Fishing Journal

My husband, Bob, loves to fish. We do take and keep pictures of the fish he catches, but I thought it would be great if he had a fishing journal...so I made one. Bob's nickname is Fleth, short for our last name. And he is also know by some of his fishing buddies as Musky Bob ever since he became hooked on Musky fishing.
Bob is a catch and release fisherman when it comes to musky and northerns, which are 2 of the larger species of fish found in our area of the country. He went to a Musky school held in Canada's Lake of the Woods several years ago and since then has caught quite a few muskies.

For the inside of the front cover I used some great scrapbook paper I had found a while ago. There are various species of fish pictured and identified.
Then I typed up a little something for the first page of the journal. I had a musky stamp so I used it and a fishing rod punch.






Here's a look at the journal pages where Musky Bob will log his fish. On the right side he'll be able to attach a picture of the fish and on the left he can log the information that he thinks is important with regard to where, when, and how he caught the fish. He is an excellant fisherman so I expect him to fill up this book and then I'll make another. He plans to log the fish he has caught in the past. I'm not sure, but he may only be logging the Muskies and not the other species of fish; although, I think he should log all of them. He has caught some very large walleye and northern also.

On the inside of the back cover I've placed a copy of part of the map for Cedar Lake in Ontario Canada. Bob's been going fishing to Canada on this lake for many years. Usually he goes with the guys, but there are some years when the guys take us along.

Distressed Scraps Background

The latest Background Noise Challenge put out by Trish is the Distressed Scraps technique. First you tear up scraps of cardstock and paper and then glue them down on a sheet of cardstock. Second you paint a mixture of gesso and water across the entire sheet. This is what my sheet looked like at that point in the process. The sheet needs to completely dry before moving on to the next step, which involves applying color. I cut this sheet up into 6 pieces and experimented with various coloring methods.

The first thing I tried was some walnut ink sprays. I haven't used them much and need some practice with spraying so I thought I'd give them a try. I have 4 different colors so I sprayed 2 of the colors on each of the 2 pieces to the left. I liked the way they looked, but after a minute or two I decided to blot up some of the spray with a paper towel. I do like them better now.

I used my 'homemade' color mists on this piece. My mists are pretty light colors once sprayed, even though they look quite dark in the bottles. This turned out okay, but not my favorite. I may decide to add something else later on.

Now to try some ink pads. I used Eggplant Adirondack ink. When it didn't look as good as I'd like I decided to spray a little water on and blot with a paper towel. It worked well on the previous pieces with walnut ink sprays, so why not try it again! I think that gave it a better look.

On this piece I used Olive Pastel Chalk inks to cover the scraps. I liked the way it initially looked, but since the previous piece looked so much better once I sprayed some water and blotted with a paper towel, I did the same to this piece. And I do like it better. In fact, this may be my favorite of the entire group.

This piece was covered with Mahogoney Distress Ink. Again, because I didn't care for the way the ink covered, I sprayed a little water on the piece and then blotted with a paper towel.

ATC Holder for a friend

I made another ATC holder for a friend on CCSwaps. This is the second one I made and it went alot faster than the first one. I think I may like this one better than the first!! I hope my friend likes it. I'll get it in the mail to her next week.

Here's the ATC holder open to the first area which will hold 2 ATC's.

Here's the ATC holder open completely, with 4 slots for storing ATC's.

Background Noise - Paint Scrapping

The latest Background Noise Challenge is Paint Scrapping. Trish gave us 2 techniques to try, and try I did! I've cut a small piece of each and documented them in my Background Noise Journal. But I've also shown the larger samples below to get a better look at what I did. I think I need more practice. The object was to use acrylic paints and spread them onto the cardstock using a credit card. I tend to like the lighter colors more, I think because I would want to stamp over them.

Rainbow Paint Scrapping Technique

Here are my 2 experiments for this technique. I almost created a muddy mess with the piece on the left. In an effort to cover up all the empty card space I was criss-crossing the application with the credit card. I used blue, magenta, green, and purple, pretty bold colors.For the piece on the right I tried lighter colors: green yellow, purple and pink. I think I like this one better.

Random Paint Scrapping Technique

Here are the 2 experiments I did for this technique. I think I like the results of this more than the rainbow paint scrapping. For the piece on the left I used blues and pinks, and for the piece on the right I used greens and pinks.