J is for Jane's Journal

The weather for the last few days has given us a real feel of mid summer rather than mid spring. On Friday the temperatures in the south were hotter than in Spain. In my sheltered garden the wall thermometer hit the dizzy heights of 26c. This wonderful heat is really being enjoyed by the trees in my neck of the woods, I snapped these photos as I walked to get some shopping.

 The horse chestnut is flowering...getting ready to make conkers....

and the cherry blossom is looking delightful

For the dictionary challenge over at the Craft Barn this fortnight the letter is J.......with a dragonfly! Yes it made me stop to think too. I  wanted to combine it with some fun new May challenges so I had a little think about what to make. You would be amazed what goes on in my head and how my projects come into being. I made my dragonfly first by stamping and embossing my Visible Image dragonfly and adding glossy accents to the wings. I then fussy cut it out

I thumbed through my vintage dictionary and from the J pages the word " Journal" jumped out at me. As I am making art journal pages it seemed the perfect word to use.

 I smiled as I read the definition and thought that journal also seems quite an old fashioned word. I imagine Victorian ladies writing in their journal using fountain pens (I still use one!).

My blog is called Jane's Journal and often wonder if one day my descendants will still be able to access it to see what I got up to?  Wouldn't it have been amazing if our ancestors had been able to blog! This also gave me the idea to use one of my vintage family photos as the focal image for my project.

This is my great grandmother Florence Emma Alice...I love this photo, she looks so elegant.

 she was born in 1882 and sadly died at the age of 34, within months of my great grandfather's death. They apparently shared a very deep love for one another. I obviously never knew Florence but my own Nan had been told that her Mother died of a broken heart.



















I wanted to create a very vintage appearance for my journal page. I added the rest of the J page from my dictionary.

I added stencilling using texture paste and archival ink. I built up my layers and textures using distress inks and sprays. I wanted to achieve a very Victorian look.

 I also added some purple mica spray.

I had some snippets of vintage looking paper left over from some cards which worked perfectly as a collage to mount my photo on to. I also die cut some floral frames and elements and cut a snippet of lace to add to the vintage feel.

It was then time to put on my creative hat and assemble my journal page.







Here is my finished journal page.

and one last arty shot

I really think the dragonfly adds to it....it reminds me of the insects that were preserved by collectors years ago and often kept in glass domes or glass cabinets alongside butterflies and other insects.

I would like to enter my Journal page into the following challenges;

The Craft Barn dictionary challenge J is for journal
Anything but Cute celebrate my style I love making art journal pages and this one is even more personal using my Great Grandmothers photo.
Pixie's Snippets playground #228
The Ribbon Girl any image goes
Crafty Calendar things with wings
Happy Little stampers Mixed media, shine my stamped and embossed dragonfly has glossy accent
wings and my mica spray also gives some shine.
Pile it on 3/3 garden creatures
Rhedd's creative challenge altered art/mixed media
The artistic stamper 3/3 Collage
Our creative corner 2/3 hit the books  I have used my vintage dictionary pages
We love to create 1/2 anything mixed media

The weather today is glorious and it's a Daisy and Co day for us...the beach and a BBQ beckon...woop woop!
Enjoy your Sunday.

Thanks for dropping by and for taking the time to leave your kind comments,

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x