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

Journal time

Hello friends and welcome. Another week has passed, how time flies. So it's Friday and like usual I am sharing a few more journal pages, so here goes.
First up my planner

I used the same techniques I usually use for this journal, Gesso over Dyan Reaveley's original artwork, then some acrylic paints and finally background stamping, stamped ephemera and washi tapes.

Here's a close up of my right side page.

The focal image this week is of course one of Tim Holtz's paper dolls. This boy looks to me as if he is ready to get on with things, - just what I need to do in the coming week...

Stamped ticket and hand written sentiment, trying my hand at some medeaval script

The other part of the same ticket (both from the Tim Holtz Ticket Booth stamp set), and a ruler piece cut from an old Tim paper

I though I would also share one more page from my daily junk journal.

I decided to add a pocket and some stamped journaling cards. I did a tutorial a while back on how to make these pockets, you can find it here

And here a closer look at the other side

For this page I decided to leave lots of blank space for journaling and writing practice.

Well, that's it for this week, I will be back next Friday with a project for A Vintage Journey, see you then and have a great week!

xxxxx

Friday journal post

Hello friends, it's Friday and that means another post here. There is not much new to share this week, as any arty crafty time I had, has mostly been spent doing writing practice.

Having tried my hand last year on learning brush pen lettering, this year I have moved on to an actual dip pen, - and boy, it's a whole different ball game... Trust me, I am not ready to share that yet, other than a few little try outs in my journal. So all I have today is a little video slideshow of said journal

I also have one further page from my planner to show, so here goes:

As I explained in a previous post, this is a Dyan Reaveley diary. I love the format and the quality of the paper, but my style is so very different from Dyan's that I think most weeks the first thing I will do is gesso over the artwork in the diary, as I did this week.

 

Next I set to work adding colour with the help of some acrylic paints and a small natural sponge.

Then I added some text with the help of one of Lynne's Affirmations wonderful stencils and some paste. When the paste had dried more stencilling followed with Watering Can archival inks. The final steps were adding some ephemera, (hand stamped on tea dyed paper) old book paper and washi tape.

I also added a wax seal and some black tread for a bit of texture.

This lovely Mucha image was part of a stationery box my daughter gave me for Christmas.

The final steps were to add some background stamping and lastly adding a light wash of Decoart Translucent white paint to tone it all down a bit and some white gesso splatters for a bit of a wintry feel.

Well that's it for this week and of course thank you for your visit like always.

xxxxx

A Vintage Journey Put A Stamp On It- My journal set up for 2019

Hello lovely friends and visitors, it's Friday, so that means posting day and today's post will double up for both my Creative Guide project for A Vintage Journey, and my regular Friday post which this week will feature my journal and planner set up for 2019.

I have decided that 2019 will be my year of journaling, more than any other creative outlet. The theme at AVJ is "Put A Stamp On It, and Deb our fabulous host has this to say about the challenge:

For this challenge we would like to see some stamps on your creations, a minimum of one stamp but the more the merrier!  Stamp your backgrounds, fussy cut or die cut some stamped images, add some stamped sentiments; whatever you'd like as long as it is in one of our preferred vintage, shabby, mixed media, art journaling, industrial or steam punk styles".

So for this post I thought I would share some of the ways I use stamps at least for some of my journals.

The photo above is from what is probably my favourite journal. It is a midori sized journal that was part of a stationery box I received as a Christmas present from my daughter. You can see the cover and further page in the post below if you are interested.
 Apart from the journal insert this lovely box was filled with wonderful vintage ephemera, a stamp, washi tape and lace. It comes from a Finish outlet called Paper Garden. This journal will be filled with uplifting quotes and sayings that I collect through the year. Stamps are used to enhance the pages and create some further ephemera.
A few close ups below.

On this page the main stamp is actually a wax seal, but I guess as I stamped it myself, it could count as stamping too right?

Here is a further page created with a mix of washi stickers and stamps.

The hand stamp was stamped on a scrap of tea dyed paper I still had in my stash from previous junk journal.

 Another piece of home made  stamped ephemera this one functions as a flap for extra journaling on the back.

Here you can see the other side. All the quotes are written with a dip pen, the other journaling is all done with a fountain pen, something else I want to do much more of this year. Below just a couple more of the pages prepped to start journaling on in the days to come:

The postcard on the right forms a pocket for further journaling cards.

Well, so far the junk journal. Onto the next one....

Some of you may remember that last year I kept a bullet journal. I kept that going for just over a year and have shown pages from it on and off. Towards the end of this year I was getting more and more frustrated with the quality of the paper, and so I decided it had to go and has now been replaced with one of Dyan Reaveley's Creative Diaries. One of my oldest blog friends, Yvonne, who some of you will know as Meggys Way, always shared her version on Fridays last year, and inspired me to keep one myself. So below my version that will function as my new planner.

The original diary has Dyan's artwork on the right side page, from time to time I may incorporate some of that, but for this first week I simply gessoed right over it and then did my own things. Stamps are mainly used to frame the edges, and I am happy to say, the quality of the paper is great!

My final journal that I'll share today is another totally new venture and does not include any stamping at all I'm afraid to say. Recently I discovered this book Draw your Day by Samantha Dion Baker. It's a guide to keep a sketch journal, something I have wanted to do for a long time in an effort to improve my drawing and watercolour skills. So the final two photos are the pages from this journal I have done so far.

Well, that's it for today and another week. Do go over to A Vintage Journey to see the wonderful stamped creations my talented teamies have created and of course we would love to see you play along to share your.

Finally, and completely unrelated, Hunkydory for whom I did some designing last year are looking for new design team members, - if you are interested you can find all the details HERE and for people interested in stamping HERE

Thank you so much for visiting today and I hope 2019 will bring you lots of happiness and creativity!

      xxxxx

Junk journal with video flip through

Hello friends and thanks for dropping in! About 10 days or so again I shared the cover of a junk journal I am working on and today I am finally ready to show you some pages. I have also made a little flip through video, if you would like to see more.
First a few photos:

What I am showing today is just the first insert. I am in the process of making three in total.
Here you can see the cover, made from Kraftcard and embossed with one of Tim Holtz's new 3D embossing folders.

Here the first double page with a pocket, you can find a tutorial for these here and a number of different tags, a tuck spot and journaling card. All the papers used are tea dyed and then inked with Distress inks.

Another double page, this time with an embossed belly band, a pocket created with a die and another tag with space for journaling or a photo on the back.

Yet more pockets and tags/journaling spots

And finally one more page with quite a bit of stamping and stencilling as well as a little altered little glassine bag holding yet another little tag.

There are a lot more pages and if you would like to see them, just click HERE to go to the youtube video. As it is my very first actual video rather than just a slide show, I do apologize for the quality, I am still learning...

Well, that it's for today, thanks for visiting like always and until next time.

xxxxx

Junk Journal corner pocket tutorial

Hello friends, hope your week is going well. As more than half of you who commented on my previous post requested a tutorial for the corner pockets, here you are:
First of all, a little reminder of how such a pocket can fit into a junk journal:

The journal I am making right now is Midori size (roughly 4 x 8" each side, so the actual pages are 8 x 8" folded in half), but of course a pocket like this can fit in any size journal, or indeed on the inside or even outside of a card.

1. Start with an A4 sized piece of paper ( more or less 8.5 / 11 for my American visitors).
I used tea dyed printer paper, but you can obviously use any kind of paper or thin card.

2.Fold the paper in half length wise

3. Fold one side down to form a triangle. The open side needs to be at the top.

4. Cut along the side as shown in the photo below. With the paper left over you can make one more corner pocket, plus a decorated envelope if you wish.

5. Lift one corner and fold it back on itself, this will create the pocket.

As you can see in the photo, the bottom is open, but so is the long diagonal side, which will form the actual pocket.
6. You now need to close the bottom and loose flap. This can either be glued, or as I decided to do, sewn.

7. Time to decorate and if you want a vintage look, ink the edges.

8. Gather some bits and pieces to add, here is what I used: A piece of lace, half a doily, some cheese cloth and a medallion made with the Tim Holtz 3D impresslets and a tiny little flower.

9. Now all you need to do is put it all together.

Here you can see it with the two journaling cards I plan to keep inside.I coloured my medallion with Distress Oxide Inks to match the l I fitted mine on the right side of my journal, but if you turn it 90 degrees clockwise you can fit it on the left. If you don't glue the whole back side to your journal page, put just put a thin line of glue along the two short sides, you then have a double pocket.

Well, there you have it, hope it all made sense and happy crafting!

xxxxx