Common Denominator

Images that caught my eye were printed and pasted, then Tissue Wrap, stamping, stenciling and bits of Dapper paper stash combined with Distress ink/paint and many dots from a Gelly Roll pen became this journal page assembled over the weekend.

For me, the fun of "journaling" is I don't have a plan, I just take what interests me and begin. I never know where it will lead me and along the way I always learn more about what works and what doesn't.

Here are some close-ups (click for the larger, lightbox view):

The papers designed by Tim Holtz are ideal for collages but can be a little too thick for some applications. But no worries, as I have found they are easy to modify into a thinner version perfect for pasting.

I just use my fingernail to separate the front from the back then use a tiny amount of water to soften the paper so I can gently rub more paper bits off the back. In the image above, the paper on the left is the original, thicker version, the right one is how it looks after my delamination process.

I really, really enjoy the challenge of trying to create a sense of depth in my work and with this page, using warm reds at the bottom, cool blues and blacks at the top and the lightest values in the center along with modifying the size of the people helped to accomplish my goal.

And, if anyone is curious, the guys in the white uniforms--they were Coca-Cola salesmen from the 1930's. Perhaps the common denominator here is the love of a good cola?

Stamp credits: Tim Holtz Dots & Florals, Inkadinkado Newsprint
Stencil credit: Crafters Workshop Art Is

Moonrise Kingdom

Many times as an adult, I've wished for the exuberance and abandon of a child--it was so easy to be this way when I was young! This must be why I'm drawn so much to crafting where I can let go of my inhibitions and just play.

I've made this tag to link up with Simon's Monday challenge blog where this week's theme is "At the Movies" and I chose to commemorate a recent favorite called Moonrise Kingdom which celebrates the spirit of childhood and is touching, bittersweet and very, very funny.

It was released in 2012 and Netflix has made it available for streaming.

As far as my tag goes--that's a treehouse from the movie which was built on top of a utility pole and I did my best to turn some Found Relatives into boy scouts. It was fun to remember this movie and I plan on watching it again.

Ripper Street

My husband said this Found Relative photo reminds him of the Victorian era detective drama called Ripper Street that he enjoys watching hence the name of my post/tag. One of the main characters wears a Bolo hat so I suspect that's his reason for this connection.

It's my entry for Tim's September tag challenge where he introduced an archival/alcohol ink resist on Yupo. The background text in the close-up above was made using this technique with his Ledger Script stamp.

I've always wanted an easy way to make light text on a dark background and this is a great way to do it--thanks, Tim!

I began by cropping and distressing a Sophisticate cabinet card that I delaminated and pasted to a manila tag. The Found Relative (also delaminated) was cut-out and pasted to the Yupo and then cropped into an oval for mounting on the cabinet card tag.

I used copper and black Scribbles around the oval to create a pseudo-frame along with some Idea-ology ephemera (Thrift Shop) and paper strips (cigar box labels) cut from the Dapper paper stash.

The star was made by altering an Idea-ology Fastener by picking out the original image, painting in the center, applying a Remnant Rub and tinting/distressing the metal edges.

If you're on the fence about adding Yupo to your stash let me say I highly recommend it. It's great for mixed media and I've used it extensively for creating my own stencils because it's thin, easy to cut and very, very durable (see my post here).

In my opinion, the only shortcoming is that since it's actually a plastic you have to use caution with heat guns.