To Spice Up An Unloved Garden Journal ...

Hi Everyone,

My Kitchen Garden Journal is finished at last! It was actually really easy, but due to the Stooopid Back I had to work in fits and starts (sit down for ten, stand up for ten, walk off and do something else for a bit, sit down again, stand up again - you get the picture) but I got there in the end and I still have time to link up for the Vintage Garden Challenge over at the Lunagirl blog.

The recipe was very simple and you could probably do the whole thing in a couple of hours - first take your boring old journal, coat it with matte medium, add the dry ingredients cut into pieces, garnish with flowers, truss with ribbon, ink to taste and finish with a matte medium glaze.

Here's the end result ...


And here's where I started ...


A very useful (as you can see by the muddy marks on it) but not very "me" Garden Journal. It's great because it has dividers for the seasons, squared paper for plans, lined paper for notes, built-in pockets for seed packets and so on and even a sturdy clear plastic pouch at the back - but I just hated the look of it, so I decided to pretty it up a bit ...


The front and back covers were collaged with -

  • Gorgeous vintage seed packets and food labels from Lunagirl
  • Butterfly paper scraps from my ancient stash drawer
  • Tiny words from a previous set of CSI Coordinates by Michele Singh
  • Bunting cut from the Basic Grey Mint Julep collection packaging
  • Background was a book print designer paper from Stampin' Up!
The collaging was done with Claudine Hellmuth Matte Multi Medium which I got in my July mixed media kit from Frog Dog - wonderful stuff!!! It's SO nice to use, because it goes on easily, has a lovely matte finish and as well as sticking and sealing paper and card, you can also stick plastic, metal and so on AND you can use it for all sorts of things I haven't even tried yet, like image transfers ...


Another new-to-me product I used was Golden Heavy Gel Medium. This is amazing stuff - like a stiffish, non-stringy paste which holds its shape and seems to stick anything to anything. It made creating this flower cluster much easier than faffing around like I usually do and again there are all sorts of other things it can do ...


For the inside of the journal, I just had to cover the existing dividers with an assortment of pretty papers ...


I used papers from four different collections, but for me they all work together because they all have similar warm, vintage tones - the sort of bright but faded look which I love.

Here's a list of ingredients:

  • Graphic 45 French Country collection
  • Basic Grey Mint Julep collection
  • Kaiser Craft Check In collection
  • Cosmo Cricket Evangeline collection 
  • Cosmo Cricket Evangeline chipboard stickers
  • More Lunagirl images
  • American Craft Thickers
  • Stampin' Up! file tab punch
  • Distress Inks in Mowed Lawn, Scattered Straw, Orange Marmalade, Walnut Stain
  • Papermania doilies
  • Buttons and ribbon from my stash

Some more pictures of the inside pages ...





The plan is to use this journal to make plans, keep notes, stick photos, save seeds, write in recipes and document our gardening successes and failures, wildlife visitors and so on - so it will be a working tool and a way to preserve our memories of this very important part of our lives.

I've already made a start ...


... this is a picture of some of the many walnuts we harvested a couple of years ago (last year was a bad year - not a single walnut to be had) - under here I will write my recipe for Walnut and Sage pesto, using sage from the garden of course!


We did very well from our tiny strawberry patch this year - John went out early each morning (before the birds or the squirrels could beat him to it!) and came back with a bowlful every day all through the season. Delicious!!! I will probably add some journaling and another photo here ...

Check out the challenge over at the Lunagirl blog - you can make anything with a vintage garden theme and you still have a week to enter.  The garden-themed collage sheets are all on special for the challenge - but they're very reasonably priced anyway, especially when you consider that once you've downloaded them you can print them off as often as you like.

Ok, I'm off to take the Stooooopid Back for a walk now. Thanks for popping in, see you again soon Annie :o)xxx

Comments

Karen Lunagirl said…
This is amazing! Great project and great use of all the images and papers. Thanks for entering it in my blog challenge!
Michele said…
Annie this is totally gorgeous! your journal literally blooms! i'm so glad you've entered another lunagirl challenge and if you've done it with flair! xo
Vicki Romaine said…
What a great project. Thanks for sharing with the Lunagirl Moonbeams.
Karen Lunagirl said…
Annie ~ Your amazingly gorgeous garden journal just won the Lunagirl Seed Packs Vintage Garden blog challenge at LunagirlMoonbeams.com! Congratulations ~ email me at info@lunagirl.com to claim your prize! ~ Karen