Art Journal - Best Gifts

My best gifts are the small acts of everyday kindness rather than one in particular.

I like the contrast between the cool blues and purples and the hot red and golds

I finished this on Sunday night but was back at work so no daylight - although only managed a couple of days before the evil swine flu came back. It really is a vile virus and I am quite fed up with it. Today I am feeling a little better and able to get out of bed but still so tired and sore.
I did manage to include all the prompt elements in this one as the frame around the heart is recycled packaging from some journalling cards and the first layer was made using tissue paper that covered a gift from eldest DD. I used a mix of yellow, gold and red pearly acrylic paints from Lidl - bargain of the century as they only cost £4.00 for 5 jars and they seem to work a lot like those expensive liquid pearl paints.

Torn up and mod podged down - is that a verb? To Mod Podge...

Once this layer was dry I stamped three border stamps in Adirondack Earth tones Espresso to create areas on the page (I think the stamps are crafters companion but lost packaging...) I printed a photo I had of cupcakes and freehand cut it into a G and then on different cakes wrote about the cakes and tablet (Scottish fudge) that Lens Guy will bring home as a surprise for me. I found three images of teapots and cups on Graphic Fairy and coloured them with promarkers and paint. I added dictionary definitions of gifts and gift horses from dictionaries and also wrote some of them on with a sharpie. I added further definitions around the cardboard frame that was swiped with paint. I doodled and painted the heart and gave it flame like tops to help attach it to the frame.

Recycled packaging for the frame. Paint dots around heart

journalling about the endless cups of tea Lens Guy makes me and some of the borders I stamped

The g was a cupcake photo with extra tiny journalling on the icing.

Art Journal - Worst Gifts

This is Page 1 of  a double page entry. This nearly ended up crumpled in a ball on at least 3 occasions but I decided I couldn’t do that with a journal page. Worst Gift was easy – scratchy undies. To be fair to Lens Guy it has been a long time since he gave these to me as a gift and he maintains they were black not red and black. It is now a running joke between us and I like that we can both laugh about it. 

 I found a corset image on Graphic Fairy’s website and coloured it with black, red and blender aqua markers on glossy photo paper.

 I then used pointy tool to scratch words. I used freebie magazine stamps of presents and stamped them on page and then clear embossed them. 

I stamped and coloured a woodware toadstool above one present. Added distress inks and aqua makers to colour. Then purple stazon but I used the cleaner to remove and blotch the page. I stuck corset down with mod podge and then rubbed mod podge over the page with my fingers.

At this point it was heading for the bin

I do create a huge mess ... I just use greaseproof baking powder as craft sheet bit pricy

 When dry I journaled with a sharpie. The Gifts panel was clear embossed and again scratched out words. Some details below.