TECHNIQUE THURSDAY - En Masse Journal

YouTube Intro

By Shannon Green

Before we go further, if you missed my first post about the En Masse Journal project, you can see that HERE

This is the massive amount of tags I punched for the En Masse Journal. There are 60 white ones and one of each color. They did not take long to punch... only about 15 min. I also scored them so they will fold.

I took the white ones from my white CS scraps:

Since it's a scrap journal, I couldn't see punching them from good white CS. These were a blend of shades. 

The journal itself, came together nicely. 

In this picture you can see the 4 black dots which were my stitch holes. I used waxed, non-flavored dental floss to stitch. Looking from Left to Right, I came up hole #1, down hole #2, up hole #3, down hole #4.. then reversed the process working my way back to #1. I did this with each of the 4 signatures:

Since I could not get that AWESOME travel journal cover Shannon Green was lucky enough to acquire, I painted mine a Chestnut brown, then covered it in brown packing tissue paper I had scrunched up into a ball then flattened out. After gluing the 3 pieces in place (one on the front and one on the back plus one over the spine area to seam the whole thing together) I then ran TH Walnut Stain Distress Ink pad over the cover, letting the raised areas pick up the ink. I heat -set that with my heat gun. I finished off the edges with masking tape.

I'm really happy with how the journal came out. This is my first stitched journal. I haven't decided if I'm putting any kind of a focal on the cover or if I just want to use twine and a conch shell as a belly band. We shall see as I begin putting things together.

Come back May 5th for the next installment. I'll have all of my tabs in place and can share my Journaling Prompt List with you. 

Creative Blessings!

Kely

WOYWW #356

The last 2 wreath cards drying. The colored tabs are for the En Masse journal project. The new items this week - on the left is the box of old Papier Paints that I need to use up along with the composition journal that will be the Journaling By 5s journal. On the right you can just see what is the box with my wood wood burning tool. The white thing on top is the spot from my new watering can. The holes are really tiny. I think actual sprinkles from the sky would produce more water. 

My Journaling By 5s project begins this Friday and will run each Friday through the end of April. If you've not tried art journaling before, this is a great 'freeing' process that is all about  just getting something onto the page, using 5 key elements... and you can do a completed journal in TWO HOURS!

That's my desk? What's on yours? When you are done visiting me in the Ozarks, please hop on over to Stamping Ground where Miss Julia has a long list of other studios you can peek into. No standing on an up-turned milk pail to look in the window. We open the doors wide and welcome you. We won’t touch.. just look. J  I can't wait to peek but if Bob is home for I might be late again getting 'round. Pleaseleave your number and you'll be first on my list.

Teapot Tuesday & Techniques - Christmas Wreath

After seeing someone make a wreath using this punch, I had to have it. So I bought one - about eight years ago! I've used it for other things... a sprig here and there in flower arrangements on cards. But never for what I bought it for... until Virtual Stamp Night last weekend on Splitcoast Stampers.  

Our theme was Here Comes the Sun. Our first challenge was to showcase a circle on the front of our card.  Before I go any further, let me explain that I usually try to use as many of the VSN challenges as possible to do my Christmas cards. Not participating last year is why I was scrambling in December to get cards done. Not this year!

A Wreath is a Circle so I thought this was the time to dive into the wreath made from this bough punch. My card made Favorite of the Week on Splitcoast. I think, partly, because everyone thought the card was complicated. From what I understand, people are gluing EACH INDIVDUAL bough into place. Um.. there is an easier way.

Step 1: Cut a circle base.

I used Circle #2 and #3 from the Spellbinders Circles. #3 cut the large base, then #2 cut the center out, leaving me a frame.  This is a great way to use up scraps!

Step 2: Punch out bunches of boughs in 2 different shades of green. This adds depth to your wreath, without having loads of layers. I punched about 100 from each shade while I was watching YouTube craft videos.

You will also see the glue I used. I bought this bottle at $ Tree:

Step 3: use a removable glue dot and adhere the frame to your craft mat. Then run a bead of glue on the perimeter  of the base. Then apply your first layer of boughs. I used 9-10. If I'd spread them out a bit farther, probably 12.

I suggest letting this set up just a bit before moving on to Step 4. You do not have to, but it does help prevent you pulling boughs back up with your slightly sticky fingers. 

Step 4: Apply dots of the glue in various places around the first layer. Then lay in your alternate shade of boughs. As you do, tuck them under each other and give them a slight press into the glue. The glue is going to dry clear so no worries.

Here you can see my glue dots ready for the next layer.

I set 6 frames out on my craft mat to production line the process:

When all was said and done, this is the card I finished with:

I uses Recollections cardstock in white and a grass green. The white mat is done with the Swirling Snow embossing folder (Darice) The bow is punched from glitter cardstock from SU using their Festive Wreath die. Since doing this card, I've gone back and added 3 dots of Red glitter stickles in a cluster at points around the wreath for berries as well as a dot at the base of each of those little 3-leaf points on the bracket of the sentiment to bring everything together. 

Next Thursday, Challenge #2 was all about Symmetry and replicating the sun's rays. 

Creative Blessings!

Kelly 

MIXED MEDIA MONDAY - Tim Holtz Tag Revisited

Normally, I would be doing these tags on Friday Freebie. However, beginning this Friday - and for the next 6 Fridays, I will be showing you the Journaling By 5s - another Shannon Green find.

I have also decided to move the Revisit Tag to Thursdays since they are all about technique. I'll be changing my side-bar roster so you can keep up with my 'oh shiny things' moments LOL

My EnMasse Journal is ready to start playing in as well. I'm going to show you the finished album on Thursday, then the flip-throughs will show up periodically on Fridays beginning in May. 

In the mean time - let's take a look at my Revisit this week.

This was Tim's tag #3 for 12 Tags of Christmas 2007.  I just do not have Tim's knack but I did like this tag approach.

The idea was to stamp your image in versa mark then sprinkle embossing powders over the different areas, red where you needed red/ white where you wanted white, ect.  Then when you heat embossed the powders into place, you had a beautifully embossed image.

Well, I had a drawback. I did not have a solid image such as he used. But I still did a variation I thought turned out okay.

My tools:

Stamp Set: SU - Festive Fireplace (this set also has a coordinating set of dies)

Watercolor brushes: Elmers

Ink Spots: SU

Markers: LePlume

Embossing powders (not shown):

     Stampendous: Midnight Black/ Blue Tinsel/ Gold detail

     Halloween custom blend

Chipboard frame mat & numerals

Embossed metal tape

Holiday Buttons

Label; MAMBI

This is what I came up with:

The embossing basically created a 'well' outline for me to watercolor within. While not like Tim's, the multi-color embossing technique is there and I got to ink up a never-used stamp set.

Creative Blessings!
Kelly

WOYWW #355

Good  morning, everyone. I took these pictures last night so I could have them up in a timely fashion. After two exhausting days of taking care of a stray and not getting much work done, I did not foresee anything happening tonight.

A bit on the tidy side but all the tools still out from our quarterly Virtual Stamp Night weekend at Splitcoast Stampers. Five challenges on Friday night then eight on Saturday. I only got 2 of the cards done. I spent the first part of the day totally clearing off the work table, washing it down then staging the area with all the things I'd need to make cards. I have this week to complete the challenges so am hoping to work a little each evening.  

The black bowls hold 2 different shades of green pine bough punch outs from Martha Stewart. One of the cards I made had a Christmas wreath on the front. I'll be showing that on Thursday.

The stamp pad is the new Gold Shine from Teresa Collins with Color Box. This pad is really juicy. Took a couple of scrubs to get the ink all off my stamp. What I fell in love with is that when you stamp with this ink then heat set it, you get about as close to an gold emboss look as you can get - without the embossing powder mess! She is going to be selling her new line through JoAnns Fabric and Crafts stores.

Here's another view of the desk:

I had 4x6' of space to work on. You can just see the corner of my Vagabond in the lower left corner. And I always put my trimmer on a shelf liner. Keeps it from sliding around on the desk. 

I still have my granddaughter's spring cards to do. I'm doing a version of this one from LAWN FAWN:

I really like the flower border die. I might be able to get it on my Simon Says order. 

That's my desk? What's on yours? When you are done visiting me in the Ozarks, please hop on over to Stamping Ground where Miss Julia has a long list of other studios you can peek into. No standing on an up-turned milk pail to look in the window. We open the doors wide and welcome you. We won’t touch.. just look. J  I can't wait to peek but if Bob is home for I might be late again getting 'round. Please leave your number and you'll be first on my list.

MIXED MEDIA MONDAY - Tim Holtz March Tag!

Finally made some time this weekend to not only play in the Virtual Stamp Night Challenges at Splitcoast Stampers, but to get my Tim Tag done for March as well.

As you can see, Tim's has vibrant colors. This is the effect of using his new distress crayons. He also used his Butterfly Duo from Sizzix.  I almost purchased this die but then decided against. I had his butterfly die as part of his Alterations butterfly stamp set and I had just bought the MS butterfly punch. I didn't see needing yet another butterfly die of some type. Well, as it turns out his alterations die is just a hair wider than the tag and the MS punch wouldn't go through the thin corrugated cardstock. Grrr.

I also discovered, that SU Watercolor crayons are NOTHING like his Distress Crayons. They just do not 'move' enough to give you the fibrancy Tim achieves with his. I wound up using gelatos, of which all I had were either primary or muted pastels. In place of the butterfly duo, I used 2 different sizes of the primitive hearts of the shapes thinlits set from Sizzix.

My first tag was a total bust. Way too dark and not enough texture. I salvaged the the ribbon and the word band. The rest is all fresh late last night.

Also as you can see in Tim's example, he doesn't use any other embellishment other than the word band. I felt the tag was to blah since my colors were not as vibrant. I embossed metal tape with the Starry Night EB folder then punched out the butterfly from MS punch. I applied some of the same gellato colors to the butterfly that I'd used on the tag.

For my  background paper, I used a blue/ yellow weathered look from the Country Road slab by Paper Studio. I used Tim's Mixed Media die, but mine are more wrought iron than feminine.To pick up the distress ink, black soot from the tag, I added a black teardrop bling to the butterfly body (Studio G).  The word band says Embrace Imperfections... I've been doing that a lot with this tag challenge.

I still haven't spent my GC from Tim to Simon Says. I have a cart full of stuff waiting, but then I found some of the items on clearance at HL last weekend. So I'll be shopping again this week, fine-tuning my purchases. 

Friday, I'll try to do my TH Revisted tag. I also have the En Masse journal bound, covered and ready for collage. I'll be showing you that next Monday. 

Creative Blessings!

Kelly

WOYWW #354

I was so not prepared for this morning. Woke up with a sinus headache. Went back to bed long enough for the dogs to start carrying on. A big black Angus cow was taking a stroll through my orchard. I do not have cows.  I let her wander on her merry way then decided I needed to get the day started.

Let's see... in the foreground is the cover of the En Masse journal. The brown paint started peeling up so I had to do some touch up work after I got the signatures stitched in. I ran some gesso over the stitching while I was priming the peeled areas.

Beyond that you'll see a couple of stamps and ink spots where I added inside goodness to a card before mailing yesterday.

The red and green bags beyond that?  This is Emergency Preparedness Week in Missouri. The green bag holds all of the items for our Emergency First Aid kit and the red is a backpack for the purpose.

Regardless of where you live, being prepared for the first 72 hours following a natural disaster is very important. If you would like to know more, check out my post yesterday HERE That is my Ozarks Journal Blog. On Friday I'll be talking about what is inside that red back pack. In the meantime, do you own a whistle? Every member of your family should have a whistle in case of a disaster. Why? In case you can not call out loud enough repeatedly for responders to find you, a whistle will work and they are trained to listen for them amongst the rubble.

That's my desk? What's on yours? When you are done visiting me in the Ozarks, please hop on over to Stamping Ground where Miss Julia has a long list of other studios you can peek into. No standing on an up-turned milk pail to look in the window. We open the doors wide and welcome you. We won’t touch.. just look. J  I can't wait to peek but if Bob is home for I might be late again getting 'round. Pleaseleave your number and you'll be first on my list.

MIXED MEDIA MONDAY - Shopping Haul

Since I spent the early part of last week with the head cold I didn't get my March TH tag done - yet. Then my sister came up on Thursday and we went to Paducah on Friday for a sister weekend. We saw Celtic Woman in concert. The above video is a preview of this tour - Destiny

One of the cool things about these ladies, is they all have individual careers aside from Celtic Woman.
Susan, the one in the Fuschia skirt played Elle Woods in London's West End production of Legally Blonde after originating in the role of Serena. She also has played Sandy in the West End production of Grease.

The violinist, Mairead Nesbitt, has played on original sound tracks for Riverdance, Lord of the Dance and Feet of Flames and their world tours. She has also been the featured soloist in the musical scores for Disney's Tinker Bell and Tinker Bell and the Lost Treasure.

The young lady in the red skirt, Eabha Mc Mahon was the youngest member in the Original River Dance Choir - at age 15. And in 2015, headlined a sold out show in NY.

Mairead Carlin, in the peach skirt, has been a featured soloist in many Hollywood movie soundtracks - most notably, Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings. She has also recorded with some of the worlds leading Symphony Orchestras.

Saturday before we came home, I made a stop at Tuesday Mornings and at Hobby Lobby in Paducah. The Tuesday Mornings store there is the best I've been in and I was not disappointed this trip. They've remodeled and expanded since I was there last fall. Here's my $57 worth of shopping:

These Molding Pastes from Art-C. The box on the left has Green/ Gold/ Fuschia. The box on the right has White/ Black/ Silver.

I fell in love with the Halloween set from Tattered Angels. The Cling set is a French theme. The Christmas set is from Hero Arts

This stamp and Embossing folder set is from Sizzix. I can't wait to make Christmas card bases with this one. But I think I'm going to wait and try it with Teresa Collins' new gold stamp pad. The embossing plate on the right is from Spellbinders and is a mass of keys. Then the various tag stickers will supplement my ones from Tim Holtz.

These two stamp/ die sets from Sizzix were my favorite purchase. I found the set on the right first and knew I could make it work with other things I have then I found the head/ torso set hidden behind other things. You really have to take time to look through everything on the hooks because things at Tuesday Mornings are not in any order. This was the only set of either of these. I can not wait to play!

Then we made a quick stop at Hobby Lobby where I found a variety of Tim Holtz stuff on clearance. They were NOT in the clearance isle, but in with the regular stock. I picked up these items:

These are colors I have sitting in my shopping cart at Simon Says. While I could have used my Gift Certificate from Tim on these, buying them on clearance frees up $$ towards other items at Simon Says.

The white geli roll were just a 'coupon' purchase. 

A great weekend with my 'middle' sister. The headcold is gone and tomorrow, weather permitting, I'm back to work. I will get things updated here just as quick as I can so keep popping back. I love to know you've been peeking while I'm away.

Creative Blessings!

WOYWW #353

Apologies for the late pic this morning. I've caught my husband's head cold... just in time to go see the Celtic Woman concert on Friday night. So I am doctoring six ways from Sunday so I can enjoy the performance.

My desk is a dumping ground this week. Saturday... the day before I caught this cold.... Bob stayed home to nurse his and I went shopping. I spent my Christmas gift card to Hobby Lobby from him and this is the result.

Burlap in various colors taking center stage. I can not bring myself to pay $3.99 for a few strips in the scrapbooking dept. when I can go over to fabric and buy a 1/4 of a yard for .99! I bought some red and some sage green for Christmas cards yet to be made as well as the neutral tones. You'll also see a black PIT pen balance on the folds as well as a white Galaxy marker. Next to the marker, are some 7Gypsies calendar tabs. I love using these as monthly tabs in my dayplanner. They seem to be clearancing them so any time I find a package I snatch it up.  Finally, on the left, are paint swatch/ idea booklets. Blame Shannon Green for that pick-up as you can see in her video below.

If you've not been to her channel, please visit. She is a marvel with stuff most people toss and she is so much fun!  

YouTube has changed their layout and I'm frustrated this morning finding things. My head is not up to the learning curve. Argh!

That's my desk? What's on yours? When you are done visiting me in the Ozarks, please hop on over to Stamping Ground where Miss Julia has a long list of other studios you can peek into. No standing on an up-turned milk pail to look in the window. We open the doors wide and welcome you. We won’t touch.. just look. J  I can't wait to peek but if Bob is home for I might be late again getting 'round. Pleaseleave your number and you'll be first on my list.

WOYWW #352

Late start to my morning so if you came by earlier and there was no picture, I apologize. I put the explanation link up ahead of time so all I have to do is snap and post. Some weeks it's easier than others LOL

This week my desk is a dumping ground from my shopping trip yesterday. The coupon organizers are for organizing my photos. I am determined to complete this part of the Scrap Rack Challenge. I always fall off the wagon when we get to Photos. The light blue is for pictures from concerts and interviews, orange for granddaughter Abigail and purple for granddaughter Adrian. Most of Adrian's are organized, I'm just going to fine-tune the sorting into the organizers. I also  bought the large index cards to use for dividers in the photo holders. Those organizers will fit in the photo boxes.

Those magazine holders were at $ Tree.

At Walmart I picked up a bonus pack of baby wipes to use with my mixed media, dental floss for journal binding and found daylight bulbs for my 2 task laps so hopefully I'll have better pictures. If you did not visit me on Monday, you can see the inside cover of my En Masse Journal cover.

That's my desk? What's on yours? When you are done visiting me in the Ozarks, please hop on over to Stamping Ground where Miss Julia has a long list of other studios you can peek into. No standing on an up-turned milk pail to look in the window. We open the doors wide and welcome you. We won’t touch.. just look. J  I can't wait to peek but if Bob is home  I might be late again getting 'round. Pleaseleave your number and you'll be first on my list.