Honoring the Heart-A Mixed Media Board Book

Good morning everyone! In honor of February and all things "love", I created this mini board book honoring the heart using the Faber Castell mixed media journaling boards from this month's kit. I wanted to do a different background technique for all of the pages.

For the first page, I started with the black Gelato from the kit. I just rubbed it right onto the surface and added water to create a smoky background. I made the dots with the white Gelato and highlighted them with a red Faber Castell Big Brush pen. I added the doodling with my white gel pen. I had these cute mixed media stickers that I received from my sister in law for Christmas, so I altered this one by adding the valentine and label from the kit clip art and Stickles to her crown. I found a heart quote from a piece of old paper in my stash and cut that out and attached. Here is a close up of the finished page:

For the second page, I wanted a painted background. I finger painted some of my favorite colors on the background, then very loosely painted a flower shape with black paint and a thin brush. I added some highlights with the white paint.. I also used the Sin City stamps in the background, as well as dots from a Ranger paint dabber. Very simple, but colorful and fun to do!

Page 3 was a fun one to create. I started with a background of Pan Pastels. Then, I stamped with the rose stamp from Sin City stamps and Versamark to create a resist. Next, I laid down a stencil and used the Pan Pastel through that was well. It was cool seeing the pattern from the stamps come through the stencil. I sprayed with fixative, and let it dry. Finally, I created the horizon line at the bottom using my Aqua Letraset markers and smudged it in. I added another little mixed media sticker girl and attached another quote.

For my "fearless heart" card, I started the background with Pan Pastels again. Next, I rubbed an area with the white Gelato from the kit to create a highlight for the clip art heart I added. I found a little corner stamp in my stash and stamped that in the corner with black StayZ On ink. Then, I took a chipboard key, coated it with Glossy Accents and Distress Glitter and attached it to the card with my hot glue gun. I also added the Prima button. When it was all pieced together, I added a thin layer of Glitter Structure Paste in Magenta.

For the fourth card, I used Distress Paints and a stencil to create the background. I added a strip of washi tape down the middle and added another of the mixed media sticker girls and a "loved" label. I hand drew the border with a pencil, then filled it in with my markers and gel pens.

For the last page, I did stripes of Gelatos in pink, gold, red, and yellow. I added some water and used downward brush strokes to create a blended effect. I used a stamp from Sin City as the focal point. Then I used my Letraset Aqua markers to create the "grass" area at the bottom. I added a few doodles with my gel pen and another cut out sentiment.

I covered the back of all of these pages with a solid color paint, and on the advice of my five year old daughter, have decided to add some writing eventually to each page. I hope you enjoyed, have a great week!

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Photo Booth Fanatic!

Good morning everyone! Today I wanted to share with you my take on the fabulously fun Photo Booth wooden album from Genuinely Jane in this month's Frog Dog Studio Kit.

To begin, I took the album apart to make it easier to work on each block at a time. On the main block (the front of the album) I began by coloring the entire piece with the Liquitex acrylic ink in the kit. I also did some distressing with the black mixed media ink pad also found in the kit. Then I set it aside to dry.

Moving on to the second piece, I colored that one with the blue acrylic ink from the kit. Then I used a stencil, a palette knife, and the modeling creme from last month's kit to create a very textured background.

Moving on to the next piece, I covered the entire background with the tissue paper in the kit and some matte medium. Then I added acrylic paint to create the background. When that was dry, I used the telephone wire stamp and the black mixed media ink to create my focal point. I also did some light stamping in the background using the phone directory stamp (which is now one of my favorite stamps for adding texture and interest to a background!)

For the final block of the album, I used some of the goodies from the ephemera pack in the kit to create the background. I also used two of the new Tim Holtz layering tag stencils (found in the Frog Dog Studio store) and some acrylic paint to add layers and interest. At this point this is how all of my blocks looked with the backgrounds done:

I kind of got lost in my process at this point and didn't take many more pics. What I did was add a strip of the accordion book paper behind the booth "window", as well as a poker chip, a key, and some more stamping. I also found some clip art to use for two of the pieces and attached those with matte medium.

Here are pics and some close ups of the final product:

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September Guest Designer - Gwen Lafleur!

Hello and Happy Thursday!  We are very excited today as we announce our Guest Designer for September, Gwen Lafleur!

Thank you Gwen for sharing your amazing talent and creativity with us!  Before we get to her first project (which you will love), let's get to know her a little better!

 

Hi everyone, I'm Gwen. I'm a Northern Virginian currently living in Connecticut. By day I work in online marketing, but by night I'm an amateur home cook, mixed media artist, paper crafter, and cookie addict. I'm an aunt to four adorable nieces and nephews, and I absolutely love to travel... if I'm not on a trip, I'm planning or dreaming about one! I've been playing with paper and glue since I was about three years old, and it never gets old. I'm thrilled that I got a chance to play with this month's kit, and I hope you enjoy my projects as much as I loved creating them.

Let's get to Gwen's first project!

Cardboard Art Journal

For my first project, I just used the awesome September kit. Of course, for me, the “kit” also includes the packaging and since I’ve had a thing for working with cardboard lately, I decided to use the box and kit supplies to make an art journal. I’ll admit, I wasn’t sure whether this would work since I was limiting myself to the box and what was inside of it, but I actually really like the result!

Here’s how to make your own cardboard art journal.

Step 1: Make the covers & pages

1. Cut apart the shipping box so that you have two large flat pieces from the top and bottom.

2. Figure out the size pages you want, and trace them out (I did mine 5.25”x7” to match the canvas paper from the kit plus a little extra width for the holes.)

3. Using scissors or a good trimmer (I used a heavy duty rotary trimmer,) cut out the individual pages. I got 6 panels from the box, but ended up only using 5 for the book.

Step 2: Prep the pages. 

4. Create a punch template to make sure the holes are even. I just grabbed a scrap of paper about 1”x7” and used a centering ruler to mark where I wanted my holes. You could make as many as you want depending on how you want to bind it.

5. Use removable adhesive to attach the template to each page and punch the holes. I thought I was going to need my Crop-a-Dile (which is a good idea if using lots of pressure for punching is hard for you,) but a regular punch worked pretty easily.

6. Use the sheets from the canvas pad to cover the pages. I decided to just put it on one side and leave the brown side – I like working on that kraft color. You could cover every page or leave them all blank. Adhere with your favorite adhesive. I started out with Yes! glue which works great (takes a while, though) and also tried Elmer’s spray adhesive which worked really well too.

Step 3: Decorate your cover 

7. I used the full stamp set along with the stamp markers and my neon Hero Arts cube to stamp each of the images onto the cover. I just repeated them in the same order all the way down until it was covered.

8. I cut a title block from a scrap of cardboard, stamped the thought bubble, and used that awesome detail tip to add a title and some details to my stamped images.

9. Finally, I used the Frantage Fragments along with some Glossy Accents (or whatever glue you like) and added some embellishment to the corners of my cover and then gave a good spritz with my white Dylusions mist… it adds so much!

Step 4: Embellish your pages 

The first thing I did on my pages was to take my orange Sharpie and draw some designs in the bottom corners of some of my pages. Then I went back through with my Paper Pen and detail tip and added lots of fun details to make the designs pop even more. I love how it turned out! (You can see all of those designs below.)

For the rest, you can certainly use anything in your stash, but I wanted to keep to my challenge to just use the box and what was in it, so I tried to get creative for my embellishing.

10. Bubble wrap is awesome. And it makes a fantastic stamp too! It works best with the ink pad, but it also worked with the stamp pens. I used it with both blue and pink in several places.

11. Cardboard can make another great texture stamp. If you peel off the flat surface on one side to expose the ribbed interior, you have a stamp! This will also work with the stamp pad or the markers.

12. Finally, I went back to the kit stamps and put them all on one acrylic mount and stamped them together in a big block. I really love the look, and it ties in the design on the cover. I also went through and added some of the price stickers and bits of the paint chips.

Step 5: Bind the book 


I went through all of the pages and added the neon reinforcements around the holes – it’s a great pop of color! Then I used that cool Rex Lace to bind the book. I just kept it simple, threading a piece through each of the holes and tying a tight double knot in each one.

Here’s how all of my inside pages looked after I finished:

And that’s it! I really like how it looks– it’s ready to fill with words, pictures or maybe some more layers! Probably all of the above. :)

That is such a wonderful and creative project!  Thank you Gwen! Be sure and stop back later in the month for another project (or two) from Gwen.  We can't wait!  Please stop by Gwen's Blog and say hi! 

Thanks for stopping by!

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