Hello my lovely friends, hoping that this finds you and your families healthy and weathering the storm currently affecting our world. It's a very frightening time for everyone but we can get through it if we all follow the rules that our respective governments and health professionals are giving us and support each other.
I have a little project to share with you today over on Therm O Web's blog, it's filled with colour and the promise of Spring, something we can all do with right now I think!
Hello everyone and thank you for stopping by today. I have a little positive affirmations tag booklet to share with you that I created from mixed media paper and #8 manila hang tags.
This little mixed media positive affirmations tag booklet contains 9 mantras for you to use in your daily meditative practice. The daily practice of repeating positive affirmations has been shown to help improve our ability to think positively about ourselves and the world around us and goodness knows we could all use a little more positivity in our lives these days! I have included a printable for you of the 9 mantras that I chose for my tag booklet but feel free to write up your own positive affirmations if these are not suitable for you. Click here to download the positive affirmations .pdf printable.
Read on for the tutorial and hope you will enjoy it!
Cut a piece of mixed media or watercolour paper to 7 1/4" x 8 1/8". I chose to banish all of my negative thoughts before I started to add paint so I scribbled them onto the paper with pens, crayons and pencils. You can skip this step if you'd like but I find it to be rather therapeutic!
Choose two or three acrylic paint colours that make you smile and randomly apply them onto the mixed media paper, front and back. Add some marks with lids, credit cards, combing tools ... whatever you happen to have on hand.
Next gather some mixed media stamps from your stash and apply them randomly with permanent inks in colours to coordinate with your paints.
Time to create the pockets for your positive affirmation tags. Position the mixed media paper on your scoreboard with the short edge along the top and score it at 2 1/4", this will be folded up to form the pocket for your tags. Turn the paper so that the long side is along the top of your scoreboard and score it at 2 3/4" from each side. Fold up the bottom pocket and then form the tag booklet with accordion folds along the other two score lines. Apply a thin bead of glue along the outer edges of the tag pocket to hold the pocket closed.
Apply some washi tape along the top edge of the tag pocket to reinforce it. Punch two holes just above the tag pocket on each side for a ribbon closure. Embellish the tag pocket however you'd like, I stamped a floral image onto some plain Collage Paper and adhered it on top of the pocket with Distress Matte colllage medium.
Embellish the top of the tag pockets as you'd like. I chose to use some hearts die cut from Metallic Kraft Stock and then added some messing stitching around the tag booklet on three sides with my sewing machine. Don't sew along the bottom edge or you will make your tag pocket too short! Scribble outlines around the die cuts with black and white permanent ink/paint pens.
Paint three #8 manila tags, front and back, in the same manner and with the same or similar paint colours as you used for the tag booklet. Add some random stenciling and paint spatters.
Cut out three of the positive affirmations sentiments and apply them to the front of the tags. You could also stamp some sentiments or if you have lovely handwriting (which I do not!) write the affirmations onto the tags. Embellish the tags however you'd like using images that make you smile (I used some stamped and fussy cut images) and then outline and doodle again with the black and white pens.
Turn the tags over and add three more positive affirmations to the back, embellishing them with more stamps or die cut images and outlining and doodling as on the front.
Turn the tag booklet over and add the last three positive affirmations to the back of the tag booklet. Add more stamped and/or die cut images and doodle away!
Ink a length of seam binding or ribbon with a colour to coordinate with your tag booklet. You will need enough ribbon to tie the booklet closed and to add a pull to the top of each tag.
Add a ribbon pull to each tag, tie on two lengths to keep your tag booklet closed and insert the tags into the pockets and you are done. Here are a few closeups of the finished positive affirmations tag booklet.
Hope that you've enjoyed seeing how it all came together and hope that I've maybe injected a little positivity into your life too! Have a wonderful day and happy creating,
Hello and thank you for stopping by today. We are so excited at A Vintage Journey to be celebrating our SIXTH birthday, I can't begin to express how thankful I am to be a part of this wonderfully supportive and talented team! Our birthday host is our wonderful founder Brenda and here is her brief for our Celebration challenge.
Yes! let's celebrate our 6th Birthday. Do you remember the words from the Kool and the Gang song? There's a party goin' on right here A celebration to last through the years So bring your good times, and your laughter too We gonna celebrate your party with you. Come on now Celebration Let's all celebrate and have a good time Celebration We gonna celebrate and have a good time Its time to come together It's up to you, what's your pleasure Everyone around the world Come on! Ok ... so over to you to show us what you are celebrating in your art and craft work at the moment. Don't forget to link us into your blog post and if it's not really obvious share with us how your project relates to the challenge theme. Just remember to create your project in one of our preferred styles: vintage, shabby, mixed media, art journaling, industrial, timeworn or steampunk.
I have been obsessed with making art journals lately so decided to make a window envelope junk journal that would combine my love of journal making and recycling/upcycling for our birthday celebration.
I used windowed junk mail envelopes and old manila file folders to construct the journal and then added lots and lots of paint, stenciling, stamping and ephemera to complete it; read on for the how to (and I have a flip through video for you at the end of the post so you can see how it came together in the end).
I started with 6 junk mail window envelopes in order to make 3 'signatures' in the finished junk journal.
The envelopes were folded just underneath the cellophane windows to form the pages. They weren't all even in height or width but I didn't worry about it at this point.
A tiny sliver was cut off each end to open the envelopes up for painting.
I hadn't been very careful opening up some of the envelopes when I received them so added a piece of cardstock where necessary to to replace the flaps that had been torn off.
Painting came next, acrylic paint was slip slapped onto the envelopes inside and out. I decided to go BRIGHT with my colours and used yellow, green, blue, purple and pink along with some white ... celebrating the rainbow! On three of the painted envelopes I cut an opening along the fold line underneath the windows just up to the middle fold. A line of glue was added along the length of the long right edge and the envelope glued back together again.
Each 'signature' was made up of two envelopes, one with the cut opening (as indicated by the scissors) and one without. The cut opening is where the hinges are going to be inserted to make the journal but more of that later on! I added stamping and stenciling to the all of the envelopes and then added some washi tape around the top of the window pockets just to reinforce the edges.
The two short ends folded up below the windows were then adhered together on the inside of the signature to form two more pockets. I also did a little trimming at this point to even up the edges if necessary. More washi tape was added around the top of the short middle pocket.
I repeated this process with the four remaining envelopes to create three envelope 'signatures'. I then cut up old manila file folders to make the tags. Each signature had 6 tags; 2 for the window pockets, 2 for the short inside pockets and then 2 more to fit on each side of the short middle pocket on the inside of the signatures.
All of the tags were then embellished with paint, inks, stenciling, stamping and a bunch of ephemera, die cuts and printables. I tried to use up a bunch of left overs from my stash and also stamped a sentiment to go on each of the tags. The backs of the tags were inked and stamped with the Lined stamp for journaling spots (there's a brief list at the end of the post with some of the products I used).
I used three different methods to keep the tags that weren't in pockets in place on the inside of the signatures. The first method was to cover a piece of card stock with washi tape and adhere it along the bottom of the envelope, just adding glue along the bottom side of the tuck strip so that the tag could be inserted into the slot. I also embellished the short middle pockets with images that coordinated with the tag that was facing them.
On the second signature I added a belly band and a stop at the bottom just above the fold to keep the tag in place;
And on the third signature I stamped a sentiment and adhered it to the envelope just on two sides so that the tag could be slipped into the tuck spot. The observant among you will notice that this signature is constructed a bit differently as I had an envelope that was too short to be able to fold. There's no right or wrong way to put the envelopes together so if you make one for yourself have fun playing to see how you can put your own signatures together!
I also grunged up three hinge clips to keep the signatures closed, they were rather plump once all of the tags were inserted!
It was now time to connect them together to form the journal and I decided to use Kathy Orta King's hidden hinge binding system, click on the link to watch Kathy's video, she explains how to construct it much better than I ever could! I made each of my hinges 3/8" tall and left a gap of 3/8" between them; if you are going to make a journal of your own the width of your hinge will be dependant upon the SMALLEST opening in the bottom of your three signatures.
The first hinge flap was adhered into the opening at the bottom of the window pocket of the first signature. I used wet adhesive for this so I had time to move the signature if necessary to make sure it was centred and that there was no binding as the hinge was moved back and forth.
The next hinge flap was then adhered into the window pocket opening at the bottom of the second signature, making sure that the two signatures were (mostly!) lined up with each other.
And finally the third signature was attached to the hidden hinge binding. I then added a piece of kraft cardstock to the back of the hinge to give it some strength and stability and set the whole assembly aside to dry thoroughly.
A masterboard was created for the covers of the journal, I used all of the same paint colours as I'd used on the signatures along with some of the same stamps and stencils and some very Jackson Pollock style paint spattering!
The masterboard was cut up and adhered to a couple of pieces of recycled hanging file folder (it's nice and heavy and great to use for journal covers).
The signatures were then adhered to the inside of the covers. The hidden hinge was scored and bent to 45 degrees (leaving a 3/8" space between the score line and the envelope) and centred on the inside of the back journal cover, lining up the edge of the hinge with the back edge of the cover.
The front cover was then adhered to the front of the hinge in the same manner.
Scrapbook paper was adhered to the inside of the covers to cover up the mechanics, I just used a neutral scrapbook paper with some script stamping on it.
A spine was cut from the same paper, I made it about 1/4" wider than the distance between the two covers and then added added 3/4" on each side so I could adhere it to the covers. The spine was scored with a couple of 1/8" score lines on each side so that it would bend easily.
The spine was adhered to the front and back covers, just adding liquid adhesive to the two 3/4" strips on each side of the spine, and clamping it in place to let it dry thoroughly. Don't try and open the journal until the glue is completely dry or it may tear away from your journal covers (ask me how I know!).
Some ephemera was adhered to the front cover and grommets inserted into the front and back covers for a ribbon closure.
And finally, I added a scrapbook paper pocket to the inside of the front and back covers for a tuck spot for more journaling tags or notes.
I made a short flip through video to show you the completed journal, you can watch it below or over on YouTube :O)
Hope that you've enjoyed seeing how my Fly envelope junk journal came together and that you will join us over at A Vintage Journey as we Celebrate our 6th birthday, we'd love to see the art that you are loving to make right now! Make sure to pop by to see what the other Creative Guides have made to inspire you as well, you will not be disappointed.
Thanks as always for stopping by today and happy creating and celebrating,
I made two seasonal cards, one for Halloween and one for Christmas, and then made an all occasions card with one of the Brutus Monroe Halloween themed Toner Sheets to show you how to get the most out of those seasonal designs.
And finally, I used the Brutus Monroe Jeepers Creepers White Designer Toner Sheet to make an all occasions card to demonstrate how you can use the seasonal toner sheet designs for everyday use.
Some script was stamped randomly around the page and spatters with white paint came next.
I'm determined to use up some of the bit and bobs I have squirrelled away so I adhered these Garden Greens die cuts and this little Patchwork Bird that were in my stash of remnants. The sentiment from Dina Wakley's Scribbly Birds stamp set was stamped onto a piece of card coloured with Distress Inks.
I added some scribbly lines around all of the adhered elements with a black Pigma Micron and a white paint pen and some ascemic writing here and there with a white gel pen and that was it.
Here are a few closeups of the completed page.
Starting with a gel plate print is such a great way to break that white page when you are art journaling, your colour palette is set for you and you can just head out where ever your imagination takes you.
Hope that you've enjoyed seeing my Green Bird art journal page and that you'll break out your gel plate and start making some backgrounds! Have fun and happy creating,
