TRIP JOURNAL 2013: Nebraska

COME WHAT.....COME MAY! . . . . . .

So anxious to be going home in over a year.....so I threw together a quick daybook I had to jot random notes, sketches, mini pics from that week.  I plan on doing a "Week In The Life 2013" as well.  This will just be a little something extra to do at night and on the plane ride. (YAY!! FOR A DIRECT FLIGHT!!)

The cover took a while as I didn't know what to do and was playing around with a lot of ink/stamp features.  After tracing elements with a Paint pen and writing a saying, I sewed on Hambly overlays on.  (The cover wasn't doing the best job transporting so I wanted extra protection. Using embossing thread, I stitched the airplanes path.Used brad to hold a mini-pic of my parents' house and arrow overlay.  Other elements included washi tape, embossing - stamps, sequined heart.

I added some patterened paper, and a Prima stamp to the first inserts.  Again playing around with inks, UTEE, and stamps. The flower stamp was put on a page that had stickers so when heating the UTEE, the ink went through the paper....I LOVED the look, so repeated it on the back insert.

Next pages were stamped and stickered and washi taped :)

Luckily the map paper included all the cities of relatives to be in town, so I made sure to mark each with a stamp showing love.  (Unfortunately, my city was not on the map...East Coast was left out :( as well as Japan.)

More stickers.  Added a high heel paperclip to a tiny piece holding a few farm photos.

I got some new Mr. Misty stencils and wanted to play with them and vellum pages.  Didn't turn out the greatest but I made it work.  I reversed the stencil and painted gesso on top.  Then went back over with a neon red to show through.  Most worked, but I did end up outlining the "love" with a marker.

Used some Allison Kreft overlay "Love This" on a doily page.  Next pages just used more tape and stickers included in the daybook. I added a stitch detail around the doily's curve to hold the paper as well.

Another stamp saying "Love Yourself" with black UTEE.  I tried silver first and it didn't show up, so went over it with Black.  I believe this is a Suzi Blu stamp.

Center of book includes a map so I highlighted Denver, and Nebraska where more family is located.  And added a few other stamps...ladybugs.

I stitched a star, added tape to areas as it was not the easiest to do...paper was ripping where the holes were.  But it turned out.  The inside has a sequins bird that shows through the center of the star.  I plan on doing something to cover up the "mess" inside. 

...more stamps with a collage of photos.  I left the photo strip open in case I want to add any inserts inside.  The leftover overlay was put on the suitcase. 

Another stencil I played with. Bicylces....spray painted the white...then highlighted one with neon red marker. I used the sticker outline to cover the jagged edge insert.

Again more stamps....I used 2 of them to complete this element. (ducks w/ Love balloon & Keep Calm)..This little page also took a bit of time to complete... had to restamp and emboss several times.  I also then had to cover the insert with book paper and coat with gesso before trying again.  You can see one stamp bled through, but I like the way it turned out. 

Another page I used the same stencil and just used spray paint to create.  Again...a mess...spray paint doesn't stick well to velum paper.  Lesson learned...but I made it work ....and like the result.  I added a little piece of scrap paper to the page as well. 

Created a cover/opening page with a graphic I obtained from a website a while ago.  So it opens up....and I will probably put a picture inside. Opposit page has a stamped carrot and stickers.

More stamps and paper words.

Cut a piece of "A" letter scrap paper and glued over page ( I will probably fill in the circles with some little sketches.  And the last page was another great flower stamp on a sticker holder page coated this one with Dylusions spray.

Stamped the back cover "Grow where you are planted." 

And lastly, the back cover was layered with Hambly overlays, stickers, stitching,  some vellum details, markered elements, and a stamp that I ended up using Paint Markers on to show details better.  It is hard to get a stamp to work on overlays.

The book I hope took me a little longer to put together then it will to fill in the details.  I took the extra time, b/c I have a tendency to want what is in my head to be what the end product is (plus I kept finding supplies I hadn't used before and wanted to do it all in the book)  I was determined to make my mess look like art. :)

DIY: Distressed Coffee Table

The story begins with a $2 Coffee Table frame...

I knew I wanted to paint and distress the frame, so I asked for feedback on Facebook.  My first choice of pink was quickly turned down...and so yellow was going to be the go-to. 

Until I got to Lowes and saw all the paint choices of turquoise....so I went with that :)

Since the glass was missing, I needed to replace it.  I was going to opt for glass until the associate said it wasn't the most sustainable glass and more expensive than wood.  So I had the wood panels cut to the dimensions. (I had my fingers crossed all the way home ....and luckily, they fit perfect.)

I went with a yellow color for the inserts.

so, Rapids blue & Field of Daisies it was. 

To avoid sanding down the entire unit, I used KILZ to prime the surface.  IT WORKS GREAT!!

KILZ also left a nice gift for the landscapers to mow over :)

(YES, as I said before, I spray paint on the grass behind my house)

I sanded the edges of the wood and painted 2-3 coats of yellow to get an even finish.

I then used Satin-Soft Silk to coat the table.

(This will be the color to show through when I distress the table.)

Since it was getting dark and colder outside, I moved the table inside, used a candle to coat the worn out ares, and painted the top 2 coats.

(Note to Self: Check feet before walking to avoid random paint spots on floor.)

.
Once dried, I took a sanding sponge thing and went around various edges.  The website I used stated you can take steel wool and rub the areas of the candle wax to bring out the base layer.  I didn't think that worked well...and was pricking my hands.  The sandpaper did the job just fine. 

It is hard to see in the pictures, but a lot of white and brown is popping through.  I may eventually use a brown or white glaze to make it more muted, but for now, it works.

Inserted the wooden panes with strong glue to hold.(placing heavy books on top to flatten as the wood was curved in some places.)  I was going to use tack nails, but opted for glue for a cleaner line plus the inner ledge was not very wide

The last element I wanted to add was a slogan with a huge heart shape on the other side using MY PINK chalkboard color I wanted from the beginning...plus it would tie into some of my home decor. So I opted for a verse from the Lumineers' song "HO HEY".  I used my silhouette to cut out large pieces of stencils...and taped them together to cover the surface.  So much easier than doing it by hand.

I applied a few coats over the stencil.  (not the best option of using paper for a project that will take a few minutes to coat....paper gets stuck on project.)  But you can see the stencil wasn't perfect, hence I will have to go in and touch up the words and area around the heart.

And this was the end result.  I LOVE IT.