Capon Memories Journal for Frilly and Funkie

Hello friends and visitors! I am hosting the current challenge at Frilly and Funkie, and the theme is 'Read Any Good Books Lately?'. Today, the Funkie girls will present their interpretation of the challenge theme. I will give a description of the challenge, but first here's a look at my Capon memories journal.

Reading a good book on the beach or on the porch is a simple summer pleasure. For this challenge, please create a vintage or shabby chic project that depicts a favorite book or use book pages on your project, alter a book or even make a journal or journal page! Just be sure it's in the vintage or shabby chic style that we are looking for!

Believe it or not, my journal was actually found in the trash! Yup, I did a little dumpster diving! Tee Hee! Actually, it was in with a pile of old photographs and other memorabilia a neighbor was throwing out. They know I like old black and white photos, so they gave me the whole kit and ka-boodle! One of the photos was used HERE.

My inspiration for making this journal came from our recent family vacation to Capon Springs, West Virginia. My husband and I have been going there for over 25 years, sometimes twice a year, and the kids have been coming with us annually since just before they were born. We have been going the same week for about 15 years, and have made some lifelong friends from around the country--we call them our Capon family. Going to Capon is like stepping back in time.  Our memories are precious, but my daughter mentioned that she can't remember anything before about 2 years ago! And my own memories of the first years are growing fuzzier. I thought we might start writing down a daily entry to describe our daily routine and anything special about the day. One of my friends has kept an annual Capon diary, and she has been visiting a few more years than we have. What a great idea!

This is a fairly well made home made journal originally prepared as a wedding favor. All I had to do was remove the glue that was used to make a shell design on the front cover and give it several coats of gesso to prepare for my Distress Oxide and ink background. I blended the blue, green and yellow inks on the journal and spritzed with water to blend, drying, dabbing and occasionally dipping and splattering. I carried the simple background around the back and added a faraway cluster of pines using Tim's tree mini stencil and Peeled Paint and Walnut Stain DOX.

I wanted a fairly simple flat design so that my book could be packed in my suitcase when we visit our summer vacation spot and could be easily handled and stored on a shelf. I colored my die cut trees with Cracked Pistachio, Peeled Paint, and Walnut stain DOX and Mowed Lawn ink.

I made the little cobblestone path using Tim Holtz' Stone stamp, Watering Can Distress ink and Frayed Burlap and Bundled Sage inks and a little Peeled Paint DOX.

For my focal point I chose a happy couple from Tim's Found Relatives, and some sweet children from Paper Dolls. I did have to remove an older sister from the younger girl, because I have a boy and a girl. This brother/sister team is perfect to represent my children--my son has always been about a head taller than his twin sister. I'm sure it's more now (if he would stand up straight!). I aged the foursome with some steel wool, Distress Crazing and crayon. Happy accident: my crazing is a little old, and the results are unpredictable, but in the photo above you can see the cracks fell in line almost perfectly with the folds of the boy's sleeve.

The clock face is left over from a previous project, and I chose some daisies from Tim's Botanical Layers. My title is made with Tim's cling foam alphabet (Love these fun stamps, and they come in the best packaging ever!) and Black Soot Archival ink and a Quote Chip. Everything is adhered with Distress Collage Medium Matte.

What's a book without a bookmark? The journal has an attached ribbon for marking your spot, but I made this coordinating bookmark just the same.  It was a piece of scrap card I used to try a technique I was going to use on the back cover. I didn't like how it turned out--much to messy for the cover, but I thought it would be nice enough to include within the pages somehow. I used the same color inks as the front of the book and Tim's birch tree mini stencil. I also dyed the seam binding ribbon with the same colors. Linda's crinkle ribbon really takes the DOX's well!

On the spine I added a Clippings sticker as a fitting title. There's really a quote for any occasion in this well filled package! At the bottom 'O' stamped (old stash stamp--part of '2010') and '70' (another clippings sticker) serve as call numbers. (I've volunteered at a few libraries in my day.) But it's really a tongue in cheek reference to the Bingo call number OH 70, a corny little private Capon joke.

Inside pages are left blank for writing our memoirs. I decorated the front and back inside covers simply with Tim's Wallflower paper using Distress Collage Medium to glue it down. This is the best collage medium I've used. I ran a strip of Tissue Tape up the join to help with the wear and tear from the handling of the book and secured this with the collage medium as well. I may choose to decorate some pages in the future but for now the plans are just for writing our annual Capon memories. I will also have to seal the cover, since the colors could easily be washed away. I'm open for suggestions...

Thank you for hanging in there with me! If you have time, please stop by the blog to see all the amazing book inspiration by my Frilly and Funkie teammates! Then I hope your join our challenge--you could be the random winner of a generous $25 gift certificate to The Funkie Junkie Boutique or be chosen as one of the team's four favorites! The challenge is open until August 15th.

I'm sharing with these challenges:

Deep Ocean Challenge #161: "Shabby Chic / Vintage"

Artistic Stamper August's Creative Challenge - Anything Goes I used Tim Holtz alpha stamps and another stamp for the "o".

Country View Crafts Challenge August 2017 - Blues and Greens

Die Cut Divas - Anything Goes for August I used a Thinlits tree die.

Dies R Us -Challenge #78 - Summertime Fun

Happy Little Stampers - HLS August Anything Goes with Dies Challenge

Noor! Design - August Challenge - Anything Goes

We Love to Create - Challenge 16 Anything Creative/Mixed Media Goes

Creative Artiste Challenge 29 - "Anything Mixed Media Goes"

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Splatter It

Thank you for your visit and for all your lovely comments! They inspire me more than you know!

Hugs and Blessings!

Sara Emily

These products used on my project can be purchased at The Funkie Junkie Boutique:

Ranger Wendy Vecchi Archival Ink - Watering Can	Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Ink Pad - Frayed Burlap	Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Ink Pad - Walnut Stain	Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Ink Pad - Squeezed Lemonade	Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Ink Pad - Bundled Sage
Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Ink Pad - Mowed Lawn	Tim Holtz Distress Oxide FOSSILIZED AMBER	Distress Oxide Broken China	Tim Holtz Distress Oxide CRACKED PISTACHIO	Tim Holtz Distress Oxide Ink Pad FADED JEANS
Tim Holtz Distress Oxide WALNUT STAIN	Tim Holtz Distress Oxide PEELED PAINT	Tim Holtz Distress Crayons SET 3	Tim Holtz Distress Collage Medium in Crazing	Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Collage Medium Matte TDAK47933 (February Pre-Order)
Tim Holtz Mini Stencil Set 21	Tim Holtz Sizzix TREE LINE Thinlits Die 661604	(February Pre-order) Tim Holtz Idea-ology Type Lower Cling Foam Stamps	(March Pre-order) Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz Rubber Stamps - Slate & Stone	Idea-ology Paper Dolls
Tim-Holtz-Idea-ology-QUOTE-CHIPS	(February Pre-order) Tim Holtz Idea-ology Botanical Layers	Tim Holtz Idea-ology Ephemera Pack, Emporium	Sizzix Alterations Tim Holtz Tag and Bookplates Die	Rayon Seam Binding