Puppy Love and Birthday Boys...

I finished another spread in my Record-Album Journal. The left side is done with a magazine image, paint, patterned paper, alpha stickers and sharpies...

and the right side has a flap that opens to reveal a birthday wish!...


HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO WILLIE AND JOHNNY!!! I love my boys, and they turned eight on Tuesday! This page is dedicated to them...

and here's a closeup of the photo (click to see it larger)...

The cake was doodled with colored pencils on drawing paper, cut out and pasted on. Their birthday hats are rub-on bunting banner pieces from October Afternoon!

Anyhoo, tomorrow we start on journal three in the Full-Tilt Boogie class and I can hardly wait! Hopefully the lesson will be up before I have to go to bed...

Thanks for visiting and I will see you again soon!

Hidden Spine Journal...

Last night I stayed up wayyyyy too late finishing the construction of my second Full-Tilt Boogie journal - the hidden spine. Here's how it turned out...
I used an antique home-schooling book for the cover. It's a big one - 9" x 12." I love the embossed cover with the children playing!


We kept the spine intact, I chose to embellish mine with an antique handkerchief, some thrifted fabric, seam binding, and some embroidery...
I sewed on a circle tag so I can number it when it's done. :0)


On the inside it's filled with painted watercolor paper. I used Stonehenge 90 lb. sheets that I cut down from 22" x 30"...

Soooooo much fun! I will put this one on the shelf, so it's ready to use when I finish the first one! I can't wait for Friday when we start the construction of our third journal!!!

You can still sign up for Full-Tilt Boogie - it's ongoing. Click here for more info.

How's your week going?

Playing in my Full-Tilt Boogie Journal...

I started playing in my new Full-Tilt Boogie Journal on Sunday and it's been a lot of fun! As I mentioned in my last post, I have completely abandoned my new journaling system - HA! The one where I was going to have five journals going at once, and rotate using them throughout the week. Umm, yeah. I decided I didn't like that idea after all. It felt too disjointed.

We've been talking alot in our class discussion group about this very topic, and it's been so interesting to get different people's take on what art journaling is to them. Then, I read this blogpost from Michelle Remy, a fellow FTB participant, and it really inspired me. I've had some very similar thoughts and it got me thinking.

The result of all this thinking, is that I have come full circle. Just like my very first art journal back in 2007, I am going to just have one book at a time - no rules, no system, no guidelines. Time to just play like a kid again. Now, this definitely feels right.

Here are my first two pages in my new journal...


The background behind the Julia Cameron quote is a photo I took of the road on our walk yesterday. The pattern struck me as beautiful.

Tonight I'm off to play some more and I will be back to let you know how it goes...

Thanks so much for visiting and for your comments! I really appreciate them! Have a great day!

My Red Smashbook Is Complete!

Hi everyone! I'm excited to report that my red Smashbook is all done! Yesterday was my monthly girls crop, and I played happily with it all day. When I got home it was after 11pm, but I was having so much fun that I pulled it out of my crop bag and stayed up til 5am finishing it! I thought I would share some of the pages with you. I know I posted the cover before, but here it is again - just for reference...

alot of the pages are just random bits of life, like this one...(click on any of the images to see them larger)...

it was fun making lots of different tabs. This one was made from a Tim Holtz adage ticket...


One thing I thought was super fun about the Smashbook, was that it had all these little prompts, that you could do whatever you want with. I liked this one...

tiny pics of the projects I completed during June...

This was one of my most fun pages to work on. I collected things from our neighborhood walks...


This page was titled "Seen," so I decided to collect images of all the wildlife I saw in our yard in June. I ran out of room, so I added a transparency flap...

The cute little dog was already on the page...

I loved the little prompts - they got me thinking differently about documenting life...

another random page...









This one originally said "Top Ten," but I was inspired by Tina Azmus to change it to "currently." I've seen how Tina does this every so often - and I think it's a fun thing to document...


journaling about my new "system," which by the way I've totally abandoned already - LOL!...





So, now, my beautiful Red Smashbook becomes #7 journal of 2011 and sits on my shelf with the others...

I've got ideas already for my three other Smashbooks, but that is for another post.

I hope you had a beautiful weekend my friends! Thank you so much for visiting and I will see you again soon!!!

Doin' The Full-Tilt Boogie...

Before I get started with today's projects, I want to share with you a photo of this little deer who was there to greet Michael and I today, when we went on our walk....
isn't she sweet? She was closer than she looks in this picture. Wish there would have been time to zoom in, but we wanted to capture her before she ran away. She actually just looked at us for a few seconds and then sauntered into the trees. Seeing her just made my day.


Back in 2009, I went to Nashville for a gathering of SiStv Scrapbookers. It was a lot of fun, and my friend Denise was so sweet to give me this antique record album! There are so many things I love about it - like the fact that it's got a cat on the front! AND it is a country western album! And that it's one of those book-type albums, with numerous record sleeves attached on the inside! And the cool colors and design! I absolutely treasure it...


I've been holding onto it all this time, waiting for the right project to come along, and it finally did! I am using it to make my first Full-Tilt Boogie journal!!! Here's how it turned out...

The binding tapes are made from an old pair of jeans and some vintage ribbon, and the closure is a piece of a vintage sheet...

On the inside I used a mix of papers...

scrapbook paper, ledger, paper from Michael's mill, old maps...


I added the record sleeves back in as random pages...

along with pages from a vintage western swing magazine and interoffice envelopes...


Some pages out of a thrifted photography book...




and other misc papers...



also pages from a thrifted children's storybook...



I'm going to start filling it on July 1st, which should be about the time I finish my Smashbook!

The Full-Tilt Boogie class is LOTS of FUN! Mary Ann has a super cool teaching style, with lots of videos; and there is a great community atmosphere among the participants. If you want to see more participants' journals - check out the flickr group here. If you want more info on the class, check it out here.

Thanks for visiting - it really means a lot to me! Have a fabulous day and I will see you again soon!