Hello friends! Happy weekend! I hope you’re enjoying yourself with whatever you have going on. It’s hard to believe that it’s almost time for us to celebrate the 4th of July holiday!
We’ve been having higher than normal temperatures this time of year and you never really know if that humidity is going to circle back up in the air to create a thunderstorm. Nature can be a wonderful thing though, and this is what the focus is for my page.
- It’s time for the monthly Art Journal Page collaboration with my crafty friend, Carol (from Crafty-Stamper)! We get creative trying to use up our never-ending stash piles along with a prompt for each month. I know she always has great inspiration to share, so please check out her blog too! Here’s my AJ page with the “SMASH OUR STASH” June prompt of “DISTRESS”-(rough up/sand/rip, etc):
So taking this approach with the prompt of “distress”, I thought it called for green colors and lots of nature collage type elements from my stash! I have tons of those Tim Holtz ephemera packages, so I pulled those out along with distress oxide sprays. I haven’t used those in quite a while.
For the background: I started with a 5.5″ x 8.5″ (pre-punched holes with the Bind-It-All machine) very heavy weight canvas paper. I started with a couple of pieces of ripped printed papers and distressed/inked the edges of it with Vintage Photo Distress Oxide ink. I then took a Tim Holtz stencil and randomly applied paste over it. After the paste dried, I placed the panel into a box and sprayed it with variations of water and distress oxide sprays in Peeled Paint, Rustic Wilderness, Fossilized Amber and Vintage Photo. I added water and dried with my heat tool after each color until it was blended as I liked. I took off the Vintage Photo cap and splattered a few drop with it.
Before applying the ephemera pieces, I had a solid fern stamp that I randomly stamped with Rustic Wilderness Distress Oxide ink. I also stamped a few of those “rain drop” images randomly in the center of the page with black waterproof ink. I removed the background color out of the images with a watercolor brush and then added back in a touch of blue color from an ink pad lid. I used a white gel pen to add a highlight and covered the drops with a glitter brush pen.
Finishing the page, I’ve stamped the bug and magnifying glass, colored them in and added some acetate behind the magnifying glass, I ripped, sanded and distressed the edges of the page, the card behind the bird and randomly over the background. Before attaching the pieces, I took some white pearl wax and rubbed over the stenciled paste areas. I also sanded around the edges of the black sentiment strips. I attached all of the ephemera pieces and popped the card and butterfly pieces with foam tape. I added a safety pin to the card and glitter to the tops of the flowers in the corner. (hard to see in photo)
- The sentiment at the top reads: if you want to find happiness, find gratitude.
Another prompt I worked on with this is the challenge over at Art Journal Journey which was “What Makes You Happy“. So although nature helps with happiness for me, I find that happiness is multi-faceted with the purpose being exactly what the sentiment says. I thought it went perfectly with this page.
Since my husband is retired and we now have time to take little road trips here and there and sometimes stop along the way to find an interesting trail or nature walk or park to explore. We’ve had some great times doing this and I love being out in nature especially among the trees after a gentle rain. The smell and coolness in Autumn are fabulous for this!
Click on a photo to enlarge it if you’re on my website:
This was quite a wordy post, but I hope you’ve enjoyed my inspiration today and how it was inspired. Thanks so much for joining me today and please check out Carol’s blog too!
Challenges:
- Art Journal Journey – What Makes You Happy
- Creative Artiste – #105 Anything Goes Mixed Media
- Anything Goes in a Card Free Zone – June challenge ATG
- A Place to Start – Anything Goes optional: Anything but a card
- Paperminutes – #852 Stencils
Stamped Smiles 
Your page is just wonderful and the sentiment is so inspiring to me. Gratitude makes life better without a doubt. I love how you created those raindrops and put this whole thing together with so many different colors. Being out in nature makes me happy and your photos seem to have that same effect on you, so thanks for sharing them. Enjoy your weekend and keep smiling 🙂
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Your journal page sounds wonderfully rich in texture and meaning! The use of Tim Holtz ephemera and Distress Oxide sprays creates a layered and distressed background that perfectly complements the theme of nature and happiness. The addition of stamped ferns, raindrop images, and the bug with magnifying glass, along with the sentiment “if you want to find happiness, find gratitude,” beautifully captures the essence of finding joy in nature and moments of exploration, especially during autumn.
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Beautiful vintage background and I love all of your details.
Gorgeous photos of you and your husband and I can see that you both love being in nature.
xxx Margreet
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Wonderful quote and pictures to inspire your incredible page! The colors, papers, and textures are so beautifully done and I can definitely see your art inspired by the photos! Thanks so much for sharing with us at The Outlawz AG in a Card Free Zone! Katrina
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love the amount of products that got used for this awesome page. Great side trip photos too 😊
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Beautiful neutral colour tones lots of texture and wonderful flora and fauna,a great page Vicki. Stunning photographs too.
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That is a gorgeous page Vicki. You have some lovely textures around your images. I’m all for nature too, so your page speaks to me. And yes, autumn is fantastic for walks in the wild. Those are lovely photos. I think you found some fantastic places on your little trips too. I love little trips and finding places to walk. That’s a beautiful of variety of places you visited. Have a wonderful weekend and rest of June. I’m surprised it is just about July 4th already too. hugs-Erika
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Totally awesome nature page! I love everything about this – from the base colors to the textures to the ephemera pieces! And I love that you shared some of your photos – love the one with you and the hubs! 😉
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Wow, das ist ja eine wunderschöne Karte. Danke, dass du sie bei Paperminutes zeigst.
LG Christina
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Great page with all your texture and great ephemera! Like your photo’s too!
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WOW, fabulous page Vicki, I love all the textures and elements, the bird is beautiful, with tyher flowers and butterfly, love the blobs of water droplets too..lovely photos, if I was walking I’d choose the bush, or damp parks too, somewhere cool and relaxing..
Luv CHRISSYxx
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Such a beautiful page, Vicki! You’ve really captured the feel of the countryside
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Beautiful work! Thanks for sharing with us at A Place to Start!
Hugz,
Chana Malkah, Owner
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What a gorgeous mixed media page and I love the sentiment. I cannot take my eyes off those water drops, though. Totally surprised me when I read how you did them, I thought they were stick ons of some sort-Wow! Love your nature photos and that’s a sweet one of you and hubby, xoxo
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WOW you absolutely went to town on this mixed media journal page,love the Nature theme,love all the stamps,ephemera,texture the different techniques-added safety pin and those raindrops are amazing—as is the whole package! Beautiful nature pics of your walks too love all that fungi.
Carol x x x
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Oooops meant to add looks like you definitely found your happiness.
Carol x
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This page is so refreshing Vicki, lovely colours and use of texture and layers.. the sweet little bird is watching over the splendor of nature. A very pretty piece. Many thanks for sharing @ Creative Artiste and thank you for your support. Best wishes in our Anything Mixed Media June Challenge.
Tracey (DT)
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So much going on here, Vicki! Love the colors, love the ephemera, love the distressing. And the water drops are so exquisite. Thank you so much for sharing with us at our ‘Anything Mixed Media Goes’ challenge on Creative Artiste Mixed Media! xo Anita
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