Not just for school dinner money!!!

The kraft envelope... I remember my first encounter with a kraft envelope was to take in my school dinner Monday every Monday morning. Who'd have thought just a few (well quite a few) years later I'd be having a whole new love affair with a brown envelope... lol!

I decided it was about time I started to keep an Art Journal again. I haven't kept one since BC... before children!!! I just don't seem to ever have enough time to do the boring day to day stuff, let alone keep an Art Journal. In the past my journals have been kept in lovely notebooks, and have been A4 in size... now I know if I started something this size, it would fall by the wayside in no time at all. But a handy little journal, measuring just 15cm x 15cm.... that would be easy to maintain on a regular basis... so I introduce to you the Kraft Envelope, the base of my new Art Journal....and it's ribbed too ;-)

Here are a few pages I'd like to share.

Firstly my front cover. I used scraps of random papers from past monthly kits and blog kits, to create a patchwork. Then painted over with watered down white acrylic paint. I knew as soon as I saw this cute Jenni Bowlin Whimsy stamp, it would have to be mine and it was perfect for the cover of my journal. I used a mix of alpha stickers including some from the cute Sassafrass range, for my title. I also used some crochet trim, clear embossing powder and a selection of mists to complete the page.

To create the rainbow dribble I added a drop of each coloured mist to the edge of a piece of acetate. Once you have added all the colours you simply hold the acetate to your page and tilt so that the drops run down the page. You can create some really random effects this way... and you know me, I'm all for random!

 Page 2 of my journal was a little bit about the reason I decided to journal again. I used the gorgeous Afternoon Muse stamps from Glitz... you may think you'll never use fairground themed stamps... but I think you can never have enough hot air balloon stamps in your collection, and who can resist that cute little elephant!

 Page 3 and 4 are all about me... right now at the half way to 70 mark! I printed my photo directly onto the envelope, and doodled all around with black pen before adding acrylic paint and clear embossing powder.

 Page 5 is a double page... I stuck to envelopes together by their flaps to give me more space to work. As this page is about my position as the only female in a house of males, I used this paper from the Crate Toy Box collection, across the page. I doodled across the rest of the page with biro, adding a touch of color here and there with paint.

 After making a paper people chain (I haven't made one of these for years), I gave the person that represented me a flowery dress. I used random thickers as masks to create the monogram blocks of colour. The Whimsy stamp came into use again, and I hand cut heart shapes out to cover over the star. This was to tie in with the quote written around the paper people representing my boys. I folded over the edge of the right hand side envelope and stamped it with the Jenni Bowlin Torn Border stamp, in brown, so it didn't stand out too much. I used a cropodile to punch through the holes then threaded the flap down using baker's twine. The page was finished off with each of us adding our thumb print to our paper person.

I've really enjoyed getting back into journaling, and will no doubt stick with it as my new journal is such a manageable size.

A lot of people think that Art Journals are pretentious and poncy. I had to keep them as part of my degree, so have grown to love the process. Even if you aren't interested in creating a journal to keep on a regular basis, they are a fabulous way to experiment with media and new techniques. Quite a few people have said they'd like to have a go at using mists/resist/inks etc, and I bet most of those people have yet to try. It can be really daunting trying something completely new or something that is a huge leap away from your normal style... experimenting in an Art Journal, or sketch book or on scraps of paper held together by a book ring, can be the perfect way to play and mess, without the fear that you are going to ruin a LO or waste money messing up paper and card you really love. So why not have a go yourself... you might just love it, and it's a great way to use up some of your left over kits.

Next I created a fun LO about the fun we've had using the new Photo booth App on my phone.  

Look how gorgeous the balloon and Ferris wheel stamps are when used with a watermark ink on kraft.... yuuuuuum!!!!

 I used one of the kraft envelopes on this LO as a little pocket, machine stitched to hold a cluster of embellishments. The little girl stamp was used again, and this time I replaced the star with a heart cut from this American Crafts paper.
And see how cute those little elephants are... you know you need him in your life.

And my last little project, again using a kraft envelope as a base, was this framed picture. Using the Afternoon Muse stamps again with a tag, some tickets and a couple of other embellishment, I now have a small and cute little picture to stand on my bookshelf in the living room.