New Beginnings, a big thank you and the final freebie of this year

 Dear friends, Hope you are all keeping well and healthy. I did not want to end this year without one final post to say a big thank you for all your lovely comments and visits during this very strange and different year.

I know Christmas itself is over, but I like to celebrate right through the 12 Days of Christmas, so today I am sharing my final Christmas journal for this season. It is a bit more grungy than some of my other journals and I used a mix of one of my downloadable Christmas Collections and vintage papers, mostly from Paper Garden Finland. Below some photos with brief descriptions of how I put it together.

Here is the cover, the journal is Travelers Notebook size (roughly 8 1/4 by 4 1/4") it has one insert stitched inside the cover on my sewing machine and then I zig zagged right around the out side. As you can see it closes with some crinkly seam binding and I collaged and stitched some bits and pieces from my stash to decorate the front.

A large tag fits inside a full length pocket made from one of the papers in the collection. I sewed around both the tag and the paper that makes the pocket and then glued around 3 sides onto the cover from the inside. The closure ribbon is glued behind it. Hope this all makes sense.

Here is another large pocket that has two flaps, each holding a pocket too, so the whole thing is very interactive with lots of space for journaling cards, smaller tags etc. I used various images from some of my other Christmas Collections and freebies to decorate these flaps and pockets.

Another double page with a little fold out booklet that tucks inside another pocket.

Some of the vintage papers sewn inside

And here a bookmark or tag that fits under a belly band enhanced with some lace.

Here you can see some of the tags and journal cards that fit in the pockets.

Below is an image from one of the embellishment papers that comes with the Christmas collection so you can see what I used for some of the tags etc.

Now the freebie I put together for you matches this pretty well, and even though Christmas is now over, I hope you can still use some of them for your winter projects or otherwise use them for Christmas in another year.

Like usual, if you want the full resolution for printing, just email me and I will finish by wishing you all a very happy and creative New Year!

Thanks for your visit like always

xxxxx

Fly Free, - Mixed Media BeginnersTutorial

Hello friends, thanks for dropping by.
It's been a while since I have popped in here to share a full tutorial, but just for a change, here goes:

I think regulars know by now how much I love creating journals. Well today I will just share in detail how I made the cover of this one. My lovely Instagram friend Emilia, better known as Varalusikka, who recently invited me to join her design team, asked me if I would create a mixed media tutorial. (For those of you not on Instagram, she has a fabulous shop Paper Garden Finland) So here you go, starting from scratch:

1. Take a piece of strong card, - I took a piece of 12 x 12, to make like a kind of master board, and gather some old scraps of book pages, ephemera etc. (you could also use bits of scrapbook paper)

2. Next tear them into smaller pieces and adhere them to your substrate. While in the process I decided to also add some scraps of a paper napkin and some bits of lace. It does not really matter if there are some gaps here and there. I used just ordinary PVA glue for this, thinned down with a bit of water.

3. Next take a wide soft brush and some gesso. Using either a craftsheet or some kitchen roll, put a blob of gesso on there and then pick some up with your wide brush, and very lightly go right over the whole piece, but making sure the layer underneath is still visible. This is a bit like dry brushing. From the photo above it looks perhaps as if there is not much difference, but trust me there is, - the gesso really brings out the textures.

4. At this point I decided to cover the whole piece with a coat of clear gesso, this does not change the look at all, as it dries completely clear, but it gives everything a coating which protects it for any further inking or spraying you may want to do. As it turned out in the end I did not do too much of that, but it basically stops ink and spray soaking right into the paper, so also makes it easier to remove, if you want to lighten things up a bit.
5. Let everything dry thoroughly and then cut your piece to the size you want it. As I wanted my piece as a cover for an A5 journal, I kept the 12" width but cut a piece to 21 cm high.

6. I then scored 5 3/4" (14.5 cm) from each side, which left me 1/2" (1.5 cm) for the spine.

7. Here you see just the front. Time to start to decorate. I inked lightly around the edges, using a Vintage Photo distress crayon, which on the gessoed background is really easy to smudge out. I also added a few strips of washi tape and some light background stamping in black Stazon.
8. Create a focal point for your journal. I decided to make a shabby cluster, these are brilliant to use up all kinds of scraps and can be used both on journal covers or inside a junk journal. They are great fun to make, and easy.

Here are some of the scraps I used, some corrugated card, part of a tea dyed doily, some lace, cheese cloth etc.

I gave my corrugated card a quick layer of gesso, this is really the substrate of the cluster, and then glued some of my bits and pieces on top/ I always use 3-in-1 glue, it dries quickly and clear, but you could use any strong kind of glue or a glue gun.

Here is the finished cluster, you could finish them in all sorts of ways of course, this time I decided to add a butterfly, an old pen nib, some bling and a little sentiment.

And here finally is the finished cover, ready to have the inside pages sewn in, but that may be for another post.

Well, that's it for now, if you are still with me, thank you, hope you will have the chance to have some mixed media fun yourself soon and happy creating!

xxxxx