Working on a mixed media journal

for our road trip coming up in July.

And its coming along quite nicely - however,
its taking up a bunch of room (as you will see) with a lot of supplies
so therefore, it is the only thing in my limited space that I'm working on.

I purchased the smaller Dylusions mixed media journal -

 and after the purchase I hit google of course to find 

samples of completed journals - and there are some good videos

out there - AND, there were also reviews,

some good, some bad.

Most were concerned with page saturated and then have the pages

fall out and the band broke - what I learned from the designer

 - was to not do the pages in order.

Skip about - 

I was also "doing" pages after I put the gesso on - which they

say you don't need - but I chose to do it - on all 100 pages in the book.

It helped with the saturation - I have experienced only had a bit

and it came through the binding between pages.

Of course they also recommend Dylusions products.

Since you will see I have a ton of mists - that are not Dylusions

I felt the need to go with what I had.

I also decided to have fun with the book and to try and keep

the bulk to a minimum.

I was pretty successful with the fun - not so much with the bulk.

I pulled out every stamp and do-dad I thought would be good.

And I have used quite a bit of stash.

You will note I'm diggin' on the chickens and critters

in general - and used up the transparency fruits and flora.

I have also used alot of stamps I had NEVER used.

Also a neat tip I found from the videos - was to make mixed media

tags from the excess misting of which I did alot LOL.

I've also found that I'm a deadly mister - and its EVERYWHERE.

There will be a huge cleanup after.

And here is the disaster that my desk is.

Which is why the book needs to be completed before

I move on to anything else.

I can't wait to begin using this - I plan to journal of course

and add bits and pieces of ephemera I collect along the way.

Also my my mojo and summer fun seems to have
an effect on my postings and creativity or lack thereof.
Both have been somewhat erratic and I'm leaning
toward thinking that's the way its going to roll.
So please bear with me.
If you use blog loving and follow me - it makes it easier to know
when I post something new and your then not wasting
time checking.
Thanks for coming by and your comments - 
It totally makes my day.

Abandon to God - Bible Journaling

Abandon is a word used quite extensively by Oswald Chambers

and I have already used it in a couple of places in my Bible 

and there will be more places to use the word Abandon.

Abandon - complete lack of inhibition or restraint.

Be carried away for God.

In Mark 14:6 Jesus points out that

Mary does a beautiful thing for Him and He loved it.

There were not many times in Jesus ministry that anyone 

impulsively showed Him their love and Jesus 

had to actually point this out because a couple of disciples

criticized Mary's impulsiveness.

How often had we been impulsive for God.

I used enamel paint and gesso for this page

as well as a foam heart, Martha Stewart punch and tiny alphas.

Flipping a page gone wrong

Normally a page gone wrong - I will give it a awhirl and attempt to "save" it,

 however, on this one - in a "what was I thinking"

in using a honey comb stencil with modeling paste and

black enamel paint would enhance a page. 

Maybe less would've been better or maybe a different color

However much I really loved the black striped paper - 

there really wasn't any saving to be had.

So I flipped it over.

And wasn't I lucky it was double sided.

It was a bit wrinkled and didn't have much damage to the flip side.

I also decided that I liked the pattern.

So.....the watercolor and stamping commenced.

 The foundation was put together without a photo in mind.

 I was a bit concerned because I made the mat really big

and then of course all the layering that covered up the majority

of the stamping. 

I die cut those chili peppers awhile ago and felt compelled

to use them - along with the homemade "badge" I made - it fit perfectly.

I found this series of photos in the wayback box and

wasn't sure I had a digital copy so I took photos of them anyway

because there was soooo much dead space I felt

I could cut them down and still tell a story.

So its the new pp from Studio Calico along with that Basic Grey

that appears to be my "go to" for layering recently.

I even got a bit of journaling in at the top and the covered up

stamps are Shimelle's with ranger ink.

Handwritten Bible journaling

1 Corinthians 3:9

Labourers together with God.

In quoting or paraphrasing Oswald Chambers - God engineers everything:

wherever He puts you - your one great aim is to pour out a 

wholehearted devotion to Him in that particular work -

no matter how menial the task or labor.

I have since changed my attitude about daily tasks - especially with housework

which I particularly do not like - and it does make

the tasks alot easier and the end result alot prettier.

So my very own handwriting - Gasp I know.

I decided to give it awhirl and I'm feeling

pretty good with it.

My handwriting really isn't that bad until I try

to do something on a page with it

and then like a clutch hitter-

I choke. 

In fact, the handwriting actually

 went better than the stamping did.

Sigh.

I used enamel paint and Panda Eight embellishment and a punched heart.

Background paper that's a photo

By Studio Calico of course, and its New York

which is perfect as I gotta a couple

of grands in Brooklyn.

 Worked that badge in - points for that.

 I layered and layered with a mix of Studio Calico and

Paper Issues and also dug out the Studio Calico stamp,

stamped with black ink on white cardstock and colored it in with my 

American Crafts pink pen.

Love the look and the sentiment works because

Lou loves hanging at the Root's cafe.

The photo is sooooo pretty and delicate

and I picked out the colors

from there.

Lou is manly enough to do pink.

Stencil frenzy

I have been in a frenzy lately and this time

it's my pal Holli's fault.

She gave me the stencil - Tim Holtz arrows.

 I wanted a little dimension and color

so I mixed blue paint with the molding past.

 And decided to smear it over each and every one of them.

 On the entire page - which is going to be 8.5x11.

 Since I got carried away with the mixing I used

the leftovers to make dots on this page - that was going to

be THE page but I liked the other better.

 See those little stars???

They came in this month's Studio Calico kit and

when I tore open the package - they went

everywhere.

And I liked where they landed to I glued them all down.

one.by.one.

 My homemade enamel dots.

 The title. Sigh.

I didn't think of bounce til I glued down hop - which

is a QK cookie cutter font- cosmopolitan.

 Again with the chaos and I love.

After all Lou is bouncing around in a cage so......

This time I did add a bunch more layers and kept

the embellishments down to a mild roar.

I also mounted this on kraft cardstock and matted the

photo the same - along with some navy c/s.

Looks like Lou was having a blast.

Have a blessed Memorial Day.....

God Bless America & Our Military.
And of course my Favorite Eldest Son who served proudly.