Ocean Art Journal Page Tutorial

Hello stampers! Summer is at its prettiest, with so many flowers and shades of green. Last week we had a pretty end of the year ceremony at school and the kids are now enjoying their summer holiday.

This week at the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Blog we have a Transport It challenge. Lots of options for this one, as you will also see in the design team inspiration. And, as always, don't miss to check out the project by our June guest designer Jess, with her blog Two Mad Dahlias. 

I was in the mood for a calm art journal page, and made an ocean-themed one, with a little ship being on its way to someplace new. Since, I wanted to create the feeling of a lot of open space, and many possibilities, I worked on a double spread, in my Dina Wakley Media Journal, and left quite a lot of white (calm) space. The stamps all come from the Simon Says Stamp Your Light stamp set, from the new Rest and Refresh collection. 

Working on one of the cotton-rag pages, I first drew a line for the horizon. To create interesting texture, I splattered and drew on Distress Resist Spray with a palette knife, instead of misting it directly from the bottle. It makes it possible to create other patterns and effects than just by misting.

I colored the page with Dina Wakley Scribble Sticks 1 and Scribble Sticks 2 sets, starting with the areas where the sun would reflect in the water. Apply color to the page and dissolve with clean water and a paint brush.

The I stamped the little ship with permanent ink.

Continue in the same way, coloring with the Scribble Sticks. For the light sky, I picked up the pigment directly from the crayons, and then dipped the paint brush in water again.

Color the ship with a fine paint brush. When dry, erase the horizon line.

You can add more details to the ship, and shadows to the sails, but I wanted to keep things simple, and just added a little bit of a shadow underneath the ship.

The Your Light stamp set is fantastic, and has many images and details, and also lovely sentiments.

I always enjoy bird stamps. They were stamped with Faded Jeans Distress Ink, and lightly misted with water before stamping.

Here's another of the sentiments from the Your Light set.

I also stamped a few fish in the water, for a small detail. Here you can see the cool effect of the Distress Resist Spray.

And another close-up of the resist effect. I just love how random it it. 

I hope you will join us this week in our Transport It challenge. As always, you have a chance to win a $50 gift voucher to do some fun shopping at 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.

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.

Poppy Art Journal Page

Hello crafters! I hope you had a fun weekend! We had beautiful summer weather and spent a lot of time outdoors, but also went to the movies one day, since it was almost too warm outside.

This week at the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Blog we have a Vacation theme. Perfect for the beginning of June. Don't miss the gorgeous project by our June guest designer Jess, with her blog Two Mad Dahlias. 

I was inspired by a group of poppies that I can see from my window. That first glimt of red among all the shades of green, is one of the signs of the start of summer. I made an art journal page, and also added some index photos from last summer, to illustrate the theme, and since I like to add photos to my art journals sometimes. The stamp in the frame comes from the SSS Buttercup set, and the one above it from Poppy Stamps Flower Garden set.

Here are the poppies. There are even more of them today.

I used the pretty Poppy Stamps Garden Poppy Sidekick Frame and Stencil. Start by die cutting the frame from watercolor paper.

Dip a paint brush in water and pick the pigment up directly from the tip of a Sedona Scribble Stick. If the color is too strong, dip in the water again, and dab off on a paper towel. Add the darker shade Ruby afterwords.

Continue in the same way with Olive and Lime, to color the frame and leaves.

When dry, splatter a tiny bit of black on the frame, by dipping the Scribble Stick in water and flicking a paint brush against the tip.

I used the coordinating stencil, that comes with the die, directly on a cotton-rag page in my Dina Wakley Media Journal. Ink the frame with Hickory Smoke ink.

When you glue the frame on top of the inked background, there will be a small grey shadow under the poppies, giving dimension to the page.

Here's another look at the poppy frame. I like the faux-stitching impressed into the frame a lot.

I wanted to leave quite a bit of white space on this page, and didn't add many embellishments. Small stamps from the SSS sets were stamped here and there.

This stamp comes from one of my favorite sets, the SSS Uplifting Thoughts.

I also stamped the background with the SSS You Matter stamp, since it fitted well, and since it was already on my desk.

I hope you will join us this week in our Vacation challenge. As always, you have a chance to win a $50 gift voucher to do some fun shopping at 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.

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.

Heat Embossed Journal

Hello friends! The sun is shining and it is a beautiful day. I have an Eileen Hull Inspiration Team tutorial to share with you, made with her new dies, inks and embossing powders. 

I made a notebook journal, as a gift to a friend. The journal is completely covered in embossing powder, so it has a glass-like finish. It is very quick and easy to do. Just be very careful when using a heat gun so that you don't burn yourself. Never touch melted embossing powder until it is completely cool.

Start by die cutting the notebook from mat board. Eileen's new Blends 2 inks by Clearsnap are so fun to use. They come in very handy bottles, which opens up for a whole range of fun techniques. You can paint, splatter, ink with a sponge, and so many other things. I placed two puddles on my craft sheet and applied them to the mat board with a Colorbox Stylus Tool, with an oval sponge. If you have never used the Stylus too before, it is a really awesome inking tool and I have used it for many years, especially for my scenic stamping, since it is great for detailed work. But it is also perfect for larger surfaces, and ergonomic too. You can easily change the sponges, and there is place for a sponge on each side of the tool.

Continue sponging to create an ombre effect.

The inks stay wet for a while so you can easily emboss on top of them. I sprinkled some Polished Silver Molten Dimensions and Glistening Glass Molten Dimensions powders on top and then melted. I love the names of these new embossing powders.

My favorite of the new Blends 2 inks might be the clear ink. Clear ink in a bottle! Imagine the possibilities. I used clear inks to add more powder, once the base layer of ink had dried. You can leave the background like this, and it has a great texture look and feel to it, since the Molten Dimensions powders are chunky.

I was having such fun with the embossing powders, so I decided to cover the entire surface with clear powder. Just apply the clear ink with a sponge and coat with powder. Again, do not touch the melted powder until is is completely cool.

On the edges and the spine, I applied more clear ink and sprinkled with Black Magic Molten Dimensions powder.

You can bind the journals in different ways. Here I punched two holes at the top and bottom and on third way down. 

Bind it with a piece of elastic, as shown here.

I like to tie the string through a button at the spine and then tie it again at the ends to create a closure mechanism.

Cut papers 6.6 x 4.7 in (12 x 17 cm), fold and score and arrange into signatures of about 6-7 papers, depending on the thickness of the paper. The best thing with making your own journals, is that you can use your favorite papers. Stitch down the center and keep in place with the elastics.

The title was die cut with one of the Journaling Words dies, from kraft and black paper.

Glue the title to the cover with matte medium.

Here you can see the glossy effect of the cover. If you want it completely smooth, you can add another layer of clear powder, but I liked the slightly textured look.

The book was embellished with Prima's Meadows Pretty Pale flowers.

These journals are such fun to make, and they make great gifts.

The finished journal is 4 x 5 in. For more notebook inspiration, check out my Watercolor Meadow Notebook.

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.

Other supplies:

Clearsnap Eileen Hull: Blends2 ink: Beach, Bay, and Clear