Toilet paper journal page

Hello stampers! Today I have a fun art journal page tutorial to share, with stamping and watercoloring with Scribble Sticks. It is a great technique to quickly get white stamped images on a colored background, without having to stamp and cut the images out.

When I saw the new We're Like Toilet Paper stamp set from Simon Says Stamp, I knew I had to use it in my art journal. The set comes from the new Let's Connect release. My boys love it too. Not long ago, no one would ever have thought that we would have toilet paper-themed stamps or would have understood their meaning. The toilet paper frenzy which appears to have been practically world-wide, will surely make it into the history books, and I definitely wanted it in an art journal. You can of course make a card instead, if you would rather like that. 

I worked in the 6x6 in Dina Wakley White Media Journal, which has heavy cotton-rag paper. You need to press a little harder than normally when stamping, since the paper is so textured. As you can see, I pressed too lightly on the sentiment stamp, but I was okay with that and filled some of the letters in with a pen. The sentiment comes from Stronger Together.

To color my page, I used Dina Wakley's Scribble Sticks, which are one of my favorite coloring tools. Scribble two of them directly onto the page. At this stage, you will think that the page looks terrible. I used both Scribble Sticks 1 and Scribble Sticks 2.

Use a paint brush and plenty of water to dissolve the color and turn it into watercolor. 

Pick up color directly from the Scribble Sticks and paint on the background, to darken the shades here and there. 

Add shadows by picking up the color with a paint brush from a black Scribble Stick. If your paper has dried, you can add clean water where you want the shadow first. Then the color with spread into the water creating a soft effect. As long as the stamped images are dry, no paint will spread there.

Add color to the spray bottle and add shading to the toilet rolls. This makes them look more dimensional and 'alive'.

It is very easy to splatter with the Scribble Sticks, just dip the tip into water and then flick a paint brush against the tip. I splattered orange, blue and black.

To get more orange onto the page, I stamped two more sentiments with Melon ink, from the Just Because Word Mix 2 set and from We're Like Toilet Paper.

Finally, I added back some of the lines which had been partially hidden by color, especially the legs and feet. I also scribbled a bit under the rolls to give them more of a surface to stand on.

I just love how full of expression and attitude these stamps are. Brilliant. My youngest wants to cut the page out of my journal, so that he can keep it. He likes to say how each of the rolls feel. This one is sad.

He says that this one is the champion. It has such a fun attitude.

My son says that the roll to the right is helping the one to the left.

And this one is cleaning frantically.

This one is happy and is waving with the very last piece of paper.

Here you can see the splatters better. I also glued a few sequins to the page.

Thank you so much for taking the time to visit my blog 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.

Summer Memories Layout

Hello friends! I hope you are well and getting lots of crafty time. I have some fun and easy stamping and resist techniques to share today, working for any type of project.

At the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Blog we have a special Summer Memories theme this week. It is a great time to document this unusual summer, which is bound to be the subject of history books in the future. During August the wonderful Anne Redfern is our guest. Don't miss the project she created for you today. 

This is a summer like no other. I thought we would probably be at home the whole summer, but we were very lucky to be able to go to the sea and stay at a cabin borrowed from a friend. It was great to get a way and the boys enjoyed the beach very much. Luckily, our favorite beach is never crowded, indeed we were almost alone on the beach most days, partly since it was a little chilly and windy most days. A good thing for once! 

The journaling is on the back of the layout.

I used Tim Holtz Motif cardstock for my base. It is a very cool cardstock with a pattern that will resist ink, mists and more. The pad contains white and kraft cardstock with different patterns. I stamped the kraft cardstock with stamps from Tim's Mini Glitch and Grunged sets and embossed with white powder and Sea Mixed Media powder.

Ink the edges so that the numbers in the background are more visible.

Mist the white Motif cardstock with Tumbled Glass and Mermaid Lagoon.

I colored three Theories Quote Chips with Distress Ink.

The SSS Large Outline Happy from the brand new Let's Connect release was die cut from white and ocean blue glimmery cardstock. These were left-over from one of the projects that I made for the Let's Connect blog hop. You can find that tutorial here.

This sentiment comes from Paper Artsy's The Magic and Wonder Edition set by Alison Bomber. It was perfect for my page. 

Here's a close-up of the resist effect on the white Motif cardstock. I also used some Mummy Cloth.

We saw a lot of starfish and I needed some for the layout. They were stamped with the SSS Tumbling Shells background stamp, cut out and colored with Prismacolor pencils.

I also used some rub-on and sticker sentiments. 

The small starfish and seashells were stamped with the SSS Tentacuddle set. The circle stamp here isn't meant to have the circle in the center, but I accidentally pressed to hard and thought it was a cool look, so I repeated the same mistake on the other circles too.

I hope you will join us this week in our Summer Memories challenge. You have a chance to win a $25 gift voucher to get some new creative products from Simon Says Stamp. You have until next Monday 8am Ohio time. 1pm UK time, 2 pm CET to join in.

Don't forget to follow Simon Says Stamp on Instagram, they post great stuff daily. 

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

Don't miss our month long Kids Summer Vacation Challenge over on the Wednesday Challenge Blog. The theme is Anything Goes With Sparkle And/Or Shine. Please CLICK HERE for more details.

Thank you so much for taking the time to visit my blog 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.

SSS Let's Connect Blog Hop

Hello friends! I am so happy to take part in the Simon Says Stamp blog hop for the new Let's Connect collection. You should have come here from the very creative Daniel West.

Let's Connect is full of beautiful stamps, dies, stencils, sequins and printed products. They are very versatile and can be used for many occasions. You can see the full release here.  If you use the code GLUE you will get a Gina K Designs Dot Runner with your order. This promotion will expire on 8/9 at 11:59 pm EDT.

I made an art journal page and a tag for the hop, with techniques combining inks and colored pencils. The techniques work on any kind of project.

My first project is an art journal page, but you can easily turn it into a card. I used the Spring Flowers background together with the Large Outline Happy. Lately, I have had fun combining Distress Inks with colored pencils, which is lots of fun and you can do it in many ways. I worked on a burlap page in Dina Wakley's Blue Edition Media Journal.

These are the products from Let's Connect that I will be using today: Spring Flowers Background, Large Outline Happy, Poppy Stem and Sunny Smiles. I am very happy to have three of my own designs in the Let's Connect release. I designed one of the stamp sets - Anna's Flowers - and two of the background stamps - Crackle Background and Reverse Crackle Background. It is so exciting to see other stampers creations with my stamps. The stamps are on their way here and I am looking forward to stamping with them. I happen to love crackle backgrounds. They can be used for entire backgrounds or just to add a little texture to something. Or how about crackled letters or die cuts?

I smeared Speckled Egg, Antique Linen and a little Vintage Photo on a non-stick craft sheet, misted with water and pressed watercolor paper into the ink. Let dry and repeat. After that I did the same thing, but with just a little Speckled Egg Distress Oxide ink, giving spots of chalky blue. 

Stamp the Spring Flowers background with dark brown ink on the dry background.

I used Prismacolor pencils to color the flowers. Pick out shades of blue and turquoise. Start with something looking a bit like this, applying darker shades towards the inside of the petals. 

Add a darker blue and then blend them together with a white pencil. Let some of the background show through. I worked quite fast and didn't worry too much about the details. Some of the stamped lines with disappear, but that just adds to the look. 

Continue until you have colored the whole background. If you want to you can stamp with a light ink, such as Pumice Stone or Antique Linen and do no-line coloring instead.

Splatter with a little White Gloss Acrylic Spray. Unscrew the cap and tap the end of the spritzer to create splatters.

Die cut the Large Outline Happy from White Diamond and Blue Ocean glimmery cardstock. I really like word dies since they are so versatile and useful.

Assemble the title and glue to the background. I completed it with two Clippings Stickers. There is also a piece of Tim Holtz Design Tape. The glimmery cardstock is very pretty. It is hard to see the glimmer on this photo.

Distress the edges and mat on another piece of watercolor paper. Stitch around it with a sewing machine. As you can see, I worked quickly when coloring, aiming for a lose look.

Stamp one of the butterflies from the Thoughtful Flowers set, from the Send Happiness release, on a scrap piece of inky paper. Add just a little color with a blue pencil. I also added more design tape and sentiments to the burlap.

And the summer sun sure shines today!

My second project is a bright tag, using the Poppy Stem die and the Sunny Smiles stencil set. I used lots of ink and color on this one. We had a very warm day yesterday when I created this, so the weather influenced my projects, a cooler blue for the morning, and this warm tag for the afternoon when it was starting to get way too warm in my studio.

Start by die cutting three Poppy Stems from heavystock paper.

Ink them with Distress Ink using an ink-blending tool.

Add color and details with colored pencils. The Distress Ink gives you a base color and with the pencils, you can add shading and details.

Finally, I added some details with a black pen and highlights with a white gel pen.

Ink a tag with yellow and a little green.

Use the large circle stencil from Sunny Smiles and ink with Fossilized Amber and Spiced Marmalade.

Use the line circle stencil and Spiced Marmalade to add the rays. Die cut the green area with the SSS Stitching Panel and remove some, but not all of the dots.

Stamp grass and sentiment from Thoughtful Flowers.

Use the stencil with the two dots from Sunny Smiles together with white acrylic paint to add dots to the background. 

When the paint is dry, repeat with Moon Dust Stickles, creating glittery dots. Use a palette knife to apply the glitter glue.

The sun is a great place for a sentiment, or you could add the smiley face which is a part of the Sunny Smiles stencil set.

The white paint makes the glitter dots a little brighter and also gives an outline.

If you want a less scribbly look to your flowers, just skip the part with the white and black pens. 

Bend the stem a little to make the flower face another way.

I like the texture from the Stitching Panel. The sentiment comes from one of SSS Sentiment Strips 4.

There are of course prizes to be won, and at each stop on the hop SSS is giving away a $25 coupon, randomly drawn from those who leave a comment. The winners will be posted post on the Simon Says Stamp store blog on Wednesday, the 12th of August.

Your next stop on the hop is my friend Karin Åkesdotter and she will show you wonderful card inspiration.

Here are all the stops along the hop:

Simon Says Stamp Blog

Laura Bassen

Debby Hughes

Amanda Korotkova

Caly Person

Heather Hoffman

Yoonsun Hur

Laurie Willison

Bobbi Lemanski

Betty Wright

Lin Brandyberry

Preeti Chandran

Dana Joy

Daniel West

Anna-Karin Evaldsson (you are here)

Karin Åkesdotter

For more Let's Connect inspiration, remember to check out the Let's Connect gallery at SSS, and if you make something with products from the range, it is fun if you post it in the gallery too. There are galleries for all releases, and for the card kits, full of inspiration. Part one of the Let's Connect blog hop was yesterday, so don't miss all the inspiration there.

Thank you so much for taking the time to visit my blog 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.

* I added the three products I designed to the list too.