AJ Monday

Hi All...I had a very busy and productive weekend and it all started with my AJ Monday journal page. The challenge this week was to use an actual picture on your page. I already did that a couple weeks ago so this time I took a different route to use some pictures.

A couple years ago hubs and I took a trip to Nashville and Memphis on our quest to follow the Dave Matthews Band around North America. We didn't see much of Nashville, but did get to spend a couple days in Memphis. We LOVED it there...the music, the food, the atmosphere, the history, all of it was amazing. We took in as much as we could and took a lot of pictures of our favourite spots, some of which I collaged in this page.

I selected a few of my fav's and inserted them into a word document mirror imaging the pictures. I printed them on my Epson ink jet printer on regular printer paper, nothing special. Then using any of the image transfer techniques you may find on the web I transferred them to my page. It was necessary to print mirror images of the pics because you glue them 'image side down' and this way they end up right side facing when you are done.

The technique I used was with gel medium, mod podge or PPA. I used PPA here, but I think mod podge or gel medium works better for this technique. Cut your pictures down to size, or even tearing the edges gives a nice effect. Apply some gel medium and stick it down onto your page. Now you do not want to paste over that piece of paper because you don't want the paper completely sealed. Just use your fingers and press it down good.

Wait for it to dry, or if you are like me take a heat gun to it. Speaking from experience, it does work a lot better if you can wait and let it dry naturally....but I wasn't seeking out perfection here! Then spritz your paper with water and start rubbing it off. The paper will roll off and your image will be revealed! It's like MAGIC! I dried it again with my heat gun and gently sanded it to remove any 'hairs' and soften off the edges. Then I sealed it with PPA because when I overlapped my next image I didn't want to chance any of my first one coming off.

The hardest part was that I five pictures so I had to repeat the above process 5 times so there was a lot of drying involved. Then I added some ink, some paint, some gesso...more ink and paint and I was almost done.

I stamped the word 'Memphis' and the date with a VERY OLD acrylic River City alphabet set, and because Memphis is all about the music I couldn't help but stamp some of Stamping Bella's eclectic music on there.

I hope this has inspired you, and be sure to check Emily's blog for her AJ Monday post sometime today. The gals who have been playing along in this have been wowing me week after week and I can't wait to see what they do this week.

Linda.