Calendar journaling

This is my last daily journaling spread in this art journal for 2013. Will be returning to this again in January 2014, but for December I'll be sharing what I create in my December Daily altered book - check out my last post.

This spread started with a piece of gelli-printed deli paper that I sprayed over in a playday - more on that in the next post.

The dark background gave me a chance to use my lovely new white Sakura gelly roll pen again.

My day and this page finished with a visit to the Wearable Art show currently on at Te Manawa until February - if you are local it is well worth the visit.

The advertising inspired me to use my Dylusions Bubblegum Pink spray on the opposite page. It helps to lighten the spread.

I added the lettering and gold fern stencilling as a nod to my December Daily cover.

I had thought that this last spread would only be one page, but there was lots to talk about.

You can see my other calendar journaling pages in my Flickr set. See you in December.

December Daily : an altered book

I decided to go ahead and join Ali Edwards' December Daily project. Mine's a lot different than Ali's style - I've decided to make an altered book. 

This is what I started with. I just love that title - begging to be altered :-) I was also inspired by the colour and immediately found some lovely sari ribbon for ties. Originally published in 1924, it has lovely sturdy old pages with deckled edges - and not many more than 30 so will be perfect for the days of December and just a few extra memory pages or double spreads.



I picked it up very cheap at a book sale - someone's trash will be my treasure. I picked my colour scheme of turquoise blue and red, and went through my studio to find some gatherings - love this part.

Fabric and ribbon gatherings

Paper gatherings

Old Christmas cards, Christmassy serviettes,
and other findings I might use

sparkly paints, sprays and glitters

I also bought these daily labels : available for digital purchase HERE. They fit my colour scheme and I think will help to unify my pages. I've printed them on different papers, including a transparency, for variety.

I already had these

Printables available for purchase from Mary Ann Moss HERE

I found some really cool FREE digital Christmas ticket stamps HERE

printed on scrapbook paper overprinted on a
gelli plate with metallic paint

and Heidi Swapp had some lovely FREE digitals last year HERE. Here's some of them printed on card and transparencies ::

I really enjoy transparencies. Here's another page of free images from the Graphics Fairy printed on an inkject transparency.

And finally, here's the cover so far

And a peek at how I've started the bases of some pages :

stencil with distress ink pad applied with sponge dauber

transparent date tag

distress ink pad applied over mask with sponge dauber

spray ink through stencil then opposite page gets the print of wet ink

acrylic paint sponged over mask

gel medium sponged randomly through stencil then sprinkled with glitter

more acrylic paint through a stencil

I'm not sharing too much yet, but this project is going to take the place of my calendar journaling for December and I'll share each week. Merry Merry

Calendar journaling

Lots of Christmas ideas but nothing quite ready to show you yet....at least I am still doing my daily journaling. When I started my 7th spread earlier this month, I sprayed dylusions inks over tags used as masks and had this to start with

and this additional page from the wet inked tags which has become the starting point for this 10th spread.

I started by adding some of my gelli printed packing tape and still wasn't feeling inspired. My go-to idea is to add spray through a stencil. Because it's been such sunny weather here I added some yellow dylusions ink and liked the pages much more immediately. Left page has the ink sprayed through the stencil, and on the right I made a print by pressing the stencil down to clean the wet ink off.

On the bottom left you can also see a torn bit of newsprint where I'd cleaned a  stencil from a previous session. It now becomes an extra collage element on the page. I had tag shapes printed on the page, but also was able to add a tag coloured from that original session to give more variety.

The right page continues in the same style. I've enjoyed using different pens and have been glad to discover this lovely new white Sakura Gelly Roll pen as an alternative to my uniball signo.

Loving the mix of grungy spray background, tapes and rub-ons. Click on any photo to see it larger.

The tape measure is just to disguise some of what I've written! And here's spread 10 complete.

You can see my other calendar journaling pages in my Flickr set.

Gelli printing on other papers

In previous posts I've shown you my printing play on packing tape, paper tapes, and deli paper. Thought I would show you a few other paper surfaces I've had fun printing on
Vellum or tracing paper - this is what I used

You can see through it - here's the same print laid on top of sheet music

and it produces a lovely effect when wrapped around a candle in a jar.

Print on acetate for even more see-through effect

Above photographed on carpet, and below photographed on sheet music

Tissue paper produces delicate effects

Print over cardstock that has a collaged base for more going on in the background

Use metallic and iridescent or interference paints over black card

Print on old book pages - I love to see text in the background

or as an element to show through a mask

Make tags and journal cards

Decorate library cards and pockets

And of course print to make co-ordinating cards and envelopes

- there'll be more on this as I do my Christmas cards.
Hope you've seen something there to get your creative ideas going. Have a happy weekend :-)