Hi everyone, it's Kate (Kate Yetter – Musings, Tea and Drippy Paint) with you today, and I'm here to share with you a mini journal centered around the beach. It's that time of year where we all need a place to document the memories from our summer holiday and what better place than a handmade album/journal.
Some might call me a pack rat when it comes to saving every last piece of scrap/craft paper but I call it frugal. Supplies are expensive and I am all about using what is on hand. Since I already have the basics such as stamps, paints, stencils, etc, I have a good starting point. My goal for this project was to construct this journal from leftover bits on my desk. So if you have a pile of scraps you can't bear to throw away, follow along.
Keeping with the beach theme, I chose blue and green as my main color scheme and used pinks and browns as supporting colors.
I had a large variety of leftover scraps to incorporate into my journal including stamps, tissue paper and die cuts.
These paper bags were leftover from school lunches last year. I am finally able to put these bags to good use as the base of my project.
I made a small booklet as an embellishment, using a bag from a gift shop souvenir.
To construct the album, I attached the paper bags using masking tape. Because I kept the background of the page inserts white, I wanted a contrasting background on the album to make the pages pop. Instead of painting the whole page, I used black gesso just around the edges.
To create the album cover, I used leftover printed tissue paper that wrapped a souvenir. I glued a portion of the tissue paper to a white background.
Infusions create a beautiful color pop and texture against the tissue paper.
When it came to the actual journaling part, I decided to challenge myself and try something different. When browsing online for inspiration, I was inspired by journals that were clean, organized and flat, without a lot of layering. This is very different from my usual style as I love tons of paint, texture and layers. Since the background was all white, I had to strategically place my journaling and stamps so that there were not a lot of white gaps.
I repurposed PaperArtsy tissue paper as an embellishment at the bottom of the page. At the top, the hand lettered title was painted with Fresco paints. With a ruler, I drew lines to section off areas and then I found stamps I liked that fit in the area, almost like a puzzle. The small amount of collage that I did do, was scaled back to only a few items.
On the journaling spots, I used a ruler to draw lines so I could keep the text straight. This worked especially well when placing text around images. After I finished writing, I erased the pencil lines
As you can see, I used various PaperArtsy stamps throughout my layout. I classify them as leftovers as they were sitting on my desk, unwashed from a previous project.
I always love a challenge to use up my leftovers, think of it as creative time as well as cleaning your desk. While I really enjoyed the "clean" look to this journaling style, I found that I didn't use as many leftovers as I hoped due to a lack of layering. Maybe next time I can mix the two styles to get the best of both worlds.
Kate
Instagram: @kateyetterart
Pinterest: Kate's Scrap Yard
