Eileen Hull HeARTfelt Vintage Mixed Media Journal

I'm so excited to be sharing this project today. The lovely Eileen Hull asked me if I would like to make a journal using her new die - Me? Journals? - of course I would. In fact I've made two but let me share the first one with you. The inspiration for this came whilst planning a trip to Boston, Massachusetts, this is going to be my travel journal whilst I am over there. I can't wait.

Her Creative Team have been sharing their fantastic designs this month and I'm very happy to be sharing mine alongside them. THIS is a link to one of Eileen's posts where she has gathered some of them together.

Use these steps to create both the front and back covers.

1. Using a palette knife scrape white gesso across both of the covers.

2. Roughly plan where your collages will go, mix ephemera and snippets of left over scrapbook papers to achieve the layered look and then use a stencil to add some texture in the blank spaces.

3. Whilst that is drying mix some fluid acrylics with water to make watery washes - I love using the DecoArt media range as the colour pigment is amazing and goes such a long way, sometimes I only need a pin prick size of paint to create a wash. Try a mixing grid if you want to keep a record of the colours you used. It is impossible to tell you the amounts I added but I will try drop by drop until I get the desired tones and shades.

4. For the next step drip the watery paint, spritz with water and dry each layer until you are happy with the background.

5. Add some texture stamping - use a sponge with the paint to dab onto the stamp for some images and use coffee archival ink for others.

6. Use distress crayons or similar to add more colour and emphasise the stencilled words. Then using the black side of some blending foam gently rub a couple of layers of white gesso over the stencilling to highlight the words again.

7. Use the DecoArt Vintage Decou-page to adhere the chosen patterned papers and ephemera making a collage background as the base for the photo on your front cover and make a smaller one on the back. Seal the papers and the covers by covering the surface with the same antique glue. It dries very quickly.

8. Mix some white gesso with water to make a watery wash and dabble some of it over the collage to unify it and create a lighter background for the image to sit on.

9. Adhere the images and the quote chip. This is going to be a working journal/album so keep the embellishments fairly flat and few of them, you won’t want them getting knocked off as you and other people handle it.

10. Buy Midori inserts or make your own for the inside pages. I used a mix of both and made my own kraft covers for the ones I made. These are 11 cms wide and 21 cms long. Add some pockets, tabs and labels to get you started and ready to take your journal away with you and fill with all your wonderful experiences so that this becomes packed with amazing memories.

Three notebooks, the first is a Midori look alike bought online, the second is handmade for keeping ephemera collected on my trip and the third is also handmade with plain papers given a bit of decoration on which to put photographs.

Here are the first pages before I start the journal.

Section 1 the diary started and ready to be filled in .....

Section 2 clippings/ephemera pages ready to be used.

Section 3 photographs - I found an old till roll and just tore it up and added some tissue tape and paper snippets.

Inside the covers of the journal itself I made pockets to keep bits and pieces in .....

.... I also created a layer that stretches right across the journal to fit over the top of the pockets, keeping to the same style.

Here is that layer with the flaps extended.

Wow well done if you've managed to stay with me for such a long post, but there was so much to document.

If you are as excited as me about the new die coming out it's great to say it is being shipped in America and we are awaiting deliveries here in the UK.  Country View Crafts have it on their website for pre-order and are expecting their delivery later this month and it's such an excellent price too.

I must also give you a heads up that I will be using the die when teaching my next workshop for Country View Crafts.

Thanks so much for stopping by today. I hope you have been enjoying a wonderful easter weekend.

hugs Brenda xxx


Thank you Susi for the nudge - I have added this to Art Journal Journey and their Magical Mystery Tour.

Happy Easter

Just popping in today to wish you all a 

HAPPY EASTER

and to share some photos of my little easter display I like to do each year for the dining room.

I love the images we collect for this time of the year and the gorgeous soft palette of colours.

Don't you love the hare, I think he is just magnificent and did you catch my Craft Stamper make? What about the cute duck with his folded paper hat and Mrs Bird with her fabulous blue hat and basket of eggs.

For Christians like myself this is another very special time of year in the calendar.

A man who was completely innocent, offered himself as a sacrifice for the good of others, including his enemies, and became the ransom of the world. It was a perfect act. 

Mahatma Gandhi

Enjoy the weekend whatever you have planned.

Thanks for stopping by.

hugs Brenda xxx

Spring Easter card with oxides

I'm happy to be over at the Country View projects blog with an Easter card today and if you'd like to pop over you will find all the details and more photos of the process steps to see how it all came together.

I have listed the products so you can see what I used.

Have a great week and thanks for stopping by.

hugs Brenda xxx

Tim Holtz® - Distress Oxide Ink Pad - Broken China Ranger - Tim Holtz® - Distress Oxide Ink Pad - Iced Spruce Broken China Distress Ink Tim Holtz® Distress Ink Pad - Hickory Smoke Tim Holtz distress ink pad - Ground Espresso Tim Holtz Distress ink pad - Pumice Stone Tim Holtz Distress ink - Scattered straw Tim Holtz Stamps - Papillon Tim Holtz Stampers Anonymous - Bird feather Archival ink pad - Coffee Ranger Archival ink pad - Jet black Sizzix Thinlits Die Set 7PK - Stitched Ovals By Tim Holtz Sizzix Thinlits Die Set 21PK - Small Tattered Florals By Tim Holtz Tim Holtz stamps - Hashtags American seam binding - White

InLinkz.com

Canvas Board - Industrial - DecoArt Media Team

I am sharing a small DecoArt Mixed Media Team project with you today that went live on their blog in February. I have added the whole tutorial because I like to keep my creations all in one place.

Take a canvas board which is 5 x 7 ins in size.

Take a palette knife and mix DecoArt modeling paste and white gesso together in about a 50:50 mix and then randomly and thinly spread it over the surface leaving some of the canvas board exposed and leave it to dry.

Add some textured stencilling using modeling paste.

One of my favourite ways of laying down colour is to mix watery washes and adding a little on the canvas, spritzing with water, letting it drip and then drying it before adding another layer and repeating the process until you are happy with it.

I chose two colours that look good together (phthalo turquoise and raw sienna) and would blend to create tonal contrasting colours. As well as spritzing and drying I also rubbed some of the colours around the edge of the canvas with my finger.

I searched out some metal and wood pieces to put together for a 3D collage and adhered them with decoart crackle paint which gave me some texture around the pieces when it dried. I didn't risk the large bulb staying in place without extra help so I glued that piece on with matte medium.

Next came a careful coat of black gesso to unify all the pieces and give me a surface to take the acrylic paints.

I also dry brushed everything with the most tiniest amount of white gesso to give me some contrasts and highlights .....

.... and began adding patina colours starting with the same colours I had used on the background.
Firstly the phthalo turquoise ......

.... I dabbed and spritzed some of the colours into the background as well to build up the conformity of the same colours - here I used the raw sienna.

I also mixed the two with some titan buff to get that lovely patina green colour.

Now to get more of the industrial feel by adding 'rust' with burnt sienna and transparent red iron oxide.

Transparent yellow iron oxide ....

.... and quinacridone gold.

Finish off with a coffee archival ink pad rubbed extremely lightly over the stenciled areas to just highlight them with a rusty feel.

You can see how it highlights the texture paste quite nicely.

This went into the Packhouse back in March and sold really quickly so I will be using this style again to create more.

Thanks for stopping by and sorry if you already saw this on the DecoArt blog but thank you for looking.

Have a great week.

hugs Brenda xxx