I know I haven’t posted in forever but I wanted to post this while I am thinking about it. Today was the Christmas baking day with my husband’s family here in Denmark. Aside from making a lot of lovely traditional cookies, we also spend the time making christmas decorations with candles for advent. Here is mine.

I know that you (We!) are busy but I thought it could be a good idea to spark up some creativity for some personal time and I found this great challenge (with a prize, if we should be so lucky) It is for a great cause and I think too its a great challenge… read more about it here and make this one for the boys! I’m in, are you? xx

I thought I would just share what I did for my daughters first birthday as its Scrapbooky and the only scrapping style thing I have done in a while! The decorations were very much inspired by her babybook that I am making, the wheels and papers are in theme with it We had pinwheels on our cups and cake too! Hope you enjoy.

Our friends even brought some  lovely pinwheels to adorn the day!

I’ve used random patterned papers in sort of an Italy-ish color scheme, with some envelopes, pockets, and ephemera printouts.  I’ve used tons of distress ink and water on pretty much all the pages, and my sister told me it looked like the whole book had been in a flood.  But that feel seemed like Italy to me so I am happy with it, and can’t wait to start filling it up.

Here are some details, and a video at the end.

Gesso, distress ink, water and a blow dryer.

Distress ink, masking tape, water, and a blow dryer.  I’m not sure about this one.

Copic markers over gesso.  These pages were very fun to do but I guess it doesn’t come out as polished looking from the markers, so it depends on what look you are gong for.

Leftover strips of patterned paper, acrylic paint, and copic markers.

This one is my favorite.  Again I used strips of leftover patterned paper (and my ticket stub from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, part 2!), distress ink, and copic markers for accents and shadowing.

I guess time will tell how the pages end up when I am finished with them!  Meanwhile I’ve also been working on my Italy travel journal. More on that soon to come!

Front cover:

The title and front cover image (along with several inside) are from a book about a girl who travels through europe, and it’s sort of an inside joke. I chose to use a homemade map of western europe as the backdrop and it is in no way a realistic representation (some countries were too small to include), but it was fun and I think it works.

Here you can see the pages:

They are all different sizes and included are several envelopes as well. It was meant as a place to keep all the memoribilia etc that she will collect throughout her trip, as well as any journaling, pictures, notes from friends, etc. I got the idea from this video of a make ahead travel journal, which I thought was a really great idea.  The finished journal flip is also worth a watch.

I wasn’t sure how to make the binding at first because I don’t have a bind it all, but then I found this tutorial which is basically the idea I used for the binding but I just added more wire for extra security. We don’t have Zutter products in my area so the wire is from a dollar store notebook.  It was a little more work than using a bind it all (a lot maybe) but it looks about the same and cost almost nothing.

Here is the inside of the back cover:

I used decoupage medium and varnish on all the covers.

I like how it turned out and I will also make my Italy journal in this format.

After trying out a new idea in my art journal, i can then apply it to something more “practical” like a card or scrapbook page.

An art journal is a great place to take an idea all the way, while practicing for a more scaled down, practical version.

Sorry for the bad quality pictures, I got fed up with my camera and used my ipod.  New camera coming in…two weeks!

I know…there’s gesso on the page. I just couldn’t resist.

As for the creative journaling, I decided to use song lyrics. That is actually turning into a theme for this album, because my daughter really likes music.

I made this page to go opposite the other but I’m not sure if it’s done yet.

Maybe it needs more gesso and collage…

Instead, this is a technique I have been experimenting with and would like to share.  It’s very easy and cheap, but the results are stunning.  I have used it to cover my new art journal made from a recycled book, but you can also vary this idea to use as the background of a layout, card or ATC, to matte or frame a picture, to create dimensional embellishments,  etc.  It’s very versatile and you can make different textures and shapes with it to suit your purpose.

You will need:

Acrylic paint in 3-5 varying shades

-You can also use spray paint, markers, glimmer mist, or whatever else you have as long as it’s opaque and permanent.  I just used acrylic paint because that’s what I have.

Paint brushes

Glue or Gel Medium

Aluminum foil

A base to work from such as a book cover, cardstock, chipboard, etc

1. Cover your base with glue or gel medium, using a paint brush to ensure equal coverage.

2. Crumple a piece of aluminum foil into the desired texture.  The more you crumple, the smaller the “mountains” will be on the page.

3. Stretch it out as desired and press it firmly onto your glue-covered base, being especially careful that the corners are glued down securely.  Let it dry.

-repeat step 3 if you want additional layers for extra volume and texture.

4. After the glue is dry, cover this with a base coat of paint.    I used white gesso but I figured out too late that I should have used a darker color, because the white kept showing through forevermore.  You want to try and cover all the foil so none of it shows through. Let this dry thoroughly, otherwise it will just come off with the next coat of paint.

5. After the base coat is dry, mix other colors on top to achieve your desired color combination.  I used greens, blues, and a bit of burgandy for this step. Use as many coats as you need. I think it looks best to apply the darkest colors first then work into the lighter colors, because this will show off the texture beautifully.  You will see what I mean. 

You will see in this picture that I’ve added layers of foil even over the base coat.  You can always go back and add more at any stage as long as you paint over it all in the end.

6. Take some gold paint (or white, silver etc….something very light), and very gently brush it over the whole thing, so that the paint only highlights the raised tips of the “mountains.”  Watch as the layers magically pop out under your brush!

Here is my finished book cover using this technique.  I might add some embellishments but I’m not sure.  I don’t want to go overboard again! 

Some other ideas on how to use aluminum foil for papercrafting:

-Use chipboard or other dimensional letters to lay down a title, then stretch the foil over them and paint it.  The sides will slope down interestingly and give kind of a leathery look.

-Completely over chipboard letters or shapes using foil, crumpled or not.

-Mold the foil into shapes (flower, heart, etc) and paint over them.

-Try a light to dark paint sequence instead of dark to light as I have used here.  I’ve never tried it but it should be interesting too!

-Paint black watercolor, watered down acrylic, or ink, then blot it so the foil shows through.  It gives an interesting burnished silver look.

-Scratch doodles or text into the foil before painting it. You can use a pencil or old credit card for this (just be careful not to rip the foil!)

-Check out youtube and other blogs for ideas and inspiration.

Have fun!