spritzes with Walnut Stain to blend it into the page.

A butterfly, to balance the composition on the other side was needed now, so I cut two of the dies, layered them together and coloured them the blend with the rest of the page.

And finally to stick with the "rule of three" in composition, a couple of little rusted keys from my stash completed the composition...

Here are some further close up photos still of different parts

I just love all the detail in the dies, it adds another dimension to what ordinary chipboard pieces could achieve using similar techniques.

Well, here is the finished piece and I hope you have enjoyed my little mixed media step by step.

Thank you for visiting today and I hope you will enjoy the rest of the festive season.

I will be busy with family commitments in the next few days, but will try to stay in touch and come and visit all my favourite blogs when I can.

Noel Noel

Hello everyone
Let me start by wishing everyone the most wonderful Christmas, or if you don't celebrate that at least the most glorious holiday season.
Believe it or not, but today it is my turn to share a project over on the Sin City Stamp Blog.
As some of you know, my grand daughter is visiting right now, so I decided the create the cover of a mini book that will be filled with all the photos and memories of this special time at some later stage.

If by any chance you want to see how I put it all together, all you need to do is click HERE If you want to leave a comment you will have to click on the title of the post.

I hope everyone will have the most peaceful and wonderful time, remember this season is not about being stressed (I am trying to remind myself too lol...)
Thank you for visiting today and HAPPY CHRISTMAS!!!!!

3 old favourites for the Artistic Stamper

Hello everyone, welcome, - are you hanging in there??? 3 more days and so much to do....Maybe a little break is a good idea? Just in case, - the team over on the Artistic Stamper Blog have all been showing their three most favourite projects of the year and today it is my turn.
Here you can see a little sneak...

If you want to see all of it plus my other two chosen favourites, you'll just have to hop over there.

I'd like to use this opportunity to say thank you for all the support you have given me this year, all your wonderful comments have been very much appreciated!!

I will be back with an other little scheduled project on Christmas day and want to wish you all a very happy, peaceful and fulfilling Christmas!!!

Much love

Positivity Journal #3

Hello everyone and thanks so much for dropping in at this busy time of year! Just over a week until the big day. I have to say, in all the busyness of this time of year, a little playtime in my journal has been such a welcome relief! Hope you are finding some creative time too! It's just the best stress buster I reckon.

So here is my third double page.You can read all about the idea behind this journal HERE. And a quick step by step on how I create my pages in this post.
For this one I used pretty much the same technique, both for the pages and the tags.
Here you can see the pages with the tags in the pockets:

Some close ups of the pages

And here are the tags, I had as much fun creating them as I did creating the pages.

For those of you who are playing along, the lovely Shirley who is playing with me had the idea that I should create a little logo/button type thingy which people could display on their blog. I thought this was a great idea, so if you want please feel free to grab it and stick it in your side bar. I put it in my side bar a while back so you can grab it from there, but you can also take it from this post.

And just to make it clear again, there are no rules or things you have to do. If you want to play you can create your journal in whatever style you want, and do it as often as works for you, just be positive and enjoy!

I am adding this to the Simon Says Stamp Monday challenge where the theme is stamping out, I have loved this challenge (even though it is not often I manage to play along), and did not want to miss out on the very last challenge of the year.
Also linking to Journal every day
Thanks for visiting like always

A Very Vintage Christmas at Our Creative Corner

Hello everyone and so lovely to have you visiting here!
Today it is the turn of team B to show our Very Vintage Christmas creations, and here is my make:

But before I tell you how I went about creating it, here are the details of the challenge for those of you who perhaps have not yet seen it:

    For this challenge we are abandoning traditional Christmas colours and are giving Christmas a Vintage tone. No reds, no greens, just neutrals.

     The challenge here is to use a neutral palette....so think about shades of creamy hot chocolate, glistening white snow, rich dark sherry and mince pies, ivory candles, rustic wooden logs, roasting chestnuts and brown paper packages tied up with string!

    This Christmas we want you to make anything you like - Cards, ATC's, Tags, Scrapbooking, journals, Gifts, Altered art......anything you like....but please use only neutral colours from ice white, through to ivory and cream, beige to dark brown and black. You can also use metal embellishments, metal paints and stains.

Please Note - Your creation does NOT have to be 'Vintage style' - We would love to see Christmas creations in any style, but please keep to a neutral colour scheme.

I altered a wooden canvas, though canvas is probably the wrong word, as it is actually a wooden board, but it has the shape of a deep canvas.

I started by adding some texture to the wood with the help of a honey comb texture folder and some texture paste. When dry I covered it all with a layer of Gesso and then added a mixture of Fresco Finish and Distress paints in my favourite neutral tones until I was happy with the result. I also added some background stamping and a few strips of tissue tape.

This was done both to the top and to the sides

Next I cut a couple of Spellbinders nesting dies out of an empty cereal packet. The larger one was treated with a layer of Fresco French Roast, then some Crackle Glaze and finally a mixture of Snowflake and Vanila Fresco paint with a bit of Antique Linen Distress paint into the mix. I cut the smaller die again, this time from smooth stamping paper and stamped a La Blanche Angel stamp in Potting Soil Archival Ink and blended some Vintage Photo around the edges. I glued that to my cereal packet one and then adhered both shapes together to form the vocal image of my canvas. I also edged the larger one with some Treasure Gold Renaissance Gold.

Now for the embellishment: I took an Ideaology crown and couple of wings, painted them in similar colours and when dry, highlighted with Treasure Gold again. I adhered them next and above the vocal image.

I also added a flower cluster painted with similar colours again. After it was glued to the board I tucked a few sprocket gears in between still. Next I covered the central image with a wet baby wipe, took a deep breath and gave the flower cluster a few spritzes with Walnut Ink spray. Once that had dried I highlighted the flowers with a touch of Gesso.

The final step was to add a couple of little wooden snow flakes that I had covered with some Rock Candy Distress Glitter, for a wintery touch and a little stamped Tim Holtz happy Christmas ticket..

And there you have it....

If you would like to see what my teamies have created (and trust me, you will not want to miss that), please click HERE,  and we all very much hope that you will play along with us if you have not yet done so.

Funkie Junkie tag 11

Hello everyone, are you hanging in there with all the busyness around?
I just managed to squeeze in another little project.. tag 11 of the Funkie Junkie Christmas tags 2013.

You can read all about this challenge here, as most of you will know. Linda's example can be seen here
This is probably the closest I have come to following her example, I was inspired by the whole lay out, the snow flakes on the side, the deer (though sadly I don't have the one she used), the sentiment and I have even added some trees also, though in a different way. Somehow the sizing did not work out on my one, the snowflakes look way too big, don't know how that happened, as the length seems to be the same, maybe her tag is wider. I also only own two colours of Distress glitter, Rockcandy and Vintage Photo, so I used them in stead. I coloured my seam binding with Stormy Sky, the blue I also used for my background.
Not sure about my one, it all looks too cramped, but hey ho, too late now.
Here are some close ups still

This challenge is of course sponsored by the wonderful Funkie Junkie Boutique!

You may have seen that Linda has extended the deadline for completing the challenge until January 8, 2014 and will be adding two bonus tags, wonderful news, if like me you are going to be very busy over Christmas. And the best news of all, even if you don't win any of the prizes, you get 10% off (or even 15% if you also complete the bonus tags), just for completing the challenge. How amazing is that, specially as Linda's prices are very competitive anyway!!

Well, there you have it, my version of tag 11. Thanks so much for dropping in at this busy time!
I am super excited, as my little granddaughter is due to arrive today from Australia, I have not seen her since Easter, so can't wait, fingers crossed there are no hold ups on the way, it's a long long trip from Australia all the way to Scotland......

Christmas Gift Set

Hello everyone and thank you so much for taking the time to pop in here during this busy time of the year!!
Hope you are well on top of your Christmas preparations (unlike me....)
Today I am sharing a quick last minute gift set idea over at The Artistic Stamper Creative Team blog

Here you can see a snippet..... if you want to see the whole thing, please click HERE

Hope you are finding a bit of creative time to keep you sane and have a great weekend!
I am super excited because tomorrow my grand daughter is arriving from Australia!

Altered Candle for Sin City Scraps

Hello everyone, so happy you decided to drop in here today.

At this time everyone is so busy that I really appreciate you taking the time!
With only just over two weeks til the big day, we can all do with a quick and easy project, well today I am sharing one of those on the Sin City Scrap blog

If you want to know how to make one of these, just click here

Thank you for visiting