So....the other day, I informed Michelle that as Head Designer, President and Glitter Czar of the Paper Tales Design Team, I was going to do a fun journal cover tutorial for the store.
She glanced up from her computer and said, "we don't have a design team."
I promptly responded, "yes, we do."
To which she responded, "no, we don't."
To which I reminded her, "yes....we've always had a design team."
"Since when?"
"Since yesterday when I started it."
"Who's on it?"
"Just me. Everyone else quit citing excessive use of glitter and misuse of the Czar title."
At that point she walked away to take a phone call, which I, of course, interpreted as an enthusiastic thumbs up for the tutorial. So, without further ado let's make a cute little journal.......
All Supplies Available at Paper Tales!
What you need:
- Kraft journal
- Acrylic Paint
- Book Page or any patterned paper of your choice.
- Glimmer Glam Shimmer (otional)
- Black pen and white pen (I used a black 05 Zig and white Signo pen)
- Stamp (I used Hero Arts "My Words")
- Versafine Onyx Black
- Inka-Gold in Old Silver
- Paintbrush
Here is the journal that I used. I love this little notebook. It's perfect for embellishing and doing a bit of art journaling......
The paint I used on the cover was the Martha Stewart Chalk Paint impulsively purchased a couple weeks ago at 50% off while looking for kid's Halloween stickers.......
The interesting thing about this paint is that it dries so quickly. It's a bit different from using regular acrylic paint. I mixed it up a bit with my favorite white of all time "Wedding Cake." It's really not the paint that's my favorite......
It's the fact that it's called Wedding Cake.......
I took a piece of a vintage book page and cut it into a heart. As you can see by the extra pieces, it took me a couple of times to get it just right.......
I glued it down.....
Now you are ready to paint the heart. I used the delicious "Wedding Cake"white and a bright pink called "Pink Dahlia." (Which by the way was another impulse buy. I swear, I can't leave Michael's without a least one little bottle of paint.) It ended up working out perfectly though. The pink was almost like a fluorescent...but not quite that bright.
I started sweeping the paint around the the edge of the heart.....
And then just kept adding more pink and a bit of white until I was satisfied with the look of my heart....
I grabbed a couple of different sized black pens and my all time favorite white pen to add some detail to the cover......
I love this pen.....
I added a black border arount the cover. I just freehanded my lines because it was the look I was going for. But you could use a ruler if you wanted to.....
I outlined the heart in black....
Here is the stamp set I used for the sentiment on my heart. I originally bought this set for art journaling but found that I have used it for so much more. We just got it back in stock. I can't recommend it enough.....
I ended up using Versafine as my ink pad. I like it because it works well for fine detailed stamps. I also pulled out my GlimmerGlam to add to my heart after I stamped it. Because, of course, it just isn't a tutorial party until the glitter comes out. Plus, I just wanted to add an extra element on the heart....
So, after I added my little doo dads around the heart and some while pen swirls around the sentiment, I felt that the journal was lacking something. Something trendy....something gold....something round....Gold Dots! Ha! Because I was planning to pin this on Pinterest and wanted it to go wildly viral, I knew I had to add some trendy, in the moment gold dots......
Lucky for me, my impulsiveness worked in my favor as I had just bought some Inka-Gold at Paper Tales a couple weeks ago. Randi had been doing some amazing projects with it and I was inspired to do the same. Of course, it's been sitting on my craft table since then. However, I like to look at it as patiently waiting for just the right project to come along.......
Now, I know you are looking at those perfectly aligned polka dots and thinking to yourself.... "Well, it's no wonder she voted herself in as president, head designer and polka dot czar of Paper Tales non-existent design team......
That is the dottiest dot that ever dotted.....How did she do it? Will she give away her secret?
Heh.....My big secret.....
The hole from one of my tags. I tried using a pencil eraser but because of the thickness and the quick dry nature of the product it was just looking too messy. So of course, not one to wait for proper equipment or tools, like a stencil, I grabbed the next best thing. The reason it worked to well is because of two things: The product is lightweight and it dries lightning fast. As long as I was working top to bottom, I didn't have to worry about smearing the rest of the dots.
Here are a couple of pictures of the first pages.......
I'll be back to share more! Have fun....Karin
