Art Journal Page by Mary M

 WOW! March 31. Where did this month go? I hope this post finds you all well and ready for some wonderful spring (or fall for some of you) days! I know I am ready for windows to be open. Today I have another art journal page. Yes, I do believe these are my new addiction. I call this one "Bloom Where You R Planted."

For this one I took a couple of sheets out of a large dictionary that was going to hit the trash.  I cut the pages into strips of different sizes and adhered them to the page with a glue/water mix. Gesso was lightly brushed over the top and allowed to dry before I played around with watercolors. The Prima doll was stamped directly to the page and was colored in with watercolor crayons, paint and marker. Instead of legs, I gave her a stem.

The dragonflies were embossed with Orbit Olive Gold. I used a combination of paint, ink and marker on the flowers and planter. The letters were put on white card stock and I used ink and chalk to define them. 

Thanks for stopping by the blog today.

 Tomorrow Deann is up with the new monthly challenge for Gina's Designs Craft Group on Facebook! And don't forget, this is the month all of our new designers and educators will make their debut!

Gina's Designs Items Used

Spring Shape Set

Other Items Used:

Gesso

Page from a dictionary

Watered down Glue

Crayola watercolor paints

Stampin' Up watercolor crayons

Distress Inks: Bundled Sage, Broken China, Milled Lavender

Alpha stickers from stash

Prima doll stamp
Rubbermoon Art Stamp

Pretty Blooms Stamp Set by Scrappy Cat

Markers

Chalk

Acrylic Paint:Lemon Yellow, Deep Yellow, Medium Yellow, Violet, Portrait Pink, Leaf Green, Dark Green, Limonaide

Orbit Olive Gold by Lindy's Stamp Gang

Bling from stash

Easter Tag by Dianna

Hi Everyone, Dianna here with a Easter tag made with Gina's Designs X Large Tag and Easter Shape Set (coming soon).

The paper used is Doodlebug Designs "Hello SunShine".  I covered the tag and lightly distressed the edges.  I painted the Gina's Designs frame, lamb and chick with white acrylic paint. Texture paste dyed green was used to create the base for the "grass", which is actually green paper Easter grass.

I wanted the chick to stand out, so I searched my stash of stuff and came upon white Flower Soft.  I spritzed the Flower Soft with a yellow Myra Mist and it worked.  Now, I had yellow fluffy stuff for the chick. (Note: a word of warning, I spritzed too heavily and it took two days to dry).  I used a yellow Copic Marker, colored the chicks body and used an orange for the beak.  I put glue everywhere, except the beak and spread the now yellow Flower Soft on the chick.  It dried pretty quickly, I had already cut out the egg shape so I used a chipboard spacer to give a little dimension between the egg and the chick.  A black gem for the eye and the chick is done!  The other two chipboard eggs were covered with paper and Prima chicks were used to decorate.  The edges were daubed with glitter glue.  Gina's "Basket Full of Joy" was inked in green and daubed with green and white glitter glue.

I used white and gray Copic Markers on the the lamb then decided to cover the lamb in Flower Soft too, since it worked so well on the chick.  First I put glue all over the lamb except for the face and then covered the lamb in Flower Soft.  Now I have a fluffy white lamb!  Two gems for the eyes, a pearl for the nose and a hand drawn mouth finish the little lamb.

Julie Nutting's new Audrey Mixed Media Doll Stamp was changed up a bit in order to hold the basket and sit down.  The skirt was cut at the bottom to the first pink band.  The legs were cut off and a chipboard filler piece was used under the feet and at the knees (this gave the legs the appearance of bending.  I used Julie Nutting's Strapless Dress Doll's other arm to create the arm holding the basket.  I gave Audrey more of a bust line in order to hide the fact that the arm is a little different.  I then stamped the bow from the Strapless Dress Doll and used nail gems for the neckline.  The Basket is a die cut and the flowers were cut from the Doodlebug paper, glitter glue was daubed on the flowers and gemstones were placed in the middle.  The cute blue bird is a brad from Doodlebug.  The stamp phrase is from Taylored  Expressions.  Gina's frame was daubed with green, white and pink glitter glue, while the glue was still wet I applied flaked glitter and seed pearls. 

Thank you for looking!

Gina's Designs Items Used

Chipboard Decorative Tags X Large

Easter Shape Set

Other Items

Julie Nutting - Audrey Mixed Media Doll Stamp

- Strapless Dress Doll

Doodlebug Designs - paper

Taylored Expressions - basket die

                                          - stamp phrases

                                  - bird brad

Four Tabbed Mini by Mary M

Check out How to Make Gina's Designs Four Tabbed Mini Album by Mary Melsheimer on Snapguide.

The pictures below are how I decorated my journal. The paper is Graphic 45 - Couture.  The frame and the word inspire were both embossed. I then cut out a black oval to go behind the frame and attache the word to it. Pop dots were used to attach it to the book.

On the side I used one of Gina's dangle and created this fun charm.

The corset was painted black and the "lace" painted white.

The sewing machine is embossed with black and silver.

The next three pictures are the tabbed pages. The chipboard was painted black.

The hanger and the dressform were embossed with black. I attached these two piece as well as the corset towards the edge of the covers so I would still have the flat surface for writing.

Gina's Designs Products Used:

Tabbed Mini Album
Flourished Frames Evie
Dangles
Miniatures Shape Set - Ladies Choice
Vintage Seamstress Shape Set 
Words & Phrases 1

Altered ATC Shrine

Hi everyone, Shanna here with some spring to share!!!

I really wanted to have something bright and uplifting on my desk!

Something to remind me spring is here (even though it may not feel like it).

So I created a spring-like ATC Shrine. I love these little containers and it has been a while since I have played with one.

I added a label to the front titling this shrine "Happiness."  Each piece got a cover with gesso than with some Distress Paints. The purple I toned down with gesso.

I painted the shrine first with gesso than with Broken China Distress Paint. I then dry brushed gesso all over the container again.

I decorated the inside with Graphic 45 papers, moss, and a cute little butterfly, which was painted with Distress Paint and given a coat of Crackle Accents. 

Gina's Designs Items Used:

ATC Shrine - Window 1

Butterflies and Dragonflies Shape Set

Stackable Label Shape Set

I do hope you are enjoying your current weather or that better weather is on the way! 

A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes Art Journal Page by Kim

Good morning friends! Today I would like to share with you my art journal page.   I am a beginner at art journaling but I am really enjoying learning all about it. Gina has some great pieces for art journaling and I took my inspiration from the beautiful scribble frame - fairy piece.

I used a mixture of gelatos, sprays, distress inks and stencils for the background. I faded the colours from darkest at the top to lightest at the bottom.  I decided to keep the chipboard pieces in black to give the illusion of a silhouette at night.

I stamped out some images of mushrooms and leaves and used various paints and watercolours to achive the look I got with them. 

I added some silver glitter paint from 13 Arts to the web and the wings of the fairy for some contrast and to give them a glistening effect.  The leaves on the scribble frame I dabbed with some green paint for the same type of effect.

 
I added some words to create my sentiment and I am really happy with the outcome.
Thanks for stopping by today!

Gina's Designs Items Used

Birds Shape Set

String Alongs - Gothic

Scribble Frame Fairy

Other Items Used

Shimmerz Inklingz

13 Arts Paint

Gelatos

Amerciana Black Paint

Chocolate Boroque Stamps

 

Birds, Bees and Dragonflies by Kathi

Hi, fellow crafters I'm here to show you a spring project. What says spring more than birds, 

bees, dragonflies, and flowers?

Full View

The Honeycomb Tray was painted with black distress paint, and black and white dotted paper was placed behind the honeycomb. The top was left open to insert photos.

The Collage Border was painted with distress paint, accentuating some of the elements 

such as the birdhouse, flowers and butterflies.

The laugh was painted white then sponged with pink distress paint.

The dragonflies were painted with distress paint & placed on the flowers on the lower right. Two pretty stick pins placed in the center flower. 

Gina's Supplies Used:

Photo Display Tray-Honeycomb

Dragonflies Fancy

Collage Border - Spring

Wood Wall Art - Live Love Laugh

Steampunk Masks by Barb

The first thing that came to mind when I saw Gina's Designs various gear cut-outs was,

"I want to do a mask with those!" 

See, I had stumbled upon these papier-mâché masks about a month before 

and was just waiting for something to really inspire me. Gears did the trick.

I began by applying a very thin base coat of silver acrylic paint to the mask. 

Then I went to work on the gears with some copper acrylic paint and a bit of sponge. 

While the paint was still a little wet, I gave it a good spritzing of bronze irRESISTible.

I love the effect of the bronze irRESISTible. 

Because it dries shiny and raised, it makes it look like the gears have oil on them.

I went back to work on the mask and layered various shades and colors of metallic acrylic paints

using different gear stencils and rubber stamps that I have on hand. 

I guess I kind of have a thing for gears!

Then I glued on the gear cut outs and gave it a little bling 

by adding rhinestones to the middle of some of the gears.

I was so happy with how it turned out that I made another one!

Gina's Designs Products Used

Gears Texture Sheets

Gears Shape Set

Other Products Used

Imagine Crafts irRESISTibles in bronze

Jacquard Lumiere Acrylic paint

Sponges

Rhinestones

Stickles glitter glue

Liquid Pearls in copper

If you'd like to see more of what I did to make the gears metallic and distressed,

stop by my blog post from last week at: In the Studio with Barb - Gearing Up!

Thanks, and Happy Crafting!

Journey

Hi everyone! Melissa here with a layout for Gina's Designs. This photo was taken near Sequoia National Park in California.

 I love all the curls and swirls on the chipboard. I used that as a theme for the way I decorated it.  After I prepped it with gesso, I put on texture paste in a small area,and twisted pieces of it with a straight pin. I repeated this until the whole thing was covered. I painted with layers of Lindy's Stamp Gang, and topped it with a mixture of  gold perfect pearls and a tiny amount of water. I put crackle paint on one area,which came out a lot darker than the rest of the frame.

Thanks for looking, and I hope you have some scrap time today!

Gina's Designs Products Used:

Page Frame Victorian

Other Products:

Papers by Prima,and 

Black flower by Prima

Handmade turquoise ribbon flower, and paper flower

Lindy's Stamp Gang

Tsukineko Chalk Ink

Perfect Pearls

Twinkling H20s

Liquitex Modeling Paste

Prima pearls

Crafter's Workshop Template

Distress Crackle Paint- Clear Rock Candy

Sizzix Tattered Florals, and Tattered Flower Garland

Chinese Lantern from Graphic 45

Yellow Butterflies from Pink Paislee

Birds from Bo Bunny

Vintage Wedding Layout

Hello there, crafty friends! Lynne here with a heritage page featuring some beautiful doilies and chipboard from Gina's as well as a wonderful old wedding photo from 1915 of my grandmother's cousin.

I inked the doilies to make them stand out a  little more; I just love the delicate look of them and the amazing amount of detail! For the flourishes, I just heat-embossed them with Stampendous Aged Ivory, then gently rubbed on a little of the same maroon ink with my finger.

      

Heritage layouts are some of my favorite pages to create, and there are so many beautiful pieces in Gina's store that complement and enhance my creations. Stop by and have a look! I'm sure you'll find some pieces you love! Have a terrific week and be sure to find time to play :)

Gina's Designs Items Used

Cardstock Doily Set-Intricates

Feathery Flourishes set

Other Items Used

Prima Cigar Box Secrets papers

Stampendous Aged ivory embossing powder

Prima stencil

Reneabouquets butterflies

"Bee..." Art Journal Page by Mary

Hello fellow crafters. Today I want to share with you my very first art journal page! I had so much fun making this. I learned two things while doing this: there is no wrong way to create and I love making a mess!

I started with page with a coat of gesso. From there, I used all the paint colors listed below to create the background. I just kept adding layers. If I didn't like how the color turned out, I applied more gesso to that area and started again. Once dried, I sprayed Lindy's at the top of the page and let it run down. While the page was still wet I took a paper towel and pressed to absorb the excess. In some places, it lifted the color which added depth. After that I used stamps in select spots across the page.  The brown spots were created by watering down brown paint and using a fan brush to splatter it across the page. The edges of page were inked with Vintage Photo, Walnut Stain and Black Soot.

The honeycomb was first cut a part and then painted brown. Once it was attached to the page, I used my finger to apply gesso in random spots. The bees were first painted yellow and when that was dry, I used black gesso for the markings. The Prima stamp was used on the wings.

 

There were several hexagons pieces that I was able to pop from the honeycomb to use. After the yellow paint was dry, I used some rub-on alpha's and edged the tiles with Walnut Stain and Black Soot.
For the words, I rubbed the letters onto white card stock and then used Walnut Stain along the edges. Once they were adhered to the page, I used a charcoal pencil to create the dark frame around each of them. For a softer look, I used my finger to smudge the lines.

 Gina's Designs Products Used

Honeycomb & Bee Large

Other Products Used:

Paint: Daler Rowney: Medium Yellow, Cream, Yellow Ochre, Lemon Yellow, Brilliant Red, Orange

Folk Art: Daffodil Yellow

Liquitex: Burnt Umber

Gesso

Rub-on Alpha Stamps from my stash

Stamps: RubberMoon - Mixed media 

Prima - #96081

White cardstock

Ink: Tim Holtz Distressed: Spiced Marmalade, Mustard Seed, Vintage Photo, Walnut Stain, Black Soot

Lindy's Stamp Gang - Summer Lovin' Sun

Black Charcoal

Thank you to all the wonderful artists/crafters that shared their art journals on various social media forums. You have all inspired me to make the leap!

Garden Cards

Hello to you all. Shanna here and I am feeling a little dark lately. 

Well not really dark. I used some darker colors on my cards to share with you all.

I love Prima and I have had some of the Nature Garden collections in my stash. I thought this was perfect and it turned out great with the chipboard I wanted to use.

Of course all my chipboard pieces got a coat of gesso. Then I proceeded to go to town :)

For my first card I used some Prima Chalk Ink but I didn't fully cover everything, just a little pat here and there.

The second card got a coat of chalk board paint. The Bird on a Swing Shape Set got a great crackle glaze but the cracked for some reason didn't make it all the way to the center of the bird.

I love crackle accents! It is so much fun to just add a bit more texture to projects! 

I finished the cards with some chit chat words. 

Gina's Designs Items Used:

Flourish Frame Sienna Mini

Bird on a Swing Shape Set

Punch Elements 1 inch Scalloped

Altered Embroidery Hoop by Kim

 Good morning friends! Today I would like to share my altered embroidery hoop with you. I have had this idea for a while and finally got to bring it to life!  I started off by painting the hoop white and adding some gorgeous beaded lace around the edge. The back piece is some Bo Bunny paper I had in my stash. I layered sprays, stencils and stamps to give it a grungy feel.

 The butterfly of gears is one of my all time favorite pieces of Gina's! I first painted it and then used some rust Gilders Paste over it. I then used my script stamp on top.  I added a Prima junkyard finding lamp for the center of the body.

 I did the same basic technique for the Chain Frame, but used Silver Gilder's Paste this time and some fine black embossing powder to finish it off.

I layered on some metal, flowers and used some old paint brushes I had as well. This gives those old bushes that you would normal toss out a second lease on life. I added some paint and stamp to them as well to pick up on the background of the piece.

I hope you like my piece this week, I always have fun using Gina's chippys!

Thanks for stopping by!

Gina's Designs Items Used

Butterfly of Gears

Chain and Gears Frame

Other Items Used

Tim Holtz Measuring Tape

Prima Metal and Wood

Appliques, Flowers, Lace and Bead Caps from Kraftsupplies4U

Indigo Blue Stamps

Rust and Silver Gilders Paste

Distress Ink Sprays

Embroidery Hoop and Brushes From My Stash

Inspire Picket Fence Layout

Kathi here to share with you my fence project.  I layered graphic 45 birdsong paper on the fence.

Fence

 Photo frame grape vine that I painted green.

Gina's Designs Supplies Used:

Picket Fence Wall Panel - coming soon!

Grape Vine Frame

Wall Words - Inspire

Other supplies used:

Graphic 45 paper - Birdsong

Flowers

Fabric roses

Pearl sprays

Fabric spray and Roses - Kraft Supplies 4 U