It's That Time Again!

Hi all, welcome!  It's a beautiful Fall Sunday morning here and I'm happy to be sharing it with all of you.  We are well and truly into Fall now and if the turning leaves and cooler weather isn't a reminder of that, the fact that over at the wonderful blog The Funkie Junkie,  Linda has started this year's 12 Tags of Christmas challenge!  I love this challenge!  Linda creates a tag each week for the 12 weeks before Christmas and to participate you have to find something in the tag design that inspires you.  You can find all the details here.  By creating all of the 12 tags, or whatever you decide to make, you are entered into a drawing for a gift certificate to Linda's wonderful boutique, The Funkie Junkie.  Whether you participate in the challenge or not, you should visit Linda's shop to see all the wonderful products she carries.  Now on to my first entry.



I decided to cut watercolor paper into 5"x7" pieces and use those in place of tags this year.  I'm going to put them all together in a book after the holidays.  So, that is my starting point for this first project.  My inspiration from Linda's tag was the stenciling and using the stencil to monoprint the background.  I started by applying Old Paper, Iced Spruce, and Bundled Sage Distress Stain to my craft sheet and running the paper through it to create a subtle mottled background to knock down the whiteness of the paper.  It's very faint and you can't see it well in the picture but it does provide a nice background color for the stenciling.  I then stenciled along one side of the card with Gathered Twigs, Bundled Sage and Festive Berries DI.  I applied the inks to the stencil again and spritzed it with water, turned the stencil over and monoprinted on the paper.  I love the watercolored effect that happens with this technique.  I edged the entire card with Gathered Twigs DI and stamped the "Handle with Care" stamp with Festive Berries.  I added the die cut banner that was in my stash to the top and used Stickles glitter on the berries.  The "post card" stamp is part of Graphic45's Christmas sets from a few years ago and I used Gathered Twigs for that.  The Holly Boy card is from Kaiser Craft.  I loved his costume and his face and I thought it was perfect with the holly theme. 


Here are some details.



Love that watercolor effect.  And you can see some of the background color here.

 

 

Here is the Holly Boy!

 

 

Well, there is my first entry for this year!  The year is going so quickly, I can't believe Halloween is 3 weeks away and we'll be in the midst of the Christmas season so soon! 

 

Thank you for visiting with me.  I really appreciate that you take time to visit my blog.  Have a wonderful day.

A Positivity Journal

Hello everyone!  It's so nice to have you visiting!  Today I want share an ongoing project with you.  Astrid MacLean had a brilliant idea at the end of the last year.  She decided to create a "Positivity Journal".   I don't know if you're familiar with Astrid's work, but it is truly beautiful.  Her journals are so wonderfully artistic.  She decided to create a journal in which to record one positive thing that happened every day for the entire year of 2014.  She encouraged anyone who wanted to join in to do so.  I loved the idea because I have been trying to find positive things to be grateful for in my everyday life for a couple of years.  I found that it does change your attitude to look at a beautiful sunrise and say "Thank You".  Some days the positive things are more substantial than a sunrise and some days the sunrise is just too wonderful to ignore.  But, whatever the situation, I found it makes a tremendous difference in my attitude.  But, I had never written any thing down.  I just kept these things in my mind.  When Astrid talked about her journal and showed the first pages I knew I had to create a journal to record my positive experiences.  I have found that creating the journal is becoming a positive experience in itself! 

Here is a picture of the inside cover. 

 

 

 

I love that saying!  It's part of the Typography collection from Graphic45.   I thought it was perfect for the inside cover of my journal.  I used another paper from the same collection as a background and stenciled with heavy body gel medium.  When it was dry I rubbed some Gilders' Paste over the stenciling.  You can see a little of the first page of the journal.

 

 

The journal is becoming a means of trying new products and new techniques.  My daughter shared some of her stenciling tricks and I've had a great time using them and adding some others.  I've rediscovered my love of stencils and all the ways you can use them.  I've gotten to love Gelatos and I'm using pan pastels for the first time.  So, positivity is flowing from the creation of the journal!!  I love that!

 

 

I start by doing a background on a two page spread and then take off from there.  I coordinate the two pages but they are each different.  The journal is already becoming bulky so I'm trying to keep the embellishments flat.  Some times I use little tags or envelopes with tags in them for the journaling and sometimes I just journal on the page.  I think I'll have to eventually start in another journal anyway. 

 

 

Here are some pictures of some of the other pages.

 

 

Another piece from Typogrhapy which I made into a flap that folds down to record my entry for that day. The background used gold Perfect Pearls over DI for some shimmer.

 

Stencils and masks along with a little tag attached for future entries.

 

The facing page with more stenciling and masking and a little folded journaling card.

 

 

 

I have several more pages to share but I'll wait to share those as I  continue to update you on the progress of my journal. 

 

If you would like to join in it's not too late.  Here is Astrid's original post about her journal.  There are no rules and no challenges.  It's just a chance to find positive things in the everyday to enjoy and cherish. 

 

Thank you so much for stopping by.  I can't tell you how much I appreciate your visits.  Have a wonderful day today.