12 Journal Pages of 2013- December

Wow another year is almost over and I really had to think about this one owning neither frosted film or clearly for Art. I had an idea and went with it, not quite as translucent as the talented Mr Holtz

One of the best things in bringing my journaling pages together was that I got to use two new stamp sets one a Christmas Present from my Sister and Nieces and the other a set I had purchased for myself as a gift to myself.

 

Soo here is my December Art Journal Pages inspired by Tim’s tag

 

 

 
It started of course with my Poinsettia which I created using a Stampendous Jumbo stamp, gold embossing powder, festive berries ink and a blending tool as well as some plastic packaging and some plain vellum, sadly it photographs a lot less 3d and remember it is going in an art journal so having it to big would have been a bit much though it is 3 layers of work

 

I started by using some matt multi medium in a very very thin layer to add the vellum then I used a brayer to smooth it out.

Let it dry, used my blending tool with some leftover festive berries ink and coloured the vellum

I then used the spritz and flick technique to get the splotchy effect. Dried it and stamped and embossed my poinsettia, I did 3 of them the last layer being the lightest ink.

I used the clear tacky craft glue to put this together as I needed something quick drying and that would hold fast.

And when I was happy added the black gem to the centre I am really happy with how this turned out as an improvised Idea.

I then cut out my white cardstock to use for my background pages

Stained it in two diff blues then used stormy sky ink over the top, some more spritz and flick till I was happy with how cold it looked and then one of my fav techniques.

I really love creating splatters and while a fancy tool is lovely to do it with I am sure I have always just used a paintbrush and tapped it over my hand to get some great splattery effects.

You can also do this with an old toothbrush.

So I did a layer of Snow Cap stain, then Snow Cap Distress Paint and finally to give it just a bit more chill and a touch of shimmer some Pewter Distress Paint. I really love how my background turned out.

I used the word stamp from the Santa and List stamp set to stamp the bottom of my journaling pages it turned out quite subtle in some places but I liked that it was never meant to be really bold.

Added in some film strip ribbon, and some ideaology bits under my poinsettia.

Then I stamped Santa in Archival Jet Black and water coloured him in distress inks adding in some Doodlebug flock for his fluffy furry bits.

Added the Mirrored Merry Christmas from my Stash

and viola another year Done and Dusted

I am so proud of my pages for my Art Journal this year and how they turned out.

It has been a great learning curve for me and I always look forward to learning new techniques and increasing my ever growing craft wishlist.

2014 just to shock you all I am actually doing TAGS I know right that is going to be a real challenge for me as to be honest I am not a big fan of doing them but I am sure I will learn as I go!!

12 tags of 2013 November Edition

Wow what an intense couple of months it has been for me

I actually have had this done, photographed and waiting for a blog post for well over a week.

Anyway here is the link to the original Tim Holtz tag.

I so so so love the Chalkboard Technique so much though it is still something I am playing with and have yet to master I am really happy with how this turned out mixing the white and coloured chalks

I used my new set of Tim Holtz Steampunk? cling stamps, some Scrappy Cat and I am pretty sure its a Kaiser or Inkadinkado frame stamp
Coloured and white Chalk and followed the instructions

Can not believe we are almost at the last journal page for this year time to start thinking what I will do for next year…

12 Tags of 2013 – October Journal

I really had fun with this even though I do not own any of the new distress glitter, apart from rock candy which I used on My Skull.

Tims Tag

I love the whole Halloween theme even if it is not such a big deal over here in the Land Down Under.

So even though there are other themes I could have picked like birthdays (Mine was the 16th) or spring, I chose to stick to the All Hallows eve theme

here it is:

I started off with Dusty Concord and Frayed Burlap distress stains for my sky and dirt.

 

And of course used Tim’s favorite technique spritz and flick (I kinda love it to)

Then used versamark watermark ink pad to cover about 1/4 of the dirt at a time, poured over vintage photo distress embossing powder (am sure you all know how to use embossing powder if not give me a heads up and I will add a tutorial) heated and repeated this till I had the lot covered, rubbed it to get rid of the release crystals and that is how I created my dirt.

All the die cuts are Cuttlebug cut and emboss dies though I only Embossed the Halloween sign.

I painted the Graves Black (all dies are cut from some recycled packaging) then added some glossy accents and covered them in my fav black glitter Martha Stewarts Black Onyx.

I hand cut the moon, painted it in Cool Peri paint dabber, dried it, added on a smidge of black alcohol ink to add a bit of texture but it was a bit much so went over it with Pearl Mixative and the result is what you see on my page (Have to say I really love my skull moon)

The skull I left the natural colour of the packaging, added a teeny bit of black soot distress paint around the edges covered in glossy accents and glittered in Rock Candy Dry Stickles.

The Halloween sign I painted with Ripe Persimmon Distress stain and added some black soot distress paint  and a spritz or two of water to give it that sort of spooky look.

then using one of my fav Inkadinkado stamps the corner spiderweb inked in Black soot Distress ink and stamped into the page corners, then I spritzed with water to give them that sort of faded in smudgy look.

Lastly I took some Liquid pearls and added in the RIP, October (admittedly not very well I need to practice writing with these I think) and smudged a little at the bottom of the graves to look a bit like grass.

 

And thats it there isn’t anymore. As Tim’s post was all about glitter I did do all the graves glittered and the Skull I also had a lot of fun

Have to say really love the Distress embossing powder dirt will certainly use it again.

12 Tags of 2013 September

Can you believe how fast this year is flying. I feel like I am constantly behind in projects.

Click here to see the original Tim Tag

And here is my Journaling pages, I do not as yet have any of the Layering stencils so improvised using some

Crafters workshop, Kaiser, Donna Salazar, glimmer screens, and one or two stencils found in local cheapie shops and one home made stencil made from Tim’s big clock die and some plastic packaging

I also used home made mists, distress ink in various colours, Picket fence stain, Modeling paste (as I have none of the Stuff Tim used as yet), Various Tim Stamps, A blending tool, Archival Jet Black ink and some chit chat stickers.

Here it is:

I started with a crafters workshop clock stencil, and added modeling paste, then used the Donna Salazar Stencil (spotty heart) with the picket fence stain. A bit of a learning curve and had to refer back to the tutorial hence th smudges and mistakes

and then I misted and layered and layered and played and layered a bit more, added in the butterflies, stamped and kind of just played.

It feels a little chaotic to me, but I think I like it anyway. I love that it is yet another way I get to step out of my safe little comfort zones.

Anyway almost time for October and my birthday 🙂

12 Tags of 2013- August

It is that time again (where is this year flying to?

See The Original Tim Holtz Tags Here

And here is my take:

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Other than Substituting Iced Spruce stain for the weathered wood and creating my own mask with cardstock and repositionable tape (something I learned from The Online Card Classes I took a while back).

I used the Air Travel Stamp Set as well as a Donna Salazar Stamp from my prize pack I won last year.

Along with frayed burlap stain, weathered wood ink, and some leftover letterpress ink on the brayer that made the funky black patterny marks.

Add in some tissue tape and some Alphabet stickers and that is pretty much this months pages 🙂

12 Tags July Edition

My time has been flying along, due to a foggy lense I had to re take my pics so this has kind of been waiting to be blogged for about a week now (oops)

Click to see Tim’s Take on July’s 12 tagsI 

and here is my Take on the techniques:

I loved Tim’s brayer technique and as soon as I saw it had the thought of how cool it would be to allow the colours to blend together a little, of course I tried 4 different pieces of white cardstock and each one turned out completely differently so I went with it.

Instead of doing each colour separately like Tim did I dropped a few drops of each colour on my craft mat. Then bounced the brayer over the colours. You can see the results in my background.

I used a bella chipboard frame covered in Rock Candy Crackle and then some various stains.

What I love the most about the frame is the piece of worn leather that is actually from an old Jeans Label that was so worn whatever had been in it before was gone so I stamped one of Tim’s Stamps on it from a travel set I have. Stamped in Fired Brick

I also used the big map stamp with weathered wood distress ink for a little bit of background texture.

Added in some stickers I got off ebay that fit in with the whole Tim Holtz look. Added some tissue tape, and buttons and viola My Mixed Media Journaling Page for July (along with Tim’s Alphabet cards for the July)

12 Tags June

I know cutting it fine this month as well, even worse my Journal pages have been finished for almost 2 full weeks.

I have been rather busy with a bear commission. Which I will share a pic of later today.

Here is the Link to the Maestro Mr Tim Holtz’s Tag

I don’t have the Distress Markers and if I am completely honest am in no hurry to own them, yes I have played with them but given I own a lot of the inks and both water pens I think they are not a high priority for this budget scrapper.

As soon as I saw the tag I knew what I wanted to do. Use my Midnight Fair Stamps as they are perfect to colour.

I used salty ocean distress paint, mowed lawn ink, and stormy sky stain but instead of going down my manila cardstock I went across to give the look of water, grass and sky. (See Tim’s post link above for how to do it)

I then did a little misting and spritz and flick. Pulled out a Tim ATC stamp to stamp the background and a kaiser stamp for the little fancy 1/4 circle things.

Stamped my Midnight Fairies and watercoloured them with distress inks and water brushes.

Added a smidge of perfect pearls to the fairies wings and to create the sparkle effect (just felt like a change from glitter) also wrote the month in perfect pearls.

I added the flowers which look very funny in the pics but are really sweet pearlescent ones with a small raised red dot in the center

and viola this months take was done.

Kind of simple looking but I am really happy with how it turned out.

May’s Mixed Media Journal Take on 12 Tags

I am unbelievably late with my May take on Tim’s  12 tags.

My only excuse is that I have spent most of the month working on 2 pieces for my very first art competition. Which I will share with you all soon.

I am not lucky enough at present to own any of the Rubz, but did make and loose a sheet of my own rub ons of a sort (a technique I will share here for turning any stamp into a rub on type image using the plastic packaging most embellishments come in)

You can see where I used them on the first page at the side and down the bottom, unlike most rub ons they have no missing bits for the colour to absorb into.

I also used some Kaiser Bonjour rub ons in random places as per Tim’s technique.

Used a mix of distress stains for my background which I feel like I am slowly starting to get the hang of as you can see on the 2nd page.

I used Ranger’s 12×12 manilla cut to size for my Donna Downey Art Journal I was sent in a swap last year.

The Stamp I used in the Center is one I picked up at a local red cross shop for $5 I fell in love with the renaissance feel of it and whilst I do not often buy wood mounted stamps owing to the space they take up I just had to have this one.

Not having any of the enamel tags as yet I did some experimenting to figure out how best to create my own faux enamel look and believe me it was a learning curve in the end I simply used Rangers embossing dabber over a cut circle of chipboard and sprinkled over hero arts white embossing powder and then after I heated it added another coat of the embossing powder and heated it until smoothish.

I then added another bonjour rub on and an idealogy chit chat word sticker. Then inked around the edge in Archival Jet Black ink and smudged a little around for effect

Added some tissue tape with a little diamonte bling.

Decorated a fragment pendant thingy by again white embossing the back and putting a bonjour rub on on the front and adding a Diamonte chain to it

and thats it pretty simple this month other than a little inking of the edges with a blending tool and some Archival Jet Black

I did look at this for a while and wonder if I wanted to add anything else, I am sure I could probably add more but will leave it as is sometimes uncluttered is a good thing.

150th Post 12 tags of 2013 April

Can you believe it just about a year and a half ago I started this blog spurred on by what was the final 12 tags of Christmas 2011.

It felt like any other post would not quite fit this rather special occasion. After all it started with 12 tags and so my 150th post (and believe me I have been putting off posting some other projects to make it so) is my Mixed Media Journal Pages for april as always based on the Maestro Tim Holtz’s Tag

Now as usual I was missing a rather major component of this tag this month. No distress paints as yet. However I had an idea and it all started with the dragonfly.

The dragonfly was actually done in stages the first being the wire wings. I used the Tattered Angels Dragonfly stamp and made wire frames using the cover piece that is printed and wire, when I was happy with my wire work (it was never going to be an exact match) I then covered the frames in fantasy film (there are different types of this the one I used is sort of like a cellophane that you crinkle to get pretty shimmery effects).
You then heat it the more you heat it the less the shimmer shows but the more you get some cool melted spots and holes. I did quite a few layers wrapped around and around to get mine to look like they do.

Then I beaded the body with swarovski beads (from ebay before you go but she is a on a budget I lucked out and got them very cheaply). Then attatched it with yet more wire to the wings ( you twist them all together then wire the beads over the center).

I then decided to try stamping each wing with the dragonfly stamp I think it turned out pretty well (though I would suggest doing this before you put your dragonfly together).

I then stamped the body on a small piece of Manila cs and fussy cut it. I tried it plain but was not feeling it so added in the watch parts for my cogs and gears steam punk style element and that is how I got my funky dragon fly.

After I had been working on my background a bit and when I had used some expresso paint dabber on the watch parts I also ran it over the dragonfly for more of a distressed grungy look. I also rubbed over a little crushed soft charcoal.

the dragonfly really was the inspiration for my page. I saw Tim’s and have done the acetate type thing before and being me was like how can I make mine a bit different. I have been working with Fantasy film making butterflies for my Happiness Jar Decorating Kits (will do a blog about the kits soon) and was like Bingo.

Here is the page:

I did distress stains on Ranger Manila cs. For the background and also inked over it with a mix of tea dye, vintage photo and walnut stain (the holy trinity for a true aged distress look). I also rubbed over some crushed soft willow charcoal (it is so hard to explain what it does but it really adds another element to your distress)

Added in the tissue tape Nostaligic and inked over it with tea dye just to tone it in a little.

Then I will be honest I got stuck. I had no real idea about what I wanted to do next. I had my dragonfly stamped where I wanted it. The background pages done, the Journaling book pages inked so it all toned together but not a clue as to what I even wanted to do next so I left it alone for almost a week.

Tonight the damn burst and my mojo was in full swing as I pulled out some stamps ( two sets Air Travel and Urban Tapestry)

I used the big map stamp all over my background inked with picket fence distress stain. I really love how this looked over the background.

I then used my favorite brilliance ink Coffee Bean (I really need to get a re-inker for mine I use it so much) and used the ticket stamp and stamped bits of it over the page.

I then did the same with the Ink splatter stamp.

Used the compass stamp and embossed it in gold. Liked it so much I used the ink splatter stamp in some spots and embossed them in gold as well.

Added in the quote stamp which did not stamp perfectly but I kinda like that it didn’t it fits the whole grungy vintage vibe.

Added in the corner flourishes in black from yet another set of Tim Stamps (not sure of the name they are clear acrylic ones from ages ago).

Then thought about what else I could do. Went to my Tim/Ranger embellishment box and found some Alpha cards and thought ooooh so cut out the letters for April, inked them in tea dye and that is it.

Aprils Mixed Media Journal pages broken down and completed.

I have been having so much fun doing Mixed Media Journaling for the tags this year. Not only am I getting to play with the new techniques that we get each month (or improvising when I do not have the stuff to use) but I get to stretch my mixed media skills and I really love just getting to fool around and play.

If you haven’t guessed it yet I am a crazy fly by the seat of my pants crafter it is very rare for me to plan what I am doing I just tend to flow and hope I get something good out of it.

Have to say I am so pleased with how these pages turned out. It was so much fun to go from a pristine shimmery dragonfly to a steampunk grungy vintage type one still with some of the irradecence.

And so we come to the end of this amazing Milestone. For anyone who has been taking my creative journey with me I appreciate you visiting.

I love hearing your comments on my work and enjoy being inspired by you all.

Lots of Hugs

Amanda

12 Tags of 2013 (or my take 12 mixed media journal pages)

I Hi everyone.

I know cutting it fine, but life has been a bit of a roller coaster of late to say the least.

I have spent the last two days working on my version of Tims March Tag.

I will post the pic then break it down for you all 🙂

my idea started with cutting some tissue paper into strips (I just folded it over a few times so it made really long strips), and then using some of the left over mist I had made for my bear (a mix of stream colour wash and mowed lawn re inker) and misted it, tossing it around as I went to get a semi even coating. I then misted over it again with a pearl mist that I made using perfect pearls ‘pearl’ and water.

I dried my ‘grass’ and then painted my journaling page with Stormy Sky and Mowed lawn distress stains.

Used some multi medium over the mowed lawn and started laying down my ‘grass’ strips.  I also added extra at the top I did little V shapes and at first pasted them with the V point facing up then did them facing down, did another layer of strips, and added in some scrunched up along the top to create a morefluffy grass like texture.

I got a new stamp this week an Imaginisce snag em stamp of a Chick and I could not resist using it on my page. So using inspiration from Dyan Reaverly I could not resist stamping the wee chick onto my page and also stamping them onto some plain white cardstock and painting them in Distress ink 🙂 I did however also grab my trusty prima craft knife and cut out the wing so that it looked like they could also flap away, I added a little glitter to the flowers on them with some glue gloss, and could not resist finishing one off with a smidge of Brown paper twine so it looked a little like it had a worm in its beak. I also added a little extra grass so it looked like my birdie was resting in the grass.

I then felt like getting a little bit more background texture so used a spotty piece of grungeboard that I have as a stencil and added some spots in Malted Milk paint dabber, then used Cool perri paint dabber to over Tattered Angels glimmer screen of a butterfly, and then also misted over it with Purple Twilight Colour wash. I did a simmilar thing on the other side with a flourish stencil, however I misted and then painted so it gave a more muted effect.

I added in my addage ticket. For me easter is a time of hope. Used some seasonal chit chat words in my grass.

Then used a grungeboard circle to create my sun. The Sun is  coloured with terracotta paint dabber and then I melted lemon fantasy film over the top to create my Sun.

Then It was time for my butterflies, I don’t own the bunny die. I do however own the silver tinsel twine however I chose not to use it. Not because I did not think the technique Tim showed us with the melting and the alcohol ink was not awesome but because it is an easter page and I really loved the idea of using easter egg foil instead. So I did. It appeals to me in a few ways its a free resource, its recycling and its always pretty colours and so shiny. I also inked around the edges of the Almanac Paper with some vintage photo and did the same for the butterflies I used later.

I cut my butterflies out of Almanac paper from Prima just to add a little of an old world look to match the Hope tag and because  I have to be honest and say I really love the complete mish mash of the Distress/old look mixed with the pastels and brighter flowers.

I then cut out some tattered florals flowers from white cardstock, Used distress stains over them, misted over them with my trusty home made pearl mist and dried them.

I then layered them and moulded them a little adding in a button to their centers that had some of the lime and white paper twine through the holes in the buttons.

I then added some rhinestones to the positive butterfly images and added them to the page

Lastly I doodled in with a white paint sharpie the stems and leaves of my flowers painted over a coat of distress stain dabbing it off to keep it light and then used a Zig writer to go around the edges so the would pop a little more.

And there you have it my journey to my Mixed Media page for March. I know its Autumn in Australia I just really love the pastels and easter colours.

Happy Creating everyone.