Hi everyone and welcome to a (delayed) Saturday Step by Step with me, Jenny, as your host. This should have been with you last week, but deadlines piled up to breaking point it seemed sensible to take more time and give you a tutorial of the standard you deserve. So here goes... Having resisted for a long time I've finally been bitten by the journalling bug!!! My great friend Brenda Brown has been encouraging everyone to give it a try (see her current link HERE) and when I discovered an old academic diary it seemed like the perfect place to start. I decorated the cover for a spotlight at Our Creative Corner way back in 2012 (see the post HERE) and didn't want to get rid when the year finished. So, I opened it to the centre (a less scary place to start) stuck a couple of the adjoining pages together to create a thicker surface, and... (click on the photos for a closer look) Start with some strips of old book paper and a coat or two of white gesso. Then add a layer of Picket Fence Distress Paint. Add a medium layer of Rock Candy Crackle Paint. Stencil White Embossing Paste on through the Tim Holtz Wildflower Layering Stencil (an uneven layer is good). When dry drip lines of Alcohol Ink down the pages, then add some Alcohol Blending Solution and tip the book to make it run. Continue to add complimentary colours in lines until the pages are covered. To make the foliage stand out add Snow Cap Ink over the stencilled areas (you could also use Picket Fence Distress Paint/Stain for this). The colours will come through a little as it dries so the results won't be as stark. Reapply the Picket Fence Distress Paint to the edges to create a border. Add some definition and depth by using a Frayed Burlap Distress Marker along one side of each stem, blending out the lines with a detailer nib water brush. You can see I added die cut flowers at this stage too. Finally add buttons to the centre of your flowers, brush them with a little Forest Moss Distress Ink, add some botanical Idea-Ology rub ons and stamp one of the sentiments from the Tim Holtz Life Quotes set. Here are some close ups... If you've not tried journalling why start now? You can try things out, you've got a portable way of showing others what you can do (without storage issues) you have a record of techniques tried for easy future reference, and if a page goes wrong you can cover it up with a coat of paint and start again! Go on, I dare you... Whatever you're getting up to this weekend, have a great one and take care of yourselves. Jenny xxx

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