Tutorial: Remember the Wonderful Parts Art Journal Page

Happy Tuesday!  I have to start off today by saying “thank you”.  I am so overwhelmed by all the wonderful comments, emails, and Facebook comments from everyone about our Chunky Monkey.  The love and support have been so touching to our family.  Our family thanks you all for sharing your memories and words of encouragement.

Today’s tutorial features an art journal page I made yesterday.  I have had the song”Goodbye My Friend” by Linda Ronstadt stuck in my head since yesterday.  I woke up with it playing on repeat in my head.  I decided it would be a great theme for a page in my art journal.

I cut a piece of Specialty Stamping Paper to 4 1/4″ x 7″ for the base of my page.

Lay a background stamp (Hero Arts Friend Definition) face up on a craft sheet.  Mist the stamp with Picket Fence Distress Stain.  (I keep a mister bottle for each color of Distress Stain.  For Picket Fence, be sure to include the mixing ball!)  If you don’t have stain in a mister bottle, you can scribble the stain onto the stamp using the dabber top on the bottle.  Scribbling the stain will be less messy and less wet.  The look will be similar but slightly different.

Place your paper face down onto the stamp.  Rub your hand over the back of the paper to transfer the image.  Don’t worry about rubbing over the entire area.  I wanted less stamping around the edges so I focused on rubbing the center of the paper.

If your paper is larger than your background stamp, you can pick the paper up and move it to transfer the image to the unstamped area.  The stamp should be wet enough for you to stamp again without re-misting it.

The stamped image will be very fluid.  I am not very good about cleaning my stamps.  I usually just rub off excess ink with a dry cloth.  That removes ink from the surface which is usually enough for me.  In this case, because the stain is so fluid and goes down into the stamp, it mixed with old ink and gave me a milky brown color.  I love it and consider it a bonus.  If you want it to be completely white, be sure your stamp is super clean before misting.

While your stain is still wet, grab a few blank tags and stamp off the remaining ink before cleaning the stain off of the stamp.  To clean the stain off of the stamp, simply run it under water.

Dry the page with a heat tool.

Use an ink blending tool to apply Distress Ink to the edges of the page.  (Shown- Broken China and Peeled Paint.)  Leave the center plain so that it will create a light focus behind the image.

Mist water onto your hand and flick it onto the page to create water spots.

Gently blot the page with a dry cloth to remove the excess water.  Dry the page with a heat tool.  You will notice that the Spritz & Flick technique is very effective on Specialty Stamping Paper.  It creates a very dramatic effect.

Use an ink blending tool to apply a brown Distress Ink (I used Vintage Photo) around the edges of the page.

Sprinkle clear embossing powder onto the ink while it is still dry along the top, bottom, and right edges.  Heat the powder to melt it.  The melted embossing powder deepens the brown and creates a nice edge effect.  It surprised me to see that when I sprinkled the powder on my page it clung to some of the stamped text even though I had dried the stain.  I think that the fresh ink on top of it reactivated it.  Interestingly, it didn’t stick to the brown around the text.  I am not sure why or how that happened or if it would happen again, but I love the effect.

Ink a photo image (Tim Holtz Traveling Friends CMS022) with Coffee Archival Ink.

Randomly ink over the image again with Jet Black Archival Ink.  Try to not cover all the brown ink.  Inking with the two colors will give the stamped image some color variation.  Many old photographs aren’t a flat color, so mixing the ink on a photo image stamp helps it to look more photo-like.

For this image, I really wanted the focus on the child and the dog.  I also didn’t want a sharp edge around the image, I wanted it to fade.  To soften the edges, take a dry cloth and wiped away some of the ink from the edges and background.

Stamp the image onto manila cardstock.

Trim the edges of the paper close to the image.  I love torn edges because they add texture, interest, and a worn feel.  I often use large Grid Blocks as a tearing edge. The grid design helps me get a straight edge by lining up the image with the grids.

Wrinkle the image.

Misting with Antique Linen Distress Stain is one of my favorite ways to add age to manila cardstock.  I often do large pieces of it at a time to make the most of my stain since I like to really soak the paper. I love having it ready for a die cutting a small tag.  I find that after I age a piece that I really like the “back” of the piece where the color has seeped through or transferred from my sheet.  For this piece, I decided to age the opposite side of my stamped image so that I could use that seeped through ink on the front.

After misting, let the paper sit for several minutes so that the ink can really soak in.  You can see that the raw torn edges really soak in the stain nicely.  Good wrinkles that break the surface coating of the paper also really soak up the stain.

After soaking, you can see how the stain soaked through and transferred from the craft sheet.  It is very random, which is exactly how aging should be.

Dry the paper with a heat tool.

Use an ink blending tool to apply a brown Distress Ink (I used Vintage Photo) to the edges of the image.

To add color to the image, scribble Distress Ink Markers onto the craft sheet.  Use a waterbrush to pick up the color and apply it to the stamped image.  With an image that has such a dark main image, adding color to the child would not be very effective.  Adding a soft wash of color to the background instead makes the child and dog really stand out.  For the child, I used Antique Linen (this is my go-to flesh color) and a little pink on his cheeks.  I wanted to keep the dog as light-colored as possible so I didn’t add any extra color to him.

Print the lyrics to the song on vellum.  I only wanted the lyrics to cover half of the page so I measured the area and formated the text to fit that size.  I didn’t want the words as the focus, I just wanted them there subtly in the background so I printed them in grey.  After printing, trim the paper to fit the page.  I added a wavy edge to one side of the vellum using a Perfect Tears ruler.

Apply adhesive to the back of the vellum.  I recommend a Xyron for vellum, it gives a solid application that is completely transparent.  It really bonds the vellum to the page and  makes it look seamless on the page instead of looking like it is laying on top.

Ink the outside edges of the vellum on the page to make them match the other side.

Color a piece of crinkle ribbon.  I used Antique Linen Distress Stain and a touch of Vintage Photo and Broken China Distress Inks dabbed on with an ink blending tool.  After drying the ribbon, wrap it around the page, tying it in a bow on the left side.

Cut a strip a 3/8″ strip of grunge paper to the same width as your page.  Color the strip with Vintage Photo Distress Stain.  Dry the grunge paper with a heat tool.  Lay a strip of adhesive copper foil tape on top of the grunge paper strip.  Machine stitch through the center of the copper and grungepaper strip.  Add a sentiment sticker (Cosmo Cricket Tiny Text “Just Because”) on top of the strip.

Die cut a small ticket from manila cardstock.  Wrinkle, stain, and ink the ticket like the stamped photo piece before.  Use small alphabet stamps to add a name and date or other sentiment.

Place the band on the page with the ribbon.  Attach it to the edges of the page with Tiny Attacher staples.  Tuck the ticket under the band on the right side.  Die cut a small heart thin copper foil sheets.  Ink the heart as needed for a distressed touch.  Tuck the heart under the band and ticket.

I really love the way this page turned out.  I started this page without a direction except for wanting to use the stamp of the child with the dog and to include at least part of the song.  I love the way the water drops look on the specialty stamping paper.  They really make me think of tears on the paper.

When I started, I thought I would add the song lyrics on a tag, but ended up with the vellum instead.  I love the way it looks on the page.  It really softens the look of the page and adds depth.  I wasn’t sure if it would be too much with the text from the background stamp, but since that text is so fluid, I think it really works well together.

If you would like to hear the song, you can find it on YouTube here: http://youtu.be/Gn1zpAWbC6Q and can see the lyrics HERE.

How fun and unexpected was it to see the texts along the edges grab the embossing powder.  I love how it accented them and added texture.

I really never get tired of Crinkle Ribbon.  I love being able to use my inks to create a perfectly matched ribbon for any project.

I loved finding this stamp in my stash.  I had forgotten I had it and had never used it.  It could not have been more perfect for a project than this one.  One of my sweetest memories of Chunky Monkey is the bond he had with my children.  Those were HIS kids.  There are so many happy memories of him playing with them and growing up next to them.  Those are the things I will always remember and smile.

I love looking at a sheet of stickers and seeing “the” phrase I need right there waiting for me.  I don’t know how they do it, but the Cosmo Cricket Tiny Text stickers do that for me over and over.  The one bit of advice I have gotten again and again is to focus on the happy memories of our life with Chunk, this sticker was the perfect one for this page to remind me of that.

Thank you all again for the wonderful comments.  I have so appreciated them!

See you Thursday with a Take Two.  Until then, I am back to the CHA sample making grindstone!

sss: Simon Says Stamp  ie: Inspiration Emporium