LOVE ROCKS ART JOURNAL PAGES FOR COMPENDIUM OF CURIOSITIES III CHALLENGE

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!  I hope that you're having a lovely day and are able to share it with those you love.

It's challenge number 22 over at Linda Ledbetter's Compendium of Curiosities III Challenges.  Our focus is on all things Tim Holtz; his products and his techniques.  This challenge is more of a product challenge although there is a bit of technique in using Tim's Dimensional Cutting Pad.  So turn to page 62 in your Compendium of Curiosities III book and check out it out.  The book does not go into detail about exactly how to load the Dimensional Cutting Pad but the packaging does have illustrations. But ...

In doing this project, I ALMOST royally screwed up my cutting pad and probably would have messed up my Vagabond, too so I feel compelled to say a little something about the cutting process with the Dimensional Cutting Pad. When you are using the pad to die cut your piece, you DO NOT have to use another plastic piece on top of the Dimensional Cutting Pad.  It serves as the top plastic piece to cover the die cut and the cardstock. The packaging shows this but I almost missed that important little tidbit. 

I will also share the steps with you that I did in creating my whimsical Valentine-ish altered art journal pages using Tim's Dimensional Cutting Pad and his adorable new Crazy Birds stamps.  I just got them and have been dying to make something with them.

Here are my finished altered art journal pages.  You can see the three teal-ish hearts that I die cut using Tim's Dimensional Cutting Pad.

I say "altered" art journal pages because they started out as this ... a soft cover paper children's book that was just sitting in a closet and really needing to be given a new life.  So these pages are the first of what will end up being an art journal.

I began by covering the pages first with white Gesso and a brayer. The brayer covered the pages pretty quickly and also left a little bit of texture to the surface.

Since this was going to be a "love" theme, I added just a touch of Victorian Velvet Distress Paint for a romantic touch on top of the wet gesso and worked it in with the brayer.

 I heat set that and then started adding on bits of this and that:  some torn papers (ledger page, dictionary text and egg images), a blue and white patterned napkin and cut out ephemera clock for background images.

All of these elements were glued in place using Matte Multi Medium underneath and then brushed over the pages to seal and hold these pieces in place. (Notice at this point you can still see some of the original page peeking through the gesso and paint? In the end, only little bits of that will remain visible).

I also recently received my new Tim Holtz Stencils and thought that particularly the Lace one would add more romance and fun to these pages.  So, with a palette knife, I mixed up a little of Wendy Vecchi's amazing White Embossing Paste with a little of her Red Geranium Archival Ink refill. 

Then I scraped the tinted Embossing Paste over the Lace Stencil in random places also providing more texture and layers to the pages.

To sort of "meld" everything together, I brushed over everything with a sort of white wash of white paint and water mixture. It softened the vibrant colors and seemed to bring everything into more harmony. And of course, I heat set between each layer. At this point, I laid the pages to the side and began working on my Crazy Birds and some of the other embellishments that I would use on the pages.

I stamped these two adorable little birds onto Specialty Stamping Paper using Jet Black Archival Ink and heat set them.  Then, using Tim's Detailer Water Brush, I colored them in using Peacock Feathers and Victorian Velvet Distress Inks on the bird on the left and Mustard Seed, Spiced Marmalade and Ripe Persimmon on the bird on the right. Finally, I "set" the colors by adding Antique Linen using an Ink Blending Tool over the tops of the birds.  I then fussy cut around the birds and set them to the side.

I die cut the hearts from Tim's Mini Hearts set onto a piece of white tissue paper that I had sprayed with some teal-ish spray and heat set. Then I glued that onto a piece of white watercolor paper using Matte Multi Medium and also brushed over the top to seal it. Once that was heat set dry, I followed the instructions for the Dimensional Cutting Pad and cut out the hearts. I love that they are not completely cut out.  Really neat dimension!  In the above photo, you can see the progression of the hearts as I marked around them with a black Stabilo pencil and then using Tim's Detailer Water Brush, created a shadow effect around the heart openings and along the edges of the teal-ish paper. As a final touch, I added a piece of vintage lace around each of the hearts using 1/8" Scor Tape.

Next I die cut two branches out of black cardstock (and reversed one of them) from Tim's Bird Branch die cut. I removed the bird from the branch on the right as that is where my Crazy Birds will be perched.  I glued the branches in place by brushing Matte Multi Medium directly onto the art journal pages, placing the branches and then brushing more Matte Multi Medium over them to glue them in place and seal them.

Next, using Jet Black Archival Ink, I began randomly stamping some heart images from Dina Wakley's Collaged Hearts stamp set. I love her very "artsy" hearts ... perfect for art journaling!  Everything was heat set and then time to start putting all of the embellishments in place on the pages.

I glued the three dimensional hearts onto the art journal pages using Glossy Accents. I love how they add even more depth to the already multi layered pages.

I added some black "sketching lines" around some of the images ... here around the clock.

The Crazy Birds were glued in place on the branch with Glossy Accents and then I added the sketching lines around them. I love the whimsical quality the sketching lines add.

And here are more sketching lines around a wonderful sentiment also from Dina Wakley's Collaged Hearts stamp set. 

With Tim's Detailer Water Brush, I colored in the stamped hearts using a wash of Barn Door and water to give the hearts a little more "pop".  I actually love these finished pages and can't wait to see how the rest of this children's book finishes out.

There is something very FREEING about not having a clue what you are going to make out of something and just start adding gesso and paint and "stuff" and gluing it on with Matte Medium and blending and washing and ending up with a very cool truly mixed media background!!  You should try it and see what I mean!!

Now it's YOUR turn to use Tim's Dimensional Cutting Pad and create something fun to enter our challenge.  If you are chosen as one of our TWO lucky winners, you will receive either a very generous $25.00 gift certificate from ...

THE FUNKIE JUNKIE BOUTIQUE! 

(Click on the logo above to be whisked away to Linda Coughlin's fabulous online shop)

On top of that, she is a SUPER NICE person and wouldn't you rather do business with super nice people???

Speaking of super nice people ... our other wonderful prize package is from two of THE NICEST guys with huge hearts; Tim and Mario. They sent so many fabulous Tim products to Linda Ledbetter to divide up and give away during our challenges.  We can't thank them enough for their generosity!

So come join us!  Good luck!