Blessings Journal for Yvonne Blair Designs

0



Hello mixed media crafty peeps how are you today?  With all the uncertainty in the world today, I decided to create a Blessings journal to help me focus on all the wonderful things that happen in my daily life.  It helps to center me, and serves as a daily reminder that God is in control of all things! 

Let me walk you through my process for creating this journal using these awesome stamps from Yvonne and Impression Obsessions!   As always I've linked them up to the Impression Obsessions' online store, but shop your local retailers if you have one!

Numbers

Swirly Vine

Sketch Dragon Fly

 

  French Script

Inspiring this entire project was Yvonne's stamp! Thank You God.  Have you ever been doing something in your life and just knew God had his hand in that moment in your life?   When I saw this stamp I knew I wanted to create this journal. 

Thank You God

I have a few of these dollar bin journals laying around my craft room that I keep on hand for note taking and decided to use these for my base.  They come in handy for these types of projects and are very inexpensive. NOTE: I usually pick them up at the end of the season when they clearance them out since I generally alter the covers anyway!   

To give the outside of my journal a nice rich color and feel, I used created a mono-print to create the background image, on a piece of bleached muslin fabric, once everything was dry I did some sewing on around the edge of journal. This keeps everything in place over time, but it also adds texture. Dropping gold Liquitex Acrylic Ink, and spraying the entire journal with Heidi Swapp's Gold Color Shine adds a richness to the final journal.  I encourage you to pull out your stamps, stencils, inks, and paints and enjoy a little creative play. This was so much! 

Watch On YouTube

 

 

This next step you can do after the book is filled with memories or before, or before.  I love how it inspires me!  I went into my little bucket of left overs and created a beautiful cluster.  Sprinkled a little seed beads and sequins to add sparkle, and topped my sentiment with a prima clay cherub piece.  Isn't this just a beautiful book. It would make a great Secret Sister gift or Prayer Partner book.  You could also switch out the sentiment and use the book for a number of other occasions as well.

 

Thanks for stopping in and hanging out with me today!  I hope I have inspired you to a create a Blessings Journal to remind yourself of the tiny little miracles that happen in your own daily life. 

Read More »

Love Like Crazy Cards

0

Hi crafty friends, I hope you have lots of inspiring ideas after the sneak peeks from Creativation 2017. I know my head is SPINNING AROUND!   Yvonne has released some fancy new word stamps along with a few cute little sketch stamps. Here are a few of my favorites from this release I picked to feature in today's post. I have linked them up for you to purchase from  Impression Obsessions Website,  but I also encourage you to support your local retailers if they carry Yvonne's stamps.

Numbers

Sketch Dragonfly

Will You Forever Be

Like Crazy

It is sometimes difficult to create masculine cards.  With Valentine's Day around the corner, I thought I would use these stamps to create a few cards that could be used for multiple purposes. Either simple "I love you cards", "Happy Birthday", "Thinking of  You" or you could even add "Happy Father's Day" to the inside of these cards to use all year long. The concept for both cards are the same; however, one card is flat for mailing, and the other is dimensional in case you are sharing face to face. 

 This is the flat design:

Both cards are top folding A2 sized cards.  The background cardstock is measured at:

4.25 in. wide  x  11 in. long (scored at 5.5 in.) 

Then I used a pieces of Canson 140lb white  watercolor paper as my base (Smooth side)

cut to 3.75 in. x 5 in.  (this leaves a 1/4 inch border)

Using watercolor paper insures that it will hold up

to the wet mediums and won't buckle or peel.

For my background I used:

Prima's Finnebar White Crackle Texture Paste

with a Tim Holtz Burlap stencil

allow this to dry

To apply color to my background I used

Lindy's Stamp Gang Starburst Stains:

Tibetan Poppy Teal

Edelweiss Moss Green

Rudolph's Nose Red

 

This is the dimensional card:

Here is a quick video showing the process of how these cards came together:

Watch on YouTube

 

I love the dragonflies, and now I have lots more to use in different posts, and other mixed media projects.  It is hard to see in the photos, but they are super shiny. While they are primarily the same cards, they do have distinctly different looks.  

Stay tuned in the coming weeks as my fellow Art Girls share more from the Winter 2017 Collection.  You are going to want them all!  Thanks for hanging out with me today.

Read More »