Ode to Joy with CKC Jan Kit and three challenges!

Well this is a very efficient page in terms of challenges (unless you count the two backgrounds I hated and tossed along the way 😂)

I'm using my January kit that I put together for the Counterfeit Kit Challenge, I'm still working through the January challenges over at Rediscover your Stash and this layout will count for Challenge 6 - "Floral Frenzy".

The cutfile is a freebie from the lovely Jen Schow and she has challenged everyone to use it and post in her Facebook group - Crafty Use it or Lose It (incidentally I was gonna do a series with this name but she beat me to it!!)

Lastly, Virginia Walker is challenging everyone in her Facebook group (Confessions of a Paper Addict) to dust off the mixed media and make a mixed media layout by 2 March.

Since Joy suggested adding a bunch of mixed media items to include in our kit, it seem to be the right time!

The journaling on this page will a lot more in depth about how we became friends and how it evolved over the years and other little bits and pieces.  Far too much to write straight on the page or put on a single journaling card, so I'm doing a pocket next to the photo. I have plenty of glassine bags and I'll slit the page protector in the approximate spot to make retrieval of the journaling easier.  It's not super private, but a bit personal maybe,

So...on to the layout then.  The first thing I did was cut the floral bouquet by Jen Schow in 2 sizes.  I backed them with papers from 6x6 paper pads (and the odd bit from my scrap box) so that's a yay being the product focus for the month of January at Rediscover your Stash

Next came time to recap of the mixed media items I put into the kit.

Colours - Soft Greens, Peach and some Pink
12 x Patterned Papers -
*1 x 6 x 6 Paper Pad
(Paper pads are also the product focus of the month on the Rediscover your Stash Facebook Group so I'm picking two)
*Wooden Embellishments
*2 x Mists
*Texture Paste
*2 x Stencils
*1 x Cut File
*1 x Washi Tape
*Stickers
*Alphas

I ended up choosing more than 2 mists to get a better rainbow effect, but only so the basic colours of peach, pink and green would look OK when mixing so a bit of yellow was needed to separate them and I threw in some deeper turquoise to balance things out.

This is all after treating a sheet of patterned paper (I wanted one with roughly painted black stripes and this one by Dear Lizzy was the first one to fit the bill.)

I did have a different paper which went horribly wrong so I got another sheet of the same paper which was better but also horribly wrong.   I can still use the reverse side of those so it's not an entire waste!

I really really love the look of layouts that use large cut files and mixed media, but I'm just not that good at them,  I don't want all my layouts to be like this, but I want to include them often enough in my albums to be something that's a change from most pages, but not super rare either.  Maybe a bit more frequent than that.  Am I making any sense?  (cos that'd be a first! 😂)

I started by prepping the page with the customary layer of gesso.  If  I wanted the stripes to remain uncovered I could have gone with a translucent or clear gesso, but I deliberately went with white to tone them down a bit.

Next step was white texture paste through a butterfly stencil before adding the colour with the "smooshing" technique, but gave up pretty fast since it was too slow and I wanted the colour to be more intense, so I sprayed right onto the layout (but aimed close to the page to reduce cast off spray) and if necessary adding a spray of water to help it move around,

It lightened a lot as it dried so I just layered more mist.  So much for my plans to have just a little bit of colour in the middle which peeks just beyond the flowers and photos I layer over it.


I felt like I wanted some stamps or stenciling or something else, but you can understand my reluctance after previous disasters at this point 😂!  Joy specified TWO stencils so I should have added some before I even added the embossing paste, but at worst under the mist.

What if I use something opaque and not too runny on top?  🤔 I have some distress paint in bronze which I used on the leaves of the cut files.  It's still a bit runny, though.  Would it look really bad if i added gold instead?  I'm thinking Viva Decor Inka Gold.  I only have it in gold and silver, but it's more like a waxy polish and doesn't have thickness so it's perfect (except for the colour!).  The bronze leaves aren't hugely obvious and I'm sure I included rose gold, copper and yellow gold together on yesterday's facing page!!

I have been putting aside any kind of embellishment with "Joy" on it for months.  This cut apart sheet is actually from a Christmas line by Studio Tekturek, but it has some great neutral B side patterns in black, white, red and peach so there is lots to use even for people like me who don't celebrate holidays,

The heart was just open so I punched a few holes and hand stitched to bring in the green and I had another punny title in mind so I let the journaling card form part of it and black Thickers made it look more like a title.



The plan is to try to bring in some of the papers from yesterday's layout and layer up a nice thick stack under the photo and determine a space somewhere for the pocketed journo. 

This ended up being to the right of the photo and balanced the title card on the left.



I positioned the floral cut files roughly where I wanted them, BUT I wanted MORE flowers!  I fussy cut the Maggie Holmes paper from the Gather Collection (the one with the green roses and peachy leaves).  I shoved these under the cut file bouquets, but it still wasn't enough. 

Out came my box of flower die cuts and fussy cut flowers (mostly Maggie Holmes and pulled out some pink and peachy coloured flowers.  Much better!👍👍👍

At this point I remembered the original CKC inspiration kit had some kind of tulle embellishment so I made up this super fast tulle flower. 

While searching for something unrelated, I found an unopened packet of Maggie Holmes mini tassels in pink, peach and mint,  After threading them onto paper clips, they weren't even that hard to use!  No idea what all the fuss was about. 🤷


As I looked at the layout and lamented that all but about 2 of the texture paste butterflies were now covered up, I found some of the Maggie Holmes paper called "Monarch"  from Chasing Dreams which I started fussy cutting for other layouts.  Naturally, I wasn't going to leave them like that - I punched some smaller butterflies from vellum and stitched them together,  They're kind of subtle since the colours are so similar to everything else, but that isn't a bad thing considering how out of control this page is getting and I haven't even got to the small things!


There was this large sticker with the map of the world on it when I was struggling to use and Joy suggested I use it on on of "our" pages.  I wanted both UK and Australia to show so I did trim it down then slice it in half and split it across the page to make it less heavy,  I added arrows just to point out the relevant countries.

As I double checked the list, I realized I was still missing Washi and wood veneers!  I went with black washi to break up all the other colours and not make the title look like an anomaly.  Three small wooden hearts added to three groupings.  I probably wouldn't have if they weren't on the list, but at this point it was so out of control and even exceeded my limit of stuff that I just rolled with it!  Besides I don't use wood veneer as often as I'd like.


I didn't even add any crafty motifs or other word stickers - just the ones I pulled out about "Joy".  Stuff about out day out or travel or "today" wouldn't have really worked with the journaling.

I added some small postage stamp style stickers to give the words somewhere to sit, but that was about it (besides some bling at the very end!!)




It was about this point that I realized I needed somewhere to write. The journaling cards needed to be custom cut since the glassing bags were narrower than 3".  I figured a paper pad might be the answer since I could have a pattern on one side and white on the bag for writing, 

The search as over when I found the Maggie Holmes paper (aptly named "Library") from Chasing Dreams which has all those book covers,  I fussy cut them since THEY were the perfect size for the pocket!

I can use as many or few as I need.  I tried stamting one on the plain side with a notebook style stamp.  The lines were too widely spaced so I stamped twice,


OK brace yourselves.  This is a bit much even for me! 🤣🤣🤣

Ode To Joy

Love and excessive embellishing!