Crafty Secrets July Blog Hop & Challenge: Vintage Wooden File Folder Beach Journal

Hello, Friends!

It’s Summertime! It’s the time of year to kick back, relax and enjoy life.  Maybe you pile in the car and take a trip to the beach, you might go for a hike in the mountains or camp out under the stars. Maybe you play in the pool, or sit in the shade and sip lemonade.  However you celebrate summer, share it with us in a card, mini album, layout, canvas or altered art project that shares what you love about this sizzling season we call summer.  My favorite thing about summer is …you guessed it…the beach!  So I’ve created a very vintage Woodned File Folder Beach Journal to share with you today.  I also have some great tips for using product packaging, inking up a great background and creating a collage that works.  Let’s get started!

I used so many of my favorite products from Crafty Secrets in this Wooden File Folder Beach Journal.  If you haven’t seen our mini wooden file folders, you might want to check them out.  Measuring just 4.5″ x 6’25” they are tiny, but mighty!  Here, I’ve added layers of paint, stencils and crackle medium to the wooden cover base, then topped it with gorgeous goodies.  Here a list of what you’ll need to create this album:

• Mini Wooden File Folder Album
• Summertime Images and Journal Notes Booklet
• Brass & Cream Hardware Stickers
• Vintage Travel & Adventure Cuts
• Travel Creative Scraps
• Creating with Vintage Typography CD#3Seasonal Calendar Creative Scraps
• Seaside Clear Acrylic Art Stamps (out of print, but available in DIGITAL format HERE.)
• Bathing Beauty Clear Acrylic Art Stamps (out of print, but available in DIGITAL format HERE.)
• Artsy Banners Digital Art Stamps (available in DIGITAL format HERE.)
• Distress Ink: Mermaid Lagoon, Salty Ocean, Tumbled Glass, Vintage Photo
• Distress Paint: Picket Fence, Tumbled Glass, Cracked Pistachio
• Picket Fence Distress Crackle Paint
• Stencil
• Burlap, ribbon, buttons, flowers and embellishments

On the cover, I began by using a cosmetic sponge to add a light coat of Tumbled Glass Distress Paint to the album front cover.  The cosmetic sponge puts down a nice smooth coat.  Dry it, then add another coat.  When that is dry, put a dime sized puddle of Cracked Pistachio Distress Paint onto a non-porous surface. Spritz it very lightly with water.  Tap an old toothbrush into the puddle, and then starting at the bottom of the album cover, brush the toothbrush from the bottom upward.  Repeat until you’ve added a sort of wood grain look to the entire cover.  Repeat with the Picket Fence Distress Paint.  When it’s dry, sponge on some Vintage Photo Distress INK randomly to create a worn wood look.  The painted areas will resist the Distress ink and you’ll have a great beachy cover.  Use the Picket Fence Distress Crackle and a stencil to add even more texure, if desired.

When creating a collage cover, like this one, I keep several things in mind.

1. Choose a color palette that works well together.  I’ve used shades of teal, brown and cream here.  This creates a sense of harmony.  I chose these colors based on the colors in my focal image.  To reinforce that, I matted my focal image in shades of teal, and sponged the edges with Vintage Photo Distress Ink.
2. Have ONE focal image, and choose other elements to SUPPORT the main image.  You don’t want your eye to be wandering around a composition looking for a place to rest.  I have a lot of layers and elements here, but your eye immediately goes to the image of the boy and girl on the beach.  At least I hope it does! It is the dominant image, and all the other elements enhance it.
3.  Group elements together in a way that causes the eye to naturally move through the entire piece.  You do this by clustering your elements together.  In this collage, my eye grabs onto the focal image first, then it is drawn to the cluster of flowers in the upper left corner, from there, it sees the post card layer, then moves down to the tiny post card, and back to the focal image where it picks up on the cluster of flowers in the lower right hand corner.  Then it sees the little calendar banner, the shells and back to the focal.  The eye naturally grabs the focal in the beginning, middle and end.  Nothing is placed in such a way to draw the eye away from the focal or to compete with the focal.
4. Unify elements or layers with matting.  I’ve matted all the major paper elements with the same shades of teal paper.  I started with my base layer, which is a journaling spot from the Summertime booklet.  Same thing for the sentiment banner.
5. A good test is to close your eyes for a minute or two, and then open them.  What do you see first?  If it’s not the focal image, you need to move things around.  Or, walk out of the room and come back again.  What do you see first.  How does your eye move across the page?  It takes some practice, but it is so worth the time and effort!

Lesson over…now let’s just look at the pretty pages!

The wooden file folder album comes with the binding rings and manila page dividers. I used paper from the Typography CD to line the front and back covers.  The little bitty bags make great tag pockets.  The backgrounds are inked with Tumbled Glass, Salty Ocean and Mermaid Lagoon, then sprayed lightly with water.  Then I sponged in Vintage Photo Ink and sprayed again. To add depth and texture, I stamped over the background with the same color inks.

I left lots of room for photos or notes or recipes or to do lists.  I added heavy cardstock pages at the front and back of each section for added strength.  I just cut up ivory paper for the pages. I’m not sure where I got these little charms.  I found them in my box of beachy goodies.

The images in the Summertime booklet are some of my favorites.  I matted this bathing beauty with a bit of product packaging that the flowers came on.  I liked the shape and the color was a good match.  Why throw it away?

The background here is stenciled.  I just sponged the darker ink over the background.  The lighthouse is from Travel & Adventure Vintage Scraps.  I love the quote!

Fussy cutting around an image can make it come to life, as with the Souvenir sign.  The burlap helps to ground the page.  These flowers weren’t quite the right shade of blue, so I inked them with Mermaid Lagoon.  Much better!

Another great image from the Summertime Journal!  Now you know why I love that booklet so much!

Here, I used the inked flowers to frame my image.  The manila folder was dry embossed with a Spellbinder folder.  And I used product packaging underneath.

This is also product packaging.  I just trimmed it up and rounded the corners.  Waste not, want not.

Inside the back cover, Another little place to stuff memories or souvenirs.

The back is covered in burlap that I inked up to create an aged appearance.  I tied on pretty ribbons, and that, as they say is that.

Whew!  Long post!  Sorry about that, but I hope you picked up a tip here and there that might be of use to you somewhere along the way.

Now, hop along and see what the rest of the team has prepared for you.  And be sure to visit the Crafty Secrets Blog for all the guidelines and PRIZE information for this challenge. You’ll also find a free digital image and paper that you can use to create your entry for this fun challenge.  You don’t have to follow the theme, but it’s always fun if you do.

Elizabeth is unable to join us this month.

Darlene ♥ Diane ♥ Ginny ♥ Melody ♥ Michele ♥ Shantaie ♥ Sheila ♥ Teresa

Thanks so much for stopping by!  I’d love to hear what you think about this Vintage Wooden File Folder Beach Journal tutorial.  Did you learn anything new?

Cheerio,

kathy