The Journal Buddy Blog Hop!

Hi everyone and happy Friday! Yay! Let's have some creative fun by hopping on a little blog hop today, shall we? A handful of my favorite creative pals and I are sharing our "anything goes" creations using the Journal Buddy by Yvonne Blair Designs. This fun little flexible tool is great for keeping lines straight, using the wavy edge (which I incorporated in my design)  for all sorts of effects, and so much more. You're sure to be inspired by the talented artists sharing their creations with the Journal Buddy. Join us in this fun hop, leave a comment on each of our blogs and you'll be entered to win...

A Journal Buddy and Yvonne's 4" x 8" Inky Art Journal!

Blog Hop Artists Include:

Annette Green (You're here!)

Candy Colwell www.candycreates.blogspot.com

Cheryl Boglioli www.cherylboglioli.com/blog

Cheryl Grigsby www.cherylspaperartz.blogspot.com

Linda Ledbetter www.lindaledbetter.com

Susan Mostek www.paperskiesandhazeleyes.blogspot.com

Yvonne Blair www.yvonneblair.com

My creation uses the Journal Buddy along with the new and super cute 4" x 8" sized Inky Art Journal. I have to say NOT ALL ART JOURNALS ARE THE SAME. If you're an art journaler, you know the hassle of pages that don't stay open flat. You clamp them, you tape them down, and you just can't stamp well on them because they won't lay flat. WELL, let me tell you: Yvonne's Inky Art Journals lay flat. Every single page! They are specially designed to do so an they are a dream to work with. The pages are super thick and nothing seeps through, even without gesso.

With that said, let's get the show on the road!

I used the 4" x 8" Inky Art Journal and created this fun spread using Yvonne's Journal Buddy and her wonderful stamps from Impression Obsession. (More details on those in a moment.) I was inspired by artists like Candy Colwell and others I follow who have used magazine people in their art journals. I had never tried it before and started flipping through magazines recently and found this cute girl's freckly face and wrinkled-up nose, and she just made me smile!

To begin, I laid a few die-cut waxed paper doilies on my pages. These were leftovers from some cardstock die cuts I made recently. They help the detailed pieces pop right out of the die easily, and they stay intact nicely so I keep a stack of them just in case.

I totally forgot to gesso the pages, I was so excited to get started. But it didn't matter one bit and I liked the manila coloring of the doilies. I sprayed my pages with Tattered Rose Distress Stain Spray.

Next, I stenciled the Tim Holtz "Flourish" with Bundled Sage Distress Ink in the doily spaces.

Then I stamped Poppies Alone with two different ink colors across the bottom and up the sides a bit. This is one of Yvonne's stamp designs for Impression Obsession.

I stenciled more flourishes in the pink areas to fill it out more.

Then I swirled inks where the poppies are stamped. 

I used a fingertip sponge dauber to control where the ink went.

I cut my girl out of the magazine and laid her into position without adhering her yet. I used the Journal Buddy to make a pencil mark across the page and the girl's forehead.

Then I cut along the line and adhered my girl onto the page.

Across the wavy line I hand lettered "I Choose Happy" thickening the letters. I added a soft shadow around my girl's face with a Stabillo art pencil and smudging it with a damp finger.

I laid the Journal Buddy back down on my pages and blended some Salty Ocean Distress Ink above, then used a marker spritzer and a Salty Ocean Distress marker to make a splattered texture.

Rather than stamp directly onto the journal page (it always scares me that I'm going to mess up) I stamped instead on a piece of tracing paper with black archival ink. I cut closely around the stamped areas and adhered the piece to my page with multi-medium. It's magical how it just disappears! This great stamp is also from Yvonne and is called Choose Happy.

Onto a plain piece of white printer paper, I stamped a script background, then spritzed with several colors of Dylusions spray inks. I punched tiny flowers once it was dry.

The flowers adorn the wavy edge at the top and are also adhered around the pages. I added some script stamping to fill in some of the open areas of my pages with red ink to tie everything together.  

I punched a few more flowers from green cardstock, then cut them apart to make tiny leaves and I mixed those in here and there around my pages.

To finish off, I used a Pumice Stone Distress marker to make a soft shadow on my adhered pieces. These pineapples were an afterthought. They came from some Basic Grey scrapbook paper in my stash. They were pink, so I thought they'd be fun to add in here. I love this stamped sentiment, don't you? It's so true, and it was the inspiration for my pages today.

I hope you enjoyed it, now continue on the blog hop to see what these other creative gals have up their sleeves. Thanks for stopping in!