Travel Journal Mini-Book!

This week, the Stampendous Design Team is sharing projects using the fabulous new Paris Bonjour Cling Stamps and Stencil Set and the Paris Bonjour Die Set. Click HERE to see who is participating, then comment for a chance to win this great set!

When I saw Stampendous' wonderful new Paris Bonjour Cling Stamps and Stencil Set,  Paris Bonjour Die Set  the new Sassy Travel Perfectly Clear™ Set, and the new Sassy City Perfectly Clear™ Set,  I knew that I had to create a travel journal.

This is going to be a long post, so go grab a cuppa and settle in!

Here's the cover of the Travel Journal!

 The Paris Spread

The Rome Spread

The Holland Spread

The New York City Spread

Supplies:

Stampendous: 

Paris Bonjour Cling Stamps and Stencil Set

Paris Bonjour Die Set

6x6 Cling Paris Map

Sassy Travel Perfectly Clear™ Set

Sassy City Perfectly Clear™ Set

Cling Clock Collage Stamp

Cling Crackle Stamp

Decor Cling Script Stamp

Cling Dutch Tulip Stamp Set

Frantage Aged Bronze Embossing Enamel

Clear Detail Embossing Powder

VersaMark™ Watermark Ink Pad by Tsukineko®

Memento™ Tuxedo Black Ink Pad by Tsukineko®

Other Supplies:

Passport Scoreboards XL Die by Sizzix

Black Chipboard

140 lb. Mixed Media Paper by Strathmore

Cerulean Blue, and Titan Buff Media Fluid® Acrylic paint by DecoArt®

Media® Matte Medium by DecoArt®

VersaMark™ Pen by Tsukineko®

Tim Holtz® Mowed Lawn, Forest Moss, Pine Needles Distress Inks by Ranger

Tim Holtz® Worn Lipstick, Broken China, Salty Ocean, and Antique Linen Distress Oxide Inks by Ranger

Tim Holtz® Mowed Lawn, Forest Moss, Pine Needles, Vintage Photo, Fired Brick, Barn Door, Faded Jeans, and Blueprint Sketch Distress Pens by Ranger

Sepia, Leaf Green, Emerald Green, Shadow Grey, Watering Can, Jet Black Archival™ Ink by Ranger

Warm Grey IV, Warm Grey III, Dark Sepia, and Sanguine Pitt Artist Pens by Faber Castell

Tim Holtz® Idea-ology Words Remnant Rubs by Advantus

Tim Holtz® Idea-ology Adage Tickets by Advantus

Travel Voyage and Notebook Stickers by 7 Gypsies

City Scapes, Curtain Call 8x8 Patterned Paper Pads by Graphic 45

Basics Manila 6x6 Patterned Paper Pads by Basic Grey

Uncharted  Patterned Paper Pad by Paper Studios

Tim Holtz® Idea-ology Destinations Paper Stash by Advantus

Sookwang Tape

Misti Stamping Tool by My Sweet Petunia

Directions for the covers:

1. Die-cut the chipboard twice to create the covers and the spine.
2. Die-cut Mixed Media paper several times for both sides of the covers and the spine.
3. Stamp the Cling Clock Collage with Sepia Archival™ ink onto one sheet for the front cover.
4. Stamp the Cling Crackle onto the other three covers and the spine.
5. Mix Cerulean Blue and Titan Buff Media Fluid™, thin slightly with water, then sponge over the stamped covers, spine, and scraps of Mixed Media cardstock. Use a baby wipe to wipe back as necessary to reveal the clocks. Heat set. 
6. Add Remnant Rub sentiment along the top of the front cover as shown, then seal with Media® Matte Medium.
7. Adhere the painted Mixed Media papers to the chipboard covers and spine and set aside.
8. Ink the Eiffel Tower Stamp with VersaMark, then immediately re-ink with Sepia Archival™ ink. Stamp onto Mixed Media Cardstock, sprinkle on Clear Detail Embossing Powder, dump off excess, and heat set.
9. Die-cut the Eiffel Tower.
10. Using Jet Black Archival™ ink, stamp the Trees twice onto a scrap of the painted Mixed Media paper. 
11. Die-cut both images, then color the tree canopies with Leaf Green and Emerald Green Archival™ inks. Use the Dark Sepia Pitt Artist Pen to color the tree trunks.
12. Using a strong adhesive, adhere the Eiffel Tower to cover, then adhere the tree backgrounds.
13. Pour some Frantage Aged Bronze Embossing Enamel onto a folded sheet of scrap paper.
14. Press all four edges of each cover into VersaMark ink, then run them through the Frantage Aged Bronze Embossing Enamel. Heat set. Repeat this step until you're happy with the coverage.
15. Assemble the cover of the Passport mini-book using Sookwang Tape.

Directions for the pages:

1. Die-cut Mixed media cardstock to form the pages, remembering that each die-cut creates a four pages.
2. Mix Cerulean Blue and Titan Buff Media Fluid™ paint, thin slightly with water, then sponge over the front and back of each spread. Heat set, then set aside.
3. Apply Broken China and Salty Ocean Distress Oxide ink to a craft mat, spray with water, then drag Mixed Media papers through the ink, heat set, and repeat until you're happy with the result. *Make more pages than you think you'll need as you can always use them later!
4. Apply Worn Lipstick to the craft mat and repeat the process above to add a touch of pink. Heat set.
5. Cut the papers down to fit the pages and sponge the edges with Sepia Archival™ ink
6. Mask off the top of each page. Sponge Mowed Lawn, Forest Moss, and Pine Needles Distress inks along the base of each page.
7. Using the Misti, position each of the Cityscapes and/or Windmill scene at the top of the green area, then stamp with Shadow Grey Archival™ ink. Repeat as necessary to get good ink coverage. 
8. Using the Misti, position the other scenic elements or people, and stamp with Watering Can Archival™ ink or Jet Black Archival™ ink.
9. Color any open elements using either Distress or Pitt Artist pens, though colored pencils would also work.
10. Cut stamps or other decorative elements from patterned paper or stickers, then adhere to the little scenic pages. 
11. Mat each page with black cardstock and adhere on the right hand page of the spread.

Directions for the pockets:

1. Apply Antique Linen Distress Oxide ink to a craft mat, spray with water, then drag Mixed Media papers through the ink, heat set, and repeat until you're happy with the result.
2. Stamp the Decor Cling Script with Sepia Archival™ ink onto each sheet.
3. Cut the stamped paper to pocket size, mat with black cardstock, add adhesive to three sides of each pocket, and adhere to the left hand page of the spread.
4. Cut down the *extra Distress Oxided pages to fit into the pocket. Add stickers and suchlike.

Create any additional spreads that you'd like. You can't see them (because I forgot to take photos), but there are pages that have little maps or city scenes on the front with line paper on the inside of each spread for notes and photos. The little pockets on the back of each spread can be used for tickets or other flat souvenirs.

Ribbons were used to secure all pages to the spine. The ribbons were braided and/or tied and a compass charm was added to complete the journal.

If you've made it through all the above, pat yourself on the back!

Thanks for visiting today!

Decisions at the 5:00 Bar!

I'm the hostess this week at Stampotique Designer's Challenges. My challenge is called "Crack Me Up"! Here's what I said about it.

"Create a humorous project that also has crackled texture!"

If you'd like the chance to win your choice of $30 worth of Stampotique stamps, you should play along with this challenge. Visit Stampotique Designers Challenge blog and be sure to read the rules so that you'll have the chance to win that great prize!!! Remember to check to see the deadline for all of this month's Stampotique Designers Challenges!

Here's my second card for my challenge, which I hope is funnier than my first. I used Stampotique's  Moody (Daniel Torrente) and Banner (France Papillon).

Moody was stamped with Tuxedo Black Memento ink (Imagine Crafts), colored with Copic markers, fussy-cut, then edged with a Black Pitt Artist pen (Faber Castell). Just Moody's hands were stamped, colored, fussy-cut, and edged with marker. Both Moody and her spare pair of hands was set aside while I created a background scene for her.

A piece of 140 lb. Mixed Media cardstock (Strathmore) was sponged with White Media Gesso (Deco Art) and allowed to dry. It was then painted with  Vermillion Media Fluid Acrylic (MFA) paint (DecoArt) that had been mixed with Titan Buff MFA paint. When dry, it was coated with a layer of Media Matte Medium (Deco Art) and allowed to dry.

After an hour of wrestling with my mad arithmetic skillz and proving my genius on Facebook, I mixed four parts of Media Crackle Paint (DecoArt)* with one part Raw Sienna MFA paint, stirred it really well, then painted a thick layer of this combo over the piece. I crossed my fingers, set the piece aside, and hoped that I hadn't diluted the Media Crackle Paint too much so that the cracking miracle would occur!

The next step was to die-cut white cardstock with the Cocktail Party die (Taylored Expressions)*, color the drinks with Copic markers, add a touch of Clear Stardust Glitter Gel pen (Sakura)* to drinks with festive rims, then coat all the glasses/bottles with several layers of Clear Gelly Glaze pen (Sakura)*.

Three layers of cardstock were cut to 5/8" x 5" wide, stacked, then adhered together, colored with Copic markers, then coated with a layer of Media Crackle Glaze (DecoArt), then set aside to crackle.
Fence post dies (source unknown - oops) received the same treatment. When all the pieces were dry, the Cocktail Party die was adhered to the 5/8" x 5" wide painted, crackled strip with 1/8" wide red-liner tape.

The Banner was stamped with Jet Black Archival ink (Ranger) onto white canvas specialty paper, then painted with translucent colors of Media Fluid Acrylic paint to match Moody. The Banner was fussy-cut, then touched up with my Black Pitt Artist pen. Very, very old rub-on letters were used to add the bar's name to the Banner, which was then coated with a layer of Media Matte Medium to seal it.

It was time to check to see if my colored Crackle Paint had crackled. Lo and behold, it had! It was time to start to build my scene. The crackled painted cardstock was die-cut with the largest die from the 5 x 7 Card Creator die set (Spellbinders). Wood-patterned washi tape was added to the base. Moody was adhered to the card front. The Cocktail Party bar was adhered over Moody with little foam dimensional adhesive squares behind each drink. Moody's spare hands were adhered to their counterparts with Moody's hands holding two drinks. The crackled bar legs were attached, then Dymo tape, spelling out the card's sentiment, was added!

A variety of rub-ons from my hoarded Steampunk Collection and the Whimsy Elements sheets (7 Gypsy) were added to the crackled background, the card front was edged with Jet Black Archival ink, then adhered to a pre-made 5x7 card. The painted, lettered, sealed Banner was adhered to the card with dimensional foam adhesive. Flowers and a gemstone were added to Moody's hair to finish the card.

* = on sale at SCACD!

Thanks for visiting today and reading all my blather!

I shall enter this card into the following challenges:
• Through The Purple Haze Challenges: Layers
• Crafty Gals Corner Challenges: Die-cuts or Punches
• Scrapy Land Challenges: Die-cuts/Anything Goes

Thank You!

It's always a good idea to have lots of Thank You cards on hand, especially as we approach the holiday season. The best thing about Thank You cards is that they can have almost any image on them!

I was in the mood to color scenery, so I got out my Cats and Buildings stamps (Stampinback)  which I got at I Brake for Stamps.  Cats and Buildings is a half sheet that has two different scenes of Dutch buildings (Amsterdam?) and a great cats stamp, which I love and adore.

I stamped one of the two Dutch Buildings from the half sheet onto Solar Crest White cardstock (Neenah) and colored it with Copic markers, after looking up Amsterdam architecture on Google to check if I remembered the colors accurately. After all, it's almost thirty years since I was last in Amsterdam. I was three when I went to stay in Holland for a month to visit my husband, who was doing a short stint there. After coloring the buildings, I added some Clear Spica Glitter pen (Copic) to the windows and glass doors to make them sparkle. I also added some to the strettlight and a few elements of the buildings.

The sky, pavement, and canal were added with Copic markers with a touch of white gel pen (Sakura) to add some white caps to the water.

Since the scene is rather busy, I decided to keep the design CAS. I matted the scene on Kraft cardstock, then added it to a piece of patterned paper from the Maritime 8x8 pad (7 Gypsies). I die-cut kraft cardstock using old QuicKutz dies, then added the sentiment to the label using a equally old rub-on, also from QuicKutz. Jute twine was used to string the sentiment and some staples from my Mini Attacher were used to secure it all.

You really ought to go check out IBFS's collection of Stampinback stamps and all the other great stamps at I Brake For Stamps. Click on my badge below to be whisked over there to check out their fabulous images! Best of all, if you buy something, use this code: SAVE10KATHI  and you'll get 10% off your purchase.

 

Thanks for visiting today!

I shall enter this card into the following challenges:

• Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenges: Thanks/Thanksgiving

• Dragonfly Journeys Challenges: Thanks