Designing a Junk Journal Cover . . .

 

For me, these are must-have Gypsy Soul Laser Cut items 

that have to be on hand in my craft room. 

Feathers Shape Set

&

Simple Feathers

I use them on so many projects including 

layouts, junk journals, mini-books, tags . . . 

they go with almost everything. 

Beautifully and intricately cut, I decided to use these with a

Prima frame to finish off a junk journal cover. 

Step 1: Paint with Tim Holtz Speckled Egg acrylic paint. I dry brushed the feathers as I knew I wanted them to remain a specific color and let a bit of the chip show through. 

Step 2: Add off-white flecks. Is that what they're called? Those little flecks of paint that dot a project. This:

Flecks? I watered down some Martha Stewart acrylic paint (off-white) and used a Tim Holtz Splatter brush to add the flecks. Dip the ends of the brush into the watered down paint. Hold the brush horizontal to the project and tap the brush to add flecks and let dry. 

TIP: I do better tapping the brush bristles rather then the brush handle.

Step 3: Add brown flecks. Repeat the same steps above using a dark brown color. This time I used a dark brown ink pad, stamped ink on my craft mat, added water and used that as my *paint*. I didn't add as many dark brown flecks as I did white.

Once dry, it's time to add to my junk journal cover. 

OMG it's a do-over. The color on my feathers was all wrong! I placed them onto my cover (without adhesive) and I did not like the way the feather color looked with my frame. It made the feathers look like a dull gray.

So now I'm trying more of a contrast with this pale yellow color. I painted this top of what I had already done. 

We all make HUGE mistakes and all those mistakes can be fixed or altered one way or another. 

So now the experiment started:

Back to the flecks, this time with blue and brown flecks on top of the yellow feathers. Never mind. Didn't like that either. So bad I can't bring myself to show you a photo.

Try this again: Used Mustard Seed Distress Ink and inked up the edges of the feathers to make them a bit darker. I liked this color with the Prima frame I'm using. 

Then used Brushed Corduroy on a sponge applicator and pounced that on top of the feathers. I liked that too and stopping while I'm ahead.

The Finish: I added them to the front cover of my junk journal along with the Prima frame and Prima flowers. 

Thanks for taking a look at my junk journal cover.

Hope you love these feathers as much as I do.

Gypsy Soul Laser Cuts Items Used:

Feathers Shape Set

Simple Feathers