art journal layers

In the midst of juggling the hustle and bustle of life, it was good to take a few moments this morning to just breathe. I've been learning more about mixed media and art journaling techniques, and Jenni's new products are the perfect fit for exploration. They are amazing for creating layers on your pages! From the stencils for backgrounds, to the rubons, washi and sequins -they work so well to build texture and depth into your projects.

One quick tip to create this watercolor style background. The chicken feed reinker creates a beautiful shade of gold when you drip several drops into a cup or on a tray, then add just a few drops of water on a wet broad, flat brush. Using broad strokes, gently brush over the graphic feather stencil. Remove the stencil, and either allow to dry a bit, or hit it with a heat gun. After I had finished places my feathers on the background, I added a few drops of cough syrup reinker to the leftover ink to create a blend. Using a slightly wet brush, I gently went over my entire background. The bleed from the feathers turned out beautifully.

After my background dried, I was free to start layering.

And finish with a bit of doodling.

As I have embraced allowing imperfections in my life {yes, I'm a perfectionist - especially in all things business related}, I've found that I have embraced the freedom of art journaling more and more. Hope you're inspired to try some of it, too!

~ Leah

Vintage Decorations

The holiday season is upon us. Thanksgiving is in a few weeks (can you believe it!?) and Christmas is just around the corner which means of course it's holiday crafting time. Today I'm going to show you how to make a simple vintage inspired ornament or wall hanging with old book covers.

It should only take you about 15 minutes to make, and at this busy time of year I love fast, cute crafts that I can use to decorate my home. I especially love cute holiday crafts that incorporate texture and a good mix of vintage & new products.

Supplies needed :
JBS - Christmas Ribbon paper, Red Black line accessory sheet paper, rhinestone stars in red, rhinestone brad in red, seam binding in red & white,
vintage - book cover, reflector, milk cap & sewing bobbin (from Nov 2012 antiquarian kit), chandelier prism, german foil
misc - eyelets, foam adhesive squares

Gather your supplies & cut a 1.5" piece of the Christmas ribbon paper and make an accordion flower. glue the reflector onto the center of the book cover and glue the accordion flower on top of the reflector. add punched hanging holes to top of book cover, add eyelets and ribbon.

Layer the milk-cap onto the accordion flower and cut the "J" & "Y" from the new red black extension accessory sheet.

Layer & glue all of the elements until they're stacked as shown. use the sewing bobbin as the "O" in "JOY" and add the rhinestone brad as an accent. Add the Chandelier dangle to the bottom of the book cover and accent with a red rhinestone star sticker.

Simple & fast.

Happy holiday crafting!

Inspiration Journal by Kerry Lynn Yeary

Hi everyone, kL here!
It's my turn today to share a minibook for JBS + Write.Click.Scrapbook Mini-Album Week! And, after perusing my mini, and entering the giveaway in the previous post {here} don't forget to check in at WCS for double the inspiration as well as another giveaway!



As most of you know I adore using vintage books, especially old readers digest's because underneath those boring paper covers are almost always amazingly beautiful vintage patterns, like in the cover above. I'm also a huge fan of inspiration boards, but sometimes, rather than clear the one I have in the studio I like to make a mini version where I can journal, paint and add inspirational images instead. It gives me some time to play with new product or new techniques, without worrying about the outcome and the bonus is that I will have a beautiful journal at the end that I can use for future inspiration on layouts or altered projects.



For this inspiration journal cover I added of the new be our guest pattern paper and some vintage ledger paper to some large JBS chipboard flowers & then sanding the edges & sewing. then I layered them under a vintage tin butter dish with the 4"x4" schoolhouse paper {here} and the much loved pinked circle with some martha stewart micro-beads added to the top. add some extra embellies and a few charms and then attach to the book cover with a glue gun.



For the pages of my mini I removed the interior pages from the book and then made 6 piles of 10-12 pages that i then sewed together for 6 gathered pages. Then I added some linen fabric along the sides {for a little diy binding} and then add grommets and link together with the cover with some ball & chain {I re-purpose these from those chipboard sets we all have in our stash}.



The interior pages have alot of paint doodling using the new JBS for ranger dabbers and I also added alot of my favorite rub-ons from my stash, like transferware which is one of my all time favorites as well as pearl buttons and pearl flowers.



The goal here is to play and fill the pages, and eventually there will be inspirational quotes and pictures added as well.



some more paint doodling and a strip of one of my most favorite pieces of vintage barkcloth fabric.



The chipboard butterfly was also painted with the dabbers by using them as a wash {diluted heavily with water}. after it dried i applied more of the transfer-ware rub-ons and used a white sharpie paint pen inside the rubon flowers.





I'll be back in a few days to share more so you can see the inspiration pieces once added.
happy thursday!
x0

deLovely project kit : Kenner Road for Jbs Mercantile

Set your clocks and get ready for an amazing limited edition project kit by Kenner Road created exclusively for release through JBS mercantile. Designed by dt member Kerry Lynn Yeary the deLovely Kit is designed to create a gorgeous vintage inspired banner {sneak peek above} and is available tonight at 7pm cst {5pm pst} in the JBS mercantile store.