Hi everyone.  Karen Ellis here.   Today is my day on the Creative Scrapbooker Magazine blog to share with you something that I’ve been working on.This weekend my mind, like so many of us, was on Hurricane Irma and the disaster she left  in her wake in the Caribbean and the state of Florida.  As a survivor of a natural disaster myself (lost my home in a F4 tornado), I know what it is like to lose everything (including friends and neighbours) and what it means to rebuild.  I know you all will join me in wishing the survivors the very best, a fast recovery and a quick rebuild from the devastation of Hurricane Irma. While watching the news coverage, I took to my studio and opened to an unfinished page in my art journal and created this layout I’m sharing with you today.  I enjoy going to my journal when feeling down or need to regenerate.  For me – this was the perfect project to work through my emotions that surround Hurricane Irma.  I hope it inspires you.

SUPPLIES USED
Heartfelt Creations – Tropical Paradise Collection Dies, Stamps and Patterned Paper

Stabilo – CarbOthello Pastel Coloring Pencils

Art Foamies – Rustic Numbers and Letters Stamp Sets

Ranger  – Dylusions Paint and Creative Journal

Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L – 3D Dodz and E-Z Runner Grand

As I mentioned, I took out my “work in progress’ art journal and turned it into a page that was already littered with leftover paint and splashes of colour through some miscellaneous stencils.  Since I was inspired by the tropics… I matched the page with some paper from Heartfelt Creations Tropical Paradise paper collection.   So happy I had this!  But I needed to add some colour to the art journal page to unify it a bit and let it coordinate with the paper line.  

I added a Dylusions paint wash (Fresh Lime and Calypso Teal) over the pages and, once that background was ready, I stamped the names of the islands and a few cities around the page using the foam letter stamps.I just adore the flamingos in the stamp and die sets and really wanted to use them on this page because, for better or worse, I’ve always identified Florida and the islands with those crazy birds! I stamped 4 flamingos on some plain white cardstock and coloured them in with my Stabilo pastel pencils.  The die was super easy to punch out with my die cutting machine.  The dies match the stamp set perfectly.  Love that there is not fussy cutting!  I adhered the paper pieces and flamingos to the journal page with Scrapbook Adhesives Dodz and tape.   I really wanted to make those flamingos pop. This was a therapeutic page create to remember the events of Hurricane Irma and I really like how it came together.  Perfect for my journal. Now, to see what pictures I have so I can create another page filled with happy memories with that paper and those flamingos!
Karen
To see more of Karen Ellis’s work visit The Art House Studio

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