Dragonfly Diary (posted by Judith)

Hi folks, well I'm finally posting my pages based on Kate Crane's project 'Journal Your Year' in the January Craft Stamper! This year is just running away from us all, I don't know if it is a sign of getting older, or just busier.
Anyway, I dug out several of Kate's articles in Craft Stamper, relating to making a journal, as I am also in the process of making my covers too, which I will blog in a week or two, time permitting, without disturbing the flow of our next project! I had the good fortune to make the aquaintantance of a lovely American lady recently, who has decided to go digital, and get rid of her virtual crafting supplies. She had some lovely old papers, and I started my pages by covring them with some very faded newspaper.

The newspaper came from 1965, and was very brown, it was a shame to cover it up! I gessoed over the top, and used layers of watered down Eco Friendly Acrylic paint. I used shades of lemon and green, as I wanted a Spring-like feel to my pages.

I decided to stick fairly faithfully to Kate's techniques, adding black and white dashes of colour with the side of an old credit card, stamping with a bottle top, using sequin waste, adding a bit of gold Adirondack dabber here and there, etc. I used a dragonfly theme, by sponging through a Creative Expressions Mask with white paint, and doodling around the shapes with a black pen.

I felt that the white was too strong at the foot of the page, so I toned it down with some watered down aqua to add some balance. I had the good fortune to see Kate demoing at the GNPE show at Harrogate at the weekend, and looking at these photographs, I do feel that I have been quite faithful to her techniques.
I cut out my squares using a Nestability square, which was a bit bigger than I really wanted, but another month, I will make them slightly smaller. I am making my journal for 2012, I haven't a hope of filling mine in at the moment! I have made April's pages, as they are more current, using blues, greens and yellows. This is a colour scheme that I would never use normally, but it is very cheery, and I quite like the result. I have added some Blonde Moments dragonflies and butterflies, stamped onto the newspaper, stuck onto grungepaper, and coloured with Inktense pencils. I also stamped a Blonde Moments flower border across the top of the page.

Now, onto our next project! Jo has chosen Debbie Dolphin's 'A Gift for Him' on page 74 of the February issue of Craft Stamper. Most of the others have already started this project, and one of them has even finished I think. That means that I need to get a wriggle on! Hopefully, it won't be too long before you start to see some more activity in the shape of some lovely gift cards. Thanks for looking, Judith xx