My Other Creations: Dylusions Small Creative Journal Page Featuring Paper Rose's Hud Sections Die

"Art Journal" is this week's theme at the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Blog, so I reached for my Dylusions Small Creative Journal and a die from Paper Rose called Hud Sections.  Behold the end result!

Starting a journal page is the hardest part because you can be paralyzed with feelings of, "What if I mess it up?"  No such thing, but it can be intimidating to be staring down at a blank page.  One of my favorite techniques is to start slapping down Washi tape just to cover up some of that white space.  You'll probably end up covering it all up, but at least it can get the creative juices flowing.  I used different types of tape and then added some white paint that I applied with a palette knife.

And now the Infusions!  Before the white paint dried, I sprinkled on several different colors of Infusions stain and then spritzed the page with water using my Distress Sprayer.

Yipes!  Pretty crazy-lookin!  But the cool thing about Infusions is that you can cover it with white paint and the color will bleed through, but at a more subtle level.  Here's the page after I smeared some white paint on and added some other acrylic paint smudges (Turquoise and Night).  And I will say as a side note here that Dylusions journals do a stellar job of holding up to whatever wet wacky stuff you throw at them.

I used a heat gun to dry up all that water and paint, added a little more white here and there and then added a strip of Tim Holtz Fabric tape.  I also did some stamping.

I took a break from my page to cut and paint a bunch of circles from Paper Rose's Hud Sections die.  I cut them out of Elizabeth Craft's Reminiscence paper, which is also where that 206 number comes from.

Using my UHU glue stick and more patience than I would've liked, I glued these suckers to the page.  I tweaked the colors a bit, adding a bit of orange and pink here and there and toning down some other things with white.  I also tacked on a bit more Washi in areas that seemed to need it.

I joyfully splattered on some Dina Wakley Gloss Spray in Mineral and Night, then added the "have hope" sentiment and this page was done!

Here are the supplies I used that you can find at Simon Says Stamp:

Dyan Reaveley SMALL CREATIVE JOURNAL Ranger Dylusions	Paper Rose HUD Sections die	Altenew Many Dots Washi Tape	My Mind′s Eye Tutti Frutti Decorative Tape	Simple Stories Hip Hop Hooray Washi Tape
COLLECTOR Design Tape	Tim Holtz Ideaology Fabric Tape	Tim Holtz Cling Rubber Stamps 2016 HALFTONE AND RINGS CMS260	Tim-Holtz-Cling-Rubber-Stamps-2020-MINI-GLITCH-CMS405	Elizabeth Craft Designs Reminiscence 12x12 paper
Dina Wakley Night Gloss Spray	Dina Wakley Mineral Gloss Spray	Paper Artsy SLIME Infusions Colored Stain	Paper Artsy LEMONCELLO Infusions Colored Stain CS04	Paper Artsy Orange County Infusions
Paper Artsy Are You Cerise Infusions Colored Stain	Paper Artsy SLEIGHT BLUE Infusions Colored Stain CS13	Dina Wakley Ranger WHITE 1 oz Media Acrylic Paint	Dina Wakley Olive Acrylic paint	Dina Wakley Turquoise paint
Dina Wakley Tangerine paint	Dina Wakley Lime paint	Dina Wakley Ocean Paint	Dina Wakley Ranger NIGHT acrylic paint	Dina Wakley Marine Acrylic Paint
Viva Decor Palette Knife Set	Tim Holtz DISTRESS SPRAYER	Ranger Non Stick Craft Sheet	Sizzix Big Shot	Ranger Archival Jet Black Ink Pad
UHU Glue Stick

The idea of "art journaling" intimidated me for a long time because it seemed so....permanent to have all of your artsy work tacked down in a book.  But the purpose of art journaling is to make messes and see what you like and what you don't and what works and what doesn't.  Another thing that helped me was to know that if I truly did not like the end result, I could always cover it with white paint and start over.  That reality was comforting.  If we view all of this as a journey of discovery and re-purposing, then nothing is wasted.  So while it's hard to let go of the idea that everything needs to be photo-worthy, once I accepted art journals as a place of experimentation and not perfection, I've enjoyed it!

We'd love to see what you come up with this week!  Upload your projects to the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Blog for your chance to win a $25 voucher to Simon Says Stamp!

My Cards and Tags: Beach Tag using Elizabeth Crafts' Reminiscence Patterned Paper

"A day at the beach" is this week's theme for our Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge.  I do love the beach, so I celebrated with this fabulous fishie paper by Elizabeth Crafts.

I cut out a tag shape using the Sizzix/Tim Holtz Stacked Tags die set and my Big Shot.  The paper is from Elizabeth Crafts' Reminiscence 12x12 pack.  It's got a great vintage vibe and these fish jumped out at me for this project!  I added some paint to the tag and used Dina Wakley's Spaced Dots stencil at the top to replicate bubbles.  I added a hat to one of the fish using paper from Polkadoodle's Vintage Candy collection.  I finished it with a sentiment from Tim Holtz's Occasions Small Talk stickers and outlined the whole thing with a black Sharpie.

Here are the supplies I used that you can find at Simon Says Stamp:

Elizabeth Craft Designs Reminiscence 12x12 paper	Polkadoodles Vintage Candy 6x6 Paper	Tim Holtz Occasions Small Talk Stickers	Dina Wakley Spaced Dots Stencil	Tim Holtz Stacked Tags Thinlits Die
Sizzix Big Shot	Dina Wakley Ranger WHITE acrylic paint	Dina Wakley Olive Acrylic paint	Dina Wakley Sky acrylic paint	Dina Wakley Umber acrylic paint
Tumbled Glass Flip Top Distress Paint	Distress Paint Cracked Pistachio Flip Top	UHU Glue Stick	Black Permanent Sharpie Marker

How will you celebrate beachy things this week?  Upload your creations to the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Blog for your chance to win a $25 voucher to Simon Says Stamp.