New Year 2017

I created this journal page to welcome in the New Year and celebrate the year ahead.

I added an abstract circle/heart stamp using Cracked Pistachio Distress Ink over the whole page, then diluted the same ink and smooshed it onto the page. To dilute this ink I applied the pad directly onto an acrylic block and the sprayed the ink with water. I used the same technique to smoosh Chipped Sapphire Distress Ink too. I then stamped the heart and the music sheet images using black Archival Ink and the abstract circle/heart stamp again using Paris Dusk Memento Ink. I used a UHU Stic to stick pieces of tissue paper with lovely gold stars on it; this was recycled from the packing of a Christmas present I received. I added gold outline stickers for the hearts detail and the wording and then some gold glittery circles and dots which are Glitterations stickers. The gold metal star-shaped embellishments are the tops from some broken Christmas baubles. Then to finish I adhered pieces of plasterboard/drywall tape and some small gold sequins.

We keep finding lots of the small gold sequins on the floor and we are not quite sure where they have come from! Anyhow, my hubby kindly picked them up from the floor and saved them for me to use on a journal page, so of course I had to use them right away.  The story behind the broken baubles happened on Boxing Day at 2am when we were woken up with a jump – our precious Christmas tree full of decorations which we have collected from all our holidays/vacations over the years had fallen off the sideboard. These items are very sentimental to us as we like to reminisce about our travels each year whilst putting up the tree. A lot of them are not particularly Christmassy in theme, but they look good displayed on the tree. Luckily it landed on the sofa, and although we did have some broken items, my clever hubby has managed to mend most of them. The only things we couldn’t put back together were a couple of the old glass baubles that we weren’t too worried about as we have a few of them left, so rather than waste them I thought I would recycle what I could, hence using some of the bauble tops for this page. I’m very pleased to be able to join Erica from BioArtGal who is hosting Art Journal Journey’s January theme “Tell me a Story”. My hubby spent time on Boxing day making a stand extension to stabilise and allow the tree to be clamped to the sideboard, to prevent it happening again and then I had fun dressing the tree (and reminiscing) again – so it all turned out well in the end.

Here we are welcoming in the New Year. We are looking forward to 2017 and have even started to schedule events, festivals, volunteering and celebrations on our calendar (diary). As you will probably guess I’m very excited by this as they provide the inspiration for my future journal pages. Wishing you all the best for 2017, may it bring you much love and happiness!

Thanks for joining me today! If you have any questions or comments, I would love to hear from you.

Here is a list of all the materials used to create this art journal page:

• Tim Holtz Distress Ink (Cracked Pistachio, Chipped Sapphire)
• Memento Ink (Paris Dusk)
• Ranger Archival Ink (Jet Black)
• Uni Pin Fine Line marker (Black 0.1mm)
• Uniball Signo gel pen (White)
• Sugarload Inc. Anita’s wood mounted stamps (26645, 26631)
• Woodware Craft Collection Clear Magic Singles stamp (Sheet Music JGS111)
• Gold star tissue paper
• Dovecraft Peel-off Stickers (Family Gold CPO-17, Alpha Caps Gold DCPO-05)
• Anita’s Glitterations (Circle Frames Gold ANT 8181028)
• Craft Central Outline Stickers (Love – Gold)
• Metal Christmas bauble tops
• Gold Sequins
• 151Adhesives Plasterboard & Drywall Tape
• UHU Stic and Glue Pen