A few of my favourite things...

Hello all!  Alison (butterfly) here to share another journalling page with you.  This one centres around a vintage photo and one of my favourite Katy Leitch flower stamps.  Cups of coffee at the ready?  Let's dive in...

I started by layering torn book pages and heavy gesso into a kraft-paper journal (still working through the pages carved out of my candle niche!).

The next step was some stamping... the Encyclopedia Botanica flower and one of my favourite Calligraphy Mats, number #4, stamped in Sepia, and with clear-embossing for the flower to give extra definition.

I then started playing around with ephemera and embellishments and it all came together without me really thinking very hard.

This wonderful young woman from the Darkroom Door Photobooth sheets was really the catalyst.  (Since I'm having to be patient about getting my hands on the new Tim Holtz Photobooth release, I'm playing with these for now!)

The determined set of her mouth and the humorous gleam in her eyes drew me to her at once.  Here's someone setting out into the world with her head screwed on straight and ready to pursue her desires.

She's layered up over some Tim Holtz ephemera, some shabby lace and some stained calico from when I did my last rusting session (a long time ago... there needs to be another one very soon).

The journey she takes will undoubtedly be full of twists and turns, but you can bet your bottom dollar she'll grit her teeth and come out smiling in the end.  This word from Journalling Words #2 seemed the right one for her.  The layers here include some more of the rusty calico as well as some tea and coffee-stained tissue paper.

You'll recognise the book page Frameworks Trellis pieces (they put in an appearance on my New Leaf tag as well as my Russian Love Is In The Air hanging)... 

Here they've had lots of shading (with Inktense pencils and a water brush) to embed them in the page.

I found when I was looking at some of the photos that I couldn't make my eyes see them properly - they kept either sinking in to the page or sticking out - a sign that the shading for dimension is doing its job, I suppose.

It was while I was creating the shadows around the Frameworks and the other ephemera - with various blue and grey Inktense pencils - that I decided the flowers might look good with some "sky" around them.

I'm really pleased with how it makes the image pop.

The other elements which made an early appearance in the plans were the wooden butterflies.

I already like them in "naked" wood, but for this page I decided they should be crackled.

I used the Croco Crackling in White again (as on my last journalling page here).

And then added splodges of Black Soot, Gathered Twigs and Vintage Photo Distress Stains, wiping back and adding more until I was happy with the grungy look.

The little wooden buttons I did leave naked - though they did get caught in the splatter fire!

You'll have spotted the metal accents - some Idea-ology pieces that worked with my young woman... business-like cogs and paper clips, and the Muse Token which is definitely hers by rights.  I sanded it back to give it an extra burnished glow.

So that's today's bit of fun.  The journalling does seem to have taken hold, and I'm enjoying the freedom it's giving me to play.  I'm hoping you're still enjoying the results!

Thanks so much for stopping by today - it's always lovely to hear what you think.  Oh, and there's still almost a week to come and play in our New Beginnings challenge... hope to see you there.

Ingredients used:

Artistic Stamper stamps: Katy Leitch - Encyclopedia Botanica, Journalling Words #2, Calligraphy Mat #4

Archival Ink - Sepia

Distress Stains - Black Soot, Vintage Photo, Gathered Twigs

Idea-ology Findings - Muse Tokens and Gears

Viva Decor Croco Crackling Colour - White

From my stash: gesso, wooden butterflies and buttons, book pages, rusty calico, tissue paper (plus tea and coffee), lace, Sizzix Frameworks Trellis, Tim Holtz Ephemera (but there are similar things here), Inktense pencils