Junk Journal

I caught a tutorial on Junk Journaling and thought  "Well, now I can clean up some of my junk I've been keeping around the studio."

  Gather up that broken jewelry, those findings you bought on sale at Michael's,  broken pieces of things you never repaired, keys, seashells, etc. and see how easy it is to create a one of a kind Junk Journal.
(I even used failed and over cooked clay tile pieces ,broken belts , fabric bows etc.) You'll see below in the video and the pics.
It's best to gather up more junk than you think. More than likely , however ,you won't use it all.


Here is what I gathered up for the event.

Get started by protecting the journal by adding newspaper or wax paper sheets inside the back and front covers. This is a messy project. This is meant to protect the inside pages.

Give your journal cover a quick coat of Gesso.

After that dries you can start assembling pieces randomly. 

Try to start with some of your flatter items that will help add some character to your background. Using your hottest glue gun start gluing the items to the base/cover and continue to layer and layer and layer. 

I was trying to make that heart work but in the end it didn't make it to the finals.

Trim everything down that is hanging over the edges

This was my final assembly before I covered it in Gesso.

Crazy right? Now it's time to coat the whole thing in Gesso. Using a brush, just put a generous coating over the entire assemblage , making sure to hit all the little nooks and crannies. Afterwards, I sprayed with Dylusions to get the blue and turquoise colors. 

Next you'll want to dry brush with a bit of copper craft paint over the entire project. You could go gold or silver but I'm such a sucker for the copper.

In the end, I sprayed 2 coats of flat clear coat to help everything stay protected.

Isn't she lovely, isn't she wonderful .....

Many thanks for taking time to read along.

Michele

Coastal Bohemian

Faux Fish Prints

Have you ever heard of Fish Prints ?

I fell in love with fish prints after visiting a  Montauk, NY street fair where I saw some of the most beautiful fish prints of Blue Fish, Octopus, Sea Bass etc.
BTW, fish prints were a form of recording the biggest catches in a time before we had cameras. See, they had to document their big fish tales.

Since we are a family of fishermen, I was fascinated. Next time we caught fish I was prepared to capture the prints of our fish.

For some reason I am fascinated with Kissy Fish. Our first Xmas together I bought my fiance a "Kissy Fish " ornament . Now I paint them.
Sitting around looking at a blank canvas the other day I began an outline of a fish. In my mind I didn't want to create a typical painted fish. I could see the fish prints in my mind and the  lovely textured scales and tails.
 Today 's Kissy Fish took on a new look with sea sponge painted 

texture and maps for her fins .

She is a true mixed media Coastal Bohemian.
Stay tuned for more Faux Kissy Fish Prints. I'm addicted. 
Looking forward to creating new prints with various stencils and more.

Thanks for following along .
Michele 

10 Things to Make with Driftwood

Driftwood collector, driftwood traveler(someone who travels the coast in search of driftwood), driftwood decorator, driftwood crafter,  driftwood LOVER!

I decided to create a post about things you can do with driftwood and wow was I surprised when I went back into my files. Actually, there are a few pics I couldn't find that I will have to add later. These are things that I have done that were my own idea and some inspired from Pinterest and other Internet sites. I hope you find some driftwood. 

Above is a a driftwood climber that I created for my garden . In the winter it adds character and in the summer well it just sings a glorious song planted with big, bright blue Morning Glories.

This inspired the photo backdrop for weddings and events. We rent this out for events and weddings.( We also sell them down at the studio. Personally I like the idea of buying one of these for an event or wedding and then installing it into the garden.)

This is a shelf created with two pieces of wood found on the same day . One is actually a shelf from a boat with a few rusty nails

 Found at a small bay beach on LI, NY, covered with barnacles, I knew this was going to be a sign the moment I saw it.

Simply placed, a site to adore.

 Towel rack of course.

Fishy fishy

Not for everyone, but certainly funky.

Wall art.

Oops, sometimes a bonfire at the beach. This hurts too much.

Unforgettable lamp.

                                                           Valance

Thanks for indulging my driftwood infatuation. 

 You can find posts for most of these ideas here at my blog. https://coastalbohemian.blogspot.com/

Linking to http://afreshstartonabudget.com/motivational-monday-blogger-linkup-142/

Thanks again for reading and commenting and sharing.

Michele Michael

your 

Love Notes

It was the week before my two-year anniversary at Coastal Bohemian, an arts and crafts studio I own in Myrtle Beach South Carolina. Mostly, it’s creative space for arts and crafts but I do have artists that teach painting classes and I teach distressed furniture painting.

Now, I need a quick and easy make and take craft for people to do at the anniversary celebration.

A while ago I had made this little envelope from an old book page. It’s a part of the journaling class we offer at the studio and attendees get the template inside their class packet and that would be perfect for one of  our celebration day craft.

It’s a great template to make tiny envelopes or even for enlarging to make something bigger. You can play with that idea on your printer.

 I love these because they are miniature (you know, think Puppies and Kittens and fairy gardens),  envelopes at 2.5 “ x 1.5” and can be printed on anything you can get into your printer. My obsession, at the moment, is sheet music.

I printed these out on sheet music pages from a Cole Porter hardcover I picked up at the Library book sale for $1.00.  

Print, cut, fold, glue done.

 Add a small embellishment and your envelope is finished.

Adorable, but something was missing. It needed a love note inside. You can cut a few small cards from card stock.

For our anniversary, I made a station with preprinted envelopes, glue, scissors, cut cards, a paint brush and pens and of course some bling.

The attendees folded up their envelopes and added a love note. They were soooo happy creating these I almost couldn’t believe it. 

See everyone loves miniature.

They made them for all the people they love.

Sometimes it doesn't take much. These little bitty love notes would be adorable for children to do with their friends and for Valentine's Day .

Thanks for reading along and letting me entertain you for a few minutes. 

Michele  

Mermaid Artist Trading Cards

Planning a 2 year celebration for Coastal Bohemian was fun and exciting and a wee bit hectic. 

The plan was to have a party day with plenty of giveaways , free crafts and celebration cake!!!
Everyone loves free crafts and food. Right? The challenge is to find a craft that is low cost , different , memorable , fun  and maybe a new craft for the guests. If we can provide a new exciting and unique experience over a 2 hour period we create friends. It's just an inevitable consequence of happy craft time. (God I love my job.)


Since the studio is near the beach in Myrtle Beach I always try to create nautical beachy themes, plus seeing as how the name of the company is Coastal Bohemian, you can imagine that mostly , my theme is beachy and nautical. That works.

I  had picked up this Stampendous  Mermaid stamp at Michael's a while ago . I knew she was my  star for the craft day. 

Artist trading cards are not something the average crafter is familiar with and I knew we could pull these off low cost and make this a very special experience in mixed media art. Bingo.

 I'll take you through my sample card.

I painted a base color paint on an ordinary trading card.

After that dries,

swipe on an additional color in a different direction. It's just a swipe to create a bit of interest.

Decoupage a bit of torn vintage paper to begin to build some background interest. I get old books at my local Library book sales for like $1.00 or $.50.

Next, I added a bit of fisherman's net , the real stuff. Just cut a piece to fit the card and use a good amount of Mod Podge to adhere the net. You'll need to coat the card with Mod Podge, add the net, Mod Podge over the top. Blow dry to speed up dry time,  of course.

I had stamped out  the mermaid image onto card stock. Cutting her out, I had to cut her down a bit to fit the card. 

I used a little gold stamp ink to add a bit of glam to my mermaid image and help her tone down from that heavy bright white of the card stock. I actually used my finger to add the gold ink.

The image was glued onto the net with a glue gun. 

From there add a few small seashells and pearls and of course a Coastal Bohemian quote. I've include a link to this printable for your own mermaid cards. feel free to get nautical and beachy with these.

To complete the card we add a backside of information. Here's a printable of the one we used. 

CB Trading Card Info backside

Here are a few cards and pics from our party day. 

Thanks for popping in to check out these little works of art. 

BTW...check around the internet for artist trading cards, they are highly collectible and swapped around the world. To swap cards, people join card swap locations and swap on a regular basis. 

Hope you enjoyed these cards.

Michele, the original Coastal Bohemian