“Learning To Fly”

I have been busily working in my Nameless Art Journal and I have managed another couple of pages today.

As my cat and I are the only females in our house I decided to go with some girly pics and give them a story. These lovely photos are of some little girls, who are so sweet and I thought butterflies were called for. I chose a couple of vintage looking pages with a bit of a pattern with flowers and butterflies. I mounted the photos on some tags that I made and added a few journal words and a title. I used a new zipper stamp around the edges and a large butterfly in the middle of the pages.

Whoever these little ones were, I am sure they spread their wings and had a wonderful life!

I also created this page of these two gentlemen. I used a bit more ‘art’ on these pages. I distressed and inked the book paper, coffee dyed the tags and book page, added a few old ephemera, music sheet and stamped plus stenciled with texture paste and ink. I love how this came out and all the layers 🙂

Ok, back to work then a bit more journaling I am hoping this evening 🙂

Have a great night!

Kerri x

 

“Easy Coffee Dyed Paper”

Hi there,

I’m playing with another page and I just decided on the spur of the moment I wanted some aged-looking tags. Well, of course, I had none left in my stash and I wanted them heavier than copy paper.  I dye paper with coffee quite a lot but, haven’t needed to do any and I couldn’t be bothered getting all the stuff out and set it up in the kitchen for a few. I am not a big coffee drinker and it is there mainly for my sons.

I used my new Tim Holtz glass mixed media mat to lay some tags on it then, I mixed up a few coffee granules with some warm water in a spray bottle. I just put some paper towels under them to soak up the excess. It worked perfectly and there is a lovely coffee smell my craft space 🙂 I always have a stash of die-cut tags ready to create with.

 

I sprayed a few while I was making the mess and a few bits of book page also.

I didn’t want to waste any of the coffee so to use it up I grabbed some muslin and a couple of small white doilies, put them into a container and tipped what was left over them. They are going to look great! With the top of the bottle, I just stamped it over the tags for a bit more effect. I just squeezed out the excess coffee and covering what hadn’t been dyed.

I hope I may have inspired you to have a go at making your own coffee dyed tags and embellishments.

Happy Journaling

Kerri x

 

 

“A Bit More Of My Nameless Journal”

Hi There,

Wow! I am having a very busy week as we all do! I have had my oldest son around today for a while, and my youngest is at work.  It has been nice catching up with him and while he has been playing a new video game, I thought I would have a bit of a play in my Vintage Nameless Art Journal and do a few pretties on my personal journal.

I decided to add some feminine softness to the pages, so I added some different trims along the edges of the pages. I also made some tabs from them also.

I wanted to do a couple more pages in my Nameless Art Journal and I came up with these two.

I like the look of the two photos above. The men looked deep in thought. Object Trov’e means –  discarded objects found by chance. I related to this as the items used on in this journal have been discarded by others and found by me! I used some layers of book paper and music paper, stamps, packaging tags I made and the clock stickers.

I had a few Tim Holtz Emphemera Film Strips and decided to use these two, I used some stamping, layers of paper and tags washi tape, faux stitching, and some journal stickers. I used a bit of paint to tone down the bright butterflies and a black pen to go around the edges of the tags. The quote in the middles says “ordinary people can do extraordinary things”  I am sure all these people in the photos did do wonderful things in their lifetime………………………….

Johanna’s class is now finished but I am continuing to fill up my Journal with Nameless photos and giving them a story!

You can have a go at her class on YouTube and it is free and really fun to create along with her!

Have a great weekend, I will be back with some more of my art journal over the weekend.

Kerri x

 

“Making a Naked Personal Journal”

Hi Friends,

You are probably wondering what I am on about? hehe……I am making myself a Journal that is called Naked. It is this because it will have covers and pages but no embellishing. I want to use it as I go and add to it when I Journal. I love embellishing as much as the next person, but this one is personal and I want to use it more of a scrap/memory journal.

The covers above, from a National Geographic Encyclopedia. I wanted to make a bigger spine, so I cut it out and did my makeover thing with it.

I covered the inside with some pattern papers and covered the built-up spine also.

I made two signatures of approx 80 pages with lots of different papers, for each one. I used a scrapbook paper, vellum, music sheet, dictionary page, some odd bits from my stash of scraps, some watercolor paper, notepaper, and smaller pieces as well, to add interest. I had some cut off pieces as well which I will use to make tuck spots and pockets with. These will be bound into the spine with the no-sew binding method using twine, fabric or trim. I haven’t quite decided yet 🙂

This gives me lots of real estate to play with and add what I want to it also. You can add what you have or like. This adds some interest for when I am using it.  I have a post  “HERE”  which covers the different things you can use in your journals.

To the front cover, I made an embellishment cluster using Pattern papers die cuts, lace, trim, butterflies, and birds, quotes and some layering plus a title.

I hope you are all having a great week, I am very busy and looking forward to filling up this journal with family memories 🙂  I would love to hear about what you are up to!

Thanks for stopping by…………..

Kerri x

 

“Pretty Paper De-Stash”

Hi Friends,

 

Just popping in to show you what I have been up to over the weekend. Over the last couple of months. My tall paper storage unit was looking a little sad!  I have been downsizing and de-stashing my unused craft supplies. I think I have reduced it by a good third. I hadn’t as yet had time to go through my Pretty Paper Stash and it really needed sorting through.

I used some 12×12 paper storage tubs from KMart to sort all of it into categories. Mine are; scraps, ale Stickers, Guy Stuff, Gal Stuff, Gal stickers, Vintage, Die cuts, Pet love, and JJ Stuff. It took me a couple of days in between work etc to get it all sorted and the floor looked like a bomb had hit it!

I think it is now much more organized and I used some leftover Thickers to make the labels.  I still need to go through the top shelf and the bottom which is mostly cardstock. I am really happy with my paper storage now. I have a few more shelves to just tidy up and get rid of excess storage that is sitting there empty. It will look and feel much more condensed and inspiring to get me scrapping in my Junk Journals 🙂

Thanks for popping in and I hope you are having a lovely crafty day!

Kerri x

 

“Finished Journal Cover”

Hi Friends,

If you haven’t worked it out yet, I am partial to Butterflies and Birds. This cover I have used the Napkin Decoupage Technique I showed you in my “PREVIOUS POST”

I love how this turned out. It has layers of the old book page, napkin, washi tape, clear stickers and a small panel with Tim Holtz Mixed Media Birdie, Tissue paper on it. You can see I used this technique all over the book cover and did a bit of highlighting with some TH Distress Crayon. I have also added my eyelets on the 3″ spine ready for my page signatures.

This picture above gives you a bit clearer look at the layers and the Focal Point panel on its own, which is adhered with some foam tape and dimensional glaze for extra strength. If you notice that the edges of the covers are not perfect and that is the way I like them. I just have to cover the inside pages, more than likely with scrapbook paper and then make the “junk” part of the journal before I start embellishing and using it 🙂

Have a great night

Kerri x

 

 

“Paper Napkin Technique”

Hi Friends,

I thought I would take a little break from my journal and show you a fun technique. You may have already seen it out there.

The Technique is called Napkin College, it is very easy and creates a lovely result. I have a lot of book pages that come out of books and I keep some of them to create embellishments for my journals. I love collaging the napkin on to book pages, music sheets and also straight on to projects. I have also done this straight on to book covers and it looks very effective and vintage.

You only need a few supplies for this. Some paper napkins which you can get from cheap shops, some mod podge or my glue sealer made with white glue and some paper to stick it down on which can be anything.

The first thing you need to do is tear off the white background carefully so you don’t tear your design. I used a wet small paintbrush and went around the images I wanted to glue down. This prevents your napkin from tearing in the wrong place.  you can also just glue it down as a whole sheet if you want to.  I like to pick the images that I like.

Next, you apply glue on top of the page and then place your image over. You then lightly put more glue over the top to smooth it down and seal it.

You then continue doing the same process to you cover as much of your base as you want. I still wanted some of the music paper to show through. You can leave it at this stage and use as is to make tags, pockets, ATC’s, punched or die-cut shapes, you name it!

I also added a bit of stamping and some texture paste through a stencil for a bit more depth on this page.

These are a few more music and book pages I have collaged over the weekend:) The top three are for a journal and the rest are to make tags, pockets, etc from 🙂

Thanks for stopping by and have a great evening 🙂

Kerri x

“Buil A Page”

Hi Friends,

I haven’t done much in the way of traditional (layout) scrapping this year as I am now Memory Keeping in my Journals.

A lovely group, that I have been a member of for quite a long time now had a Build A Page as one of their June Challenges. I decided to join in and make a page about Cody’s lovely kitty to go in his album.

My step was day four and it was to:

Step 4 – Add your photo to the mat and a bit of doodling around the edge of your card stock or borders. Feel free to add a bit of stamping on your background 🙂

His name is Laurence and he is a Tuxedo cat. He is very cheeky and thoroughly spoilt as you can imagine. He has a lovely personality and he keeps Cody busy and on his toes. He is adorable and Cj sends me lots of photos of him. As there are no gran kids on this horizon he has become my Grand Fur-Baby, lol 🙂 I really had fun scrapping this pic I printed o my new Selphy Printer and adding another memory to Cody’s album!

If you would like to play along with this challenge you will find our lovely group “HERE” on FaceBook 🙂

Have a great night and Happy Scrapping

Kerri x

 

 

 

“Collection Junk Journal”

Hi Friends,

 

I have been thinking about creating a Collection/Compendium Journal for myself. I found a cool book on the weekend in an op shop in Ballarat and for $3 I couldn’t leave it there. It is an old National Geographic book and I am giving it life! It measures 6 x 10 with an approx 2″ spine. I loved the size and it is perfect for me, to add what I want to it.

I have a bit of a collection of items in my JJ bin and thought I would use them plus other stuff in it like pictures and things from my Daphnes Diary magazines, tickets, tags, receipts, envelopes, happy mail, postcards, etc.

 

I decided I wanted to cover the spine with some denim fabric that I had from some old jeans of my boys and then I added the bit of lace. I then covered both sides of the front and back with some rose scrapbook paper cut to size. I watched a great YouTube video  “HERE” and I decided to have a go at creating my journal cover with some mixed media fun!

 

I basically just followed the Tutorial by using a stencil with texture paste on the background and I made a heart with scrap cardboard. I then added bits of wood veneer and metal embellishments around the heart. I just cut a couple of small pieces of burlap for the top and bottom corners.

I decided I didn’t want to paint it all black as it was done in the video, I went with covering it all with white Gesso, then when dry I added Picked Raspberry and Peacock Feathers Distress Oxide Sprays. I also flicked a bit of watered down Tarnished Brass Distress Stain over it also. These are a couple of faves in Distress colors. I then added a couple of the TH Chipboard words and the word “COLLECTION” with Dymo tape for the Title of my Journal. To finish it off, a couple more words on the spine!  So… it has gone from a boring book cover to a work of art with a few simple steps and a bit of drying time!

For the inside of the covers, I used some Vintage paper and some burlap down the spine. I haven’t decided on how I will bind this one yet. On the left page, I made a double pocket to house some of the new tags I made and a quote with a Tim Holtz paper doll to finish it off.

Now I can start adding to it and decorating and making the signatures. I hope you might have a go at making your own collection journal as they are heaps fo fun to make!

Happy Journaling

Kerri x

“Using My Stash – July -Dec 2019”

Hi Friends,

I have just done a bit de-stash and sort through my craft stash and I have sold and also donated some of my supplies. If you are like me we collect stuff and after a while, it gets on top of me and I have to cull. I find I end up getting overwhelmed and not finding the joy in creating.

Soooo………..once again I am not buying anything new for my stash until after Xmas; only the essentials like glue!  As I am no longer scrapping or crafting the way I used to, I have enough Junk Journaling supplies to keep me going. I have collected some old books to make journals and use for ephemera etc.

I did really well for 18 months the last time I challenged myself to do this again and I know its time to stop spending and use what I have……..I want to keep my craft space clutter free and able to find what I have and I think over the last few weeks I have been managing to do it. I only have my pattern papers to attack and sort them out and my sorting and culling will be all done!!

As you can see above, I have collated my supplies a lot better using these cute bins I found at Kmart. These three have Adhesives, tools and Ink pads etc in them. They fit perfectly on my desk and I have labelled them also so I know what is in them. I have also used a few on my white storage units and they are great.

Next, to the first three, I had room for three more and these have Stamps, Washi tape and Stickers in them. It is great to see what is there and I used a few bits and bobs on the journal pages I created this evening.

Right in front of me, on my left where my computer is, I have these bins with Journal junque, pretty stuff and ephemera in them. I also have a lot more room to make a mess on and I am able to find what I need.

On the left, this unit is right behind me and the other one is on the other side of the lounge. I have been through all my stash and kept what is on the shelves. The small bins have been great to hold bits and pieces and keep everything together. If you are interested I have just listed an album full of goodies on the Craft De-Stash Group on FB 🙂

Thanks for stopping by and I would love to know how you store some of your goodies also 🙂

Happy Crafting

Kerri x