Documenting a journey

Hi all

For some time now I've wanted to make a journal about a phase in my life that has been difficult.

Sarah has in the shop some awesome (and I really can't put how awesome into words) Brag Books from Fancy Pants. Now i've looked at these books a few times and put them back down again thinking that's going to be a lot of hard work - but then I got to thinking, well my journey has been long and it's not over yet so I have a lot of things to write about.
So I eventually decided to take the plunge and invest..now these books may look a little pricey at £14.99 but let me tell you, you will not be disappointed. The books are crammed full of pages for journalling, scrapbooking and even photograph pockets.

I then had to make a descision which range I was going to decorate this little beauty with.. Easy choice Pink Paislee She Art collection is perfect and Sarah has the range in the shop :). I chose a few extra embellishments and away I went.

Here is my full stash hoard that I intend to use on my book. (all available in the shop)

Now I realise there are a lot of embellishments there but this book is an ongoing project so i'm going to need them ;-)

So now it's time for me to start playing with my goodies and my first step was to decorate the front cover of my journal (always the best bit). I got out some paints, stencils, alcohol inks, glossy accents, pearl drops, and stickles and away I went - without a clue what I was doing as usual.

Below are the step by step images of creating my front cover..

Step one..

I used white paint and stencils to create a background, I mixed a little pink paint in to add a little colour at the end. I added a few splashes of Alcohol ink Eggplant.

I used a dry black inkpad and stamped a journal frame over the area with the Alcohol ink. I then added another stamp using the dry inkpad just below.
Using a few of the rub ons out of the pack, I added the red and yellow hearts.

At this stage I allowed my work to dry then covered it with Mod Podge, once dry I then went on to add extra embellishments.

So this is my completed front cover. I added the cutout lady and added a little Maya Road ribbon rose to her hair. I attached the sun cutout to the top left. I cut out the little blue scallop border from the backing card that my rubons came in. My title was added and then a lot more Mod podge.
To finish my book I used scraps of ribbon from my collection.

I hope You like my project, tomorrow I will share a little of the inside pages that I have made so far.