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

Joggles Art Journal Adventure - Week 24 - Rinse and Repeat

Hi everyone. It's Week 24 of Joggles Art Journal Adventure and this week, my choice for prompts is Rinse & Repeat. Whaaaat???? I'm asking everyone to include a repeated element or design feature at least 3 times on their project. On my page, I added 3 dragonflies but there are also other examples of repetition like with the stamping or the dots. Maybe you want to repeat a specific spot of colour, a shape, or sewing...the possibilities abound :)

I began my 4 x 6 inch watercolour page by pulling out my Brushos which haven't seen any action lately. I have to make a conscious effort to use supplies I haven't played with for a while because I tend to forget about them and get in a rut. I sprinkled Leaf Green and Turquoise in a few places on my page and then spritzed with water to activate the colour. A little tipping of the page, a whole lot of drying and I was ready to move on. Rings were stamped using Manganese Blue Archival Ink and a delicate round stamp. Then, Viridian Archival Ink was pounced through TCW Chicken Wire Reversed stencil to add more texture to the background. TCW Mini Circles stencil was used in two ways: a baby wipe was passed over the stencil openings to pull some of the Brushos colour from the background and also, white gesso was pounced through the same stencil to get more intense white dots in other places.

The dragonflies were stamped with Jet Black Archival onto a scrap of paper used to mop up excess Lindy's Starburst Sprays. The dragonflies were fussy cut and the colour was intensified in places using Distress Markers and a waterbrush or with Prismacolor pencils. White paint pen dots, black paint dots applied with a stylus, and Clear Wink of Stella were added to the wings. The body was highlighted with a gray coloured pencil and then Glossy Accents was applied to give it both shine and dimension. They were added to the page using foam tape to pop them up.

The wording was printed from the computer onto white cardstock, cut into individual words, and matted with black. Each word was popped up with foam tape, creating a natural shadow around it. The edges of the page were inked with Coffee Archival Ink and a simple double border was doodled around the page. I didn't like the look of that because it didn't seem to have enough weight to it so I used my black Big Brush pen to fill in to the outer edge. Then, since repetition is the name of the game today, I added white paint pen dots like I had on the wings. It made a more interesting and stronger frame than the doodled one.

Thanks for popping by today to visit with my dragonfly friends and me. We appreciate that. I can't wait to see how others in the Art Journal Adventure Facebook group respond to the Week 24 prompt, Rinse & Repeat. They always come up with such lovely ideas and art.

Life is good; so is art.

Bonnie