“Follow Your Heart” – Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge (Art Journal Page)

Y’all! Today’s prompt for the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge was “Art Journal”. I love it when there’s a bit of a prompt, but it leaves it wide open to just play with products. Unfortunately, sometimes for me I get so caught up in the products and what they can do for a background, I don’t want to cover it up. Haha. But, I got over it today and covered it up just a little bit.

Today, I worked in my Dylusions Flip Journal. I like the size of this journal because the pages are 8″x5″, so that makes for a nice, quick project. Today I chose to just do a one page entry. I got the Bigz Tattered Butterly in the mail last week and have been itching to use it. In fact, the first thing I did was cut out my butterfly. I have a ton of smaller scraps from the Lost and Found paper pad from Tim Holtz. There are a lot of wonderful floral prints in that pad so I went with one of those. I cut my butterfly pieces out on my Vagabond and decided to stamp and heat emboss some script on them. For this I used Distress Embossing Ink and Distress Embossing Glaze in Hickory Smoke. I then distressed the edges of my butterfly with Distress Ink in Walnut Stain.

Next was my background. Since I was only planning to do a one page entry today, I needed to protect my other side of my journal in case I want to use it for a future project. For this I placed a paper towel behind the page I was working on, and I used my Silicon Mat from Ranger to cover the other side. If you’re careful (I strongly emphasize IF you are careful) and don’t move it around too much it will work. However, IF you don’t it can lead to ink on your other page. For my background, today, I chose my Distress Oxide Sprays. The colors I used were Blueprint Sketch, Shaded Lilac, and Seedless Preserves. I did the normal technique (normal for me) of spritzing with a little water, and then spraying a little of each color until I was happy with the coverage. Once I was happy with the ink coverage, I spritzed it again, barely pulling the trigger on my Distress Sprayer, so that I got those nice big water droplets. Then, using a rag I had handy, I dabbed up the water and made sure it was good and dry with my Ranger Heat It tool. As you can see, I wasn’t too careful. Haha

Next, I decided to give my Distress Splatter Brush another go. I squirted just a small dab of the Distress Paint in Black Soot onto my nonstick mat and then spritzed it with a little bit of water. I then dabbed my splatter brush into the paint, and over my paper, very slowly pulled back the bristles of the brush. I was pleasantly surprised. No mess-ups this time! Yay!!

Pleased with that, I decided to move on to some texture. Since I had already decided to use the butterfly, I knew I needed some flowers. The Stampers Anonymous layering stencil (THS143) was just what I needed. I used my Distress Crackle Texture Paste for this page. I just LOVE the Distress Crackle Paste. I love that crackle effect that it gives to your project. Anyway, enough about my romance with crackle paste. Haha.

Once I got the texture paste exactly how I wanted it, and mind you that doesn’t always happen; You can NEVER control the products! But, always remember there is no crying in mixed media!! In the words of Tim Holtz, “You get what you get and you don’t throw a fit.” No fit throwing today. It did just what I was hoping for. Haha. Oh yeah, I have ventured off again. Once I got the texture paste exactly how I wanted it, I had two little spaces that left a great space for some alphabet stamping. My favorite go to set these days is by Stampers Anonymous and it’s in the Tim Holtz line, of course. It is Faded Type and the number is CMS397. I used Distress Archival Hickory Smoke to stamp the image.

Then, last but not least, I adhered my butterfly and a baseboard sentiment to my page. I used my Distress Collage Medium to adhere the larger piece of the butterfly to my page. Then I used pop dots to adhere the second piece of the butterfly. The I chose the sentiment “Follow Your Heart” to go with my butterfly. Before sticking the sentiment down, I took my Distress Paint in Black Soot and distressed the edges of the piece, then glued it down with Distress Collage Medium as well. And I call that done.

The thing about an art journal is you can express yourself in any way you want. You can use whatever mediums you are comfortable with, make whatever sentiment you want to make. As a friend of mine always says, “You do you, Boo!” Haha

Until next time,

Jennifer