Art is an Adventure Journal page for MMM

Hello friends, welcome and happy March to you all. I can't wait for Spring to show it's lovely face.
The first of the month means a new challenge at Mixed Media Monthly.
Our theme this month is Buttons, and our sponsor is May Flaum, who is also our guest designer this month..
Here is what I made:

As you can probably see, I have made a selection of buttons the main focal point of this journal spread.

You can find all the details of our challenge HERE and if you decide to play in our challenge, make sure to use our graphic in your post to be in with a chance to win!

Below a few close ups and an outline of how I put my spread together.

I created my background with the help of Gelatos in green and yellow tones over a gessoed double page. Background stamping using Tim Holtz and Paper Artsy stamps with Forget Me Not Archival ink and some washi tape added more texture

An Indigo Blu stamp, stamped on tissue paper and then merged into the background using gel medium, added some further interest.

And then of course the buttons. To be honest, I rarely use buttons in my crafting but our lovely Design Team leader Donna Bowman sent me a whole packet of multi coloured buttons (thanks so much Donna!!!) and I chose a selection matching my chosen colour palette.

More background work with a selection of different stencils, texture paste and ink.

Some foiling here and there, using a glue stick and Ranger gold foil sheets.

And finally a computer generated sentiment. Using buttons was somewhat of an adventure for me, but nothing like a challenge right?

Well, I hope you will look out your buttons and decide to join in our challenge. Do hop over to see what my talented teamies have made and to get all the details of the challenge!

Thanks so much for your visit and see you next time

xxxxx

Nostalgic Christmas for Countryview Crafts

Hello everyone and happy December!! I don't know about you, but I for one am really looking forward to Christmas. (Probably specially because I am going to visit my grand children in Australia)...

The first of the month means a new challenge over at the  Countryview Crafts Challenge blog, and this month I got to choose the theme, and of course it had to be Christmas, so as I love vintage projects I chose the theme "A Nostalgic Christmas"

I made a tag card, by making a first and second tag and connecting the two with a lace ribbon. On the first tag I made a simple background by blending Faded Jeans and Gathered Twigs Distress Inks. I then stamped some snowflakes with Coffee Archival ink.
Here are a few close ups of the first tag

 A snowflake created with two Spellbinder dies layered on top of each other, glittered with Rock Candy Distress Glitter.

 Two layered hearts, the bigger one coloured with Brushed Pewter Distress Stain and then glittered in the same way. A smaller one made with a Sizzix Movers and Shapers die, old book paper onto card and some Tim Holtz letter stickers. I also added a little ticket, made with a Tim Holtz stamp from the Odds and Ends set.

A pine cone cluster, the pine cones were made using the Tim Holtz pine cone die. I added some Vintage Photo Distress Glitter to them for a bit of sparkle.
The second tag was more of a mix media creation. My DH gave me a full set of Gelatos, last year for my birthday and I have hardly used them at all, so thought I would give them a go, just for fun.

I started by covering my second tag with Tim Holtz Tissue Wrap and some Tissue Tape and then covered that with a thin layer of Gesso, rubbed on with my fingers for better control.

Next came the Gelatos and some back ground stamping. Love how you can just swoosh them all over your project and take them away again with a baby wipe if it gets too dark.
Also added some background stamping.

And finally a sentiment layered up with some Spellbinder dies.

And here you can see the two together, I was pleased to see how well the colours of the Gelatos matched the Distress colours on the first tag.

Thank you for visiting and hope you will play along with our challenge!

Positivity journal update

Hello everyone and welcome to my blog, so happy to have you visiting.

Just before Christmas I posted that I would be starting to write a positivity journal in the new year. You can find all the details about it here
Having started before Christmas I have created several double pages already, but as from the 1st of January I have started to write down one positive thing that happened that day, I write my positive happenings on the tags that I create alongside the pages. I have really enjoyed the process so far, it's such a fun thing to do, I create the pages as and when the mood takes me and then every day I write down one good thing that has happened. Even on the busiest days that's easy to do, because really it takes less than 2 minutes.... the hardest part is probably to decide what one thing to pick, because when you start to look back over your day, there are usually so many things to choose from....
Anyway, enough talk, onto the today's spread:

I created the pages in pretty much the same way:
1. Add some texture through a stencil
2 When dry, cover everything with Gesso
3. Add strips of Washi tape and in this case some scraps of a paper serviette
4. Add colour with Tim Holtz Distress Paints and Gelatos
5. Add background stamping.
Create vocal images of choice (I fussycut some elements from the G45 Place in Time collection as they fitted my mood right now)
6. Add shading around the images with Faber Castell Big Brush pens. As the pages are Gessoed, these blend beautifully when wet and when dry are totally permanent.

The tags were done in exactly the same way.
Here are some close ups still:

 Left side page with a pocket for the tags, created with the help of a Spellbinders die

Right side page, I just love the image of those sweet little girls.

 And here the two tags. I covered the backs with some pale coloured bits of scrapbook papers, both for strength and to have a good surface to write my positive thoughts on.

I found in practice that in fact I can sometimes fit two days onto one tag, so I am well ahead of the game, which is of course a good thing as no doubt there will come times when I have little opportunity to create further pages.

Several of you have been in touch to say you are creating your own positivity journals, so I hope you are enjoying it as much as I am.
I'll leave you with a little quote:

Once you replace negative thoughts with positive ones, you'll start having positive results.
Willie Nelson 

Thank you for visiting and see you next time!