WOYWW #779 Craft Journal Covers

 It's Wednesday and I'm taking part in another What's on your desk Wednesday - WOYWW #779. Please checkout Julia Dunnit's Stamping Ground's page  if you are interested.

I have been crafting for myself this week and I have been meaning to use these beautiful papers to re-cover my craft journal.

I had previously stripped back my A5 mdf journal covers, ready to start again. I gave them a coating of white gesso and printed the digital images in the size that I needed for my boards on 160gsm smooth white cardstock.

These beautiful images were created by Shasteya Bellarose & June Hill, who run a creative group on Facebook called Gud Karma Creative Studios. They have some fabulous created content that has been made available for free, to print off for personal use only.

I added a few coats of matte medium to seal the images and to also create a base to add my mediums to the covers.

This is my favourite image out of the ones that I decided to use, so it had to be the cover. I love these kind of images and I just added some stencilling through my script stencil and one of my worded stamps from Visible Image.

I've also highlighted areas of the image using my clear glaze and stardust glitter pens, adding a little dimension with some seed beads.

Around the edge of the journal cover, I added some sand texture paste  and then some Pretty Metallic paint in mint chip.

At the top of the folder I added a faux metal embellishment that I had made earlier using gold metal magic and stamped - strength.

On the reverse I chose this great saxophone image. I added a little background stamping and some more highlights with my pens, along with some sand texture paste along the saxophone which has been highlighted with rose gold metallic wax.

I had these little holographic pink flower sequins in my craft stash that I thought would work well and add more texture too.

This oriental image was another favourite of mine, so I put it on the back and I have a choice of two beautiful images on either side of my folder. 

I added some stencilling and another worded stamp from Visible Image, along with my sparkle pens and seed beads for dimension.

I edged the cover with gold metallic wax.

On the back of my second journal cover I used this really pretty music paper and added some second generation background stamping with a grey ink pad and a metallic one.

I also added some ephemera from my crafty stash, left over from some ATC's that I had been making a while ago.

My journal covers have had a facelift and that's another job off my list.

And in the other favourite place I love to spend my time, I am patiently awaiting our robins to fledge over the next few days. The parents have been very busy feeding and we have been so lucky that the box is in regular use.

This is the view out of my back door. I have an old table under the bike port where I do my potting - next to a little greenhouse,  It's really handy when it's wet and windy as I'm sheltered from the elements a little and I often have a little friend who is curious to know what I am doing.

I managed to quickly get a sneaky picture (it was pot luck really) whilst the parents were out getting food,  You can just about see one of the baby robins. Fingers crossed for them.

What have you got planned for the day? Whatever it is, I hope it is a good one for you.

Floral Gothic Arch Birthday Card

I'm really excited to be a Guest Designer this month over on the Paper Funday Challenges where the challenge is an Anything Goes with an Optional Twist of The Great Outdoors.

For my daughter's birthday card this year, I thought I would go with something a little different. I started with an A5 card base using a piece of A4 Centura Pearl 300gsm snow white card stock by Crafters Companion.

I used a white acrylic mousse through a Pretty Script stencil by Pretty Gets Gritty and as this dries quite quickly I was then able to highlight the text and later fill in the background with a touch of Art Alchemy metallique rose gold wax.

Before I could add the gothic arch, it needed to be die cut a few times from white card and stuck together to form a substrate to add more mediums onto.  The Pretty Gothic Window die set by Pretty Gets Gritty also comes with a smaller window and a set of brick wall dies that are really handy for your projects. 

I painted my gothic arch first with white gesso and then added sand texture paste to give it a more aged look. I also rubbed in a little patina blue Art Alchemy antiquing matte wax to highlight the sand texture and to add some highlight to the arch.

I added a few of my bricks die cuts in white Centura Pearl card stock, I thought they looked like a rustic broken wall and I then started to add my flowers up the aged gothic arch. These are a mix of pink and blue dahlias from collections by Opulence by Design along with the Variegated ivy leaves.

I also made the rolled roses and added the smaller die cut flowers to add more volume.

I didn't think a birthday sentiment looked right on the front and quite often I don't add one if I don't think that there is a place for one, so I added a little 'with love' in the centre which fitted in nicely and I put a personalised sentiment inside to finish the card off.

The little droplets in the background of the card are glossy accent, I've also used it as dew drops on the petals of my flowers too.

Have a look a some of the great inspiration over on Paper Funday this month and why not enter the challenge too!

What have you been making? or have you just been enjoying spending time outdoors.

Have a great day whatever you have planned for yourself.

Happy crafting

Challenges:-

Beautiful Blossoms - Flowers 

Ellibelle's Crafty Wednesday Challenge - ATG

Love to Scrap -ATG ( Top Pick)

Creative Fingers - ATG 

Mix It Up - ATG

Creatalicious - ATG

Allsorts - Anything but Square