2020 -- Celebrating a New Start

It has been over a year since I posted something on my blog.  I am so excited to be back.  It has been quite a challenging year.  I had two major neurosurgeries in NY in 2019, one in May and one in December.  I had to work the surgeries into breaks between university semesters since I used up my medical leave during my 2012 and 2014 neurosurgeries.  So 2019 took quite the toll on me physically, emotionally, financially, and all the "-ly"s that go along with dealing with pain, major surgeries, and perseverance through crises.

Fortunately the surgeries went well and I do feel better.  I'll talk more about that later this year.  To celebrate an optimistic beginning of 2020, I resolved to make time for creativity and sharing in this wonderfully crafty community.  I've missed you all!

To collect some of my 2020 creative treasures, I decided to augment one of Tim Holtz's Idea-ology Small Collection Folios.  Oh ... this was so much fun!

I needed a background for the front of my folio.  I started with a 12 by 12 "newsprint" piece of scrapbook paper.  To mute the print a little, I gave the paper a "wash" with watered down Antique Linen Distress Paint.  I cut out some small domino cards from one of Tim's paper stashes and adhered them to the scrapbook paper with Distress Collage Medium.  The whole piece got another light wash of Distress Paint.  After that dried, I added some Idea-ology Remnant Rubs.   I was really happy with the background and so I finished it off with a coat of Distress Collage Medium.  I grunged the edges of the paper and the edges of the domino cards with Black Soot Distress Crayon.

The front of the folio is smaller than this 12 by 12 piece of paper, so I cut the background paper down to fit.  I didn't want this paper to go to the top and bottom edges of the front cover.  I wanted a little color to relieve the neutral background of the print paper.  So I used Broken China Distress Paint to over the top and bottom inch of the folio front.  I adhered my collaged print paper background so that just a sliver of this blue paint showed at the top and bottom edges.  I grunged that top and bottom edges with sand paper and Walnut Stain Distress Crayon.

I accessorized the front folio panel went some Idea-ology Grunge Board 2020 numerals from my stash.  They were painted with Candied Apple Distress Paint then grunged with sandpaper and Walnut Stain Distress Ink.  I added some Idea-ology Mini Attachers to make it look like the numbers were screwed into the front folio panel.  Other embellishments on the from panel included Idea-ology Snippets, an Idea-ology Journaling Ticket stamped with Tim Holtz's "Live the Life You've Imagined" sentiment stamp, and some of Tim's Designed Tape. The closing flap was collaged with some Graphic 45 Craft  paper roll.

The back panel of the folio was given a similar treatment.  I used a piece of Tim Holtz's paper stash and gave it a wash of Antique Linen Distress Paint.  I used several of Tim's stamps (from a variety of collections) to stamp this paper.  I used Ranger Jet Black and Sepia Archival Ink, as well as Ground Espresso Distress Archival Ink to stamp these images.  The fold bindings of the outside fo the folio were covered with some of Tim's cigar wrapper Design Tape.  The top and bottom edges of the back panel have some Tim's Halloween periodic table Design Tape (I love this stuff!).

Now on to the interior of the folio ...

There are two flaps that enclose your creative genius in this folio.  I covered both with more of the black and cream Graphic 45 Craft Paper roll.  This paper is two-sided, so on the reverse side of these flaps, I put some of the dictionary print that was on the reverse side of the Graph 45 Craft Paper roll.  It made my heart swell to see some geometry terms in the definitions!

The majority of the folio's interior was collaged with Tim Holtz Idea-ology Documented Collage Paper.  I gave the interior a coat of Antique Linen Distress Paint.  I splattered with some Frayed Burlap Distress Paint.  Then on with the collage paper.  Here is here you can see that I have turned over a new crafting leaf.  I'm usually very hard on myself when things don't turn out exactly the way I want them to be.  If you look in the image below, you will see where I tore a hole in the Collage Paper as I was applying it over the collage medium.  Instead of ripping it off and using a new section of collage paper, I just left the hole and grunged it with Walnut Stain Distress Crayons.  It definitely goes with vintage vibe I was going for with this folio.  I also recycled some of the remnants from my 12 by 12 background used on the from cover of the folio.  If you look at the bottom, you will see a black ink smudge next the "explore life" remnant rub.  I had a bit of mishap as I was putting the lid on some archival ink one-handed.  The pad flipped and dropped on my project.  I could have collaged over it; but once again, I embraced the imperfection.  It was a rather big smudge and almost too dark in its entirety for this interior.  So I covered the middle of the splotch with a Idea-ology Snippet and life was good!

Once I got the hang of handling the Collage Paper, the rest of the interior was a breeze.  It's such a great product for large surfaces.  I painted the "waterfall" folders  with Antique Linen and Candied Apple Distress Paint.  Of course they were grunged with sand paper and Walnut Stain Distress Ink.

I added a reminder to myself in the folder the this is just the beginning of a year of creative possibilities.  I put in a card that I inked with a variety of Distress Inks and spritzed with water.  I added one of Tim's Quote Chips that reminds me to create and "Collect Beautiful Moments" in this folio!

And so this Journey is TO BE CONTINUED ...

I would like to enter my 2020 Folio into following challenge:

A Vintage Journey's "We're All Getting Older!" January Challenge

 I hope to stop by and visit with you all soon.  I'm back at school and the semester is ramping up.  Happy 2020 to you all!  -- Mary Elizabeth