HI! Hello! Charmaine here on my birthday! I am so happy my The Crafter’s Workshop blog post fell right on my day to present. Also, I am so blessed to have a few good friends to celebrate with today. Which brings me to today’s journal spread!

TCW provided me with some awesome goodies to play with, but the opinions and creations are my own.

Here is what I did:
It all started with this digital stamp and sentiment from the Polka Dot Orchard. I must also include that I love vintage girls, especially those on the old sewing packages.

First, I used TCW 9001 White Gesso to prepare the two pages. Then I created a collage made out of old dictionary pages, autumn feeling pretty paper, and floral elements and used TCW9011 Gel Matte Medium as glue.

I was not sure how I wanted to proceed. Add lots of color? Just go stencil crazy? Let’s visualize this…

Ok. Let’s add color. I started with TCW9001 White Gesso. Then I added yellow and green paint. Mmm, where are my stencils?

This is TCW751 Kitchen Tiles, and I used a mixture of TCW9067 Gamboge Stencil Butter and TCW9038 Antique Gold Modeling Paste to create a brown paste over the stencil.

Next, I found the page a little overwhelming and decided to mute it a bit with Unbleached Titanium acrylic paint from Liquitex. I applied it just with my finger for a more organic look.

Ok, I am more comfortable with a red rubber stamp and remembered that I had a bunch of stamps that would work perfectly on this spread. You can either stamp with pigment ink and heat set it, but I used acrylic paint because it will go on top of another acrylic color. I used a gel press and brayer to load my stamps.

Let’s add some green! Here I am adding TCW9062 Lime Green Stencil Butter through the TCW203 Circle Grid stencil.

Did you know that the butter will puff up and create dimension once heated? How cool!!!??

Lastly, to balance the spread, I cut and colored two flowers from the TCW2208 Precious Sentiments stamp set and placed it on the girls’ opposite side.

I doodled a bit with Posca Pens and scribbled with Woody sticks for different colors in all the areas. And that’s a wrap! This was an enjoyable spread to make about my blonde sister and friend, whom I cherish so very much.

I hope you leave me feedback and tell me your favorite part of the spread!

Birthday Wishes,
Charmaine

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