Keepsake Journal: February

I set a goal that I would finish one month per week until I got caught up on this journal. We-l-l-l-l….that didn’t quite go as planned, but I’m getting closer!

Page Ingredients: gesso scrapes, tinted matte medium (hit the link for tinted matte medium recipe), paint circles, bubblewrap stamped, tissue paper

All I had to work with this month was photos, so painting and collaging the backgrounds gave the pages more interest. The great thing about this was that I didn’t feel as if I had to do as much embellishing. I might keep this idea going.

Also, this ended up being a great organizing tool because I knew exactly how many pages I needed too work on instead of going back and counting throughout. Ending points are awesome!

I punched a circle from the page he was working on as a backdrop for this photo, I don’t think he’ll mind. And I’m happy to say that I was able to get the crayon marks out of my carpet!

I used some vintage ephemera on these pages to fill space, and because they were handy (it’s called desk clutter). Another different element that might stay going forward.

If you think this is a cheeky way to show off my grandson, your half right…well maybe 75%.

I didn’t want to split up the photos for the following page spreads, so this one little photo got it’s own page spread. A fun opportunity to have a little fun with embellishments.

That’s it for February. I still have some more pages to do, but it will probably be more of the same.

I have a new journal waiting in the wings for March, and I’ll share as soon as I get that month done.

As always, thank you for visiting,

Have a great week,

~Patty

 

Postcard Swap Tutorial…or not?

Today I thought I would share a short tutorial on how I made my postcards for the iHanna DIY-postcardswap, but it seems I had a few technical difficulties, i.e.: I accidentally deleted the photos…DOH!

Luckily, I didn’t delete all of the photos so I can give you a quick run down.

 I started out with some painted backgrounds, then adhered various botanical napkins, easy peasy. Some of the painted backgrounds were pretty ghastly, but the botanicals fixed that and actually made them quite interesting.

Then I embellished with the usual suspects: die cuts, postage stamps, washi tape, and chipboard letters (someday I’ll run out of these) Those butterflies at the top left were printed on Avery #8665 clear 8 1/2″x11″ shipping label paper. I purchased them from the Illustrated Faith Print & Pray shop. Follow the link, they are still available.

I just arranged the pieces in little clusters, then went around them with a #6B pencil, rounded the corners, and applied a layer of satin varnish to seal them and pop the color.

That’s about it for today. I’ve been staying super busy filling up my shoppe with Fall journal decor, Christmas journals, and ephemera packs, follow this link and have a look around. If you see something you like, use the coupon code CUSTOMERLOVE20 to receive 20% off your order.

As always, thanks for stopping by,

Have a wonderful week,

~Patty

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Another Batch of Postcards

GIVEAWAY CLOSED! BUT PLEASE DON’T LET THAT STOP YOU FROM ENJOYING MY BLOG POST. THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO PARTICIPATED. I’LL BE SURE TO  HAVE ANOTHER ONE SOON!

My last postcard giveaway was a lot more successful than I thought it would be! As a matter of fact, because I neglected to put a stop on the offer to send one to anyone that emailed their address to me, I have fallen behind on sending them out.

And, because I can’t just make one or two at a time, I’m having another giveaway. Yay!

I want to give you plenty of time to think about it, so I wrote a super lengthy blog post. A process post for this latest batch:

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First, let’s start with the base layer. This is an experiment I did with layered painting from an online class I took. I’m not going to beat around the bush, I don’t like it! I don’t know if it’s because this is just not my style, or I just need to practice more.

It has been stuffed in my closet for a few months, and I think this is the perfect project for it. First, I adhered it onto heavy card stock…

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…then I started the layering process. My favorite tissue paper and matte medium. I always use Liquitex matte medium because it’s very smooth and doesn’t dry too fast, so the tissue paper won’t tear too easily.

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As you can see, the background is still visible, kinda.

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Next, a little doodle coloring. These pens said waterproof, but they still smeared a bit.

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But it looked pretty before it smeared.

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My new postcard making kit. This used to be my “Happy Mail” journal kit, but it sat around untouched for way too long, so I reorganized it. Instead of the envelopes labeled with the sender’s names, I organized them into categories, stickers, vintage ephemera, cards and tags, that sort of thing.

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I have kind of a loose layering system, having my stash organized works much better for me. Because the background is such riot of color, I went with neutral images, then built from there. Some of you may recognize some of the goodies you have sent to me over the years, thank you!

First, stickers, then the image, stars and hearts, the postage stamps last.

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I went over each one with tinted matte medium (I explain that here). After they’re dry, I go around some of the elements with a 9B pencil and eraser. The card at the top left is the before, the lower right the after. I love the shadows and contrast the pencil makes.

img_6806So, there they all are. The last layer is a coat of satin varnish, it seals the layers and saturates the colors a bit.

Now to the giveaway! I’m going to do this one a bit differently than my last one, I’ve made a few rules:

#1. You must follow my blog

#2. You must comment on this blog post

#3. Please email your physical address to me, the link is at the top right

(This giveaway is open internationally)

And that’s it!

I only made 8 of these, and 2 of them are promised to a couple of gals from my last giveaway (that means you Sue and Miss Iowa). So, the first 6 people that meet the above criteria will receive one of these cards, (I guess I’m assuming somebody will want one, geeze I hope so!)

If you have any questions, or if you feel as if I have left something out, please comment or email me. And if you would like to send a little postcard art to me, just email me, and I’ll send you my address 🙂

Once again,

Thank you for stopping by,

Have a great weekend,

~Patty