Wednesday 28 December 2016

It's a wrap

I hope you had a fabulous Christmas day and are still enjoying all the festivities. Ours was awesome and so special having Daisy here and sharing the excitement of her finding that Santa "had been!!" on Christmas morning. We have the team staying until tomorrow and my Hb is off until after the new year so we are still in celebration mode here.

Today I am entering my final piece into a the dictionary challenge which has been running over at the Craft Barn for the whole of this year. Yes I have made 26 art journal pages from A-Z! It has been a huge amount of work and sometimes (when I was on holiday) it was really hard to get my piece made but I never missed one and I now have some lovely pages to look back on in my journal.

My very first piece in January was B for beginning........
For the first few entries I made double pages until I realised I would not have space in my art journal if they were all double spread, so I then created single pages.
I decided though for the grand finale I would create one more double page. The letter is P and I decided to use P for photograph. Photos are a huge part of my blog and my life so it seemed most appropriate.
As you well know I am firmly attached to my camera and it travels everywhere with me. Recently I was looking at some old photos on the Internet and came across little calling card photos called CDV (Carte de Visite) which were taken in the Victorian times. I bought a couple as I thought I could add them to my own family antique photos I own in some of my mixed media pieces.
Just look at this Victorian cutie.
 I cut out the page from my vintage dictionary
I decided to do use some photos of my darling granddaughter from this year but I was inspired by my recent purchases to make them look Victorian by printing them out in sepia.
You can see another CDV I bought in the top right hand corner of the photo below.

I made my final choices of  photos down to CDV size (4" by 2 1/2 ") and made card mounts just like the Victorian calling cards.
I rounded the edges and added the "initials" D and J for  Daisy and Jane (which also happens be Daisy's second name).  I also added wrote where they were taken
To create my "Victorian photo album pages" in my art journal I started to add lots of Gothic touches. I added texture paste through my flourish stencil and used old paper colours of distress inks and stamps. I also added touches such as ink splats and water marks to make the pages look antique.






As this was a double spread I also made a special gilded frame for one of the photos. I added crackle and inks to a card cut using the ornate frame by Tim Holtz.



I also die cut an inner frame and some flourishes, applying Treasure gold to the edges to make them look gilded.
















So then it was time to put my pages together...here is my P for photograph page.

and some close ups
The photo below was taken in the summer in my studio, Daisy was crafting with me and wearing the necklace I had just made her....how much joy is there on this sweet face.

and one last shot
I have also put a collage together showing all the 26 letters I made this year.
Gosh when I see it together it brings back some fantastic memories of 2016. Many of them are the joyful times I spent with my darling Daisy....how I love that little sweetheart.

So it's a wrap.....all 26 letters made and I have an art journal full of fun times...and still some spare pages for some 2017 creativity.

I would like to enter my art journal pages into the following challenges;

The Craft Barn dictionary challenge P mine is for photograph
Deep Oceon absolute No 1 card or project 2016 This really is fitting for the challenge...I have loved making all 26 letters. 
                                                        The paper girls 2/3 anything goes
Cute card Thursday 2/3 anything goes
That's Crafty 2/3  anything goes
                                               Happy Little stampers anything goes with dies

Enjoy eating, drinking and making merry and thanks for popping by today. I will be back once more before we see the end of the year with a review of Jane's Journal for 2016.
We're off to enjoy a long walk with everyone including Bear.
Bye for now,

Jane x


22 comments:

  1. What a corker to finish with! Happy New year to you and i look forward to seeing some more adventures with your camera.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Fabulous final spread and I love the way you used modern photos but aged them. Your 26 pages look awesome together - very bright and colourful and it's a great way to remember the year. Happy New Year to you. Elaine x

    ReplyDelete
  3. I just love your final page! What a labour of love the art journal must have been and fabulous to look back on.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Super page and also a wonderful journal - 2016 definitely not as bad as it has been painted by some in the media! Thank you for entering the Craft Barn Alpha/Dictionary Challenge and all good wishes from us to you for 2017 xxx

    ReplyDelete
  5. Wonderful that you got to share in the excitement of Santa this year!!!
    Brilliant art pages this time....very Victorian and of course a fabulous subject! I can't quite believe there were 26 of them, of course looking at them I remember them but where on earth did this year disappear to??
    The boy returns to Berlin tomorrow morning however D is off until Tues but I'm so ready for the new year now....love a new year!!!
    Enjoy the rest of the week my friend,
    V x

    ReplyDelete
  6. Fabulous! I love how much detail you put into your creations. Thank you so much for sharing this with us at Creative Inspirations and good luck!
    Rene

    ReplyDelete
  7. Dear Jane,

    Love, love, love your photograph-page with sweet Daisy! And all 26 of them - wow! There's no end of your creativity, and those are just so precious memories...

    Have lovely last days of 2016,and here's to happy&bright 2017 soon!

    Yours,
    Mia

    ReplyDelete
  8. Fabulous double page spread for your final entry. Wishing you a happy 2017.

    ReplyDelete
  9. What a perfect double page for the end of a wonderful year for you and Daisy Jane! That smiley photo of her captures her joy of learning to craft from her beloved grandmother. Bravo! ((hugs)), Teresa :-)

    *:._.:*~*:._.:*~*:._.:*~*:._.:*~*:._.:*
      *H*A*P*P*Y* *N*E*W* *Y*E*A*R*!*
    *:._.:*~*:._.:*~*:._.:*~*:._.:*~*:._.:*

    ReplyDelete
  10. Hi Jane,

    Your art Journal is absolutely sensational!
    Love that last double-page and I learnt something new thanks to you!!
    Have a fantastic last 3 days of the year ;-)

    xx

    ReplyDelete
  11. I have to say that your art journal is really amazing!! Love your Vintage photo album too!! Lovely projects to end the year with! Thanks for sharing your creation with us at Cute Card Thursday! I hope you will join us for the new challenge this week too! Hugs & Smiles - *Vicki*-DT member

    ReplyDelete
  12. Wonderful collage and you have done a magnificent getting all the letters done. Bravo!
    Your last entry is gorgeous - love the colors.
    Daisy is growing up in front of our very own eyes. What a cutie she is too!

    sandy xx

    ReplyDelete
  13. I just love your final pages, your grand daughter looks wonderful. We spent Christmas day with my three grandchildren, and it does make Christmas special. All your pages look brilliant, what a lovely memory.

    ReplyDelete
  14. A magic end to a fabulous project. What a lot of work. Choosing photograph for your P word and having Daisy in the cameo frame is just adorable. I love the final montage too.
    Wishing you a very Happy 2017.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Wow what a fabulous page and a phenomenal amount of work. Daisy is such a cutie that I'm sure the effort will be worth it to have those memories saved so beautifully forever xx

    ReplyDelete
  16. Hello Jane.

    Happy New Year!!

    This is just lovely - what a beautiful page to finish on and always a pleasure to see Daisy's winning smile! I've been catching up on all I've missed. Loving the Elf on the shelf antics, but also quite glad I missed out on that one (my boys are a bit too old now) as think I'd struggle to keep it up (I'm guilty of having 4 teeth waiting to be packed up for the tooth fairy at the moment, as I just haven't found time for writing little notes etc, which the boys always expect). The crackers were a triumph, but then your lovely homemade ones always are special. I'm glad it sounds like you had a cracking Christmas. Here's to a brilliant 2017. Bethxx

    ReplyDelete
  17. fABULOUS JOURNAL PAGE!
    Thank you for sharing with Happy Little Stampers!
    Susan
    Calling All Crafters! – My personal Blog!

    ReplyDelete
  18. Brilliant idea to turn your photos into a Vintage CDV! This double spread is juts gorgeous with lots of interesting and Victorian details. Well done on completing the challenge.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Absolutely stunning art, journal and dictionary pages Jane, every one is beautiful in it's own right and putting them together like this shows what a great artist you are. Your little Daisy is a delight too, so very pretty xx

    ReplyDelete
  20. A fitting finale to the alpha challenge. I have enjoyed reading the background to your pages.

    ReplyDelete
  21. A fabulous spread to end the challenge. Wishing you a very happy 2017.

    ReplyDelete
  22. Beutiful journal page! Thanks so much for joining us at Creative Inspirations. Hugs Agnieszka

    ReplyDelete

Thanks so much for leaving a comment; I really enjoy reading every single one of them.

To comply with the new Data Protection legislation (GDPR) May 2018 I wish to state that any comments left here are with your consent that your name & comment are visible to anyone who visits my blog and that you accept that your personal information is being used for that specific purpose.

Jane x