Page 2 of Gratitude Journal

I've completed the second page in my gratitude journal and to put it simply, I am very grateful for my creativity. It brings me happiness, joy and a sense of accomplishment when I create something new. This is going to be a short post because I'm not feeling too swell today. But here are the pictures and I also did another speed process video of this page. :) Enjoy!

I will explain for a second though. haha! Since it is a gesso'd (how the heck do you spell it?! Why is that not a word yet?!) canvas journal, I decided to see how it would react to watercolors and well...it's beautiful. I absolutely love it. These pictures from my crappy little camera phone do it no justice. 

And here is the video.

Have a happy and creative day!

Gratitude Journal Cover

So as I promised, I would make a post about the cover of my Gratitude Journal from my previous post. Well. Here it is!

Supplies: 

• Pre-gessod Gratitude journal
• Paints that you're going to use
• Bubble wrap (not shown)
• Homemade stencil (not shown here but it's in the video!)

Click here to watch the video of the process!

Here are the close up pictures and I did add those flowers after the end of the video. :)

Gratitude Journal

This month's dare from Tracy Weinzapfel is all about gratitude. What are YOU grateful for? Well. Tracy put lots of time and hard work into putting together canvas journals for those who wished to purchase them from her for a small fee. But. Being a Creative on a budget, I had to opt out on buying it and made it my own. Well. Here's how I put mine together! 

If you're going to make your own, here is what you'll need (unfortunately, I didn't think of this part until writing this post. Oops!)

Supplies:

• recycled cardboard (cut in 5 X 5 squares)
• Canvas
• Iron (This is optional. My canvas was folded and I had to iron it out)
• Glue of your choice
• Scissors
• Hole punch
• Binder rings

I cut my cardboard in 5X5 squares (because that's the size that is being used for Tracy's). 

I rolled out my canvas on my dorm room counter (Glad my roommates weren't home at the time. Hahah!)

I ironed out the section that I was going to use for the journal.

I then laid out my squares and traced them onto the canvas.

I cut them into long strips to make it easier to cut them in my paper trimmer. 

So when you are done cutting the canvas, you'll have 12 pieces of canvas and 6 pieces of cardboard. Adhere the canvas with your preferred glue to each side of the cardboard. 

And voila! All finished. There is a step that isn't shown and that's just me punching 2 holes on the side and putting in two small binder rings in!

I'll have another post up later tonight with my cover page!

Have a creative day!

New Storage Ideas for Die Cuts and jumbo stickers.

So today I bought new set of nice stickers for $1.29 on clearance at Michael's today.

I took a binder (the same one as I used for the Washi Tapes) and I thought to myself, "Sarah. What can you use these photo slips for and not have them be wasted?" Well. I came up with a solution! There is a video for it that I'll post so I won't go into extreme details because it explains everything in the video. But one day, when I own those adorable unmounted rubber stamps, I'm going to put them in this same binder! It's cute to organize.

At the beginning of the video though. I kind of sped through the contents of it so far. I like to keep my K&Co Die Cuts together (as you can see in the second picture here) and they were just sitting in a box I had. So I decided to shift them all to the right side of the plastic they come in and punch holes in them to keep them in the binder! Cool right?

Anyway! Here's the video I promised. I hope you like it. If you don't like The Beatles, mute the music. But I love that song and it fits with the time of my video. So. I couldn't do much else! :)

Leave questions and comments on the blog or video.

Have a creative day! 

Embossing Die Cuts

I know that I haven't posted in a while but it's all because of school. I moved back up to m University and started classes. So between packing for school, moving to school and starting school, I wasn't creating all that much. But I am back and here with another tutorial! I found a video by esthercraft on YouTube and she made a mini-album and she took her paper Die Cuts and embossing them. I thought to myself, "GENIUS! Why do I never think of these things?" So here is a step by step picture tutorial of what to do.

Supply Time! Here's what you'll need:
*Die cuts of your choice. I have a ridiculous stash of K&Company ones because they're on clearance after new seasons end and when I have a coupon.
*Embossing powder or enamel. I have the Melt Art one and another one that I'm not too fond of. But you live and you learn.
*Embossing Pad- If you've never embossed before, this is what keeps the enamel/powder to whatever it is that you're embossing.
*Tweezers. You'll definitely need these. Because after you heat gun your Die Cuts, those suckers are gonna be hot. (and yes, I did burn my hand last night doing one. Haha!)
*Catch all tray. I got mine for I think a dollar or two at a garage sale (They're 6.99 in Joann's!)
*Heat gun - pretty self explanatory. you need this to heat the embossing powder/enamel.

This is my ridiculous stash. Haha!!

This is my amazing tin that I keep more of my Die Cuts. Tins are my favorite way of organizing and this one is small enough to where I can put whatever I want in it and take it with me!

 Okay. So here is the process:

1. Pick your die cut! I chose this beautiful flower (I think it's a peony). 

2. Take your Die Cut and push it into your Embossing Pad to saturate it. 

 You can see how it's shiny here. 

3. Get out your catch-all tray, lay your newly inked up Die Cut and pour the enamel/powder over it. You'll want to do this a little on the quick side because you don't want the embossing ink to dry or you'll have to do it all again. 

 4. Tap off the excess from your Die Cut. (If you don't, you'll be sure to make a mess and get enamel everywhere.)

 5. Heat set it, You'll know when it's melted because there are no holes in the enamel and it becomes smooth. 

 Now. You can let it dry, dip the Die Cut in the Ink again and dip it back in the embossing powder/enamel OR while it's still hot, you can put it back in the enamel like in the video. But. I'm not too good at that so I just re-ink it and dip it again! :)

6. Repeat this process until you get the look you want. You can make it super thick or you can leave it at one coat. You may need to go back and fill in the spots that you may have no gotten the ink on (that's what happened with this flower) and I repeated this 3 times. (I like things to look thick and glassy.)

And here is the beautiful result! It looks glassy and thick. I'm happy with it! :)

I went a little crazy with them after that. As you can see here! :)

I hope you all have an amazing time doing this if you try and please please let me know if you made some and share! :) Have a great and safe Labor Day weekend. 

Introducing the Baby Book

Hello everyone! 

I'm really excited to bring this book to you because I know that not a lot of people use these in their art. But I want to bring a cheaper, repurpose-ing and creative way to art journal/scrapbook. 

Introducing.....

The Baby Book.

Ever go garage sale-ing or go into thrift stores and see mountains of baby books that parents are getting rid of because their little baby is all grown up now? Buy them!!!  Specifically, buy the ones that have thick pages, not like paper, they are specifically called "board books." They come in all shapes, sizes and colors. Some have interactive pages for kids that have windows, pockets, flaps, etc.. Buy them ALL. I am crazy to say how many I have at the moment (but half of this number is from a box of baby books my boyfriend got me from a pick-up). But I have around 40. *cringe* I know. It's nuts. But they're so amazing. 

Preparing the book: 
1. Buy the book. (heehee!)
2. Take your sandpaper (I believe all artist should have these) and sand the pages down. When you do this, this creates a "tooth" for the glue or paint to stick to. This is REALLY important. 
3. Design the pages however you want. You can make mini scrapbooks in them by just doing what you normally do in scrapbooks. Glue down that papers, add your embellishments, pockets, pictures, etc...
4. Most of them DO get very chunky when you make them as scrapbooks. But if you paint on them, They don't expand much or at all. 

Here is a book that I just finished yesterday! (by the way, I just remembered I have this thing called a SCANNER to show you my work. Hahaha derrr). 

So I hope you all take a chance and give baby books a new life! Go to your local bookstore, thrift shop, Goodwill or garage sale and rescue a baby book! Make it something brilliant. :)

I hope you all enjoyed this post and see every mistake I brilliantly made on my pages because they were scanned. LOL!!

Have a creative day!

Tracy Weinzapfel August Dare!

Yes. Right there. Loud and proud, baby. Loud. And. Proud. Haha! I did this in the wee hours of the morning today (meaning I started this at 2 a.m.) and finished it around 4. On Sunday I worked from 7:30 p.m. to 3:30 a.m. and drove an hour home and ended up going to be around 5. So my sleep schedule is all kinds of coco puffs (that's the phrase I use for crazy. Lol). 

Here's how I met this page with step by step instructions. I don't have pictures for this one because I was in the groove and was just going with the flow. 

I used the following materials: 

1. Piece of fiberglass (at least that's what I think it is.) or thick plastic. 

2. A printed picture of me. 

3. Hot glue gun

4. Lace 

5. Paints that really spoke to me last night. I used blues, greens and little white. 

Process: 

1. I painted the piece of plastic/fiberglass with all of my background colors first and when I turned it over, I liked how the other side looked! The colors didn't look so chalky on it they were pristine. 

2. I pasted the picture of me down onto the glass and left it alone until the end. 

3. I cut my lace into 1" strips and hot glued them down to the edges so that my picture was underneath it all. 

4. I then took out my selected acrylic paints and painted on the flowers and my quote. It says "She is clothed with strength & dignity and laughs without fear of the future." 

Subnote: I am completely obsessed with this Bible verse. I am not religious by any means but I do enjoy a great Bible verse that really speaks to me and this one does it. 

5. I took out my fine point black Faber Castell Pitt Pen and went over my lips, eyes, mouth, hair and face. Then I painted it in. It was as simple as that. I took my dark blue paint and basically just painted in the lines!

Voila! Done! I hope you all enjoyed this and I would like to thank Tracy Weinzapfel and her  August Dare to put me up to this challenge!

Happy creating!