Hi everyone, Darcy here. Today I have the May journal page for you, but first a huge thank you to everyone who joined in last month. I am truly honoured when I see you playing along and creating really wonderful pages. I am so proud of you all for tackling new techniques, and I hope you are proud of yourselves too.
The April winner is Carla 
Please contact me (darcydotneedles@hotmail.com) with your choice of Ellen Vargo stamp and JoFY stencil.
So onto the new page, welcome to the Secret Garden. 
The most unusual technique this week is 'Papercasting' if you have never done this before then do take a look at a tutorial over on my blog HERE, where you will find full instructions on how to do this.
Firstly let's get some colour onto the page. Using a plastic scraper I roughly added Green Olives, Choc Pudding, Very Berry,Guacamole,Rose and Mocha Mousse. Be careful, especially with the darker colours, you only need a little, as the scraper will make the paint go a long way.
Leave some white gaps, and also allow the ends of the scraping to be thicker, just to add texture. 
Here is the first layer after all the colours. Six colours sounds a lot, but look how many white gaps I left. The paints were put on 2 at a time then dried, then another 2 were scraped on then dried again etc. This will avoid a muddy mess.
The next layer is tissue paper. Take a piece of regular white tissue and cover it with your favourite text stamps. As this is a secret garden, use flower/garden stamps if you have them. I got out all my Jofy stamps and used almost all the text stamps.
Tear off sections of tissue and using Matte glaze, attach them to the journal page. As you glue them, let the tissue crumple slightly, this is to distort the text. it will look more interesting that just straight lines that are easy to read. Also alternate the angle of the pieces you apply. I glued most of mine on at a slight diagonal angle. Do this over both pages, but do leave gaps.
Once the tissue has fully dried, take a palette knife and gently scrap on some Chalk fresco paint, this will knock back the colours and will highlight the creases in the tissue. How much you add is up to you, you need enough to provide a neutral background for the top layers... but not too much that you obliterate the initial colours and tissue. So do a little at a time, build slowly till you are happy. You can always add more, it is harder to take some off if you slap on a thick layer straight off.
Now we are going to build up the right side. First we will do some stencilling. I used JoFY stencil PS010 across the bottom centre. Then I added the taller flowers from PS007 up both sides. Colours used are London bus, Haystack, Lake Wanaka,Mocha Mousse.Vintage Lace.
I layered the tall flowers by doing the blue at the back first, then the brown ones over that, and finally the red/yellow ones in the foreground.
Now take a piece of scrap paper, and tear it roughly in a long length. you are going to use the torn side as a stencil for your border. I used Pea Coat for my border, but you can use a darker shade of whatever colours are on your page.
Here is the right side page at this point. I really like the torn edges with bits of white unpainted page peeping through.
Now for our focal pieces. I took some Chatsworth paper, and cut 2 pieces that will form a wheelbarrow. I used the plainest,darkest of the papers. Then I added some stamping from EEV03 using Archival Potting Soil.
Glue the back part (the smaller one) fully and flat to the page
Now glue on the front part. Add a line of glue around the sides, handle, bottom edge and leg. Leave the top edge unglued. As you lay it onto the page, push in the sides slightly allowing the middle to bow outwards. We need there to be a gap. Hold in place for a few minutes till it is set.
Next cut a seed/tag packet from one of the lovely green Chatsworth papers. The size will be determined by how much space you have on your particular page. But if you want a similar one to mine I started with a piece of chatsworth 5 1/8 inches by 5 1/2 inches. {13cm by 14cm} You need to create an envelope shape, with one of the flaps missing (the top one in the photo)
Fold up the bottom, and then the 2 sides overlap, hold in place with double sided tape or glue. I have added a manilla tag.
To decorate the tag I blended several frescos using the black side of cut n dry foam. i then added some more of our original tissue paper, and a little book text. Using stencil PS009, I first stencilled the large empty flower shape with Very Berry, once dry I replaced the stencil.. this time I used one of the detailed flowers and Rose. To bring in some blue that is elsewhere on the page, I added some blue Fibralo pen at the top, wet this and allowed it to drip down.
I coloured a piece of smoothy card with Spanish Mulberry, Lilac and cheesecake, then stencilled a little with guacamole. over this I stamped with JoFY mini 34. You will need quite a lot of these, all cut out.
JM34
Take some of the cut out flowers and spritz them with water, scrunch them up and leave to dry. once dry you can drip on a little blue ink, just to the edges.
These now get glued to the tag. You will see i also added some text stamping around the edge of our seed/tag packet.
The smaller tag is from this set of fabscraps. I painted the window and the tag with Choc Pudding, then crackle glaze and then Vintage Lace.
Using the JoFY alphabet stamp set I added the word grow, and coloured this with Fibralo markers. I then added the grunge paste flower through stencil PS007, and stamped into the flowers with the little bubble stamp from JoFY 09. I finished the flowers off with Pewter treasure gold.
JoFY 21
Now we can pop the larger tag into the packet, and then add that and the smaller tag into the wheelbarrow. For the wheel, I used a papercast of the flower from JoFY 09. I painted it with Pea Coat, Lake Wanaka, a few Cheesecake dots, and a light dusting of Pewter Treasure gold.
JoFY 09
Again if you have never done papercasting, check out my blog post HERE.
Lets create a window page so we can look out onto the garden. First ,use your torn scrap paper to add a border.
Positioned the crackled window frame and use a pencil to draw around the inside of it. Take off the frame, and now paint the window shape. Use a swirly circle motion to add dimension. I used Pea Coat, Lake Wanaka and Chalk.
Now you can glue on the window frame.. Take the JoFY mini 34 stamp, and add some flowers in the top corners and in the bottom left corner. I used Archival Cornflower.
If you have had a go at papercasting you will have a good selection of flowers and leaves. I painted mine and then added Treasure gold. The large flower and dragonfly are from JoFY13, and the letters are from JoFY21. I just love the details and dimension that these provide.
JoFY 13
Play with placement on the left page. You should also have some of the mini purple painted flowers left over. I created a stem for the flower using the same torn paper edge that we used for the borders.
Finally I added my papercast letters, and finished off the quote using the text stamp from ELB01.
Here is the left side finished.
A close up of the wheelbarrow.
and one last look at the double spread.
This was a fun page to create, I love using papercasts and I really hope you will give them a go. I want to look through that dreamy window, out to the garden beyond.
Ideas for you to explore this month:
Creating papercasts with stamps
Grunge paste, stamping into
Use a scraper/palette knife instead of a brush
Stamp onto tissue paper
Shading through a stencil
Tearing paper to create a stencil
Using Treasure Gold
Paper piecing,creating an envelope
Using crackle glaze
Creating scrunched flowers
Layering cut out flowers over flat stamped flowers
See you next month, Darcy x
P.S next month I will be using Lin Brown stamps,stencils and dies if you would like to play along.
If you would like to join in then please link up and explain how you were inspired by the techniques presented above. Use the linky below (this is a separate link to the weekly PA challenges). This journal challenge will remain open for a month, and will end the day before my next journal page.
Please read and follow the guidelines below, and enter your journal page to be in with a chance of winning one of JoFY's stamp plates.
This challenge is to show how you have been inspired to action by this month's example make sure in your blog post you explain what part or technique prompted you to create a page of your own.
Make sure you have your journal page entry linked up by 5pm (London time) June 27th 2014.
Winner will be announced the following day.
There will only be ONE draw, ONE winner. You may link up as many times as you like but each name will only go into the draw once.
Please don't feel you need to copy the example exactly but you must be inspired by at least part of it.
You are also welcome to use any stamps/ products / substrates you have to hand, we do not expect you to exclusively use PA products - but of course it is lovely when you do!