The hero of the story

Hi everyone!

   Today I will share with you a very nervous walk into the world of Journaling. I LOVE Journaling pages, but I never felt that I could do it. I did try it once and I created a very awful looking journal page and I just put it aside thinking "that isn't for me". I decided to stick to tags and altered items and lots and lots of flowers.

    Even though I love doing all that I kept seeing other people's Journal pages and just wishing that I could do something even slightly as wonderful.....Hey....I'd be thrilled to create just one that is bearable to look at!!!

     I had seen some pages that had sparked some ideas and decided one day to just try it again...and follow one of my favourite bloggers advice to me which was not to get too caught up with 'techniques' - stick with basics and just have fun.....and that is what I did...

     And....I quite like how this turned out. Occasionally I look at it and the perfectionist in me cringes at the crooked placement of a stamp or too much gold or too much paint splatter....Perhaps it is too grungey and messy?.....but the fun that I had makes me like it - because on this piece I really didn't let myself think. I just collected a few Distress stains, sprays and stamps and had them there in front of me and just flew with any idea that came into my head....never really stopping to think "Shall I do that next?, What is the plan here....?"....and so this is what happens when I don't think!

I got a double page from a book and covered the middle of it with Gesso. I marked out where the photo from the TH Salvage Stickers would go and cut an aperture out with a craft knife that was slightly larger so it would have a text frame.

I applied texture paste with the TH Burlap stencil around the pages and dried with a heat gun.

After applying the Gesso I decorated the page with some torn strips of a book page and some Tim Holtz Script tissue tape from the Hobgoblin set, and the travel tape.

   I then applied some lace strips to the page and when they were glued I began to colour the pages.

First I sprayed the entire page with Dylusions Melted Chocolate and dabbed with a tissue afterwards. This removed the colour from the gesso but the lace and texture paste absorbed the colour. I then dabbed the pages with Brushed Corduroy DI to add a warm brown colour, adding Walnut Stain around the edges.

     I then began to add some stamped images using Coffee and Jet Black Archival ink. I used several stamps from the Haberdashery set and two quotes which gives the title of the journal page. The title looked too vivid when stamped, so I lightly brushed across the archival ink with a dry brush to add some streaks and blend it in slightly.

 The other stamps came from a Paperartsy set called Letters.

I then began to splatter some paint...I splattered some Picket Fence DP with a brush and dried it with a heat gun to create bubbles - I love the grungey look that paint splatter has when you heat it too much.

Then I sprayed the entire page with a very fine mist of Adirondack Espresso ink.

 I added a pearl button....

 a grapevine heart...

                                                            a brass wire heart

and a pen nib that had been covered with Classic Gold treasure gold

.....and then I decided that more gold was needed on the page so I began to apply Treasure Gold to highlight the lace and parts of the pages.

And there is my Journal pages - I do hope you like it!