Christmas in July Blog Hop

Hi all! Welcome to the StencilGirl and Imagine Crafts Christmas in July Blog Hop! :)

I have had an amazing time with making my project for this fun hop. I have never participated in a Christmas in July project, so it was bit of a learning curve. But can it get any better? I get to play with my favorite stencils (from StencilGirl, of course!!) and some great products by Imagine Crafts! I am so excited to show you what I've made. 

Three things:

1. I love gelliprinting.

2. I love creating handmade books.

3. I have attempted a December Daily journal but I overthink my design every time, and so I don't get one ever finished during December, as it is a busy month!

So....this blog hop gave me the opportunity to pre-make one, and that's what I've done.

So the first pic is how my book looked originally. Then I got more ideas. And more ideas. So, it looks different now. I created more contrast and added some additional funky texture. Read on. :)

Step 1: Gelliprinted 15 sheets of white cardstock, BOTH sides. For this step, I did not spend much time thinking about the design of each print, I just got lovely textures, patterns and colours down.

 I used many different stencils (You will see them listed below.), using various colours of Golden paints including: Golden brand Primary Magenta, Teal and Turquois (Phthalo) and at least three crafts paints: Americana Bahama Blue, Americana Neon and Apple Barrel Fushia, plus white paint.

Decorative Folk Screen stencil by Gwen LaFleur.

Decorative Medallion by Gwen LaFleur

Deconstructed Single Lily Mask and Stencil by Traci Bautista 

Deconstructed Bold Lily Mask and Stencil by Traci Bautista

Deconstructed Lily Mask and Stencil by Traci Bautista

and Flicks by Lizzie Mayne.

Many more stencils and pages of course. 

Step 2: With metallic thread, I messily stitched each edge, somewhat along the paint lines on the edges of each print. (The 8"x10" Gelliplate is slightly smaller than the cardstock.)

Step 3: I folded each gelliprint in half, making signatures. Signatures are usually made up of several sheets of paper, but I pretended that each single sheet was one signature.

Step 3:Using the coptic stitch method, I stitched all the pages together with teal metallic thread. 

Now it is ready for my December Daily entries and the decorating!

You already saw the cover:

I added more detail to the initial gelliprint with paint and white gel pen. My favorite part: the puffy shapes you see!! THAT, my friends, was made with this fabulous magic puffy stuff called Amplify Neon by Imagine Crafts! I made a little video to show you how it works. See 

HERE. 

You doodle with it like you would a normal small-tipped bottle, and then you apply a heat gun to it until it puffs up. You stop heating it when it doesn't move anymore. So cool and so fun! See the product here: 

Imagine Crafts

When cool, I added golden metallic paint to it. Yummy!

After finishing the cover, I was fully into Christmas themed mixed media and had to actually work on the inside of my book. 

I have always loved white Christmas trees with pink and turquoise decorations, but hubby prefers Charlie Brown trees, so that's what we always have. So why not use pink and turquoise to my heart's content on my journaling pages? I say YES!! So here are some in process pages:

See the yummy puff balls? That's the Amplify product. 

Well, I had more pages and photos to show you, but my phone is being glitchy tonight! I will blog more about this project soon.

Thanks for visiting and do not forget to enter the giveaway! ;) :)

Blog Hop Order

July 9:

StencilGirl Talk

Mary C. Nasser

Kristie Taylor

Karen Gaunt

Neva Cole

Nadine Carlier

Monica Edwards

July 16:

StencilGirl Talk

Janet Joehlin

Cindy Giltrap

Anna Friesen

Alison Heikkila

Martha Lucia Gomez

Roni Johnson

July 23:

StencilGirl Talk

Gwen Lafleur

Carolyn Dube

Carol Baxter

Mark Melnick

Jowilna Nolte

Terre Fry

What would a Blog Hop be without a GIVEAWAY??!!!

We'll be picking one lucky winner

to receive $100 in Gift Certificates – a $50 Gift Certificate for StencilGirl Products and

a $50 Gift Certificate for Imagine Crafts!

Take your time and visit each blog showcased July 9, 16, & 23 and leave your comments.

The more blogs you comment on, the more chances you have to WIN!

One comment per blog please.

You will have until Saturday, July 30th at 11:59PM Central Time to leave your comments.

The winner will be notified by email and announced on

StencilGirl's Facebook page on Sunday, July 31st.

Best of luck, faithful followers and new visitors! 

♥♥♥  Anna  ♥♥♥

Inspiration Wednesday Handmade Journal

Inspiration Wednesday: for years the course has intriqued me. This year, I've decided to jump in. 

I want to share the journal I made for it. I made my own. Why? 'Cause it's fun. And my own. Did I say it's fun yet? It is fun to make your own. 

Of course I can't keep it simple. I have to make my own journal. My previous post was of my Artsydoris, and I still I'm not over that. So, with a slightly different take on the whole thing, I will use my skills learned from the Artsydori workshop, and make a larger one for INSPIRATION WEDNESDAY 2016, hosted by Donna Downey. I've been intrigued with that workshop for many years, but you can only do so much, right? This year I'm jumping in with both feet. So, making my own journal for it.

Here are some details:

-  9"x12" Watercolor paper pad by Canson

- 26 sheets folded in half, which gives me a spread to work on once every two weeks, just like the project is set up.

- 5 signatures in total, 4 signatures have 5 sheets = 20 sheets, 1 signature has 6 sheets = 26 sheets 

Punched holes one inch apart with a dentist tool. (I lost my paper piecer, and for some crazy reason, I found an old dentist tool in my tool stash. Life with boys, I tell you. They like to save anything they find!This time it came in handy for me! ; )

- next step is to sew the signatures together. I added a Ranger tag between each each sheet, Inspiration Journal by Donna Downey style. Pink thread of course. ;)

The signatures, left to their own devices, lol, splay open like this. They will be harnessed soon with mixed media goodies in them! Can't wait to make a big mess of them. I folded them, and slip them into the elastics of my Dori. So easy.

Next, I fashioned my Artsy Dori. See the workshop here: Junque Art Sudio.

So, with this set-up, I can take out one signature at a time to work on my projects, and once dry, I can slip it, easy peasy back in - Traveler's Notebook-style. 

Here are some of my process pictures:

Underpaper on canvas, sprayed with Tulip fabric paint and a handmade mask, some gesso smudges, and some Gelli printing scraps...

Didn't like the blue middle...

Changed it to purple.

Added white markings and deep purple. Perfect.

Here's the back! Changed the dark colors to more muted tones, to match the front. I'm happy.

Next, is the project!! Here is my Week One project page in progress. Loving the look. Adding bright colors next. 

I'm very eager to learn new art journaling and mixed media techniques! Here goes nothing! :)

 Hopefully you'll see more Inspiration Wednesday posts. I love starting new projects, but find it hard to complete anything! Craft ADD, I tell you!

Have a great day, everyone, and thanks for visiting!

♥♥♥ Anna ♥♥♥

My Coptic Stitch bound DLP Journal

It's nearing the end of The Documented Life Project 2014! Only two more weeks to go! 

Do not know what this project is about? Do go visit the Art to the 5th blog and Academy! You won't be disapointed!  :)

Art to the 5th blog

Academy

Finally got around to finishing my cover and binding it all together! I'm very pleased with the results. I really like how it all lies so nice and flat no matter where you are in the book.

I used a cheap, SEE-THROUGH, plastic, thin, flexible cutting-board for my front and back covers. I decorated it using paints, gesso, stencils, Tulip fabric paint sprays, and simple white letter stickers.

Two volumes: One bound in pink embroidery floss, the other in yellow. I used all six threads that make up embroidery floss and covered it with beeswax. Next time I will use less threads, as it got a little thick. There are gaps between each signature for that reason, I believe.

Yellow thread stitching in the middle of the September signature...:)

To see what materials I used inside the book, and how I put it together, and links to Youtube videos for the Coptic Stitch method, go to my older blog post here: 

My handmade Journal for DLP

Thanks so much for stopping by! 

My handmade Journal for DLP

Some of you have been asking how I made my DLP journal. Here goes:

I used Canson 15x11" 140lb watercolor paper, with each sheet folded in half.

To prepare my journal for binding, I used this method: How to Make a Sketchbook: Coptic Stitch.

To bind all the pages, I plan on doing this: Coptic Stitch Binding Tutorial

The only reason I haven't bound it yet is because I haven't taken the time! In hindsight, this is better for working in, because even though the Coptic Stitch binding method gives me a lay-flat binding, I won't have to wrestle with trying to have a flat surface to work on. As the book gets thicker and thicker, the more I'd get frustrated with an uneven surface. To work on my pages, I just grab one month at a time. I do wish every now and then that my book was all intact, especially to carry it around and when people want to see it. :)

My daughter and I made a video where I page through my pages, showing each signature and some more little details. Nothing grand or professional looking about the video, but it'll give you an idea of my set up. :P At about 1:20, I show the folded pieces of watercolor pages.



My bubbles page:

Supplies:
Watercolor paper
Neocolor II water-soluble wax crayons
Black marker, fine-tipped (I used Sharpie)
White paint pen (I used Painters)

Directions:

1. With the wax crayons, randomly color different circles, pressing hard, and then softly coloring in the middles. Cover the whole page with multiple colors, not paying too much attention to placement, as long as you don't leave huge gaps in between circles.

2. Wet brush, dissolve the color in the circles, focusing on allowing water to pool to one side of each circle. Try to collect the color in the same spots of each circle. Let brush touch the dark outlined part of each circle to bring in lots of vivid color into the circle. Let dry THOROUGHLY.

3. Outline each circle with the black marker, attempting to not touch the actual circle. Doodle another circle around the first one, being careful to not overlap the other circles. So some circled outlines will be behind others, depending how close the circles are to each other. Do it randomly, in no particular order. I started at the bottom, and kind of moved to the top, to the edge, but really no particular order. Important that you keep it random.

4. Color in the little gaps with black.

5. Add dots to each circle with the white paint pen, ensuring you add the dots to the same side of each circle. I painted them all on the right side, but it doesn't matter which side you choose, as long as they are consistently on one side. See photo. Let dry.

And you're done! Easy peasy, just a little time consuming, right?

:)

Haha, looking at the close-up, I noticed I missed a few areas with the white paint pen. Perfectionism kills creativity, I will just say. ;P

Let me know if I missed any details, and I love questions!
Thanks for visiting! Happy day to you!

Anna