Destiny Found... Cooking with Tina StencilGirl® Stencil Collaboration

Hello friends! It's been a long time since I've played in my art journal and Tina Walker cooked up a FUN art journaling project to challenge me and kept me working on the same page for the past couple of months.

Join me today in the final reveal of the latest StencilGirl® collaborative project, "Cooking with Tina" featuring the art journals of eight artists all following the same RECIPE – a few ingredients being our favorite StencilGirl® Stencils.

For me art journaling isn't something I do on a regular basis. I enjoy working in a journal and this fun collab let me ease into creating an art journaling practice. Also it didn't require a lot of time or the pressure to complete a page in one long session.

Tina kept us on the edge of our seats each week – adding another ingredient (creative twist) to apply over the 12 weeks. This is the final recipe card that includes all 12 ingredients.

I worked in my journal with black paper pages.

Read on to see my steps in order followed by the finished page.

Start by prepping surface page with gesso. I used Liquitex black gesso. This sounds weird, though it makes the dark paper have a nice, rich surface and the colors POP.

 

Add 2 colors of acrylic paint to the surface. I used a green Ranger Adirondack acrylic to draw in swirls and a tube of Heidi Swap yellow straight from tube making striped strokes.

 

Add collage to surface. I set out with more pieces

of collage fodder than I ended up using.

 

Stencil a repeating pattern to surface. I applied Payne's grey acrylic paint through the StencilGirl® L456 - Buenos Aires stencil.

Scribble or doodle on surface.

This was fun! I used three Stabilo woody crayons.

Represent "opposites" in project. For this I added opposing words "LOST" and "FOUND" using StencilGirl® S305 - Text and Texture Transform Stencil using many layers of acrylic paint, markers and pencil so the words could emerge from the background.

This week's recipe presented an interesting twist! Draw a face. First I sketched in with Stabilo pencil, followed by a flesh colored Stabilo woody, then added water to paint in the area. I added features with layers of pencil.

 

Add the color RED. I added red in areas, bringing out some of the florals using a Vicki Boutin water soluable crayon (these are so buttery).

Stencil with a Tina Walker stencil. Using StencilGirl® S822 - Cathedral Floor and a mixture of Payne's grey and white acrylic followed by yellow, I aligned the pattern of cathedral floor join up with the stone path I collaged in earlier.

Add ink. I added four colors of Liquitex inks, two of them metallic -- adding a little bling and contrast to certain areas. The metallic is hard to see, but it really added a lovely glowing effect to the Cathedral.

 

Add words. For this I added the words "Destiny" using StencilGirl® S306 - Text and Texture Explore Stencil peeking in and around the florals and one that stood out to complete the phrase "destiny found".

 

Cover something up. Another plot twist! The face needed some work as it was just floating there. I used a swirled decorative staircase that I had leftover from the collage ingredient to form a head-dress and trees amongst the flowers. This tied the face together nicely with the image of the statue from my Grandmothers garden.

Add finishing touches. Using pencils, Stabilo woody's and markers, I added details, built up contrast and finished up the lettering to complete this moody colorful garden.

"In this Garden... Destiny Found"

This art journal page is full of luscious layers and texture. It was a challenge to let the ingredients lead the direction of where the art wanted to go. I'm in love with how it turned out. This page helped heal my heart I have spent much time away from home during this challenge -- sitting in my Grandmothers home, and her garden, reflecting on all the wonderful memories spent together.

It was fun to add a new ingredient each week and I enjoyed leisurely playing along!! I look forward to using this recipe style on new pages -- next time starting with surface prepared with white gesso.

StencilGirl® Stencils Used:

S822 - Cathedral Floor : Tina Walker

S305 - Text and Texture Transform Stencil : Seth Apter

S306 - Text and Texture Explore Stencil : Seth Apter

L456 - Buenos Aires : Nathalie Kalbach

CLICK HERE to jump over to see the other fabulous journals made for the Cooking with Tina... StencilGirl® Collaborative. Did you play along? I'd love to see -- leave me a comment with a link to your art journal page created using the recipe card above.

Thanks for dropping by! Sb

Dimensional Paper Delights... Designer Crafts Connection Dreaming Tree Bloghop

 

Greetings everyone -- today I am part of a special bloghop! The Designer Crafts Connection is delighting us with dimensional papercrafts using SVG patterns from Dreaming Tree. My project has all the holiday feels and brings back my love of dimensional papercrafts with a fun twist -- using my high-tech Cricut and SVG patterns combined with cardstock, patterned paper and old school tools from my stash.

If you dream it you can make it with SVG files from Dreaming Tree...

CLICK HERE to hop on over to learn more about these fabulous products!

Be prepared to be delighted with projects for any theme or occasion at Dreaming Tree... and a large selection of FREE designs! Pick your project, download the digital package, pick your papers and put your electronic die cutter to work! I love my dies, stamps and fussy cutting and use my Cricut for vinyl projects. This is the first time I have used my machine to make something with paper.

I was so excited to find several pop-up card designs. I enjoy learning the art of making pop-up mechanisms and Dreaming Tree made the process enjoyable. I frequent a little shop that sells cards like this and with the Tis The Season Pop Up Cards SVG Bundle, I'm happy to try them myself. It also gives me a reason to get a jumpstart on making my handmade holiday cards. 

The hardest part was deciding which card to make first and which of my treasured patterned papers to use. I decided on this lovely My Minds Eye snow pattern paired with a coordinating solid blue and a prized sheet from one of the retired Basic Grey holiday lines. I have the big 12" x 24" mats so I load up my papers on both ends and set up the cut files in CDS interface.

I did a little modification to the SVGs by combining the card base and the trees so I could cut them all from the same sheet of patterned paper. This worked great though the interface still decided to move things around on me.

**PLEASE NOTE** The patterns and assembly instructions use solid core cardstock. When using patterned paper, plan to make an extra set of trees that are inverted (flipped horizontal) from the original cut design. I had to go back and do this so that when I assembled I would have my beautiful snowy pattern showing on all sides and not alternating with the white backside of the paper. Not a big deal -- I now have things cut to make two cards.

Time to cut! I was a bit concerned that the delicate details would tear or not cut all the way through.

The blade whirls and dances around and 

the software tells you the progress.

Wowee! I have the Cricut Expression Air II which is 

a few years old and it did not disappoint.

The removal of the cut pieces is the hardest and most time consuming step. It requires a delicate touch, and a lot of patience. The reward is a ready made card phrase for another project (I wonder how to remove that all in one piece)!

This is really impressive. The resulting design on card 

front is approximately 2" wide by 4" tall.

Solid blue cardstock is up next for the envelope.

This Basic Grey snowflake pattern will be the accent for the 

envelope flap and also the inside papers for the card.

This beautiful snow spritz design is so tiny. I am amazed by how perfectly cut each shape is... even the tiniest dots the size of a marker spot. I use my Cricut spatula tool to gently lift the tiny pieces off the tacky mat.

The negative space design leaves me with lots of free coordinating embellishments to use later.

I also cut out the ONE PIECE CHRISTMAS TREE FAVOR BOX (FREE SVG)

out of a green patterned paper from DCWV Christmas Stack.

This little box is quick and easy to cut and assemble with a bow. 

I will have fun filling these with girly gifts or some sweet treats.

Now with all my pieces cut, its time for the FUN part... embellishing!

I really enjoy the assembly process and taking time to add little extra touches that make handmade cards really special. The tree pieces are very detailed so I didn't want to apply ink to them. Solution: I dusted off my "old-school" scrapbooking dry pastels and brushed on a bit of color with a soft bristle paintbrush to cover the white edges. Quick and easy and the brush easily gets into all the small nooks and crannies.

To add some sparkle, I gently swiped the edges of all patterned

paper pieces with silver distress stain dauber.

For the star, I added some craft glue and sprinkled glitter the old-fashioned way.

I filled with candies and secured the top with a silver twist tie. 

I added a swirl of pom-pom garland to complete 

this adorable whimsical tree... ready to gift!

Assembling a Dreaming Tree pattern is easy-peasy -- you cut/prepare all the pattern pieces following the PDF provided, then assemble by following along with a video. Before final assembly of the card and envelope bases, I used double-sided adhesive tape to sandwich some scraps of sparkly tulle behind the cut outs. This quickly adds a bit of sparkle and shimmer.

 

I finished off the card and envelope with some icy colored gems.

Let It Snow... Let It Snow!

I love how the pop-up dimension really ups the WOW-factor!

What dimensional delights

will you create with Dreaming Tree?

CLICK HERE to jump over to the beginning of the Dreaming Tree Designer Bloghop at the Designer Crafts Connection blog to view more inspiration and projects using Dreaming Tree SVG designs. 

If you are getting a jump start on your handmade holiday creations --  enter Dreaming Tree's "Christmas in July Own 'Em All" giveaway! Click here for details.

You can find SVGs galore on

Dreaming Tree Website HERE

Find lots of creative inspiration at the Dreaming Tree Blog HERE.

Thanks so much for visiting! Sb :)

** This is a sponsored post. Dreaming Tree provided SVG digital products for use in this project in exchange for my creative ideas, views and opinions. My ideas and opinions are my own.