Journal spread Finnabair style

Hello everyone, Astrid here with my first project for September. As some of you know two of my teamies and myself plus 25 or so other people spent a weekend learning from the wonderful Finnabair about two weeks ago. Today I am sharing a journal spread with you that includes some of the techniques we learnt, but created with stamps from the Artistic Stamper.

I started by creating some "ephemera" using  the Ephemera 1 and Labels sets. I inked some scraps of card with Vintage Linen Distress Ink and then stamped my chosen images in a mix of Jet Black, Coffee and Maroon Archival Inks, I then darkened the edges with some Vintage Photo Distress Ink.
Here you can see them al, - at this point I have no idea yet which ones I will use, but I think they look pretty cool together like that.

Next I prepared my pages. I laid 2 pages from my Mixed Media journal side by side and covered them with random strips of paper, ripped canvas and other textural bits.

I used cheap collage glue for this, that's why it is so shiny here and there.
The next step was to cover it all with a  layer of Gesso.

I had a vintage photo that I wanted to use so I played around until I knew where abouts I wanted to place it

After that I started to arrange my ephemera over and around it until I was happy with the composition. At that point I should have taken another photo but forgot.... So I'll talk you through the next stages. I glued my ephemera down over and around my photo which I had trimmed a little first. I added a few embellishments from my stash and then created a home made spray with a mix of Distress Ink re-inkers, I used Aged Mahogany, Victorian Velvet, Black Soot and Dusty Concord, just a few drops of each. I tested it on the way adding a drop here and there until I was happy with the colour. I put it in a mister bottle with a tiny bit of Perfect Pearls Heirloom Gold. I covered the photo with some kitchen roll and a baby wipe and then carefully sprayed over and around it and also in the other corner of my journal spread. The final step was to add some back ground stamping with Jet Black Archival ink. I used the Calligraphic Mat 12 and the Chicken Wire background for that. Here are some close up of the finished pages:

I added some ink rings still by dipping a bottle lid in some black ink. Here you can see the pages after I cut them apart (some of the strips went right across both pages) and after I inked around them still with Walnut Stain Distress Ink.

 The right side page with the photo

 The left hand side, just with an arrangement of the ephemera and some embellishments.

Finally a few more close ups:

Well, that is it. Hope you like this journal spread, I have to say I really enjoyed making it and I still have a few ephemera left for a next project.
Until next time