Sensational Sunday Inspirations

Good Morning Stampers!

Welcome to the Loves Rubberstamps weekly Sensational Sunday Blog Hop! The Design Team has created some gorgeous projects for your Inspiration. Check out each link and leave a comment. If you get lost along the way, each stop will have a full list of links. One of the Design Team posts is the hop's Sensational Sunday Sweet Spot and a name will be drawn from that list of comments to be in a monthly drawing for a $20 Loves Rubberstamps Gift Voucher! We will draw the winner of the Voucher the 1st Sunday of each month from all the comments left on the design team blogs! Remember, you have until 8:00 pm CST Saturday to leave your comments!

How is your weekend going? My Friday was spent doing the business taxes for both my business and my husbands. Talk about a not fun day that was! LOL! I think I put off doing them longer and longer every year :( 

So after my mentally exhausting day I actually took a mini me break, spent some time in my craft studio and made a project to share with you today! I know....it has been a looooonnnng while!

I have been intrigued by a project I came across called the Documented Life Project. This is where you combine an art journal with a planner. Each week they give you a prompt and you are supposed to use it as inspiration for your page. Well I didn't get to start at the beginning of the year so I have been more of a lurker and following how others interpret the prompts and what they create. It is really interesting. 

I have been fascinated by art journals for a long time, I spend many (way too many!) hours on youtube watching tutorials on art journal pages. Trying to learn tips, tricks and must have products to try and make myself feel comfortable to try it out. It is intimidating but today I decided to just jump in! 

I didn't have a particular prompt from The Documented Life in mind when I made this but I knew for sure I wanted to use the planner/art journal style for my page. They did feature a prompt of 5 Layers which this would fit under - Tissues Paper, Gesso, Distress Stain & Ink, Patterned Paper & Stamped Images. Now that I have started hopefully I will be able to do a page a week to stay up on this project! So here is what my page turned out like....

Now I LOVE how this turned out in the end but I have to say when I just had the background and hadn't got very far I didn't really like how it was looking and felt like I ruined my brand new journal by making a disaster. LOL! But I kept at it adding layers and colors and it really came together. Now I can't stop looking at it and can't believe that I made it - LOL!

I really love watching Vicky Papaioannou on You-Tube (She is AMAZING) and she does a great job with her tutorial videos. On one of her videos I watched she said that if you are not sure where to start, cover your pages with tissue paper and it becomes less intimidating. So that is what I did to get myself started. I used Tim Holtz's Melange Tissue and glued it down with Gel Medium. Then I put Faber-Castell Gesso on top and then used distress stains in the colors, Tumbled Glass, Mustard Seed and Spiced Marmalade. I sponged Walnut Stain and Black Soot around the edges.

The large tree branch is actually a winter tree from an old Tattered Angels set that I just used like a branch. I stamped it in Archival Ink and then filled it in with my Black Big Brush Pen. Then I used a Turquoise color Big Brush Pen to outline the branches. (LOVE LOVE LOVE these pens!)

That stunning bird is from the DoveArt Studio collection. I think it is so beautiful! I colored it with copics and then cut it out, popping it up on dimensionals. I added some little pink flower punchies from a Stampin' Up punch to the tree branches to try and tie in with the flowers in the bird stamp. 

The believe stamp is from a Katy Sue Designs Wishes & Vines set from Flower Soft. I created the sentiment from the computer. One thing I learned is that if you create a sentiment with your computer...don't attempt gel medium on the top...it will be smeary (can you see on the A BIRD part) That is how you learn I guess! 

The stamp image on my border is from the Tattered Angels Architectural Trims set. I also added some whipped spackle through a Crafter's Workshop Stencil called Well Rounded. It has a variety of texture style patterns on it. I did notice that the whipped spackle almost soaked up some of the ink from my page and kind of colored itself. I am not sure if it is supposed to do that or if I should have sealed something or what ...but I like how it turned out so it is all good :)

I should say that the journal I am using is the small 5"x8" Dylusions Creative Journal. It is a great size I think for this style of art journal/planner and since I plan on using a lot of stamped images it seems like a great size for that. Plus it is WAY less intimidating then the large one since I am a beginner! LOL! 

Here is a close up of that gorgeous bird on a branch image...

Also... I wanted to share a few pictures I snapped of a Male House Finch who was singing his little heart out in our tree the other day :) I have waited all Winter to see some birds so I could try my new camera on some bird shots - LOL! 

Now let's hop along and see what the Design Team ladies have in store for you...

Laura - Loves Rubberstamps Blog - You are here...

Dangina

Nina

Blankina
Denice
Rebecca

Thanks for stopping by!

Laura!

Other Supplies Used on My Project:
Tattered Angels - Chillin'
Katy Sue Designs Silhouette Stamps - Wishes & Vines
Tim Holtz Distress Stain - Tumbled Glass, Mustard Seed, Spiced Marmalade (will be in the store soon!)
Crafter's Workshop 6"x6" Stencil  - Well Rounded (will be in the store soon)
Big Brush Pens - Used the Black, Brown & Turquoise Colors
Tim Holtz Melange Tissue (will be in the store soon)
Stampin Up Flower Trio Punch


I will be entering this in the following challenges:
Sassy Studio Designs - Anything Goes
Scrap & Craft - Flowers
Addicted to Stamps & More - Anything Goes
Scrapper's Delights - Anything Goes
Word Art Wednesday - Anything Goes
Deep Ocean Challenge - Vintage
Shopping Our Stash - I Made This
Crafting From the Heart - Anything Goes #51
Love To Scrap - Anything Goes
Brown Sugar Challenge - Anything Goes

Bird On a Branch	Architectural Trims	Ranger INKSSENTIALS RE-USABLE NON STICK CRAFT SHEET	Tim Holtz Distress Ink - Walnut Stain
Walnut Stain Distress Ink	Mini Ink Blending Tool	Memento Ink Pad Rich Cocoa	Copic Markers
Copic X-Press It Blending Card	Big Brush Pen Gift Set Faber-Castell	Gesso Jar 100ml Faber-Castell	Gel Medium 100ml Faber-Castell
Whipped Spackle Jar 100ml Faber-Castell

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