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

Tag You're It for a Vintage Journey #92, a journal and a freebie

Hello friends, it's that time again, the first Friday of the month and that means a new challenge is starting over at A Vintage Journey.

Amanda is our host this month and her theme is Tag You're it, this is what she has to say about the theme:

 'We would love to see what you create with, or on hang tags. Your hang tags can be created from any material or be any size. We would just love to see that iconic 'hang' shape front and centre in your design. Just remember to create your tag project in one of our preferred styles: vintage, shabby, mixed media, art journalling, industrial,  timeworn or steampunk.'

Well, who doesn't love to make tags, I certainly do, that's why I made 3 of them while I was at it anyway and like usual they will be part of one of my journals.

The base of the tags are book pages, I collaged, layered and stamped on them and then backed them with card to make them more sturdy.

I used scraps of paper napkins, which I adhered to the book page with collage medium, making sure on this one that some of the book page showed still too. I then added a butterfly and little label (some of these art part of a new downloadable paper collection that is available in my Etsy shop). I glued some coffee dyed cheese cloth underneath the embellishments and along the bottom there is part of a so called snipped rolled, made by gluing bits of scrap lace, paper etc to a strip of book page. At the top I fixed some lace with a couple of tiny staples.

The second one is made in a very similar way, more snipped roll along the bottom and in the middle some stamped callico fabric glued onto some lace. I forgot to mention that I cut the original pieces in the tag shapes just by hand and then zig-zagged all around them on my sewing machine.

The 3rd one is again very similar, just with a slightly different lay out. The butterfly here is actually another piece of a paper napkin.

Here you can see how the tag will fit inside the journal which is a junk journal style travellers notebook. I'll probably  post more photos of that at some other point.

And here you can see how the final tag fits under a belly band.

Here are a few more of the journal pages using my new kit:

 And here finally is the freebie, it's for fussy cutting to embellish pages. To get the full resolution printable one, just email me. I often print mine out on sticker paper and then spend a happy evening fussy cutting away, very relaxing :o)

Well, that's it for now, do hop over to A vintage Journey to see the amazing tags my teamies have created and of course we hope you will decide to play along.

Happy Crafting and thanks for your visit.

xxxxx

Friday Postday, December journal

Hello lovely friends and followers, thanks for checking in here this Friday, which from now on will be the day I post here.

Today I am sharing some pages from my December (almost) daily journal;

I used the Eileen Hull journal die to cut the cover from mounting board and then decorated it with various Tim Holtz products, - collage paper, ephemera, a paper doll and some stamped elements.

Here are a few details:

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The background to this lovely lady was a stamped piece of card, using one of Tim's new background stamps, to give her something to stand on I added some cheesecloth, adhered with mat medium.

A few ephemera tugged into the side and some splatters for a wintry feel.

Here is the back, just some coloured collage paper.

I added some glitter to the berries, to add a bit of sparkle.

The inside of the cover was made with a piece of Stamperia rice paper. I used a lot of traditional Christmas colours for my cards this year, and wanted to use some different colours for the rest of the journal.

Alright, now to some of the inside pages. All of them in my favourite vintage style, using scraps of rice paper, paper serviettes etc from my stash, - so good to use up some of those hoarded pieces. The challenge is always to integrate these scraps into the rest of the page, using paints, stamps etc.

For the top side I used another bit of Tim's collage paper. He did another coloured Holly one for Christmas, which at first I regretted not getting instead, but now I am actually glad, as this one I can adapt to whatever colour scheme I am working with....

This page uses another scrap from the Stamperia paper and a paper doll. I tried to pick up some of the colour from the paper in the background.

I always think that  adding some shadows to these collaged people really helps to integrate them into the page.

The quote I found in a wonderful alternative advent calendar which has a quote for each day.

Another wintry page. At the bottom I added some stencilling with a brick stencil to link to the bricks on the image. At the top another bit of the collage paper.

And a close up of the stencilling....

And here is the final page I will show today, using a paper napkin for the main image and then some paint and stencil work to pull it all together.

As you can see I also used some washi tapes to kind of frame the main image.

Well, that's it for this Friday, - a lot of photos today...…

Like usual, thank you so much for your visit and I hope you can find some creative time during these last few busy days before the 25th!

xxxxx

My Poor neglected Everyday Journal

Hello friends and welcome! I hope the month of June is going well for you so far.

Today I want to share some pages from my everyday journal with you. It has not actually been neglected, like the title may suggest, I have just neglected to post about it, so today I thought I would share some pictures from it with you.

It's a Midori sizes journal and the pages are created with the help of washi tapes, home made tickets, some stamping, inking, a bit of stenciling here and there and that's pretty much it. I find this style of creating spreads fun and relaxing and have even started to do my bullet journal more in this style too, but that will be for another post.

Below some more pages, all done in a similar way, some I like better than others, but that's usually the way right?

This is a close up of part of the page above. I recently received an order from London Gifties. The owner wraps her goodies in the most wonderful way, so I thought I would include some of the packaging in this page.

On this photo you can see some of my home made embellishments created with some of Tim Holtz's dies, stamps and washi tape , as well as some botanical images that I printed on tissue paper.

Oh and I do really write on these pages, and just to prove it I'll be brave and share another couple of pages with you :o)

Well, that's it for today. Thank you for taking the time to visit, and until next time....

xxxxx