Vintage Floral Folio Notebook

Hello friends! I hope you had a good weekend! The boys are doing a lot of beading at the moment: Transformers, Minecraft and Pokemon themed, among others. 

It is Monday and we have a new theme for you at the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Blog, this week it is 'Not a Card'. Lots of option! Don't miss the beautiful project by our April guest designer Autumn Clark.

I made a notebook/sketchbook/journal this week, using some beautiful papers. My first thought when I got Tim Holtz Backdrops Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 were that many of the papers would make great journal covers, which is also a perfect way to use those pretty papers that you hardly want to cover up with anything. I used Eileen Hull's Folio Journal die to die cut the base for my book.

Die cut two covers with the Folio Journal from Sizzix Little Sizzles Mat Board. This is an XL die so you need the XL cutting pads, but it fits perfectly in an ordinary Big Shot. The journal can have fold in parts, but for this project I decided not to use them, so I only die cut the first part of the covers. You can see a little bit of the folding part on the cover to the left. I cut that off later. 

You can also make this journal in different thicknesses, from a very thick spine to a thinner one. I wanted something in between and cut off one of the three spine pieces on each cover.

I used gorgeous floral paper from Tim's Backdrops Vol. 2. Adhere with Matte Medium and place under a heavy book.

For the inside, I used another paper from Backdrops Vol. 2.

Glue the two spine pieces together as shown here.

The best thing with making your own sketchbooks or journals is that you can use your favorite papers. I used a mix of sketchbook and watercolor paper here and made two signatures. Stitch down the center, staple or just fold.

I die cut a piece of pink paper from Backdrops Vol. 1 for the spine and glued it in place.

I added an extra hole as shown here with my Crop-A-Dile.

Bind with a piece of elastic string. This is what it looks like on the outside of the spine. I used an old button to tie the strings, through the hole that I punched.

On the inside of the spine, the binding looks like this.

Slip the signatures under the elastic bands and your journal is ready. Later you can also exchange the signatures.

I tied the strings again to form a closure for the book and tied two beads to the ends.

The title was die cut from Backdrops Vol. 1 papers with Simon Says Stamp Beautiful die.

To finish the journal I used a Tim Holtz Quote Flair Button and a metallic sticker.

The back was left plain, but you could add embellishments here too. I almost never do, I like the back of a sketchbook or journal to be flat.

The Folio Journal makes for a book with a great size and I like that you can easily customize how thick you want it to be, from a really chunky book to a thin book.

I hope you enjoyed this post and that it inspired you to make some journals or sketchbooks. They are also wonderful gifts. For more examples using the Folio Journal die check out my Foiled Folio and Floral Folio. 

I hope you will join us this week in our Not a Card challenge. You have a chance to win a $25 gift voucher to do some fun shopping at Simon Says Stamp. You have until Monday 8am Ohio time. 1pm UK time, 2 pm CET to join in.

Do you use Instagram? If so please add #sssmchallenge so we can see your entries there too.

Thank you so much for taking the time to stop by here today! 

Happy crafting!

Anna-Karin

Supplies:

* Please note: the links are affiliate links, for which I receive a small percentage of sales generated by the link, at no extra cost to you.

Bird Friends Art Journal Page

Hello stampers! I hope you are well and that you have had a beautiful Easter. The Easter bunny hid eggs twice in the forest, which was very popular. We also has sunny weather, but now it is snowing.

We have a Layer It theme at the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Blog this week. I hope you will join us! Since it is the first Monday of a new month, the team is showcasing products by a specific designer and this week it is Tim Holtz. You can find Tim's fantastic range of products here. You don't have to use Tim's products to join, but it is always fun if you do.

We also have a new guest designer and during April the wonderful Autumn Clark will be joining us. I hope you will stop by her beautiful blog Sew Paper Paint and see what she has created for you.

I made an art journal page this week, creating layers with paint, ink, stamping, and stenciling. Since I don't want to add too much bulk to my art journals, I often create layers which are fairly flat, but still look layered. It is also lots of fun to build up a background like this. The first to sentiments comes from Simon Says Stamp So Far So Good. I thought it looked like the birds were chatting to each other.

I started with a page in my Small Creative Flip Journal, which had already been coated with gesso. I had also painted leftover paints on the page after a previous project.

Stamp the page with the alphabet background stamp from Tim's Schooldesk set. 

Continue with two of the stamps from the Ultimate Grunge set. I used Simon Says Stamp High Dive ink here.

Mix a little Squeezed Lemonade into Distress Texture Paste and apply through the Gradient Dot stencil using a palette knife. 

Apply a little Distress Oxide ink to the background with a blending brush.

Draw a border with a Tombow Marker and splatter some white paint on the background.

I wanted even more texture an stamped the Simon Says Stamp Crackle Background on the background with two shades of Distress Oxide ink.

Die cut Tim's Feathered Friends from heavystock cardstock.

I inked my birds to resemble a blue tit and a great tit, which are favorite birds in our house.

Add more color with Distress Oxide ink, but just a little. I used blending brushes to get additional texture.

Stamp with the Crackle Background to get a feathered look.

When I was almost finished, I decided to add just a little bit of black stamping too, using the date stamp from Ultimate Grunge and one of the stamps from the Mini Glitch set.

You can add color to some of the dots, for variation.

Here's the blue tit. The combination of the transparent Distress Ink and just a little opaque Distress Oxide ink gives an interesting look. It is like the oxide ink shines.

I forgot to add a white dot to the eye of the great tit and noticed it when taking the photos. I have done that now. It makes the eye look more alive. The branch was die cut with Simon Says Stamp Detailed Leaf Cluster from Simon Says Stamp Kraft Woodgrain cardstock and inked slightly.

Ink, paint, stamping and stenciling adds layers and depth, without adding bulk.

These sentiments are from Tim's Tiny Text stamp set. I can almost always find a sentiment that fits on that set.

Here you can also see some of the subtle texture from the oxide ink, below the leaf to the left.

I hope you will join us this week in our Layer It challenge. You have a chance to win a $25 gift voucher to do some fun shopping at Simon Says Stamp. You have until Monday 8am Ohio time. 1pm UK time, 2 pm CET to join in.

Do you use Instagram? If so please add #sssmchallenge so we can see your entries there too.

Thank you so much for taking the time to stop by here today! 

Happy crafting!

Anna-Karin

Supplies:

* Please note: the links are affiliate links, for which I receive a small percentage of sales generated by the link, at no extra cost to you.

Foil and flowers tag

Hi friends! It is the last day of this month and I have a tutorial with a whole bunch of fun technique to share with you. I made a mixed media background with dies, acrylic paint, pencils and foil.

This is a pretty busy tag with lots of things going on. It also sparkles and shines, making it a challenge to photograph. The shiny background contrasts nicely with the muted colors on the flowers.You can also pick just one of the techniques in this tutorial to use on a project. 

Please note: this post has are affiliate links, for which I receive a small percentage of sales generated by the link, at no extra cost to you.

Start by die cutting Tim Holtz Bubbling from heavystock cardstock and adhere it to a tag with matte medium. When dry, add a layer of gesso on top.

Paint with Distress Paint and mist heavily with water.

Add shading inside the circles with a brown colored pencil. You could leave the background like this, but I felt like doing some foiling. For another example using the Bubbling die, check out my Funky Forest.

Apply a glue stick to the raised parts of the design. It doesn't need to get everywhere. Leave for about a minute so that the glue gets tacky.

Place a sheet of Therm O Web Bronze foil on top, shiny side up. Run through a Big Shot or another die cut machine, using the same settings that you would use for wafer-thin dies. You can also rub the design with a bone folder.

Remove the foil and you get this distressed looking foiled surface. It is pretty cool. 

I added some Nebula Stickles to the open circles. It has tiny star sequins inside.

Die cut flowers from Tim Holtz Wildflower Stems 3 from Journal Cards. This gives an interesting background to add color to.

Color the die cuts with colored pencils. I used Faber-Castell Polychromos. 

The background paper still shows through after you color the flowers. 

Use a white pencil to blend out the colors.

I also glued some sequins to the background. Here you can see the textured effect of the foil.

The shine of the foil is hard to photograph, but here you can see it better. 

Adding foil with this technique gives a nice textured effect to the foil.

The sentiments were stamped on a journal card, using Tim's Tiny Text set.

The third sentiment was used as a border at the bottom of the tag.

Arrange the flowers on the background and tie a piece of twine around them. The 'ribbon' at the top is a folded over piece of design tape.

Thank you so much for taking the time to stop by here today! I will see you again tomorrow.

Happy crafting!

Anna-Karin

Supplies:

* Please note: the links are affiliate links, for which I receive a small percentage of sales generated by the link, at no extra cost to you.