A Druggist's Junk Journal

My second blog entry of the year, hopefully not the last. Long overdue project that took me this long to showcase this. Becoming a woman of less words; I shall dive down to one of my latest project - A druggist's junk journal.

Entire book was made from scratch using tea-dyed papers and printables from Ephemoire's Vintage Medical collages. Needtheless to say, the centre piece is a modified mixed media caduceus; staff of Hermes. With added touch of alchemy, as what was associated with anciently. Oh well, hence this book belongs to the Druggist who lives down the alley.  

While it's hard to capture everything, a video orientation is perhaps one of the better options to showcase this whole journal. 

Destiny 5890?

Jam packed with loads of ephemeras

Magnetic mini folders

Just in the right time for this Halloween. Apparently, this seems likely to be a sequel to my mini poison shoppee which I did last year. I'm hoping I won't take too long to come up with such projects. 

Meanwhile stay tune.

Pryotechniques; A Steampunk Junk Journal

For the past 14 days or so, apart from making adjustment to my schedule, I was also busy with something new and interesting. It's also one kind of project I've been wanting to attempt. After much hesitation, without giving myself further reasons not to do it I decided to go ahead churning out some mojo together with some inspired magical potion - I finally produce a STEAMPUNK JUNK JOURNAL!!!

Ta-DAAA!!! Here it is!!! My first attempted junk journal, Pryotechniques; that's how I addressed this pilot junk journal of mine. Of all the possible attention I might get (as what "pryotehniques" is being termed as), I fired out a face instead using various design elements I could find within the steampunk journal kit from Traci's shop, Ephemoire... 

This is probably one of the most challenging part in creating and took me about 2 days to come up with the entire concept. The process in doing up the book and bookcase wasn't the most difficult part, it's often the preparation and conceptualization part that juice up most of the time and creative brain cells. 

As I was figuring out how to get a junk journal done up, it took me quite a while to get all the pieces together. I may not be someone who is really good at making pockets and envelope inserts, so for the very first time, I decided to opt for simplicity. Yet the process involved was phewww.... It took me around 7-10 days to get this done up after researching and watching several junk journals tutorials and ideas. Nik the Booksmith is one of the many videos I've watched to get most of the inspiration. 

In order not to disappoint, I also had done up a time-lapsed video in how I altered the bookcase cover, providing fresh inspiration in how I compose a face out from the various design elements I found within the journal kit. Catch the video below to learn more...

Though it's not a full 5" x 7" journal book as intended for, I find such a handy size much easier to handle as a junk journal newbie. Everything was made from scratch - the covers and pages are all constructed using various cardstocks, vellum, printer papers, vintage and pattern papers.

A pair of butterfly charms in between the pages...

At the end of the day, I'm pretty satisfied how the book has turned out. This whole creating process has indeed encouraged me more to create more books as such. And yes, I'm thinking of making more and would love to explore more techniques in doing up more interesting junk journals. 

Thank you so much for being with me for this very first junk journal attempt and I do hope it will also inspire some of you to start making some books. Below is a list of supplies I used in making up this junk journal, with links to Traci's Etsy shop as well as other supplies I used to create this book.

List of Supplies:

• From Traci's Ephemoire Shop (Up and Away Steampunk Printable Journal Kit, Watercolour Butterflies Digital Clipart)
• Bazzill Basic Walnut Cream Cardstock (Amazon, Scrapbook.com)
• Aleene's Always Ready Tacky Glue (Amazon, Blitsy)
• Ranger Inkssentials Glossy Accents (Amazon, Blitsy, Scrapbook.com)
• Ranger Archival Ink in Coffee (Amazon, Blitsy)
• Tim Holtz Distressed Ink in Frayed Burlap (Amazon, Blitsy, Scrapbook.com)
• Tim Holtz Flourish Stencil (Amazon, Blitsy, Scrapbook.com)
• Tim Holtz Sketchbook Tissue Tape Set
• 7gypsies Architextures™ Mixed and Match Bee Book
• Own stash (vintage handwriting and assorted stamps, dictionary and vintage papers, hot air balloon bronze charm, ornate transparency frame, lace and gold trims)

Buxom Garden Fairies Trio; From the Little Garden

Few years back, I bought a bag of mini wooden sconces thinking perhaps I may use them for some of my miniature work. As usual, there's always a grand scheme of plan at the back of my mind hardly get executed for whatever reasons. Many years has passed, it's only very recently I managed to recall I still this bag of unused mini wooden sconces. Well, it's always not good to hoard, and I feel it's time to use them. 

And here I am, using them for this month Ephemoire's project with a video tutorial. Bringing you these cute little buxom fairies!!! Aren't they whimsically cute?

Each of these little buxom fairies has their very own colour to represent themselves, as indicated by the various rose colours attached to them, as if each of them is in charged of the colours they are assigned to. They are like the guardians of the little garden they're in, ready to prune and sow the seeds within their little garden in order to be fruitful. Oh! How fun and delightful they are? 

Here is the video process in how I create them... 

A little close-ups of these lovely buxom fairies. I'd suppose they'd need extra wings, hence the bigger ones behind them so that they can flutter and dance as they sing.  

I hope these little buxom fairies have made your day and have given a little inspirations. Below is an extensive list of supplies I used for this project with links to where to get them if you're interested in getting them:

• Ephemoire digital images (French vintage ephemera overlay, Marie Antoinette style buxom ladies)
• Finnabair Art Basics heavy gesso in white (Amazon, Scrapbook.com)
• Finnabair muscial notes acrylic clear stamps
• Ranger multi medium in gloss (Amazon, Scrapbook.com)
• Tim Holtz Distress Ink in brushed corduroy (Amazon, Blitsy, Scrapbook.com)
• Knotted wood edger chalk ink
• Docrafts acrylic paint in Linen
• Graphic 45 Botanical Tea rubber stamp
• StazOn midi in spiced chai
• Dusty Attic mini flourishes
• Acetate sheets
• Wood fillers
• Own stash (mini wooden sconces, floral stamens, green foliage, miniature roses, toothpicks)

Under the Canopy of Love; It's Good to be the Queen

For this month of love, I've done up a love canopy using Tim Holtz luminary die and several cliparts from Ephemorie Bee and Beekeeping Apiary collection. Though I was pretty late for this Valentine, love is not restricted to only February 14th. It should be forever. And this brought me to recall one of my lecturers from UWA as I studied microbiology during my college years. She once passed a very irony remark about Herpes. She said, "Love is not forever, but Herpes is forever." The class burst into laughter while she remained her poker's face and warned us to lower down our volume.

Alright, not here for a microbiology lesson. But the remark made by my lecturer was indeed too ironically funny that deeply etched into my mind, including some of my other classmates as well. It's simply too amusing not to mention about her whenever we talked about her and her Herpes remark. Oh well, not to give you a very wrong idea about love and it's connection to Herpes, I shall sanctify it by going into the story behind this project.  

Every lady wants to feel like a queen, protected under the love of her man. And that's the idea behind this little project for this month of Love. Specifically on the queen bee concept, I decided to use some honeycombs for the canopy of love. Honey is sweet and so is love. So that's practically the idea behind.

I used one of the whimsical fairy digi stamps from Traci as the main focus of this project. Clearly, it's such a lovely fairy pair! Images of honeycombs, bee frame and crown are resized to what I want based on the measurement of the luminary diecuts prior to printing. I coloured the images with watercolour pencils and then trimmed off the honeycombs to fit around the pillars of the diecut.

Notice the lovely fairy pair are seated on a bed of pollen. These are some yellow sponges in my stash and those little "stones" surrounding the "pollen" are actually from Prima's A Victorian Christmas embellishment. I just tore the sprays apart and surrounded them, including the pinnacle of the canopy. I just love adding some natural elements to my project! And that's why despite I've diecut the luminary with kraft paper, I just want to add some brown paint over to give some woody feel. Then surround the corners with some underbrush and foliage.  

The Queen's crown

Here is a short video walk through I made for this project, with a little story telling as well. I wish I'd had more time to do up an extensive video, however it has been quite a busy and short month for me that I deeply regret not to plan my time well enough. Nonetheless, I do hope this has been inspiring enough for this month of love. More pictures below, as well as a list of supplies I used for this project at the bottom of this entry together with links to where to get them.

I shall be back in March for more project ideas and tutorials. So do stay with me!

List of supplies used for this project:

• Ephemorie Bees & Beekeeping Apiary collection
• Tim Holtz Luminary Bigz XL die (Amazon, Scrapbook.com, Sizzix)
• Tim Holtz Distress Ink in brushed corduroy (Amazon, Blitsy, Scrapbook.com)
• Tim Holtz Distressed stain in tarnished brass (Amazon, Scrapbook.com)
• Prima Marketing A Victorian Christmas embellishment
• Prima Marketing straw jute
• Watercolour pencils
• Kraft cardstock
• Own stash (underbrush and foliage, honeycomb chippies, brown and gold paint)

Marie in Wonderland Tea Party Topper

On this week Alpha Stamps newsletter highlight I'm sharing this tea party topper as a topper decor for my cupcake stand... This month kit Marie in Wonderland is currently available at Alpha Stamps website...

It's quite a small topper stands at ~6" tall, I built the base by stacking 2 of these tiny paper mache boxes and put a Marie on top... Using paperclay, I molded some teapots and cups as well as mini bows out from the silicon molds, painted them and use them as decorative elements around the base... So here is what I've gotten.. I wanted to keep it simple and straightforward for the sake of easy display and keeping...

Here is a list of supplies for this project:

• March 2015 Kit - Marie in Wonderland
• Marie Takes Tea Collage Sheet 
• 27mm Resin Tea Party Heart Doilies 
• Die-Cut Chipboard Panniers Dress 
• Creative Paperclay 
• Tiny Paper Mache Box Set 
• Mini Bows Silicone Mold 
• 3D Tea Party Silicone Mold 
• Stitch leaf Ribbon in Pink