FRIDAY NIGHT ARTS & CRAFTS

Planning a trip to London, UK. Of course the first thing to do (besides buying a ticket) is to make a travel journal. Naturally the background is a British flag.

I wanted the flag to look more like material so I added a muslim texture. This is a favourite of mine. Then used mutiply on the drop down LAYERS menu.

Shadowhouse Textures (see links)

I used the rectangle shape tool to make a background for my text. I used the paint bucket to add colour. But it looked too flat so I added a texture by Darkwoods. Then used mutiply on the drop down LAYERS menu.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/darkwood67/4891201609/in/set-72157623706589781

By that point the background was really dark and I wanted my rectangle to be lighter so I could add text and pics.
Filter -> Render-> Lighting Effects and added a spotlight with a #fffefd in the white  Intensity box. and played around until it was light enough to show my text.

Believe it or not the background  edges (not affected by the spotlight) were too light,.
So I used the rectangle marquee tool. At the top where the little boxes are I clicked on, ADD to Selection and at the top I made the MODE Normal. I made my selection and under EDIT->Stroke (Outline) Selection. In the pop-up screen I reduced the transparency to 75% and changed the colour to a dark brown.

The text is Marker Felt which I got from Da Font (check my links). The size is 30 points. Then I added some amazing pngs, a  penguin, suitcase and crane from JoesSistah.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/27805557@N08/sets/72157614731027787/
The top hat is from Creative commons.
The train image from
http://www.cpaphilblog.com/2009/02/train-vintage-postcard-and-record.html

The other images such as the photo corners and button came from Photoshop Elements on the right side of the page that says, CONTENTS->Filter for graphics.
The ballon is from an old purchased image that I added one of my backgrounds to.
http://www.etsy.com/listing/59886052/collage-sheet-paris-shabby-chic-themed

With both the train and balloon images I used the eraser tool. The eraser 'brush' I used was fuzzy and about 300. I used that to clean away parts of the images that I didn't want. I like using this method as the graphics edges fade into the background nicely.

So I guess you want to see the end result? Here it is.

©Neonsun Studios, All right reserved 2011.

Then I printed it out on a white stickyback paper,  (Avery Sticker Project Paper #03383) trimmed it and put it on the front of my Travel Journal.
To protect it (because it rains a lot in London) I sprayed two coats of Krylon Preserve It. I chose not to have it fill the whole front of the notebook because I wanted to use the ton of Washi tape I have. So I framed it in a few layers of washi tape. The tape also is folded over the edges of the notebook to make a clean edge and add durability. When I finish it I will post a pic.