Mixed Media Mini Journal

I truly enjoy mixing projects up lol.  Today I'm sharing a mini mixed medial journal I created.  It's nice to have a small blank canvas to work on when the urge to get a little crazy crafting strikes.  This was a couple day project, as the bottle cap was custom made along with dry time for the texture paste.

I really had no idea what I was going for when I started this project.  I had made a trip to a little scrapbook store over the weekend and picked up some of those AMAZING Dylusions Paints.  It was then I started thinking, why not create a fun album filled with blank pages to create on whenever the mood struck.  So I set out to find the perfect die set and chose to work with the Sizzix Mini Album die.  There's so many fun elements included in this set that I know I will work with in the future.  So now to decide the cover...  well I love flowers and instantly fell in love with the flower and flourish from the Valentina file.  So now that I had a rough idea, it was time to get started.

First thing to do - create a custom and unique bottle cap.  I chose a regular sized bottle cap, but didn't want it to be tall.  Ran that through the BigShot and it flattened the high edges.  I cut a 1" circle from some beautiful teal paper and adhered that inside.  Knowing I wanted to add some type of natural element, I chose a veneer butterfly and wanted to add an ombre effect with those amazing paints.

  

I really love how the painted butterfly turned out.  So that got adhered to the bottle cap with a little bit of liquid glass.  I then added some Nuvo glitter drops along the top.  Now fill it with resin and slowly watch those air bubbles pop.  Time to leave that sit overnight.

Now onto the album cover.  I cut the cover from mat board using my Cameo (took many times to get it to cut all the way through!) and cut my binding piece as well.  The cover got a quick coat of gel medium so the layers of paint wouldn't warp the mat board.  I then took one of my new stencils and some texture paste and added some areas of texture.  Now, leave everything to dry.

With everything completely dry, it's time to add some color and finish this album up.  I wanted to create the same ombre look for the cover, so I used the same paints on the butterfly.

Now to add the flower.  I cut each section out of stencil vinyl.  The stencil vinyl allows it to be removed without damaging the layers of paint and texture.  Each layer got painted or filled in with Glaze pens.

  

While that was drying, I had to make the blank signatures for my album.  I used Neenah Solar White 110lb paper.  It's super thick and when coated, it would be able to handle many layers of media.  I added 4 signatures with one page having an additional fold-out.

When everything was dry, it was time to bind the album.  I used some scrap twine for mine and used a blanket stitch to bind the signatures.

With the album almost complete, it's time to add that binding cover.  I added the bottle cap to the front cover and added some ChitChat stickers to create a fun sentiment for the cover.

Now it's time to fill those pages =)

For this fun project, I used the following:

KaDoodle Bug Designs ~ Valentina

Silhouette Cameo

Sizzix Big Shot

Sizzix Mini Album Die set

Sizzix Mat Board

DCWV The Blossoms Butterflies Stack

Ice Resin

The Paper Studio BottleCap

American Crafts wood veneer butterflies

Stencil Vinyl

Nuvo Crystal Glitter Drops ~ Pink Champagne

Liquid Glass

Ranger Texture Paste

Liquitex Gloss Gel Medium

Dylusions Paint ~ laidback lilac, mushy peas, rose quartz

Martha Stewart Aquarium Pearl Paint

Anita's Metallic Craft Paint ~ Amethyst

Sakura eGlaze Pens

Dylusions Small Stencil ~ Holes Small

Tim Holtz idea-ology ~ ChitChat Stickers

Distress Ink ~ walnut stain