Altered Journal Cards

Hi everyone! I haven't been doing as much creating lately as I've been a bit under the weather so I thought I would start back with something simple. Years ago, I bought these Hope Chest journal cards from pinkpaislee at a great sale price. Then I decided that I didn't really like them as they were so I put them away and forgot about them. More recently, I purchased Tim Holtz Botanicals ephemera pack and then didn't know what to do with them either because, like the journal cards, they didn't really suit my style of junk journals, even though they were pretty. Well, the two packs landed on my desk at the same time and I had a blast altering the journal cards with the botanical images. Who knew! LOL

There were 12 cards in the pinkpaislee set plus the packaging was so cute that I cut another slightly bigger one. The thing I didn't like about them was that they weren't dimensional and they were a little plainer and more muted than the mixed media look I usually go for. The first thing I did was cover all of the printed doily parts with real doilies cut up and adhered, then outlined with brown ink. I used the same brown ink to faux stitch around each card's edges to frame them and then added Coffee Archival Ink over that to age and make an even more noticeable frame.

I added stamping to the background with Coffee Archival Ink and also stencilling with either the same ink or Ranger Texture Paste. Words were added in the form of Tim Holtz Big Chat or Chit Chat Stickers, each outlined with black Big Brush Pen.

Bits of washi tape, threaded buttons,  and yellow Stickles were all used to add more texture, sparkle,dimension, and interest to the cards. Several were decorated with the smaller butterflies in the Botanical set and I gave them each a different body style using anything from rusty safety pins, to hooks (from hook and eyes) to cutlery charms or photo turns.

I love the way these turned out and definitely can see me using them in future junk journals. I really like to alter ready-mades or printables to make them my own. While they look good in their original state, they make me smile when I add the "Bonnie touch". Besides...who can resist a chance to play? LOL

Thanks for visiting.

Life is good; so is art.

Bonnie