Sharing an Autumnal journal and some freebies

 Hello dear blog friends. Once again I have to start my post with an apology for my long absence, but here you are, back with a little share and a freebie.

Recently I created a new Autumn themed junk journal collection which you can find in my Etsy Shop and I am in the process of creating a little journal with the papers and embellishments.

I'll share some photos and explanations of how I put it together:

Here you can see the cover, it's quite a fat little journal, roughly 6" wide and 4.5" high. I cut 2 pieces of chip board that size for the front and back and then a 1.5" wide spine. The pieces of chipboard are held together with wide masking tape, leaving a 1/8" gap between each of the pieces so the can easily bend and close, and then |I covered every thing with bits of paper from the collection.

Here you can see the spine. On the inside I fastened two pieces of elastic, travellers journal style, so it can hold two inserts, which can easily be taken out to make it easier to journal.

Here you can see one of the inside covers, with a pocket and two little journal cards.

And here the cover of the first insert. Both inserts contain a mix of papers from the collection and coffee stained papers, some decorated and some left blank for journaling.

Here is one of the inside pages, the left side has a tuck spot and journal card, the right side a pocket with die-cut edge and a little additional booklet tucked in the pocket.

Here's a closer view of the pocket and below you can see a collection of the journal cards and some stamped tickets I made to use for decorating the journal and journal cards still further.

Here are a couple of faux CD sleeves I made, they are 3.5 by 3.5". I cut out the circles before gluing them together, and lined them with acetate. I then decorated both the out and inside further still, so now they are ready to be filled with embellishments and tucked into some of the pockets.

If you would like to see a bit more of the journal, there is a quick flip through of some of the pages on my Instagram, just click here

Here are some of the papers from the collection still, so you can see what is all in there:

OK, and now finally for the freebie which I created to go along with the collection:

Now like usual, this is a huge file, so what you see here is just a low resolution version. So if you would like to print the freebie, please email me and I will send you the full resolution version.

Well, that's it for now, thanks for your visit like always and see you next time.

xxxxx

Just a message about following by email and an altered file folder

Surprise, surprise, another post from me so soon after the last.

Let me start by saying a big thank you to all those who have been in touch and told me how sad you are I don't blog regularly anymore.... OK, I hear you and will try to blog more often again.
Meanwhile, a special hello to those of you who signed up to receive email notifications when there is a new post here.

If you are blogger yourself who uses email subscriptions, you may have read that Google is discontinuing Feedburner as a tool. Feedburner is what has been in charge of the Blogger Followers gadget, sending out email notifications to those who have signed up and activated their subscription.

So this is just to let you know that if you are a follower by email, you will (hopefully!) continue to receive those notifications, but they will now come courtesy of follow.it.

You shouldn't have to do anything special. When you get an email, you can just click through to visit me here at my blog, just as you always have done. You, the followers, will also get the chance to alter how you receive your notifications if you want to, which couldn't be done with Feedburner. But that's entirely up to you. If you don't want to change anything you don't have to!

If you follow by Bloglovin', I think everything there should just continue as normal.

And if you'd like to start following by email, you'll find a brand new green button to do it in the sidebar. All you have to do is click that button and then put in the email address you would like to receive the notification to.
I was so cross about another change being forced on us by Google, and I was really worried about the changeover, but thanks to follow.it the whole thing was so much easier than I was expecting! I can't say enough good things about the follow.it staff I've communicated with. They've handled the whole process for me, and made it all very simple - and the basic service is free. 

If you are also a blogger, and haven't yet sorted out how your email followers will hear about your posts after July, I would strongly urge you to check out follow.it and get in touch with them.

Well, after that intro, here is a quick project I can share:

It's an altered file folder, cut to about 6" high, folded accordion style and then decorated with tags, stamping, stencilling and so called Mu Print on Stickers. With the bits of the folder I cut off, I created pockets to hold further tags and ephemera. This will make a great insert for a larger journal, or can stand by itself.

Scroll down for further pictures, and happy crafting.

A side pocket  with matching journal card

Two further tags, all decorated with the print on stickers mentioned above.

Another side pocket, using the same fairy I used in my previous postcard post. It was a scan from one of the Cicely Mary Barker Flower Fairy books that I scanned, reduced in size and then fussy cut.

This journal card was decorated with washi stickers, I love how they just blend into the background.

And here finally is the back of the cover.

Well that's it for today and thanks for your visit.

Sunday Postcard Art - Flower Fairies and a freebie

 Hello friends and visitors, hope you are keeping well! It's been an age and a half since I have last posted, the reason is that really I am not into blogging anymore, and only blog now when I have been asked to do so. And like my last post here, I was again invited by the lovely Mandy to host another Sunday Postcard Art Challenge, this time with the theme of Flower Fairies, as the title of my post suggests. So here goes, my Flower Fairy Postcard:

I decided to choose an image from one of the wonderful Flower Fairy books by  Cicely Mary Barker. 

I love these fairies, they are so sweet and whimsical. So I cut a piece of card to size, created a background collage with strips of washi tape and scrapbook paper and then simply fussy-cut some other images, including the fairy of course, to try and create a balanced collage. It turned out quite busy, but I just went with the flow, without too much thinking, and this is the result...

Below some details still.

Now, because I know many of you started to follow me because of the freebies I sometimes share, I have created a Flower Fairy one for you, specially since it's so long since my last one.

If you would like to have the full resolution one to print, please email me, but please only use them for personal use!

Well, that's it for now, - short and sweet. I cannot say when I will blog again, it may well be a while, so if you are interested to see more of my work, the best place to do that is via my Instagram

And if by any chance you would like to play in the postcard challenge, all you have to do is CLICK HERE

Thanks for your visit and happy crafting,

Astrid

From mixed media master board to postcard

 Hello all and thanks for dropping in here. Today I have a postcard to share, made with the help of a so called master board.

I made this post card because the lovely Mandy Chilvers invited me to host her weekly Sunday Postcard Art challenge. The theme this week is lavender. I do enjoy making postcards, and please note this is not a double greeting card, it's just a single layer, 4 by 6" in size.

Below a quick look at how I put it together.

I started with a piece of A 4 Kraft card that I covered with a random selection of old book pages and other scraps.

Next I adhered some pieces of lace  and then covered everything with a thick layer of gesso, but making sure some bits of the layer below were still visible.

I wanted some more texture so also added some crackle paste here and there.

Once everything had totally dried I cut it into various pieces. The piece on the right became the postcard, the bit on the left was turned into a little book and the two smaller pieces will become journal cards.

Below the postcard again with some description of what I did:

I coloured the background with a mix of Distress Oxide Sprays, Distress Spray stains and some Distress Crayons. 

I was not too happy with the result, so decided to add some texture paste mixed with some gold acrylic paint through a stencil. This with the aim to add more texture and lighten it all up a bit.

I added some collage elements along the bottom and finished with a lavender sticker I happened to have in my stash.

A postage stamp and little butterfly were the final touches. Below is a picture of the cover of the little book I made with most of the rest of the master board. What you see is just the cover, but I sewed some coffee stained pages inside to make it into a little book.

Master boards are a great way to use up scraps and create a base layer for other projects.

Well, that's it for today. If you like making postcards, why not take a look at the Sunday Postcard Art blog

You can add your postcard in the comments below my sample, and if you do, I would love to see them!

Thanks for your visit like always

xxxxx

Spring is in the air, a short tutorial with another freebie

 Hello friends, hope you are keeping well!

Here in Edinburgh Scotland, where I live, it is slowly turning warmer and there is a first feeling of spring in the air. This inspired me to create another paper collection, which I have called "Spring is in the Air", and like usual I have created a project tutorial and a freebie for you to enjoy. Let's start with the projects:

This is a little folder with two pockets and space to hold a little notebook or journal inside. They are good fun to do, in fact I enjoyed it so much I made two, just a little different from one another. They would make a great little gift for someone, just a bit more elaborate than a card, and who would not want to receive a special little gift made by you?

Here is the second one, just a little bit different from the outside, but made in exactly the same way. Below you can see what they look like from the inside. The elastics in the middle are there so you can slide the notebook underneath.

This is the one, it has a little tuck spot that can hold a bookmark or something in the flap.

This is the other one with the flap on the other side. Below are some instructions on how to put it together:

Project instructions:

This is what you need: I made mine out of a piece of mat board that was 12 by 12 inches, but you could make it equally well out of a piece of A4 strong card, or by slightly adjusting the sizes out of 81/2 by 11 card.

The bit that will make the cover is cut to 11 3/4" by 6 1/2" and scored at 4 1/2, 4 5/8 and 4 3/4; - so 3 score lines with 1/8 between them, this is to provide a slight curve when folded with space to hold the things inside. Then you score again at 9 1/8, 9 1/4 and 9 3/8  the space that is left is for the flap. I rounded the corners, but that is not needed, I just like the look of it. For the pockets you need 2 pieces of 3 1/4 by 4 1/2 . Cut at an angle by measuring 2 1/2 along the short side, making a mark and then cutting a straight diagonal edge to the bottom corner. For the closure you need to cut 4 larger (I used a 1" circle punch) and 6 smaller circles. Glue 2 larger and 3 smaller ones on top of one another like a little tower. The smaller ones will "lift" the larger ones from the backing, to provide the space for your ribbon or twine closures. Once everything is covered with paper they are then fitted to the cover with the help of eyelets. There are many tutorials on YouTube on how to do this, here is a link to one. I decided to round the corners of my pockets, as they are cut at an angle, you can't do that with a corner rounder punch, so I just used one of the circles to draw around.

 
After your basic construction is done, all you need to do is cover it all with papers of your choice. As I said at the start I used the Spring is in the Air collection that matches the freebie, but obviously you can use any papers you like.

The little book that fits inside is made from papers that are approx. 5 3/4 by 5 3/4  folded in half and then stitched together with a simple 3 hole pamphlet stitch. I always like to zig-zag around my projects, but of course that is totally optional. There are about 4 or 5 double pages, some design and some coffee stained as you can see below.

Below just a few close ups still, I decorated with a mix of embellishments of the freebie and the collection and some laces and cheese cloth.

                            And here are some of the tags still that I made to fit in the pockets. They are just made with left over bits of the paper and then decorated in a similar way as the pockets of the folders.

And now for the freebie, like usual, if you want the full resolution for printing please email me as the file is too large to add to a blog. All you need to do is CLICK HERE

Well, that's it for today. Thanks for your visit and happy crafting!

xxxxx