Mist, ink and splatters tutorial

Hello friends! We are home after having had a wonderful time visiting my family. We spent time in a cabin at the sea, built sand castles, collected shells, went for walks, did a lot of different outings, some watercolor painting, took a ton of photos, went to a combined zoo/amusement/water park, went to one big and one small island, and swam in lakes and in the sea. The weather was warm (too warm some days) and sunny the whole time, and yesterday we had our first rainy day since the beginning of May. I took a lovely walk in the rain.

This week at the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Blog we have a Sprinkles and Splatters theme. I hope you can join us and don't forget to check out the beautiful project by our August guest designer Anne Redfern.

The theme made me think of the sea, water and splatters and I also used different splatters on the page. I like having some pages in my art journals that are clearly seasonal, and when looking through a journal it makes me remember the time and season when I made the page. So here is a super summery page. We didn't see any palm trees on this holiday, but I thought it was fun to use those stamps any way, symbolising a relaxing time at the beach. I used stamps and dies from Simon Says Stamp Friendly Frolic and Good Vibes releases.

On a piece of watercolor paper, white emboss the background scenic stamp from the Surf's Up set. I cut the paper so that it would fit into my Small Creative Journal, but you can of course use a bigger or smaller paper, or make a card instead. 

Use the coordinating Surf's Up die set to die cut a circle from SSS Masking Paper. Also, die cut the word 'happy' from the masking paper. Adhere to the watercolor paper. I smeared a little Distress Micro Glaze around the circle.

Mist the page with Distress Spray Stain. I wanted a sandy look at the bottom and water/sky for the top. Mist quite far above the paper to create a splattered look.

Remove the masks. I particularly like the look of the word.

Stamp images from Surf's Up on watercolor paper. All except the towel were stamped with black ink.

Smear Distress Inks on a craft sheet, mist with water and pick up with a paint brush. Watercolor the images. Die cut three clouds from SSS White Diamond glimmery cardstock. Die cut the colored images with the coordinating dies.

Smear more Distress Ink on the craft sheet and watercolor the scenic background. The wavy parts in the foreground can be both water and beach, and the half circle that I turned into a big sun, can also be a tropical island.

I have a thing for small sentiment stamps and these from the Tabbed Sentiments set are great and so versatile. They coordinate with the Simple Tabs die set, but quite a few also fit perfectly on the little clouds.

Splatter some white paint on the background - do this before stamping the background with sentiments - but because I forgot, I simply covered up the words with pieces of paper to avoid splattering paint on them.

Die cutting words or shapes from masking paper is a fun technique which gives a great result. You can also use it with ink or paint.

The cloud die is also from the Surf's Up set. Clouds are a fun element to add to scenes.

I am seeing lots of future uses for this scenic background, reaching beyond seascapes and beach scenes. Stamp it with black ink for a different look.

You can see the effect of the Distress Micro Glaze that I smeared around the circle here. I could have added a bit more. I really like this sentiment stamp.

Let the inks mix and blend into each other when watercoloring and leave some areas white for highlights.

The buckets are so cute. Our favorite beach has perfect sand castle building sand.

I forgot to color the beak of these funny little birds.

Another great sentiment from the Tabbed Sentiments set.

I hope you will join us this week in our Sprinkles and Splatters 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 for visiting 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.

Tape It Up Journal Page

Hi all! I hope you are all well!! We have had a fun week of summer activities. We are trying to swim in as many lakes as possible in the vicinty. It's a lot of fun and every lake has its own special character.

This week at the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Blog we have a Tape It Up theme and since it is the first Monday of a new month, the team is showcasing the products by a specific company / designer. The turn has come to Jane Davenport who has a fabulous range of mixed media products. You don't have to use Jane's products to join, but it is always fun if you do. 

Our August guest designer is the wonderful Anne Redfern. Her blog is full of creative inspiration, and I hope you will stop by there.

I made a playful and kind off unplanned journal page this week, focusing on Jane's gorgeous washi tape. I really like the colors, watercolor look, and words on the tape. The flowers and scribbles were drawn with her Inkredible pen. The page was done in my Jane Davenport 9 x 6 Mixed Media Canvas Cover Journal, which has watercolor pages.

For the background I used Paper Artsy's Infusions. Mist the page with water, sprinkle on a little bit of infusions and mist again to blend more.

I selected a mix of Strips and Phrases Washi and Strips and Phrases Journal Mixed Media tapes, with different colors, faces and words.

I wasn't quite sure what to do next and started to doodle flowers and some words with Jane's pretty Inkredible pen and teal ink. You can use different colored ink cartridges in the pen. The doodling and handwritten words fitted well with the 'put you into your art' sentiment on one of the tape pieces.

More pretty tapes and messy doodles. 

It is fun to mix and tear pieces of the tapes and arrange on a page, and very quick too.

The dandelion hair of this woman is stunning and such a fun idea.

I hope you will join us this week in our Tape It Up 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 for taking the time to stop by 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.

Blue Textured Wrapped Journal Tutorial

Hi all! Today I have a Sizzix tutorial which I can finally share with you. It was a birthday gift to my sister, so I had to wait for her birthday before sharing it.

I made a wrapped journal with lots of texture and some pretty flowers, using Eileen Hull's Book Club Chapter 2 collection. The journal can easily be customized to fit any theme. The wrapped journal is a nice and chunky size (4.7 x 5.1 in folded), and perfect as a gift.

Start by die cutting the Wrapped Journal from mat board, placing the Floral Cutouts to the far right on the Wrapped Journal die, where there is a very useful space for Movers & Shapers dies. This step cuts a pretty flower border, in just one go. Use this sandwich: Extended Cutting Pad, die facing up, mat board, second Extended Cutting Pad. This is an XL die, but fits perfectly in the ordinary Big Shot or Vagabond.

The Scoreboards dies cut and score the mat board. Carefully, fold slightly along the score lines, to prepare the mat board.

I wanted to create almost the look of leather and decided to use tissue paper. Stamp a piece of Tim Holtz Plain Collage Paper with his Halftone stamp. Make the paper slightly longer than the journal.

Crumble the tissue paper up.

Adhere to the mat board with Matte Medium - one layer below and one above. Make sure to add crinkles to the tissue paper. If you want less texture, adhere it flat instead. Use a needle tool to remove the tissue from the flowers and holes.

Paint with Distress Paint. I used three shades of blue/turqouise.

When the paint is dry, dry brush a little Ground Espresso on the cover, to increase the texture and give it a worn look.

Dry brush silver paint, to make the cover shine.

The Flowers & Leaves Journaling Cards die set die is so versatile and gives you many gorgeous flower and leaves in just one go. I only used the flower one. I die cut a whole bunch, from: vellum, cream paper, sticky-back canvas and silver Deco Sheet. Adhere the latter two to paper before die cutting.

Ink the flowers with Distress Inks.

Mist them with Wendy Vecchi Pearl Mica Spray for gorgeous shine.

Use the Sizzix Paper Sculpting kit to shape the flowers. This gives them life.



Layer the flowers and glue them together, or use a brad. I have leftover flowers for future projects too.

The wrapped journal can be bound in different ways. I used an elastic string.

For the inside pages, I used a whole bunch of patterned papers, mainly by Prima, mixing neutral and more patterend papers. Cut papers for the inserts about 7.7 x 4.7 in (19.5 x 12 cm) and fold in half.  Arrange into four signatures. The amount of papers in each signature depends on the thickness of your paper. I used five sheets and stitched down the centers. You can also leave them lose or use stapels. 

Tuck the signatures under the elastic cords. It is easy to remove and change the order of the signatures for the recipient.

I tied a piece of lace around the journal as a closure and glued it to the spine. I also tied two blue beads to the elastic cords.

I added a piece of silver Deco Sheet under the flowers.

Glue the dimensional flowers to the cover. I like the mix of materials in the flowers.

I used a die cut word from Eileen's Floral Arch and Words set, as a title for the journal.

The Wrapped Journal is very chunky and feels nice to the touch. You can fold the top flaps both ways, but since I wanted the die cut flower border to show, this was the best way for this journal. If you have a look at my first wrapped journal, you'll see that I folded the cover the other way around there.

The brown and silver dry brushing adds a nice texture to the cover.

You can also embellish the back, but I decided to keep it plain.

In my first wrapped journal, I used only cream papers, but this one was meant for both photos, ephemera and notes, and I thought patterned papers would be fun.

Here's a look at the journal from the top.

I used a mix of papers, including some baby themed papers, since I was planning that my sister would use the journal to collect photos and memories for her baby.

Thank you so much for looking at this post and I hope it inspired you to make some journals.

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.