Cute Little Book Page Coin Envelopes

Hi everyone. The other day I watched another of junk journaller, Sabrina Oreskovic's (Crafty Sabby) wonderful You Tube videos. If you haven't checked out her channel, you are missing out. Not only are her ideas and techniques wonderful but her tutorials are very helpful and easy to follow. This particular video was made a few months ago and is called Teeny Tiny Envelope Tutorial. She shows us step by step how to create these fun little 2 x 3.5 inch coin style envelopes out of book paper. When I watch a video, I need to make the item right away or I will not remember how or even that I want to do it...LOL. I made one and had so much fun that I made a bunch...so cute. I added a little washi tape topper to manila tags in my stash which fit perfectly in these envelopes to make them journal ready.

I won't explain the making of these because Crafty Sabby's video shows that better than I could describe. I will, however, show how I decorated the fronts using left over scraps of lace, corrugated cardboard, buttons, washi, and whatever else I found hanging around my crafting table. They might give you some ideas of your own. The photo above shows two envelopes created using washi tape as the focal element. The one on the left is matted with black cardstock and the butterfly has a tiny gear for a head. Tiny coffee stained rickrack adds texture above and below the band. The one on the right in the same picture has washi tape matted with burlap. A butterfly punched from script stamped vintage book paper and decorated with brown pearls for the body was adhered on top of the washi. A scrap of the frayed selvedge edge cut from fabric was tucked under the burlap to contrast with the burlap and provide a fringe texture.

The tag on the left has a length of Prima washi tape adhered to white cardstock to avoid seeing the printed text through the tape, A punched black border was added to the top and a remnant of lace to the bottom edge. The little stacked flower is coffee dyed, layered onto coffee dyed cheesecloth, and topped with a clock brad. It was adhered to the washi over top of a tiny die cut manila tag which had been edged with Coffee Archival Ink. The envelope on the right, which was cut slightly shorter than the others as an experiment, has a layer of scrap designer paper inked and matted with black cardstock for its band. Black lacy washi was used to decorate the bottom edge and a scrap of lace was layered over the designer paper. A corrugated cardboard coffee sleeve was punched to provide both the butterfly and the star in the first photo. I have a stack of these punched, inked, and ready to go. The butterfly body is a game spinner topped with another of those tiny gears.

The black band on the envelope above is Prima washi tape as well. It comes in a collection of three wider tapes. Because it is so dramatic, I only used glittery epoxy stars and shiny silver star sequins to decorate this envelope. Both catch the light and seemed to be all this one needed. For the envelope on the right, I layered a scrap of inked designer paper over a scrap of burlap. The other half of the punched scalloped border from above was tucked under the burlap. A flying bird punched from black cardstock was given a black pearl eye before being adhered to the band. Kraft and black chevron washi tape was placed along the bottom of the envelope and wrapped to the back on this one.

The first of the final two envelopes used a wider scrap of designer paper for the band. The top was banded with measuring tape washi tape and the bottom was decorated with burlap trim. One of those tiny gears was glued to one of the small key heads. Flower trim was adhered both above and below the band. The last envelop was banded with burlap topped with washi tape inked with Coffee Archival, adhered to white cardstock, and matted with black. The butterfly head on the washi was created using a star sequin. The same chevron washi tape was used to decorate the bottom edge.

Thanks for popping by today. I always enjoy your good company :) Thanks also to Crafty Sabby for her inspiring video tutorial. I can see making lots of these of different sizes. It's a great way to use up scraps and bits and have something cute and useful at the end. If you make some, be sure to tag me on FB so I can see them. I'm always looking for inspiration.

Life is good; so is art.

Bonnie

Joggles Junk Journal Adventure ~ Week 9 ~ Letter W with a twist

Hi everyone! It's my turn to choose the prompt for Week 8 at the Joggles Art Journal Adventure. This time, I chose the Letter W and included an optional twist...include something shiny, sparkly, or shimmery. You can either feature both the prompt and the twist prompt or just the W prompt...totally up to you. I decided to include both with my W being for wish and my sparkly being everywhere... LOL.

This week I played with one of the skinny pages ( 4 x 6 inches) in my disc bound journal so the real estate I had to fill was limited. I added Distress Oxides to the background using mini ink blending tools to apply them. The ground area combined Twisted Citron, Cracked Pistachio, and Lucky Clover. The sky was created with Broken China, Peacock Feathers, and Salty Ocean Distress Inks. Lucky Clover was used to edge the bottom part of the page and Salty Ocean was used to edge the top. The dandelion stamp from the Carabelle Studio Revealing a Whole New World set was  stamped with Lucky Clover Distress Oxide numerous times along the bottom edge to create a field. A single dandelion seed and fluffer (technical term) from another set was stamped randomly on the sky area using Salty Ocean Distress Oxide.

The main image of the little girl floating away  is from the same Carabelle Studio stamp set. It was stamped onto  white cardstock using Jet Black Archival Ink. She was then coloured with Prismacolor and Polychromos pencils and fussy cut leaving a narrow white border. Once she was adhered to black cardstock, she was fussy cut leaving a narrow black border and popped up with foam tape. To add shimmer, shine, and sparkle to the image, Goldenrod Stickles were added to her shoes and crown. Black Diamond Stickles was added to the flower center and her dress collar. Clear Star Gelly Roll was used to add shimmer to the dandelion fluffers. Before she was adhered to the page, Icicle Stickles was added in a circle behind where the dandelion head would land.

The corners of the page needed more definition, texture, and dimension so Ranger Texture Paste was scraped through the squares detail from the Winged Things Itty Bitty ATC Stencil. Once dry, Clear Wink of Stella was brushed on to add sparkle...can't see it in the photo but it's there :) The left side and bottom edge of each square were outlined with Inktense pencil spread with a water brush, and then with black Pitt pen. The same pen was used to doodle a border around the page edges.

The sentiment, Make a Wish, was chosen because I can remember doing just that as I blew the fluffers off dandelion heads all through my childhood (OK and I still do). The words were printed onto white cardstock, cut apart, and matted with glittery washi tape. They were edged with black Big Brush Pen and popped up on foam tape. Shiny green and turquoise skinny planner tape was adhered in clusters on both sides of the page and underlined with black pen. And since it's impossible to have too much sparkle, a glittery black w sticker was placed in the bottom left corner of the page. It was then circled with black pen which was then dotted with white paint pen.

Thanks for popping by today. I may not have captured all of the shimmer and shine on my page but  it is definitely spread throughout the page. I wish you could see it IRL. It lights up my little girly heart..ha! Anyway, if you haven't had a chance to check out the weekly prompts and beautiful art shared on the Joggles Art Journal Adventure group, be sure to make some time to do that. You will be warmly welcomed into our fabulous community.

Life is good; so is art.
Bonnie

Another Six Junk Journal Tags

Hi everyone. As I mentioned last week, I went a little tag crazy using up bits and pieces of scraps to add to my tag stash for junk journals. I am so grateful for the lovely comments and interest people have shown in these over on the Junk Journal Junkies Facebook group. Here are another 6 tags, the smallest (above) being 2.5 x 3.5 inches and the largest 3.25 x 6.25 and all of them featuring Tim Holtz Paper Dolls. They make for such a quick tag focal and are so darn cute, to boot.

The tags themselves were cut from collage style designer paper from Recollections Vintage Country Paper Pad which has been sitting on my shelf for far too long. Time to let it see the light of day :) All of the tag edges and most of the embellies were edged with Coffee Archival Ink. I tend to use this instead of Vintage Photo Distress Ink because it's permanent and won't reactivate if the journal gets wet or I use a wet medium. The tag edges were also inked with Black Big Brush Pen to frame them.

Part of doilies, ephemera from sources like Etsy, Pinterest, and ephemera packs were added to the design, many of them left over from previous projects. I don't like throwing things away if there is still potential value in them. On the tag above as well as the next one, I added one of my inked, folded, and sewn music paper strips to the bottom edge as a sort of ruffle.

Most of the single word sentiments are Idea-ology ChitChat or Big Chat stickers which relate in my mind to the images and ephemera on the tag.

The tag toppers vary from rickrack to ribbon, and even strips of canvas. Tiny staples, brads, buttong, and fine hemp were used to add a little more interest to the toppers and also make them more permanent. It's always fun to make those little decisions as I go along about what will suit the tag or the image at that moment.

The final tag above is the largest of this set of six. It has more elements because there was more real estate to play with.besides the doily and paper dolls, I included a shoe store tag with a little coffee dyed cheesecloth behind it, and a small embellishment cluster with layers of corrugated cardboard, dotty burlap, and a word embellie popped up on brown cardstock. The frayed piece along the bottom was cut from the selvedge edge of a piece of fabric and was hand stitched with fine string. This tag was all about the texture :)

Thanks for stopping by today. I always appreciate your visits. I have another set of tags which I will share later this week...some even smaller than the first of this set. If you haven't had a chance and are interested in junk journals and making your own embellishments, pop over to the Junk Journal Junkies Facebook group. There is an incredible amount of talent and inspiration there as well as all kinds of encouragement from the supportive community. It's a great place to hang out :)

Life is good; so is art.

Bonnie

Joggles Art Journal Adventure ~ Week 8: Letter D

Hi everyone. It's Barb's turn to choose the prompt for Week 8 of the 2018 Joggles Art Journal Adventure and this week she has chosen the Letter D. That provided me with the ideal opportunity to feature one of the laser cut chipboard shapes which Joggles produces. I chose Charlotte Dancing Small to fit the D theme.

I painted Charlotte with black gesso and once she was dry, I stamped Joggles/Margaret Applin Designs Vintage Correspondence using Versamark ink. White fine detail embossing powder was sprinkled over the Versamark and then heat set to raise the embossing. She's so pretty!

The 6 x 6 watercolour page from the disc bound journal was coloured using Peacock Feathers, Cracked Pistachio, and Salty Ocean Distress Oxide Inks using the wrinkle free technique. The inks were smushed one at a time onto the craft sheet and then spritzed with water. The page was then dipped into the inky puddles and dried between layers until I had the effect and coverage I wanted. Manganese Blue Archival Ink was used to stencil the circles from Joggles Punchinella Quintet stencil. Garden Patina Archival Ink was used on the same Vintage Correspondence stamp used on the dancer.

I love the new 6x6 stencils Barb released and decided to scrape Texture Paste through the Floral Wreath one to create a frame for Charlotte. Once it was thoroughly dry, I placed the stencil back over the Texture Paste pattern and dry brushed Ginger Magic Art Alchemy Sparks acrylic paint over the raised wreath. Then I used a small brush and added even more of the paint here and there to create stronger colour and shimmer. The letter D was stencilled with Manganese Blue Archival Ink in several places to create more interest and emphasize the prompt theme. The same paint was used on a bottle lid to create the Ginger circles.

Once Charlotte was adhered with foam tape to add dimension, the words for the sentiment (from a song by Leanne Womack) were printed onto white cardstock, cut apart, and matted with black. Foam tape was also used to adhered them following the shape of the wreath. Manganese Blue Archival Ink was used to edge the page and Black Big Brush Pen was layered over that just on the very edges.I like how that frames the page. To add one more pop of black and gold, as well as finish the design, a black corner was punched from cardstock and then edged with gold pen.

Thanks so much for joining Charlotte and me today. We are delighted that you did. If you haven't already joined the Joggles Art Journal Adventure Facebook group, you are very welcome to do so. It's a lovely group of people who encourage and inspire each other, and share their own art when they can. I can't wait to see what people create in response to the D theme.

Life is good; so is art.
Bonnie

Building up my tag stash & using up some stuff

Hi everyone. I have been busy lately with tag making. I wanted to build up my stash of finished tags to put into junk journals still in the process of being created. I also wanted to use up "stuff"...designer paper, scraps of coffee dyed paper, bits of lace, and ephemera rather than having it continue to accumulate as clutter. And finally, I love making tags and will look for any excuse to play :) I've had a Recollections paper pad called Vintage Country in my stash for ages but I've rarely used any of it. Some of the papers looks collaged, some look like burlap, and some actually are burlap adhered to a paper backing. I decided to chop up that last one to create some vintage tags based on a 2.5 x 5 inch manila tag I use as a template.

All of the tags were inked around with Coffee Archival Ink and three were given hole reinforcements punched out of kraft cardstock. For five of these six tags, I layered up scraps of coffee dyed papers including book text, plain paper which I stamped, or music paper. I always have a bag of different sizes of  sewn and inked folded music strips on hand so I used them as the decoration for the bottom of four of these.

Embellishments such as part of a doily, an embossed resist chipboard heart, or scraps of Jenny Bowlin stickers (the row of stars) were added to the design. Vintage buttons and little pops of black were also included to add contrast to the fairly monochromatic tags.

Some of the Tim Holtz Idea-ology Paper Dolls became the focals of the tags. These were inked around with Black Big Brush Pen to help them stand out against the background and some were popped up on foam tape for added dimension. Single words from Idea-ology ChitChat or Big Chat stickers were added to a few tags to emphasize a particular detail or feeling. In the case of the tag above, the word also gave the trio a place to stand, grounding them.

Cheesecloth also played a role in the design of a couple of these tags. This particular cheesecloth was coffee dyed which gives it a lovely aged look. It adds such lovely texture on top of the burlap base.I especially like how the coffee colour and loose weave contrast with the white lace tucked under the book paper..

The sixth tag in this set is slightly different than the other five. It features a butterfly fussy cut from a collage sheet and glittered up on the body using Black Diamond Stickles. The butterfly was popped up with foam tape and layered over a small tag cut from one of the collaged backgrounds in the same paper pad. Burlap and lace embellish the bottom edge. The tag toppers on all six tags are either woven trims, bits of lace, or cheesecloth. All three keep that vintage rustic feeling going.

Thanks for visiting today. All my little paper doll friends and I appreciate that. Stay tuned later this weekend when I will do a post about some of the smaller tags I created. I had such fun...and made such a mess :)

Life is good; so is art.

Bonnie

Joggles Art Journal Adventure ~ Week 7 (Love/Hate)

Hi everyone. It's my turn to choose the prompt for the Joggles Art Journal Adventure Week 7 and since we are approaching Valentine's Day, the prompt I've chosen is Love/Hate. I want you to feature something that you absolutely love or something that gets on your last nerve...or both! Have fun with it! There were so many directions I could have taken this but I settled on coffee (yum!) and cats who are some of my favourite companions.

I like to play with junk journals so I usually have a pile of coffee dyed paper on hand. It seemed like the ideal background for my double page spread (each page is 4 x 6 inches so 8 x 6 in total). I punched the holes in  the top and bottom of the 8.5 x 11 inch paper to line up with the ones in the disc-bound journal paper and then adhered one half to each page. That allowed me a little room to play and match up the holes, after which I trimmed away the excess. I love how distressed and aged the coffee dyed paper looks. I added some detail to the backgrounds using Coffee Archival Ink and a Stamper's Anonymous Coffee Rings stamp as well as Joggles Nonsense Latin Text and Circles stamps. I also used the same ink around the edges of both pages.

I wanted to feature a hand cut mug of coffee and the cats from the Laurel Burch stamp called Indigo Cats which I stamped using Jet Black Archival Ink onto scraps of mop-up paper used to soak up leftover ink. I wanted bright and also variety of colour, intensity, and pattern within each cat so this worked perfectly. Inktense pencils activated with a waterbrush were used to shade the cats and the cup. Black Pitt pen was used to colour in the black and white Sharpie Paint Pen for the eyes and doodles. These images were then fussy cut, adhered to black cardstock, and fussy cut again leaving a narrow black border. The cup was further embellished with the same Nonsense Latin Text stamp used on the background but this time I used Vermillion Archival ink. A heart cut from old book paper was inked with Coffee Archival and matted with black to adhere to the center of the cup. They were then popped up with foam tape.

Before adhering the images to the background, a length of washi tape was added to white cardstock, fussy cut, and adhered to the bottom of each page to give the cats and cup somewhere to stand. A black doodled border was added to the outside edges of both pages to serve as a bit of a frame. The sentiment was printed onto white cardstock and cut into individual words which were then matted with black. Foam tape was used to adhere the words to the pages. The hearts were punched from the same mop-up paper used for the cats. They were outlined with black  Big Brush Pen and highlighted with white paint pen. Foam tape was used on the two in the sentiment and the others were adhered flat.

I love how this spread turned out...the palette, those fabulous cats, and all the coffee references. I had a lot of fun creating this page which has been my goal for this year's pages. I want to create pages that make me smile both the entire time I'm creating them and then with the finished spread. If you haven't checked out the 2018 Joggles Art Journal Adventure Facebook group, take a minute to pop over (click on the link). We have a lovely and talented community of wonderful people there and inspiration galore. It's a great place to hang out. This Love/Hate prompt could be the ideal place to join in :)

Life is good; so is art.
Bonnie

Joggles AJA Week 6 ~ the number 2

Hi everyone. It's Barb's turn to choose the prompt for Week 6 of the Joggles Art Journal Adventure and this week she has chosen the number 2. In my Joggles disc bound journal, I had combined various sizes of the watercolour paper and this particular one is 4 x 6 inches instead of the 6 x 6 inch I have been using. That adds both a little extra challenge and variety, both of which I like. I knew that I would have to keep things on a smaller scale as well as a little simpler than I usually create.

I started by placing a stencil with the # 2 near the bottom of the page. The actual number part was open and the stencil was shaped like a rounded rectangle. Lindy's Magnolia Magenta Gold Starburst Spray was spritzed over the entire page including the stencil which, once lifted, left this wonderful white space with the #2 stencilled in the middle. To make the background a little more interesting, Magenta Hue Archival Ink was used to stamp one of the Paint Splat shapes from a Darkroom Door stamp set. It's subtle but just what I was looking for. Kaisercraft Checker Plate Texture stamp was applied here and there with Jet Black Archival Ink. In keeping with the theme of two, two strips of black cardstock were embossed with a gears embossing folder and highlighted with White Fire Treasure Gold Paste to pick up the gold in the background from the Lindy's spray. These were adhered in two parallel bands on the right side of the page.

I wanted two small creatures to stack on top of the number rectangle so I pulled out some purple sprayed mop-up paper and stamped two of the Stampotique Originals Quails from the Quails Cube onto it. Ha! Colouring done...bonus :) They were fussy cut leaving a narrow border which I like to be white. A white paint pen came to the rescue, colouring the once purple border white. Each quail was then matted onto black cardstock and fussy cut again leaving a narrow black border. Black Diamond Stickles was used to put dots on both quails and Glossy Accents was applied to their tiny eyes. Foam tape was used to adhere them to the page giving them dimension and natural shadow.

Black pen was used to outline the white rectangle as well as doodling inside the number. The word two was stamped using Altenew Modern Deco Alpha set and a magenta Sharpie was used to colour in the open part of each letter. White paint pen dotted the magenta and the word was matted with black before being popped up on foam tape. While I had the black pen going, I also doodled a page border with groups of two dots breaking up the line. Black Big Brush Pen was used to outline the edge of the page and then I walked away from it for a bit. There seemed to be something missing. I punched 1/4 inch circles from white cardstock, edged them with black and adhered them in groups of two around the page. Deep Rose Inktense pencil activated with a waterbrush was used to create a shadow around the two rectangle and the white circles to help them stand out a bit more and create some depth. Much better!

Thanks for visiting today. if you haven't already joined the Joggles Art Journal Adventure Facebook group...what's the hold-up? LOL. It's a great place to hang out with weekly prompts, lots of wonderful inspiration, and the nicest people. We would love it if you joined. There's no pressure to create every week and not everyone is making journals. Some are making tags, some atcs, and some playing with clay and fabric. Something for everyone :)

Life is good; so is art.
Bonnie

Adventure Awaits - Inspired by a Vera Lane Studio image

Hi everyone. I've been colouring and playing again, inspired by this awesome image called The Traveller by Vera Lane Studio. She is part of a 7 digi set including this image, some sentiments, and adorable travelling accessories. So cute! I've been wanting to create with Beatrix (the traveller's name) for ages.

I coloured Beatrix with a mix of Prismacolor and Polychromos pencils. I wanted strong colours for her hat and coat because a lot of the background was going to be neutrals or vintage tones. Beatrix was fussy cut leaving my usual narrow white border, matted with black, and then fussy cut again leaving a narrow black border. Foam tape was adhered to the back to pop her up, adding dimension and natural shadow.

I had a 4.25 x 5.8 inch rectangle of cardstock which I had gel printed, stamped, and decorated with Texture Paste.  anIt was smaller than I usually play with but I loved the colour scheme and I wanted to make it work. I matted it with black cardstock and then layered pieces of travel ephemera around it. The sweet vintage car image came from Tlc Creates Vintage on Etsy, part of a wonderful travel set. The rest was pieces I had from various other sources. I laid everything out on a black 6 x 8 inch background, and then tacked the elements together using liquid glue. I could then add foam tape to the back of the Travel the World image as well as the air mail envelope to pop them up like Beatrix.

The sentiment was printed onto white cardstock and cut into sections, all of which were matted with black. The open parts of the letters were coloured with a red fine marker. To bring a little more red into the center of the page and emphasize the words "an adventure", I used Glossy Accents to adhere a transparent acetate label with a red border onto the word strip. Foam tape was used to pop up all the sentiment segments.

The black substrate needed some help. There was just too much blank space around the center cluster. Since nothing was adhered to it yet, a machine stitched border was able to be added. Then, with the other layered but not glued over top, I could easily see where I wanted to add a little more texture and detail. I did this by randomly stamping a grid pattern with Versamark Ink and then heat embossing with white detail powder. The final element added to balance the design was a threaded wooden button printed with destination names.

Thanks for joining Beatrix and me today. We appreciate that you took the time to do that :) Be sure to pop by Vera Lane Studio to check out all of the wonderful images and image sets there. Once you do, you will see why I have been so inspired by them lately. They spark my imagination as well as being so fun to colour.

Life is good; so is art.
Bonnie