REDEEMED Mixed Media Scrapbook Layout with a Time-Lapse Video

Hello, peeps! Today I've got a time lapse video for you! Tap/click HERE. It will take you toYouTube. 

This layout's home is in my 2018 unPlanner. To see more of my unPlanner - this year and the years previously, see the tabs at the top of my blog.

Scroll down past the video to see the supplies used and tips and tricks, and observations I made in the process of watching back the video. I hope you enjoy! :)

See my time-lapse video HERE!

Supplies Used (In the order I use them in the video, mostly) 

- Mixed media paper

- pencil

- A fat round paint brush (I like the ones that hold lots of paint and water for this technique.) Using fingers to paint might work fine too.)

- water

- heat gun (optional)

- acrylic paint (Permanent Violet Dark by Golden, Bahama Blue by Deco Art, Americana line, Deco Art Phthalo Turquoise and Phthalo Green-Blue, Artist's Loft Neon Pink and white)

- Various doodled-style stamps (I used Paperbag Studios rubber stamps Doodles and Daters and others.)

- Distress Oxide Inks by Ranger (Use inks that show up well on dark paper and paint.)

- Staz-On black ink

black cardstock

- sewing machine (or hand stitch some touches? Or have you seen the Sew Easy tool? So fun - comes in lots of different designs, too!)

- metallic pink thread

- double-sided scotch tape

- photo

- acrylic block

- dictionary paper

- scissors

- word art (I made my own) Scrapbooking 3d letters would look great too. Love THESE.

- glue stick

- black Sharpie (or some other permanent black marker) - extra fine tip 

- Scrapbook paper for the tag, or make your own paper, or use those delectable artPOPS by Kristin Peterson of AlteredStatesStudio.

- reinforcement stickers

- sari ribbon 

- paper clip with fabric ribbon: you can get my Roses Dreaming Planner Clips  from my Etsy shop HERE.

- flower diecut (Purple Roses Printable 8.5x11" sheet HERE!)

- glue dots (or other strong glue)

- washi tapes (Roses Dreaming Washi Tape - 20mm wide HERE)

- paint pens or opaque gel pens

- Last, but not the least, my journaling bible.

Tips and observations about my project: 

- When applying colour, add dimension by creating darker shades and lighter ones of the same base colour. (For this layout, I chose dark purple as my main colour, adding water or white paint to lighten up the colour.)  

- Using black elements or other contrasting colours is always an easy trick when creating a focal point. Having a focus point helps our eyes to zoom in on one thing first, then to the secondary and further elements. Our brain likes the order it brings.

- Stamp clusters of detail in three spots (triangular formation) over the two-page layout. If you're creating a similar design just on one square sheet of paper, you can still apply this rule of thirds and clustering trick. 

- I use double-sided scotch tape to easily attach unmounted rubber stamps to an acrylic block.

- Apply white paint or bright colours in areas where it feels too dark or muddy. It brightens things up.

- To choose stamps, think what you want to portray, but also the scale and pattern of each, I like to use some intricate designs, paired with bolder and larger. Also think stripes, circles, triangles. Opposites.

- Baby wipes are a fast and easy way to quickly clean your stamps, or smudge areas you want blended in more, or to pick up too much colour in places.

- I had trouble with the neon pink not popping enough on those finger-painted circles, so I should have put down a white paint first. My experience with neon paints is that they are quite transparent. If you know of a paint that is opaque, message me. I'd love to find some! 

***Warning ahead: reading further might cause you to go down a rabbit hole. Yep. Classic Alice. 

As I typed my tip above, I googled "opaque flourescent acrylic paint", and discovered an amazing article about some tricks to create an opaque look! See HERE! It does seem like a lot of work, haha, so, let's just get a product that does everything for us, correct? ;)

- Use an apron or old clothes when you do the splattering. I got my favorite summer dress full of paint, and my glasses as well...lol

- I got my bible out, finger-painted around the bible verse I'm meditating on, and then copied the words to the back of the journaling spot that sits under the photo.

And that is that! What enormous fun I've had in creating the project, the video, this blog post, everything. Now back to my house, which has suffered a little in the past few days...Please leave a comment if you enjoyed the project, or if you have any questions. I welcome all feedback. Or just comment to say hi! :) 

♥♥♥  Anna  ♥♥♥

Otherworldly Mixed Media Art

Hi, lovelies! 

I'm on the StencilGirlTalk blog today, sharing a step-out on how to make this project my daughter has titled Otherworldly.

Check it out here:

StencilGirl Talk

You can also come join me and others in a fun challenge: The Mixed Media Monthly Challenge #32 to win a $25 gift certificate to StencilGirl products!

Have a great day!

♥♥♥  Anna  ♥♥♥

December Daily Album Part 2

Hi, everyone! :)

okaaaaayyyyy. before you think I've gone off the deep end, making something Christmas-related in July, I must say that this project I am about to show you is a continuance ofthe StencilGirl/Imagine Crafts Christmas in July blog hop yesterdayyyyy....okay?  :) :) :)

I have been having so much fun prepping my December Daily journal. I want it ready for quick documenting in December.
My previous post
HERE
describes much of it, but in this post, I will include three things:

1. Give you more details on how I made the book.

2. Show you a few of the pages I've prepared, including some step by step photos.

3. TWO videos: a before and after flip-through.

Book Assembly

I used the same method as the first book I ever made. Here: My Coptic Stitch Bound DLP Journal
and here: My Handmade Journal for DLP.

For the front and back cover, I simply used one of the gelliprints. I didn't explain this in my previous post, but of the 15 sheets of cardstock I gelliprinted, three of them are coldpress watercolour paper. I folded one of the watercolour prints and glued it shut, doing the same for both front and back. This creates a bit stronger cover. Note: you might want to use a stiffer and thicker substrate, like chipboard and decorate however you want.

I learned the coptic stitch method from these videos:
How to Make a Sketchbook: Coptic Stitch

and the assembly from this one:
Coptic Stitch Binding Tutorial by Sea Lemon.

Keep in mind that it requires practice to get perfect results. I don't mind that my book isn't perfect bound. It adds whimsy. ;) In fact, if you watch my video flip-throughs, the book is quite wobbly and loose.

Spine

For the ribbon I simply cut a 24"length of sheer ribbon, hand-dyed, opened the book to the middle, threaded one end through the second and the other end through the second last coptic stitch, pulled both ends through, and tied a bow on the outside spine. :)

 Inside Pages

Since I first printed each sheet of paper front and back, then folded the papers and sewed the book "signatures" together, the design of each two-page spread don't exactly work together, left to right, so I will alter each page so they coordinate, as I like the look of unified pages.

Here is an example of what I mean:

Day 1 and Day 2

Before

Looking at the spread above, I make observations:

Red on left, lots of pink on right. No turquoise on left side.

My eye demands that I need to have a visual triangle of colours and images spanning the two pages.

After

1. I smoosh some pink paint on left side, covering up more of the white area at the top.

2. Another turquoise flower on the left, using THIS GORGEOUS STENCIL and for the third element, I add some of the turquoise paint on top left corner with a stencil (of course;) ). There. Now I have three places with turquoise. :)

Circles, same thing. Date circles (uneven - asymmetrical) and the circle cluster at the bottom right. :)

For the circles, I punch out circles from an old Christmas craft book, paint with some color, stencil, glue to page, doodle with white gel pen, and draw the number on an old painted book paper and cut out. Add some shadowing with black Pitt marker and black Stabilo All pencil. 

I made this cluster of circles after watching Rae Missigman's latest video on StencilGirl Talk. She paints very loosely and she also uses pencil to add more detail marks, so I do the same. I love her loose and carefree style!

I start with four various-sized white circular smudges. Then I add purple smudges with a Silks acrylic glaze, then apply the marvelously fun Amplify Neon by Imagine Crafts, brushing it with some golden metallic paint. Lastly, some turquoise dots, white gel pen and pencil squiggles.

I looked at this lily stencil and thought it looked close enough to a poinsettia. A modern and funky twist on a traditional Christmas flower. :) I first stencil with white paint to make it pop from the red background, then with the turquoise (Americana Bahama Blue craft paint). Next, I add dots with Golden Fluid Iridescent Gold Deep (Fine) paint. To finish it off, I made some loose marks around the petals with a brush and white paint.

Day 3 and Day 4

Before

Observations: 

I love the blocking the 6x6 Decorative Folk Flower Screen stencil achieved.

I like the contrast of the turquoise thread in the middle (messy stitching of the signatures).

The dark green on lower right makes the whole spread unbalanced, as there is no other spot with that colour value.

Too much white around the whole spread.

The gold chevron washi tape is there because I pulled the thread through the paper too tightly while binding the signatures. LOL. An oopsie made pretty. Will add more gold in other places to make it look on purpose.

After

I feel like I have too many patterns and textures going on, which is partly from the high contrast of white and red in the middle there. When I go back to fill in my December 3rd and 4th, I will fill in more areas with solid colour. I'll probably journal and put photos in the middle, leaving only some of the lovely pattern showing in a few places. Won't see much of the grid, which I might regret...

 

The mini scallop shapes are made using one of the cute designs from the StencilGirl April 2016  Private Collection 16.2 club sheet.

I added more dimension to the square in middle with the Amplify stuff, further framing the square in middle.

The filigree design is stenciled with the Decorative Filigree Ornament Stencil by Gwen LaFleur. 

December 16 (I skipped to this page in my book, as I had ideas for this page. :)

Before

Observations:

That big swath of pink in middle left will need to be toned down.

More turquoise on left to balance the amount on right.

I will need to go off the page on right with a similar colour value as the image on top left corner.

After

Step-out picture below:

I apply that lily stencil again to top right, starting with white. This stencil and mask is part of a set, and they all work nicely together. 

I add pinks and purples with stencils and finger smooshing. :)

First purple, then pink mini scallops, then the funky hot pink puff balls. Christmas ornaments, right? ;)

Squiggles with pencil and white gel pen.

Here I add the puffy stuff in different shapes.

Have you seen the little video I made demonstrating this product? Here it is:

Pink mini scallops on white edge. All so yummy and textural and colorful.

I made a little video flip-through of my pages before I added the extra embellishing and refining.

And another after:

I hope you enjoyed my very long blogging here. I am totally loving this little work in progress book! 

Don't know what I mean with a December Daily journal? Check out Ali Edwards' plan. She journals daily through the whole month of December in a scrapbooky style, with photos and journaling. I hope to include both in this journal. We'll see, though. I change my mind so much. I might just use it for fun art journaling.

Thanks for visiting! I appreciate any and all comments and questions! Bring it on!

♥♥♥  Anna  ♥♥♥

unPlanner Pages Week 3

Hi, lovelies! Just quickly sharing my The Documented Life Project 2016 - The unPlanner Week 3 pages and Week 4 in progress. So fun to do this. So many art techniques to practice on these sheets of kraft paper. Playing with color, shapes, stencils, finger painting, yummy yummy.

I printed the weekly view (which is one of the downloads I printed that you receive when you sign up!) using a sheet from a huge patterned paper pad I purchased. It is all thin kraft paper, printed with neon colors on the front, blank in the back, making it perfect for printing my weekly views, as my printer does not take regular cardstock.

I painted circles in my color scheme of aqua, teals, flourescent pink, deep violet and white.Then, I spied my new stencil: Tropical Floral Stencil by Traci Bautista from Stencil Girl. Super versatile stencil. See it HERE. This stencil is superb. As I play with it, look at all the different shapes, it somehow just gives just the right shapes I need at the moment. I made several layers, creating clusters along the edges and corners. I hand painted the edges with the same paint. I added my FB memory snippets and then some of the goings-on in our present day.

Facing page of my weekly view is a page I created inspired by an illustration by Eloise Ranouf called Leaf Blocks.

I need to do a month's worth of PACs yet, and I'm really looking forward to working on them, but as of now, they must wait to be blogged about. ;)

Oh, the lists as well. No hurry, no stress, just do it when I can, correct? :)

February's theme was Leaping Without Hesitation". I wrote about how I hesitate in certain relationships to be my true self. The dancing girl is a stencil I made from an art piece I had made years ago in memory of my niece Genevieve 

who is dancing without hesitation in heaven. 

I miss her so. I long for paradise, for leaping without fear of anything, oh how I long for that day to be with my Savior. Meanwhile I will rejoice and revel in this great mystery here on earth. Great joy, great joy. Do YOU know this joy?

I picture her amongst the sweetest beauty and aroma of flowers, all dancing with her. My dancing Fifa-girl. She passed away just three days shy of her 16th birthday, ten years ago. I just cannot believe it's been that long, and yet, her memory is fading, which is how this temporal place works here on earth. It grieves me that I'm losing that sense of her.

The little flowers within the bubbles are made with the same stencil I used for the weekly view. The skewed black letters (and on the spine of the weekly view, on right) were stamped with an old Stampin' Up background stamp.

Again, I used that stencil for the floral shapes here. 

For the watercoloring areas, I used Lindy's Stamp Gang dye powders called Magicals. Fun product. :) They are designed by Limor Webber, and I get to attend her art classes this September in my city!!!! Can't waiiiiiiitttt! See HERE for more information if you are somewhat local to me!! Would love to meet you and play together with our paints!! Now this is page is ready to be filled in. I have my notes ready. :) 

So glad you came to visit! Bless you all!

♥♥♥ Anna ♥♥♥

January pages in my unPlanner

The Documented Life Project 2016 : The unPlanner

My first post about this year's DLP here on my blog, but I've spent many a happy hour working on this binder. This is a completely new thing for me - working in a binder. I think this the perfect combination of calendar/art journal for me. It requires quite a bit of fiddling and back and forth with paper, but I love it. :) 

At the end of this post, I have a flip-through video. Yes, I recorded a video, and it's uploaded to Youtube! Whoot!

See DLP project details HERE.

January's theme was all about Out on a Limb, which means a tree, right? So I did my own wacky version. :) Layered burlap pieces on mixed media paper, added Dylusions ink sprays, paper punches, a stencil, modeling paste, and more. 

Page 2 and 3: 

With the DLP kit that was an optional addition to the project, you receive these great decorated cardstock planner pages, Some have lines, some are blank, and my favorite has graph lines. So I listed the projects I'm working on this year, and added my signature pinks and aubergines to it. The tags are colored in with a waterbrush and the pigments.

The lyrics to one of my favorite songs appeared on my Facebook a few days ago, so printed it off and added it to this page.

For page 3, which is the back of my watercolor calendar you'll see next, I glued on my first page of the 18/52 Project I'm part of. I added the calligraphy "fabulous" to it after,

Bottom right corner of above photo is an edge I crocheted with aubergine variagated wool. 

Page 4 and 5:

Page 4 is Week 2 of the 18/52 project and on the right is a bookmark that came with the kit, which I decorating using stencils, modeling paste, Posca marker, Fluid acrylic flourescent pink by Golden, adding some stamping for extra detail.  

Page 7 is home to the monthly tab, where I painted in calligraphy with a waterbrush, on watercolor paper, cutting out the month and gluing to the weekly view page. 

STRENGTH: my Word of the Year. On the back I wrote in the bible verse I want to meditate on all year long. (Along with other verses that I plan to study in depth this year.)

The flower on the bookmark is a stamp handcarved by me, decorated with paints and doodles until it looked right. :)

With the very small membership fee, you get great downloads to use with your planner. For the monthly view, I chose to use the same style I used the first year of DLP, in 2014. I created the calendar on watercolor paper, sized in such a way that it folds in. I felt the need to have a larger calendar than was offered. Since I technically don't use it as a planner, rather a diary of sorts, I went with daily doodle practice. There are several of us of the 2,800 members that are doing the same. :)

If you are familiar with my blog, you probably know of my aubergine color obsession! What is aubergine? Well, it's a really deep, almost black violet eggplant color. See my Pinterest board where I gather lots of inspiration for this color! It's right HERE. :) I'm using the same color scheme for a different project I'm doing as well.

For my weekly view, I am using one of the downloads, and decorating with stencils and painting. Doodling as well, of course. :)

I watercolored in the empty areas with Neocolors2 and Lindy's Gang pigments. Such a rich purple-y pink color!

Used a fun stencil set by Seth Apter for Stencil Girl is the main feature of my weekly view page. Additional stencils by Stencil Girl are also used.

Work in progress shots: Sharpie marker, fine line for the doodling.

Pages 8 and 9:

Week 3 of 18/52

close-up

Dare2B pocket on page 9. I used a piece of dyed burlap for the pocket. I was practicing the calligraphy shown on a scrap piece of paper, and decided it would add a nice detail to the pocket.

The polka dotted paper that backs this pocket is a big neon/kraft set I purchased from Micheals. Sewing? Yes, of course I have sewing. Actually there are stitches on every page of this project. :)

Page 10 and 11:

List 10 on page 11, backed with a black tag that came in kit, decorating with paint and stencils by Stencil Girl.

I kept on moving elements around all month, until it all worked the way I wanted it. This was part of the fun! :)

I love how this looks, with a different element (my week 2 PAC) peeking out past the pages. :)

Page 12 and 13:

On the back of the black tag, I glued an envelope, decorated with stamps and washi tape, and created a pocket for one of my PACS. White ribbon from kit ties it together. The weekly view is stamped first, then some Dylusions paint added. The fun number flower stamps by Rae that came in the kit feature the days of the week. I painted the petals in with pink paint. FUN! I gessoed the outline and sewed as well.

This is the PAC for week 2, but I didn't follow the prompt. This was actually done in my junque journal, but I accidentally cut apart the paper, so I made it the PAC. The other parts are added as embellishments and the spine by the hole reinforcements. The reinforcement on the PAC was from the kit. I stamped a portion of the sheet of reinforcements with a word find stamp by Stampin'Up. Old, old stamp, now put to use. So happy to use old stuff! Metallic pink thread for the stitching of the black tag.

I dyed some of the ribbon with Bubblegum Pink Dylusions spray.

See the adorable silver number 3 paper clip? I'm in love. :)

I had fun decorating the reinforcements for each hole.

Pages 14 and 15:

After much deliberation, I glued a page protector to the back of page 13. I first cut it down so it fits the binder, and sewed the edges shut. These pockets are full of extra happy mail I have made and sent in the past. A ticket from a theatre production we went to also is included. Tucked in behind the "Be free" quote are two of the PACS.

The weekly view on the right (page 15): I punched out circles from gelli prints for the numbers, and doodled in the numbers and petals.

The white paper snippets are the Facebook memories that pop up in my feed. I screenshot my favorites when I see them and print them off. Coupled with memories like that and present-day happenings, and my weekly views get filled up!

PACS from Week 4 and 5 are above. The barcodes are from Michaels coupons I accumulated over the month of January. LOL I glued one down, sewed, then layered another, sewing again. Repeat.

The one on the right: you can't see, but I collaged some of my daughter's art onto the PAC. I didn't like how I had put it together, so I started adding paint and stenciling. Now it ends up like this. LOL

My favorite spread are pages 16 and 17: week 4 and 5 weekly views.

I drew in the numbers, doodled circles around each one, filled in the areas with black, filled in the numbers with white paint, and added squiggles around each number.

I sprayed Dylusions Bubblegum pink ink spray through a Tim Holtz stencil, then smudged white Dylusions paint with my fingers around the numbers, over the stencilled pink areas, around the edges, and moving into the middle. In bottom right corner, I added another layer of pink paint with the same stencil.

While spraying the weekly view, my underpaper got decorated as well, so I cut out a half-circle and glued to the kraft paper, which I doodled around.

Pages 16 and 17:

Week 3 PAC: watercolor dots, and words from a flyer, found poetry documenting my faith.

Week 1 PAC: I used modeling paste through a stencil, and added paint with fingers. Found the "sixteen" in an old book, sewn onto a piece of pink burlap. Of course, sewing around the edges in black finishes everything off. :)

Found this lovely kraft paper decorated with gorgeous images at my friend's scrapbook store. It's a BoBunny pack. Stitched around with metallic pink thread, glueing the last bit in a little cluster.

Pages 18 and 19:

This photo does not record the real depth of this piece. I call this Blooms at Midnight. This was part of the 18/52 Journal project by Miranda Banks at Clare Plantation. I'm incorperating those pieces into my unPlanner here. For the background detail, I used a stencil by MaryBeth Shaw, part of the December Stencil Girl Club collection. I attempted the violet-black for the background, but you can't really see the true color here. :(

Pages 20 and 21:

Last week view for January. I glued a pocket full of snail mail goodies to this page. I have a tutorial here on my blog on how I made those flowers and pockets. Interested? See HERE.

Page 21 is a simple page made with my digital scrapbooking software. The photos are some of my favorite pics I took this month: my daughter and niece being crazy. :)

I am finished with this VERY. LONG. POST. In conclusion, I offer you a video of a flip-through of the above pages. Enjoy! Thanks for sticking with me to the end!

Do you want to know more about this project? Check out the deets HERE. It's a project that Lorraine Bell, Rae Missigman and Sandi Keene, of the Art5 group have come up with. :)

This is my third year of The Documented Life Project, and I am so pleased the lovely artists have continued it for another year! :) 

♥♥♥  Anna  ♥♥♥