vintage journal book

TADA, this is the special project that I was talking about in one of my previous posts.

I made this journal for my mum’s birthday (told you that November was a busy month)

I made an A5 sized journal where I alternated blank writing pages with printed pages and art pages.

I tea dyed the blank pages to fit in with the printed pages which have a vintage look and on which  I stamped inspiring words from a stamp set from Andy Skinner.

A couple of the art pages I already showed in a previous post, here are a few more

This page is made out of pieces of gelli prints

I covered the chipboard for the cover with one of the prints, added a broad ribbon and some flowers made out of fabric which I didn’t need to sew but rather glue (ideally because I can’t sew)(see tutorial)

I’m pleased how it turned out and more important my mum was thrilled.

clear stamp organisation

Recently I reorganized my stamps.

Until now I just kept them in a drawer, but this was becoming really cluttered and it was hard to find what I was looking for,

So I searched for a solution and found this great tutorial

The principle is that clear stamps stick to  laminated paper.

I liked the idea because it uses materials I already have: paper, binder and laminating pouches.

So off I went stamping ( oh my I own a lot more stamps then I thought J),

laminating, punching holes, sticking the stamps to the back and filing them in the binder.

Now I have a clear overview of the stamps I have.

The process was also inspiring, while I was making the example sheets a bunch of ideas crossed my mind when seeing all those stamped images, to be continued…

gelli plate to the rescue

Here are a few pages I made this week, they are for a special project on which I'm currently working on and can’t say much more about as it is a surprise, but more will follow shortly off course.

I experienced hesitation starting off, didn’t know exactly what to do or start with, so out came the gelli plate. This usually gets my creative juices flowing.

And it certainly didn’t fail me this time.

In no time I had some fabulous backgrounds to get me started.

Off with the first page, but not for long as I was stuck again L 

But then it dawned to me, “hey why do you always stick to one page start to finish, if you’re stuck just put it aside and start another one. “ Right?

That’s exactly what I did and wow did it work, I started a couple of pages at the same time and added something here, something there and now I have 3 pages finished.

And I must say I’m pretty pleased with the results:

this background wasn't made with the gelli plate

Still a few to go and then I can finish of the book (oops, slip of the tongue J) 

We're halfway through the sweepstake, don't forget to enter.

New Home cards

Hello there,

I made these colorful cards for someone who is moving, so they can notify all of their relatives and friends of this event and give them the new address.
I made them out of gelli prints and a homemade house stamp (for the how to see also pretty dress stamp)

I'm so glad I found a way of using up some of my gelli prints, so I can make some more J

The sweepstake remains open for another 22 days, be sure to check it out over here.

letter N

Hi,

I’ve just completed the letter N in my dictionary for the alpha/dictionary challenge over at The Craft Barn.

This time there were not a lot of words that grabbed my imagination, originally I was going to use number or numerical, but I noticed that already a few people had done that and decided to choose another word: nest.

I liked the process of this page, I didn’t have a plan to begin with ( I only knew I was going to use this stamp of a girl with a nest of birds on her head). But one thing led to another, very organic. I’m still very much procrastinating to add more layers to a page because I already like what I’ve done and am afraid of covering it and ruing it, but usually it turns out better and if not, so what, gesso over it and start over, right. 

The small leaves were punched out of a real leaf.

Don’t forget to check out my sweepstake

Birthday calendar November AND Sweepstake!!!

This month’s birthday calendar didn’t came as easy as the rest did because I wanted it to be extra special, as a lot of special people have their birthday in November (including me, my son and my mum, always a busy time and the start of the festive season with some more birthdays in December and Christmas just around the corner). So it took a while before I dear to begin and pondered a lot about it, but as November drew closer I just needed to get a start on it.

I started out with an image stamped with a mixed media doll stamp by Julie Nutting. I like this stamp and previously used it already on my price winning glitter page at the alpha/dictionary challenge from The Craft Barn.

I saw this awesome idea  on how to edit the primadoll stamps by scrapinmaniac corner (why didn’t I think about that earlier?). So off I went with scanning ,enlarging and printing the image.

Traced the body on a bookpage and a piece of paper out of my scrapbooking stash became the dress. This girl has a sixties feeling to me so I tried to capture that vibe by using different colored circles and adding the pattern of a disco ball with a homemade stencil and some purple sprays.

Gabrielle Pollaco made an awesome mixed media canvas with a cute haute couture doll and is so kind to share the template for this beautiful creation.

I downloaded the template and made this doll which together with the sixties doll I would like to give away to one of you.

 All you need to do is leave a comment and become a follower and/or subscribe by mail. The sweepstake is open all of november (until Saturday 30 november 2013 midnight GMT+1) I will be selecting and announcing the winner on december the first. Good luck!