Crafty Friends & Coffee Fairies

A few weeks ago I started getting together on Wednesdays with my very best

 crafty friend, Nicole Wright. We alternate between our houses - she has the mother of all Sizzix die collections and I have everything mixed media. It works out pretty well.

This project was one of the first ones we collaborated on without even realizing it. I was in a bit of funk and not feeling very inspired. Nicole was working on a tea & coffee inspired journal page and I decided to let her creation inspire me.

We ended up using the same dies & some Tim Holtz Paper Dolls & loved how different our journal pages turned out.
My background was created a few weeks before using Distress Oxides, stencils and the stencil monoprint technique. I repeated the technique on the tea cups too. I loved how it looks.

On the coffee side of the page I decided to make wings for my paper doll children. I first inked up some watercolor paper with Scattered Straw and Carved Pumpkin Distress Ink with my ink blending tool, a few spritzes of water and quick dry with my heat tool and I was ready to die cut.
I used the Butterfly Duo Bigz Die from Sizzix & Tim Holtz. I then used the coordinating embossing folder, inked with Vintage Photo Distress Oxide, to emboss my 'wings'.

The Paper Dolls & Quote Chips were perfect to finish of my page.

I really loved how this page turned out and dream of the day that I have my own little coffee fairie that will serve me the perfect cup when I wake up in the morning. It's always nice to dream.

Check out Nicole's coffee & tea themed journal page here.

We already have more projects planned to show how to use products in different ways in our own styles. Collaborating with crafty friends is so much fun!

Art Journal....Be Brave & Create Art

Welcome to my blog! A place where I share my creations - art journals, scrapbooking, cardmaking and mixed media. I hope you enjoy your stay and visit often. Leave me a comment so I can visit your blog. I love making new crafty friends and being inspired.

Today I am going to share a journal page I just completed in my calculus textbook. 

Once a month I co-host a local crop for a lovely group of ladies. It's a lot of fun but I usually don't get a lot done except backgrounds in my art journal. This is how this journal page started and then sat unfinished for about month until this past week when inspiration hit.

My journal pages where prepped with a light coat of gesso. Once this was dry I took some Distress Paint - Gathered Twigs, Tea Dye & Scattered Straw - and dripped some of each colour on the right side page. I then closed the book, gently pressed down on it then opened it up again.

 Overall, I was pretty happy with how it turned out but to add another I pressed some Vintage Photo Distress Oxide on to my craft mat the smooshed my journal into it. I spritzed some water on my pages to activate the oxidation effect then dried my pages with my heat tool.

The Splash Layering Stencil from Tim Holtz/Stampers Anonymous is a new fave. I decided to do the stencil monoprint technique with Distress Oxide - Worn Lipstick. I pressed my oxide ink pad directly on my stencil. Then gave it a spritz of water before turning it over on to my pages.

I repeated this few times over both pages and then repeated it a few more times with Cracked Pistachio Distress Oxide.

Next I took my ink blending tool and applied some Walnut Stain Distress Ink along the edges and did some spritz & flick with water. I quick dry and that is how this page stayed for weeks.

I wish I would have taken photos of what I did next - but hopefully I can described it well enough to still inspire you.


I began by collecting a few items to add circles with gesso to my page....I used bottle top, empty medicine bottle and a round piece of dense foam. I dipped each in white gesso to add random circle on my pages. Next I took my set of Brights Distress Crayons and added some colour to my circles.

Next I took a paint brush and lightly dry brushed some white gesso around the circles the into the centre of the page. This really helped the circles to stand out.
Once the gesson had completely dried I took my black Sharpie and roughly doodled around the circles.

I used my Black Soot Distress Crayon to darken the edges and around the circles before adding some script stamping. Finally I added this little dapper guy from my pack of Paper Dolls from Tim Holtz Idea-ology line. I love these paper dolls! I glued some Quote Chips to the opposite page and this journal page was done.