Inspired By

TODAY IS THE DAY!  The BIG reveal of the project you have all been anxiously awaiting! Just go with my disillusions here! hehe.   The E-team is starting a new series that I think we will all enjoy and hopefully grow from!

This new blog hop is featuring our own personal journals as we embark on a journal that is

INSPIRED BY WORDS.

Visit each E-Team blog participant and leave a comment between today, April 25 to Sunday, April 29th for the chance to win a $25 eP gift certificate.  Winner's will be announced on the eP blog, Monday, April 30. PLUS!!  Join the E-Team in our journal adventure and post your journal cover on the eP blog by May 4th and we will pick 2 people to join us next month for the next journal adventure!!

Daisy, eP blog

Broni

Linda L

Micki

Sherry

ME!

I'm really excited about this new series!  I have been wanting to do an art journal for a while, but just never jump off the ledge. Add my love of inspirational words and this series has become the icing on the cake!  I'm so glad the Daisy snuck up behind me, and shoved! LOL!

I decided to make my own journal book instead of buying one.  My thought is that this will allow me to add what ever type of base paper or medium I would like to work with for that particular entry.  And I can add as many pages as I can fit my binding rings around! haha.  For my journal cover, I wanted to combine a couple of my favorite mediums; paint, metal and most recently, Ice Resin.  I started with a couple of Zutter book covers and painted a base coat of TenSecond Studios Verday paint in Bronze.  

Tips:  shake the paint well before applying.  The Verday paint is an acrylic paint that has actual metal particles in it.  You want to make sure that those particles get dispersed from settling on the bottom of the bottle.  

After letting the base coat dry for a couple of hours, I took a rough sea sponge and lightly dabbed more VerDay Bronze paint randomly onto the cover.  Immediately, while the paint was still wet, I misted with the VerDay Patina.  I put my Verday Patina into a cheap, fine mist bottle (like "hairspray" bottle), found  in the area where travel sized accessories are at Target.  

Let the Verday chemically react with the paint overnight.

After drying, I felt that I had gotten a bit heavy handed with the sponging/VerDay and had too much patina. I then just took my course sea sponge again, dipped it into a bit more VerDay Bronze paint, dabbed off on a paper towel and "dry" sponged randomly on the top of the covers to add more copper

Here is a picture, deliberately angled so that you can see all the wonderful metallic bronze shine

I have to say, I hated to cover up all this wonderful patina!!  LOL!  But cover it up I did!  Here is the cover to my journal.

I die cut various layers from the Tattered Floral die and from Spellbinders Carnation Creations from TenSecond Studio's Barn Red metal. I ran some of the flower layers through the Big Shot with an embossing folder and some layers I just hand doodled squiggle lines and others I used a decorative wheel tool on the metal to make patterns.  I then intensified the color with some alcohol inks 

I then shaped the flowers and applied a thin layer of Ice Resin to both sides of the individual layers using a small paint brush.  I recommend wearing gloves for this step.  It gets rather messy and you will get Ice Resin on your hands while trying to paint both sides of the petals.  I left a small portion of the bottom of the flowers unpainted so that I could set them down on my craft sheet to dry.  I was hoping that the Ice Resin would harden the metal enough that the flower petals would be more stable and would not bend as easily.  The Ice Resin DID help stabilize the metal.  I'm thinking that if I were to add another layer, it would make the metal really solid.   After letting the Ice Resin cure for a couple of days, I glued the layers together with Beacon's Glass, Metal and More Permanent Glue.  This is the first time I have used this glue and I was pleased at how relatively quick it set. I would highly recommend using it in a well ventilated room though! It has a bit of a strong odor!

The leaves were die cut using a combination of Spellbinders Carnations Creations and Foliage from TSS's Peacock metal.  

Here is my tutorial , with a video link for making flowers out of metal.  

And a close up of my "first" journal entry.  

The journal entry was typed on the computer, then each word cut out and sponged with Distress Vintage Photo ink.  I cut off a flap from a cardboard box, saturated it with water and peeled off the smooth layer of cardboard, revealing the rough layer underneath.  Distress Stain in Picket Fence was randomly applied.  The words were then attached using glue dots.  

The final touch was adding some swirling bling from Want2Scrap.  

I also finished the inside of the cover. 

I like to think that the TOTALLY different look is reflective of what I hope to accomplish with this journal.  No preconceived ideas.  No limits.  Just go for it.

I first covered the inside with Claudine's gesso.  I didn't really worry too much about how thick the coverage was.  Since I was totally impatient, I heat dried the gesso with my heat gun.  I then dropped random spatters of alcohol ink onto the gesso and hit them with a blast of canned air, dispersing the inks.  A light mist of Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist Tuscan Sun  was added on top.  After drying, I stamped the sentiment from Wendy Vecchi's I Am My Art set, using Archival Jet Black Ink.  Tip:  I would HIGHLY recommend that you do the inside of the cover before completing all the dimensional work on the outside.  It would make getting a clean, crisp stamped image soooo much easier and you will be able to avoid having to go over the stamped image with a black Sharpie.  Just sayin'.  

I'm really excited about this new adventure!  I hope that you will check out all the other E-Team's journal cover's and be inspired to join us!!