Home is Where the Heart is at The Funkie Junkie Boutique Blog

Hi everyone and welcome. It's time for another challenge over at the The Funkie Junkie Boutique Blog. I am your host for this one and I've called it 'Home is Where the Heart is'. "What does 'home' mean to you? Maybe it's a place of safety, somewhere you live with family or friends, or a place that holds treasured memories. It may be somewhere you can be yourself or a place from where you can grow and thrive. Whatever 'home' means to you create a project of your choice that represents it."

As ever, the Design Team will choose their top four picks, with the winner being invited to join us in a Guest DT spot at The Funkie Junkie Boutique Blog and three additional outstanding entries will receive Top 3 Badges to display on their blogs. Everyone who enters and follows the rules will be entered into the draw to have the chance to win a $25 spending spree at The Funkie Junkie Boutique.

With so many restrictions and uncertainty this year has been a strange one so being able to enjoy the tranquillity of our garden has been such a source of sanctuary. I wanted to represent this special space in my journal, including a nod to our home with the brick wall background.

Here's a brief 'how to' showing the process steps for creating it, starting with the base for the brick wall background. I used a mix of 'Sand' and 'Elephant' Dina Wakley Media Acrylic Paint on the card surfaces.

Digging a Wendy Vecchi Brick Wall stencil out from my stash I applied Opaque Matte Texture Paste unevenly through it before brushing 'White' Dina Wakley Media Acrylic Paint over the top.

The original intension was to go with whitewashed walls and brighter coloured flowers but with the seasons now changing I went with more of an autumnal look, adding a more realistic brick colour by mixing 'Sedona' and 'White' Dina Wakley Media Acrylic Paint. A spatula was then used to scrape a thin layer of 'Roast Chestnut' and 'After Dark' Seth Apter Izink Pigment Inks over the top, allowing them to catch on the raised spots. 

To make the largest of the flowers I started with a generous blob of 'White' Dina Wakley Media Acrylic Paint and added an increasing amount of 'Carnation' Dina Wakley Media Acrylic Paint to it, painting a few pieces of paper with them ready for die cutting with the large flower die pieces from the Sizzix 'Layered Winter Flower' set. A few leaf stems were cut from tea stained paper with dies from the same set. All the edges were aged with 'Acorn' Acrylic Archival Ink. I went on to use a black permanent ink pen to draw over the detail in the centre.

The smaller flowers started with paper painted with a mix of 'Lemon' and 'Sedona' Dina Wakley Media Acrylic Paint. I stamped the flower shapes using Wendy Vecchi's 'Country Flowers' MAKE ART Stamp/Die/Stencil set with 'Spiced Marmalade' Archival Ink, hand cutting and layering the petals for a little dimension and adding a centre stamped with black permanent ink. White dots were added to the centre with a white gel pen.

After sticking the main flowers and foliage to the brick background I die cut more leaf stems and some berries with dies from the Sizzix 'Layered Winter Flower' and Geometric Winter Frame Sets. A few of these were painted with a mix of 'Evergreen' and 'Black' Dina Wakley Media Acrylic Paint whilst the berries were formed with Wendy Vecchi's 'Carnation Red' Liquid Pearls. More of Wendy's Liquid Pearls, this time in the 'Sunflower' shade, were added directly to the journal page before I stamped the sentiment from Wendy Vecchi's 'Special Art' Stamp Set. The hand drawn rectangles are becoming a re-occurring element throughout the journal and in this case helped to link this page to a previous one.

So that's my take on the theme 'Home is Where the Heart is'. My talented team mates have also come up with their own projects representing 'home' for this challenge so make sure you hop on over and check them out HERE. And remember to link up your own shabby chic or vintage pieces to be in with a chance of winning one of the fabulous prizes that's up for grabs.

Thanks for visiting,
Jenny xxx

Products used to create this journal page are available from The Funkie Junkie Boutique and are listed/linked below.

Sizzix Thinlits Die Set - Geometric Winter Frame

Sizzix Thinlits Die Set - Layered Winter Flower

Wendy Vecchi MAKE ART Stamp/Die/Stencil Set - Country Flowers

Wendy Vecchi Studio 490 Stamp Set - Special Art

Wendy Vecchi Liquid Pearls - Carnation Red and Sunflower

Seth Apter Izink Pigment Inks by Aladine

Dina Wakley Media Acrylic Paints and Gessos

Ranger Archival Inks

Ranger Texture Paste Assortment