Do More of What Makes You Happy!

A few weeks ago, I took delivery of my new Happy Planner from Me and My Big Ideas. I had been looking at them for a while and when Crafter's Companion started to stock them, I just had to get one - along with a few accessories including stickers, pocket cards and other bits and pieces. I'm not really sure how I envisaged using my planner with all these fabulous goodies - but in the end I have come up with what suits me - and I'm loving using it. 

But sorting through all the lovely extra bits and pieces, I realised that it was opening up a completely different possibility to me. So, with a goal in mind, I invested in a set of the expander rings for the planner and the punch that goes with it. The punch may well get used for the planner - but the expander rings are for a completely different purpose.

I have decided to start an art journal, as I love playing with all sorts of techniques and media, and as I no longer sell my cards etc, this would allow me to create for a purpose! And being able to punch the pages and add them to the rings gives me more scope than working in an existing book. The motivational quotes that came with some of the Happy Planner things also spurred me on. I intend to either use them on the pages - or as inspiration for the pages.

I have started by creating the front cover for my journal, which I am going to laminate to make it durable. There is such a wide variety of products in my stash, I decided to use up some of my oldest acrylic paints - my Eco Green tubes!! Some of the paint had separated in some of the tubes - but I've given them a shake up - so they are good to go!!

I took my starting point from this Happy Planner Pocket Card, because I feel it sums up what the point of this is for me - doing more of the messy stuff that makes me happy!

I began by making a background on Sheena White Stamping card with Eco Green paints - White, Butternut, Raspberry and Green Patina. And I really didn't like it.

So I mixed some white Gesso with water and went over the lot - then added more colour back in - but really watered it down.

I wanted to use Leonie Pujol's Everlasting Love stamp - I really love the style of it - and it reminds me of gardening - which is also something I need to do more of to stay happy!! I stamped it with Memento Rose Bud.

And then covered it in Pebeo Masking fluid! Big mistake, as the ink ran into the liquid!! But I pressed onwards.

I used stamps from two of the original Textures collection - Basket and Burlap, and Journal Jottings. The tyre tread and footprints are for the activities I love doing! I persevered with the Memento Ink - and used Rose Bud, Pistachio and Pear Tart.

Once I had stamped over the background I realised that I had stamped the flower image a bit too low down to be able to attach the card with the words - so I partially inked the stamp, and then stamped it again.

Because a lot of the ink had disappeared with the masking fluid, I used my Spectrum Noir AquaBlend pencils to go over the image - and to colour it in. I picked three colours to echo the inks - Rose (Florals), Tobacco (Essentials) and Pesto Green (Naturals).

To add more definition to the edges, I added a thin white line with the Pebeo 4Artist Oil Marker (fab new addition to my stash) and then drew a line on the inside with my Rose pencil and went over with water.

I did a little of all these things to the card with the words on too, so that it would blend in. After adding a few dots with my Pebeo marker, I mounted it on white card so that the messy back is covered before I laminate it!

Looking at it, I think I would have added more foliage to the left of the card - but I'm pretty happy with the way this turned out!

Cxxx