Be Strong and Courageous!

Today's post is another Bible journaling piece.  Continue reading this post to learn the specifics of how I created it.

PAGE PREP: I started by preparing the page with thick white gesso from Art Basics - adding it in thin coats using a 1" foam sponge brush and drying with a heat embossing tool between coats.  (I used white gesso this time - instead of clear - because there was a map printed on the page that I didn't need and was covering it up to make space for my journaling. 

WORDS & PICTURES: For this page I was able to use several stamps I had on hand - stamping them with black StazOn ink:

• The text of Isaiah 40:31 and the eagle picture were stamps from Our Daily Bread Designs - "On Eagles Wings"
• The text of Matthew 10:31 & the sparrow picture were also Our Daily Bread Designs - "He Watches Me"
• The cat in the window & text of Romans 12:12 from Art Impressions - "Be Joyful Window".
• The banners (used for "BE STRONG and COURAGEOUS!) were from Inky Antics - "Banners, Brackets & Borders"
• The words "Important", "Rest in this" and "Praise Him" were from Inky Antics - "Memorable Messages"  (for some reason these stamps, and the one listed next, tended to stick to the page & not stamp quite as well as some of them so I had to use a Pitt pen to fill in some places. I got the feeling they might stamp better without the gesso - but then there could be bleed through depending on the ink used)
• The words "Give Thanks" were from Inky Antics - "His Love Endures"
• The text of Jeremiah 29:11 was from JustRite - "Cast All Your Cares" 
• The words "BE STRONG and COURAGEOUS" were hand-written with a Pitt pen

BACKGROUND: 

• After stamping the basic shapes on the page with StazOn, I stamped the pictures & banners again with VersaFine ink on post-it notes and cut around the shapes to create masks to protect the images while I added color to the background.
• After the masks were in place, I took a Ranger round applicator with foam and pounced Broken China distress ink all over the page. 
• When I removed the masks those protected images were still white and ready to have color added.  

COLORING THE IMAGES - I used my Scroll and Brush markers to color these images - with a water brush!  Here's what I did for each image:

• Eagle - I added a bit of very dark brown along the front of the wings and pulled the color to the rest of the fore wings with a water brush. I then did something similar with the back half of the wings adding a medium brown along the front & pulling the color with the water brush.  Then I started to dry it with my embossing gun.  I discovered I needed to make sure there wasn't TOO much water or it would get blown all over the page.  I also discovered that I could mitigate the amount that got blown around by holding the heat gun farther from the page.  The colors I had were more reddish than I wanted, so I took a craft sheet and scribbled them on it - along with a touch of black.  Blending with my water brush and then applying to the image worked pretty well!  I kept working the wings until I was happy with them - then used the marker directly on the image to apply yellow for the beak and feet.
• Sparrow - The flowers were colored directly with my markers, but I had learned from doing the eagle and colored the sparrow by scribbling colors on the craft sheet and using the water brush to create the color I wanted to use on the sparrow.  After layering color until I was happy, I used a bit of an apricot color on the sparrow's beak.
• Cat in Window - Most of this picture was colored by scribbling the marker on the craft sheet & picking the color up with my water brush.  In a few instances I took the pen directly to the picture - like for the darker shade of burgundy in the flower pot & flowers.
• Words & Banners - The words were colored in directly with the marker.  The banners were colored by adding a bit of color on the image and then drawing it out with my water brush - repeating this process until I had what I wanted. 

Georgette Lace Square

Today's card started with a new die set & some "thank you" note cards I had on hand.  Sometimes I still buy boxed cards because they're relatively inexpensive and I don't always have time to create a card from scratch.  However, when I can, I like to do something a little different with them.  A couple of weeks ago I did that & didn't have time to get a picture, so I was glad to get a picture and talk about this transformation.   Here's what the original note cards looked like (very pretty as is, I think - lovely embossed & glittered image!):

The die set was "Georgette Squares" dies from Tattered Lace.  Since I'm in the middle of moving, I don't have access to a lot of my papers, so decided to use a plain black paper for my test die cuts.  I loved the way they contrasted with a plain white card base - and that note card would go so well!  

I fussy cut around the focal on the note card so I could add it to the center of my die cut.  Nice!

I wanted to offset the square die cut on the card front, but felt I should add some sort of wide border treatment below to set it off nicely.  I looked for ribbon, but most of my ribbon has already been packed.  Then I spotted the very thin Washi tape I had picked up on sale.  That would work!  I added a narrow black and gold stripe at the top and bottom of the card - and again just below the focal die cut.  Between the last two I added a couple of strips of black and white striped tape.  Not bad!

With the washi tape in place, I attached the black die cut directly to the card front & added the fussy cut focal with dimensional foam tape.

The inside was created with the same materials.  This time I used a couple of smaller dies in the set to create the die-cut piece you see below.  I used the washi tape from the card front to enhance the border around the die cut.  I fussy cut a few of the flowers from a second note card & added them - direct to the die cut this time (no dimensional tape).
  

I love the way the card turned out and this die set is SOOO versatile!!!!! It makes a great addition to my other cutting dies.

Sweet Sleep

Today's creation is another Bible Journaling piece.  Here I'll be discussing how I created the page. Here's what the whole page looks like:

Page Preparation: I started by coating the page with clear gesso (Art Basics) using my usual technique (Bible Journaling Basics).  

Picture: I stamped the picture (Janie's Girls Frames stamps from HOTP) using StazOn ink.  I stamped the picture again on a post-it note and cut around it to use for a mask to protect it when I added the background.  I colored the picture using my Scroll and Brush markers.

Lettering: Any stamping was done with StazOn ink and then gone over with a Pitt pen (Faber Castel).  I also used a Pitt pen for the rest of the lettering.  I stamped the word "Sweet" (Janie's Girls Frames - masking the "you are" part of the sentiment stamp). For the word "Sleep" with the closed eyelids I stamped just the "S" from the "Sweet" and then hand lettered the rest of that verse. For the verse from Psalms, I first printed it using a font I liked and placed it behind the page.  I then placed a light box behind both & traced the letters onto the page.

Background: The background was applied using a round sponge applicator (Ranger), taking care to protect the picture using the post-it note mask prepared earlier.  The blue was from a  "Chipped Sapphire" distress ink pad.  The yellow highlights were from a yellow dye ink called "Sunshine" (also from Ranger).  The yellow highlight on the Bible verse itself was a maker (Scroll & Brush).  

Mother's Day Twist and Pop

This card was a birthday "Twist and Pop" card.  Here is what it looked like when closed with the belly band, and the next picture shows what it looked like when the belly band was removed.  It was made using the Hunkydory Twist and Pop card base, paper from an old HOTP 8X8 Wedding book of papers, Hunkydory elements from their Floral Shimmer Luxury Card Collection, Hunkydory Little Book of Pearl Sentiments, a stamp from Stampendous sentiment collection, and ribbon from my stash.

The following picture shows the "popped" portion of the card that you see after the card bursts open and before you twist it closed again.  The card is made using 3 pieces of card stock (not counting the belly band).  The first is about the size of a basic A2 card that opens at the top.  The second is a piece that is scored in 4ths and accordion folded.  It is the part that pops out to display four elements when the card is opened.  The third piece is the "twist & pop" mechanism and is shown in the next couple of pictures.

The third piece is a rectangular piece.  It is first scored & folded in half length wise.  Then there are two score/fold lines on the diagonal as you can see in the picture below.

By folding the length-wise as a valley fold and the others as mountain folds, you can get this piece to fold in on itself so it looks like the picture below.

Next, glue the triangular part front and back and place on the inside of the card so the point is pointing toward the center fold line of the basic A-2 piece - just slightly below the fold line.  With it in place, fold the card closed so the piece is adhered to both inside portions of the card.   Now when you open the card, the mechanism untwists and opens.  With it open this way, you will add the accordion folded piece.  First put adhesive on the back sides of the outside panels of the accordion folded piece - just half-way up (the panel on the right will have adhesive from the top half of the back while the left side will be on the bottom half of the back).  This accordion folded piece is then added to the twist & pop mechanism piece - adhering the adhesive pieces to the corresponding rectangular part of the arrow portion (above or below the valley fold as dictated by where the adhesive was added).