Mixed Media Circle Journal

Helloooo and happy Saturday! I love the weekends, don't you? I especially love Saturdays, which are usually quite busy but you know you have another day of the weekend left so it doesn't matter .. and besides, it's a good kind of busy - library with the kids, art lessons for Princess, my weekly coffee shop visit with the little man (hot chocolate for him!), a visit to the farmers market to stock up for the week and there's the Saturday movie to look forward to. Doesn't matter that we've seen the movie a million times before, we make popcorn and we all beat ourselves onto the couch like sardines. I love it! 

Anyway, today I'm sharing a DT project I made for Cardz 'n' Scrapz. I recently partook in a Mixed Media Circle Journal group and this turned out to be the start of my mixed media journey. For those of you who don't know what I'm waffling on about - the definition of a circle journal is - A themed album that is passed throughout a group of people, each person completing a page/layout in the album before passing it to the next person. 

This whole circle journal thing has taught me so much, most importantly - 

1. If a layout didn't relay from your head to the page, don't keep adding sh$t to it, you'll only make it worse. Let it be. Own it, accept it, move on!

2. It really IS possible to be okay with messy hands. (this from someone who washes their hands 20 times whilst preparing a meal!) Just keep baby wipes handy for when the panic attack sets in :D 

3. Be flexible. Don't be impatient. Life throws curveballs. An 11 month deadline can easily come and go... 

...all in all it was an amazing experience and from it I have a journal that I will treasure. 

Once we got our journals back, we could design our covers. I started out by covering it with gesso and quickly heat dried it. Then I covered the front and back with the Wallflower papers and applied a layer of watered down gesso over it so that it would take the colours. 

I used various stencils, and the background lattice chipboard to create some texture, then applied mists and inks until I got the colours I wanted. Tip: when using sprays and inks - spray on your colour, then taking a mister, spritz it with water. This gets the colour into all the crevices. Heat dry between each colour application.

Once I was happy with the colours I applied Emperor's Gold Silks to the raised areas. It took 2-3 coats to get a good coverage. 

I then layered up all of my embellishments - Prima flowers, Junkyard Findings Vintage Trinkets Typo Bulbs 2 and a butterfly cut from the papers which is framed in an Inkssentials Memory Frame. I used chipboard letters for the lettering. 

Along the spine I did some stenciling 

... and designed the back to coordinate

On the inside I simply applied a good layer of gesso and used the mists/sprays and inks with plenty of water to marble the colours together. It's hard to see, but at the end, I gave a generous spritzing of Copper Glimmer mist which gave a 'rust' appearance. 

Finally, taking the Ingvild Bolme Branch Bark chalk ink edger, I ran it around all the edges of the cover. 

So there it is. All finished. I've added the pages back in. It now sits proudly on my shelf and I love to take it down frequently to look through it. 

Thanks for dropping by

Sandie

xXx