Book Cover

Hi there

Today I am sharing with you a book cover I have done on a notebook I have decided to keep for all those handy things you want to remember

Quite often when I am looking at YouTube or other social media I might see a quote I like or a technique that I would like to try, I write these things down on scraps of paper and promptly loose them so I have decided to gather them all up and put them in a book that I can refer to when I am looking for some inspiration.

The book I am using is a spiral bound book from Typo and I did not like the cover at all.

You can see the process video here.

Once I had removed the cover from the book by opening the spiral a little, I applied two coats of Gesso to completely blank out the background that was there.

Using Glimmermist Pumpkin Spice and Artiste Ink Spray in Cardinal Red I gave the cover a very liberal spray so there was lots of liquid colour on the cover and then I laid a layer of cling wrap on top of this and scrunched it up. This was set aside to dry. I usually leave this overnight but I was in a hurry with this one and only left it for about 6 hours. It was still a bit damp when I took the cling wrap off.

To make the smaller circles I used a shaded circles stamp and Jet Black StaZon ink to stamp on some scrap watercolour paper. These were then coloured using Twinkling H2O's. The colours I used are Pink Azalea, Fern, Ginger Peach, Snap Dragon, Wild Blueberry, Solar Gold and Lemon Drop.

The larger circles were cut using my Spellbinders Standard Circles Small dies and some white cardstock. To add some interest to the background of the circles I stamped with StaZon ink and Kazazz Life's Moments, Kaisercraft's Numbers and Deep Red Water Droplets stamps.
These were coloured using the same Twinkling H2O's as the other circles.

I added more texture to the background by putting Gesso through Kaisercraft's "Grunge" stencil, this blended into the background more than I wanted it to so I also added some Modelling Paste through a stencil of small squares.

I used Matt Gel Medium to attach the circles to the cover.

I wanted more black in the background so I used Kaisercraft's "Arty" stamp and StaZon ink to stamp randomly trying to avoid getting it on the circles. I should have done this stamping before I attached the circles but didn't think of it.

I had just bought a new charcoal pencil so I used that to shade around the outside of each of the circles.

I used an Art Studio .4 permanent marker, a Posca white paint pen and a Signo white pen to detail/highlight the circles.

Using a black Stabilo All pencil and a wet brush I created a border around the cover.

The final touch was to water down some gold acrylic paint and use my fan brush to make splatters all over the cover.

Thank you for spending some of your day here with me today.

If you have a few spare minutes pop over to my YouTube channel and check out the video.

Till next time
Hugs
Julie

Two cards using Kaisercraft's Secret Garden papers

Good morning to you.

This morning's post is about two cards I made using Kaisercraft's Secret Garden 6.5" paper pad.

The 4.25" square card bases were cut from a sheet of white cardstock. I had originally thought I would make 5.25" square cards but ended up cutting them at 4.25 x 8.5". I'm happy with the way they turned out and the smaller size is quite nice for a change.

I hand made the flowers that are on one of the cards using Heartfelt Creations stamps, heat embossing and fussy cutting.

You can see the whole process in this video.

 Let's start with this card. I made this to send to my Mum with a little surprise gift.

I chose three patterned papers from the pad. One I cut at 4" square, the next was 3.75" square and the last was 3.75" x 1.75"

When I was visiting my Mum at Christmas time she gave me the green tulle, it is actually for wrapping gifts but I thought it would be good to use on cards and layouts. I have cut a piece approx 4.25" square to go behind the largest piece of patterned paper.

The gold lace above and below the green piece of paper was also a gift from her so I have added it to this card as well

I have inked the edges of all of the patterned papers and layered them onto the cardstock using double sided tape and liquid glue.

The lace was attached to the back of the green paper with hot glue and foam tape was used to attach the assembly to the card.

I have the Collectables for this paper range and used a couple of pieces from that to embellish the card. I also heat embossed and die cut a butterfly from Kaisercraft's Butterflies stamp set. I used Stampendous Aged Gold Embossing Enamel for the heat embossing, this gives a bumpy look to the butterfly.

I also added a piece of gauze behind the embellishments for some added dimension.

The greeting was printed onto printer paper and then matted on a piece of the same paper that I used to make the butterfly before being attached to the card.

The next card is a birthday card for my stash, ready for when someone's birthday creeps up on me.

I started by creating the flowers. I have used Heartfelt Creations Tattered Blossoms and Heartfelt Creations Delicate Asters stamps. I actually created three flowers (Heartfelt Creations Daisy Patch Flowers) but could only fit the two on this card. I now have a spare ready for my next card that requires a flower. You can see the process of how I stamped, embossed, shaped and assembled the flowers in this video.

To assemble the card I chose three patterned papers once again, this time I decided to put a layer of white cardstock between each patterned paper and to distress and ink all of the edges.

The patterned papers measure 4 1/8", 3 7/8" and 3 1/2"
The white cardstock is 4" and 3 3/4"

I have used double sided tape to attach the layers and Aileens Original Tacky Glue to attach the flowers and leaves.

Once again the sentiment is computer generated and matted on some matching patterned paper. It is then attached to the card using foam tape.

I hope you have enjoyed reading my post today.
Thank you for spending part of your day here with me.
Don't forget to check out the video here.

Till next week
Hugs
Julie

Go with all of your Heart Art Journal page

Good Morning

Today's post is about my recent art journal page.

The page is from my ring journal that I made using watercolour paper and 4 jump rings. It is 8.75" x 8.25" in size.

I have used acrylic paints, sewing pattern tissue, texture paste, stamping and stencils to create this page.

You can see the process video here.

To start the page I used Matt Gel Medium to attach some crumpled up sewing pattern tissue to the page, once this was dry I gave it a wash with some Gesso to bring the colour down a little.

The acrylic paints I used for the background were Jade Green, Summer Blue and Pale Yellow. These were squeezed randomly on the page and them spread around to cover the whole area using my pallet knife.

Once they were dry I used a 13@rts stencil and some Mont Marte Modelling Paste to add some more texture randomly to the background.

Using Kaisercraft's Bubblewrap stamp and Encore Gold ink I stamped over most of the page.

To create the focal points I used Matt Gel Medium to stick two sheets of paper from Love Letters from Home paper pad together. One was a lightly patterned paper and the other was a laser cut paper. I did this to give the embellishment extra texture.

The colours used on this were also acrylic paints. The colours are Pale Yellow, Terra Copper and Napthal Red. They too were spread onto the page with a pallet knife.

When the paint was dry I took a Kaisercraft stencil called Grunge, and applied Jet Black Archival Ink through it using a blending tool. I did this over the whole page.

The 3 hearts were sketched onto the paper once it was dry, then cut out and attached to the background with gel medium. I gave the whole page a coat of gel medium when I attached the hearts because I wanted to use my Faber Castelle Pitt Pen, in black, to shade around each heart when it was dry

After I had done the shading the hearts and the outside edge of the page, I used a clear stamp that looks like circles of thread and Black Stazon Ink to stamp all over the hearts.

Next I watered down some Gesso and used my fan brush to put white splatters all over the page.

I keep two fineliner bottles with watered down black and white acrylic paint in them and I used these to go around the edges of each of the hearts. I also used black around the edge of the page.

The title came from the internet and is printed on some normal printer paper. I used a Pental Metallic Gold brush pen to colour the paper. This did not turn out to be the colour I was looking for so I added some ink from the Encore Gold Ink pad I had used to stamp on the background.
Once the title was attached to the page I used my black fineliner bottle to outline it.

I did manage to get the "Go with" section of the title crooked but once you have stuck printer paper down with gel medium and it has dried there is no moving it.

Thank you for spending your time here with me today

Don't forget to pop over to my YouTube channel and see how this all came together.

Till next week
Hugs
Julie

"Amazing" Layout

Good morning,

So happy you have joined me here today.

I am sharing a layout that took me a bit of time and I have a like/dislike relationship with this layout. It did not come together easily and I am still not sure that I am completely happy with it.

I did video the process and you can see the video here.

The first step was to apply some Mont Marte Modelling paste through Kaisercraft's Script stencil and let that dry.

While I was waiting for that to dry I fussy cut the photo out. The wall my Grand-daughter was standing in front of was red and it did not really suit the colour of her dress.

The paper's I used for this layout are from Kaisercraft's Daydreamer range. I chose three papers to use.

I created a large photo mat for the photo because I did not want it to get lost on the layout.
The pink paper is 6" x 9", the black starry paper is 5" x 8" and the grey is 4.5" x 7.5"

The white cardstock was cut down to 11.5" square and laid on top of a 12" x 12" piece of the black starry paper, giving my layout a 1/4" dark boarder.

Using Tattered Angels Cherub Pink Glimmer Mist I sprayed over the background to highlight the modelling paste. I also added some splatters.

The same three papers were used to construct the rest of the layout. I cut the pink dot paper 1" x 11", the black starry paper 2.5" x 11" and punched along one of the long edges with a Martha Stewart punch. I inked around the edge of these papers and attached the black on top of the pink so the punched patterned was backed by the pink.

A piece of the grey was cut to 10.5" x 2.5", after inking around the edges of this paper I attached all of the patterned papers to the layout with double sided tape.

The photo mat was mounted on a piece of cardboard box before being attached to the layout to add some height.

Using a stencil from The Crafters Workshop called Mini Cubist I applied more Modelling Paste, that I had coloured with Plum Blossom acrylic paint, on top of the patterned papers.

I was unsure how to embellish this layout but, as the front of my Grand-daughters dress had lots of fabric flowers on it I decided to go with flowers.

I have recently bought 3 new Heartfelt Creations flower stamps so I used those.

The first one is Daisy Patch Flowers, I stamped and heat embossed this with black embossing powder on pink and white patterned paper, fussy cut all of the layers, sprayed them lightly with water and used my shaping tool to give each petal some shape before gluing the layers together.

The second one is Delicate Asters. I stamped and heat embossed with black embossing powder on white cardstock. I did this twice for each of the four layers of the flower so I would have a nice full flower. That is a lot of fussy cutting I can tell you.

The third one is Tattered Blossoms. This one I stamped with black StaZon ink, fussy cut them and coloured with Plum Blossom acrylic paint, watering the paint down a little more with each layer so the flower got lighter as the sizes got smaller. While the flowers were still damp I used my shaping tool to give them a little dimension

Each flower has a clear gem attached in the middle

I was going to buy the dies for these flowers but they were not in stock. If I had of thought about it I could have scanned them into my Scan N Cut and cut them out that way, I certainly will in the future.

A half doily was attached on the left side of the photo. The flowers were attached so they overlapped the doily and spilled down over the patterned paper and photo mat.

For the title I have used a Freckled Fawns Foam Word Sticker.

That completes this layout.

Thank you for joining me here today.

Don't forget to check out the video here.

Thanks for dropping by
Till next time
Hugs
Julie

Mum's 2019 Birthday Card

Good morning.

Today I am sharing my Mother's birthday card with you. It was her birthday on Christmas Eve.

I have recorded the process and you can see the video on my YouTube channel here.

I had bought the rose edge die some time ago and had not used it so thought this would be a good opportunity to try it out.

I cut my card base to 4.5" square and cut the rose from the top right of the folded card.

I am using Kaisercraft's Secret Garden paper range and Collectables on this card.
I chose a paper and cut it to 4.25" square for the inside of the card. I used the off cut for the panel on the front of the card.

I mounted the patterned paper for the front of the card on a piece of gold mirror card so there was approximately 1/8" of gold showing down each side of the panel.

Using some white crochet cotton I wrapped it around the panel about 4 or 5 times and tied a bow at the front. This was secured in place with some double sided tape at the back of the panel.

The panel was then attached to the front left of the card.

I have used a Kaisercraft "Happy Birthday"clear sticker on the front of the card. Once I had these lined up and attached I used my Bone Folder to burnish them well, ensuring they will stay attached to the card.

I used the same procedure to attach another clear sticker from the "Birthday Wishes" Kaiesercraft clear sticker pack that says "Sending you love on your special day", to the inside of the card.

Using a circle, which I cut in half and a flower cluster from the Collectables pack I embellished the inside of the card. Unfortunately I did not take a photo of the inside of the card for you to see.

I did add a thin piece of gold cardstock to the right hand edge of the inside patterned paper which you can see in the photo above.

I used a set of ProvoCraft alphas to cut the word "Mum" from black cardstock to add to the front of the card so the greeting now reads Happy Birthday Mum.

To create the flower that is used on the front of the card I stamped and heat embossed Heatfelt Creations "Sparkling Poinsettia" stamp with Versamark Ink and Black Embossing powder. After I had fussy cut all of the layers and centres, I sprayed them lightly with water and used my ball type tool to give each petal some shape before using glue to attach each layer so it is offset to the layer below it.

The flower was attached to the card with hot glue.

Final touch for the card was a clear crystal to the middle of the flower.

I hope you have enjoyed reading about my card. Don't forget to pop over to my YouTube channel and watch the video. You can actually see the inside of the card in the video.
Here is a link for you

I am nearly up to 300 subscribers so if you would like to subscribe that would be fantastic. I plan on having a giveaway when I get there so subscribe so you can be in the running to win.

Thanks for spending your time here with me today
Till next time
Hugs
Julie

Believe In Magic Art Journal Page

Good afternoon

I am a bit early today, I normally post on a Wednesday but seeing as how tomorrow is Christmas day I thought I would share my post with you today.

Today's post is about an art journalling page.

This  page is whimsical, with pastel colours

I have recorded the process of this simple page. You can see the video here.

I am using a page out of my disc bound journal which started life as a Happy Planner notebook. I have glued two pages together with Gel Medium and given one side of the page a coat of white Gesso.

The colours for my background are Pan Pastels. I have applied Phthalo Blue Tint, Turquoise, Orange Shade, Permanent Green Tint, Hansa Yellow and Bright Yellow Green randomly all over the page, with a sponge. I then sealed the pastels by lightly spraying with water. Once this was dry I applied another coat and sealed it in the same way as the colour was lighter than I had planned.

I used TCW81 Swirls and Dots stencil to apply Faber Castell Texture Luxe - Pearl all over the background. Some of the paste got under the stencil which I do not particularly like but it worked out OK.

The unicorn image came from a book with animal images in it. I photocopied the image onto the smooth side of some watercolour paper. Using my Semco Pearlescent water colours I coloured and shaded the image.

The image was then fussy cut ready to attach to the background.

Before I attached the image I added some stamping using a clear stamp, unfortunately I don't know the name or the brand of the stamp, with both black StazOn ink and Encore gold ink. I was very light handed with the black as I did not want it to overpower the page and used the gold to fill the background.

I attached the unicorn using Matisse Mat Gel Medium, which of course, took the pearlescence away from the image so I gave it another coat of the watercolour.

Next step was to add the detail back into the image. I did this with my Fude ball black pen and a Uniball eye micro black pen

I used my Stabillo All pencil (black) to add some shading around the unicorn and add a border to the page. I also added a scribbly boarder using my Fude Ball pen.

The title was cut from black cardstock using Sizzix Cherish Alpha dies. This was attached to the page with Aileens Original Tacky glue.

Don't forget you can watch the whole process over on my YouTube channel here.

Thanks for visiting my blog today and spending your time here with me.

Till next time
Hugs
Julie

Scrapbooking Layout "Year Six Social"

Good morning,

It is getting close to Christmas now, only one week to go.

My layout today is not a Christmas one but a layout to record the memories of my Grand-daughters first school social.

I recorded the process and you can see the video here.

I purchased a Kaisercraft 12" x 12" paper pad of the "Rosabella" paper range because the colours in it went well with the colour of the dress in the photo.

I created a sketch to give me an idea of how this layout would look and worked from that.

My background is a 12" x 12" piece of white cardstock, to this I added some Mont Marte Modelling Paste that I had coloured with some Duncan Plum Blossom acrylic paint and put through a Kaisercraft 6" stencil. I did not cover the whole background, just here and there. I then set that aside to dry.

I chose 6 patterned papers from the paper pad and cut them to the sizes I had drawn in my sketch.
Patterned paper No. 1 - 1 @ 4.5" x 9", 1 @ 7.5" x 1.5", 1 @ 2" x 1" and 1 @ 1.5" by 2.5"
Patterned paper No. 2 - 1 @ 4" x 7.5"
Patterned paper No. 3 - 1 @ 1.5" x 11" and 1 @ 3" x 0.75"
Patterned paper No. 4 - 1 @ 6.25" x 1.5", 1@ 1.5" x 0.5", 1@ 2" x 0.5" and 1 @ 2.5 x 0.5
Patterned paper No. 5 - 3 scalloped circles 1 @ 2", 1 @ 3" and 1 @ 4"
Patterned paper No. 6 - 1 @ 4.25" x 1.5" and 1 @ 1" x 0.5"

For the circles I used my Spellbinders Big Scalloped Circle Large and Lifestyle Crafts Nested Lace Circles dies. I then used Couture Creations "Washed Away" embossing folder to add a bit of extra detail. I wiped my black ink pad lightly over the circles to help the embossing stand out.

I then inked all of the edges of all of the patterned papers and attached them to the background.

Once I had my basics in place I played around with the layout a little adding a few more strips of patterned paper where I thought it needed it.

The photo started out as a 5" x 7" but I trimmed it down to 2.75" x 7"
I had the small photo left over from some other photos I had printed for the second of this two page layout so I decided to add it to this layout. I matted it on some white cardstock and used cardboard behind it before I attached it to the layout so it had a bit of extra height.

It was at this stage that I decided to add the pennants. I wanted some embellishments but did not want to use flowers hoping for a more fun look to the page. I used a die to cut the three layers of each pennant in a different patterned paper, inked the edges and then assembled them using foam squares between the two triangular shapes. These were then attached to the layout using glue.

I put a white brad on the inside edge of each pennant run and then I applied a fine row of glue at the top of the pennants, wound some white crochet cotton around the brads and stuck it along the top of the pennants.

A crystal gem at the centre of each pennant and a very small title attached to one of the strips of the layout, finished this layout off.

I hope you have enjoyed reading about my layout, but don't forget you can see the whole process over on my YouTube channel here.

I am getting very close to 300 subscribers and I plan on having a give away when I get there. Why not subscribe now because you will have to be a subscriber to win, it will be a random draw from all subscribers.

Thanks for sharing your time here with me today
Till next time
Hugs
Julie

The last 15 Christmas cards for 2019

Today's post is a bit different to my normal posts. There will not be a description of how each card was created......just photos.

There are 15 photos in this post so it would go on forever if I wrote how each one was created.
I think the best thing would be that if you want directions on how to create a particular you can leave me a question in the comments and I can give you the directions you want.

So let's get started....

Well I hope you like the cards.

There is a video showing a walk through you can watch here if you want a bit more detail.

Don't forget if you have questions leave them in the comments and I will get back to you.

Thanks for dropping by
Till next time
Hugs
Julie

Christmas Cards No 13 - 15 2019

Good morning

Three more Christmas cards today. I will be making one more video after this one for Christmas cards and that will be it for Christmas cards this year.

I hope you have enjoyed my Christmas cards and have given some of them a try. They are mostly simple designs and would look great in any Christmas papers you might have in your stash.

Once again I have videoed the process while I made these cards and you can see the video here.

These are the cards I want to show you today

I have used the DCWV Merry & Bright paper pad that I have been using for all of my Christmas cards this year and all of the cards have a 5 1/4" square white card base cut from sheets of white cardstock.

All of the papers and embellishments have had their edges inked with a black ink pad.

Let's start with this card.

This is a double Z fold card. The base card was scored at 2 5/8" and 5 1/4".  The first score is a mountain fold and the second is a valley fold.

The top Z was cut to 9 1/2" x 3 1/2" and also scored at 2 5/8" and 5 1/4". The first score is a valley fold and the second is a mountain fold

I chose a patterned paper (White and Gold) and cut 1 piece 5" square and 2 pieces 2 3/8" x 5". These were attached to the 3 top areas when the card is fully opened.

From the second patterned paper (Pink) I cut 1 piece 4" x 3 1/4", 2 pieces 2 3/8" x 3 1/4" and one piece 3 1/2" x 2 3/4"

The largest piece and the two smallest pieces were attached to the top of the smaller z folded card. Be sure to have the largest section to the left when attaching these papers.

I cut a piece of a third patterned paper (Black) 3 3/4" x 3" and attached that on top of the largest pink piece.

The last piece of pink patterned paper was then attached on top of the black patterned paper.

I used a Christmas tree die and cut three Christmas trees from Gold cardstock. Two of these were attached to the front of the card and the third was attached to the first inside panel of the smaller Z fold cardstock. I used glue to attach these embellishments.

I cut a piece of white cardstock 1 7/8" x 2 3/4" and attached that to the last inside panel so I would have a place to write my personal greeting.

The Greeting on the outside of the card was cut using Elizabeth Craft Designs 745 Merry Christmas die and black cardstock. This was attached at the bottom of the card using glue.

I had a change from Christmas trees to stars for embellishments for the next card

I cut the first patterned paper (Black) to 5" square and the second patterned paper (Pink) to 4 1/4" square. I also cut two pieces of white cardstock, one was 4 1/2" square and the other was 3 3/4" square.

To make the stars I used the fourth smallest die from the Nellie's Multi Frame Star Die set, and cut 12 stars in assorted patterned papers.

All for the patterned papers and white cardstock were layered on top of each other in decreasing order and then the stars were arranged in a wreath shape on the top.

The greeting uses the same die as the previous card but this time I cut it with gold cardstock, attached it to a piece of white cardstock and matted that onto some of the black patterned paper that I had used in the layers.

Foam squares were used to attach the greeting in the top left section of the card front.

It was back to Christmas trees to embellish this last card. It has a front circle overlap, short of a gate fold card but not really.

I have chosen three patterned papers for this card, although you can only see two. The third one is on the inside of the card and does the same job as the main patterned paper (Pink) on the front.

From the first patterned paper I cut a 5" square and the second largest circle from Spellbinders Standard Large Circles die set. I cut exactly the same from the second patterned paper to use inside the card.

The third patterned paper (Black) was cut to 2 3/4" x 5"

I cut some white cardstock 3" x 5 1/4"to mat the black patterned paper and the largest of the circles from the Spellbinders Standard Large Circles set.

Both patterned paper circles were attached, one each side, of the white circle and a score line was added about 1/2" in from the edge. This was folded in and attached to the inside right hand edge of the card base using glue. The 5" square piece of patterned paper two was attached over the top of the join to disguise it.

An embossing folder was used to emboss a Christmas tree pattern on some gold cardstock. I am not sure what brand the embossing folder is, it came in a set I think and I have thrown the packaging away. I fussy cut around the edge of the tree and matted it on some white cardstock so it would stand out more against the patterned paper.

To assemble the front of the card I attached the 5" square pice of patterned paper then the white cardstock so it was approximately 1/2" from the left hand edge of the card and then the black patterned paper on top of that. Next the embossed Christmas tree was attached on top of the black.

The two Christmas tree embellishments on the circle were cut using a die and black gloss cardstock and attached using glue.

The same Merry Christmas greeting that I used on the previous cards was attached to the inside of the card to finish this card off.

I hope you enjoyed looking at my cards today. If you want more details you can check out the video here.

Thanks for spending your time here with me today
Till next time
Hugs
Julie

Art Journal page - Unique

Good morning

Today I am sharing an Art Journal page that I created as a break in my Christmas card making.

I had been thinking of doing this technique for a while now. I have heaps of metal embellishments and am trying to use up my stash.

You can see the video here.

I added some Mont Marte Modelling paste through Kaisercraft's "Script" stencil.

I used Atelier Heavy Gell Gloss to attach the metals to the page and then set it aside to dry.

Next step was to cover the whole page with Gesso and let that dry as well.

I sorted through my mists and decided to go with pinks and purples. The colours I used were, Glimmermist - Iridescent Gold, Fully Purple, Basically Bare, Black Magic & Gold.
Dylusion Ink Spray - Bubblegum Pink and Lemon Zest and Chalkboard - Chalk.

I sprayed with these colours until I had the look I was trying for, this required many coats which were dried between each application.

The two feature pieces were given a coat of Gesso, sprayed with colour and set aside to dry before I attached them to the page using craft foam and my hot glue gun. The gems were attached with clear drying glue.

I added more detail to the background using a dotted grid clear stamp with StazOn Jet Black ink and Encore Gold ink.

I felt that the background needed more colour so I used a Kaisercraft clear stamp "Bubblewrap" and Archival Chrome Yellow to add more of the yellow to the background so the yellow of the butterfly looked like it belonged on the page.

I added a border to the page using both black and white acrylic paints in a fineliner bottle.

The title is a clear sticker from The Craft Stall

Don't forget you can see the process video here.

Thank you for spending your time here with me today

Till next time
Hugs
Julie