The Countdown continues, and Project Life Tuesday...

I have two weeks of Project Life to share with you today, but before I do, I want to say a quick thank you to Irma, who let me know that she was inspired by my new planner, and linked up my blog in her latest post.  She started a new project that is super cool - check out her post here!  Thanks so much Irma, you made my day and I am honored!

I had so much fun putting these two weeks of project life together!  It seems like that always happens right after I have a week where I'm feeling a little blah about it - ha.

First, I was so inspired by this post by Michelle Wooderson, that I pulled out my supplies and created these journaling cards...

 It was a blast and so easy to do, just using some scraps, tags and washi tape.  I will definitely be doing more of these!  Michelle always has wonderful Project Life posts! Thanks for the inspiration Michelle!

Onto my Project Life pages...

Here is my week of July 16 - 22...

Right side closeup...

 The little pink birdies are from Simple Stories, and the "Love is all you need" card is from 7 Gypsies.  Ephemera here includes the price tag from my new funky socks ($1.25 a pair - I could hardly believe it!), a tag from Michael's green tea, and a sticker from my new planner.


Left side closeup...

 Another typical shot of Johnny in one of my scrappy embellishment boxes.  He always does that and I never get tired of how cute it is - ha. Ephemera here includes my name tag from my monthly crop with the girls, and the stamped house, which was from the crop too.  Archiver's was letting us play around with Claudine Hellmuth's two-step stamps.  LOVE them!


Next we've got July 23 - 29 (I started using my new journaling cards)...

Left side closeup...

 Ephemera here includes two postcards from Northern Minnesota, where I went for work meetings this week.  I have a thing for postcards, and they are perfect for Project Life!  I buy one every time I go up north, and I love that even though I've been up there a bazillion times, I have never had to buy the same postcard twice.

 Right Side Closeup...

Ephemera here includes a sticky note from Michael that was waiting for me when I got home on Wednesday, a receipt from dinner on Tuesday night, and a copy of a text message I got from my sister that made me laugh out loud! 

In other news...

There is only one day left until August 1st and the start of our fifth anniversary party over at  Scrapping the Music!  We are very excited for our month-long celebration, and we hope you will be joining us!

We are going to have a special format for the month of August which will include more ways to win, more prizes,  more songs for inspiration, plus a fun guessing game!

Please stop by and play along with us this month.  We would love to see your creativity and enjoy your friendship during our month-long party!!!!!

Thanks so much for visiting my friends!  I wish you a wonderful Tuesday!

The Big Fat Grand Finale Journal Begins...

Hi everyone!

I have wayyyy too many journals that are partially complete right now, but still, somehow, the "big fat grand-finale journal from my full-tilt-boogie class has been calling my name!  So, what can I say?  I was feeling a bit scattered and needed a fresh start, so I went ahead and dove in!

Here's the journal I'm talking about...

I made it out of an old victorian photo album I got on ebay....

I call it the Big Fat Grand Finale Journal, because it has something like 200 pages, and was the last of 7 journals I made in Mary Ann Moss' Full Tilt Boogie class.  (Fabulous class by the way and it's on sale right now - I highly recommend it!)

The pages are collaged from a bunch of different papers.  Here are a few examples

of what they look like now...

I think it's going to be wonderful fun filling them up!  

I left the first page blank, so I can do a title page later. Here's my first finished spread...

My plan for this journal is that it will be a chronological representation of my inner and outer worlds.  Not so much a "this happened today," but more of a place to think, question, celebrate and make sense of life in a visual way, if that makes sense?  I'm very excited about it!

Now I'm off to open my brand new Noel Mignon "West Coast" kit!  It just arrived!!!

Have a wonderful wonderful day my friends!!!  Thanks for visiting!

The Countdown Begins...

It's less than a week until August 1st and the start of our Scrapping The Music Blogiversary party!  We are getting super excited for our month-long celebration, and we hope you will be joining us!  We are going to have a special format for the month of August which will include more ways to win and more songs for inspiration, plus a fun guessing game!  Yeayyy!!!

I've been working behind the scenes on the Scrapping The Music stuff, so I don't have any art to share right now; but I do have a new system for organizing my embellies!  I sorted them into these boxes by color.  Here are a few pics:

Blues/Greens

Yellows/Oranges

Pinks

Warm Neutrals

 

 I also have a box each for Black/White, Earthtones, Brights and Pastels.  It just makes me happy to look at everything organized like this!

and what's really cool is they fit perfectly into this tote box that I got at Michael's awhile back...!

I brought the tote to my crop on Saturday and it worked fabulously! One word of caution tho - these boxes work great for larger embellies and they are super cheap, which is a bonus!  But they don't shut real tight, so I wouldn't necessarily use them for anything tiny like beads or brads (that's why you see the tape - making sure they stay shut).

I also took a new pic of my journal shelf, which is really starting to fill up!  I've got 35 completed journals now (since 2007)...

Oh, and also, I've been reading this book and LOVING it!...

I bought it a long time ago, but just got around to reading it.  It is exactly what I need to hear right now.  Soooo helpful.

Alrighty, that's it for now, but I will be back soon with another update.  Thank you SO much for visiting!

A Song In My Heart...

Hi there everyone!  In my last post, I had a couple of small sneaks of the new planner I got, and Trece asked me if I could share the source.  Thanks for the question Trece!  I'm excited to share it with you all - it's my latest project!

I saw this planner somewhere on the net - I can't remember where; but I was blown away by how beautiful it is.  It's called "A Song In My Heart."  What a great name, eh?  I found it on Amazon, and I obsessed about it for a couple of weeks, wondering how I could justify buying it - ha. 

Then I saw this planner by Geninne on pinterest and I was inspired!!!  I decided to get the planner and use it as a daily sketchbook!  I've been having a blast doing little sketches every day...  I don't have a lot in there yet, but here's an idea of how it's going...

I'm also putting little photos (2"x2") of any other creations I make that day. 

I love that I don't have to finish these sketches -  I take them as far as I feel like taking them, and then I stop.  No pressure!

I'm using my pinterest boards as reference points for my drawings.  Especially the animals board.

Anyhoo, that's it for today!  Tonight I'm getting ready for my monthly crop with my girlfriends!  I'm so excited to see them and spend the day chatting and creating - yeayyyy!!!

Thanks so much for visiting and for your comments!  I will be back soon with another update!

Project Life Update and More...

Hi everyone!  I've got another week of Project Life to share.  I didn't do much embellishing this week, but I'm still happy with how it turned out.  Have I mentioned that I love the flexibility of this project?  (LOL - I know I'm constantly saying that).

Anyways, here goes July 9th through 15th...

Left side closeup:

 We got our new drivers' licenses this week, so I stuck the old ones in Project Life.  I put washi tape over the height and weight part, cuz - hey, not everybody needs to see that, right?  I also included a piece of the box from a new yummy kind of vegan burger we are trying.  The photo on the bottom right is of my new planner that I am using as a daily sketchbook!  I'm loving the process, and will share more as I finish a few pages.

 Closeup of right side...

 Ephemera included here is the packaging from our new yellow quilt.  The Keep Calm image came from pinterest. 

I've been working a lot on stuff for the August Scrapping The Music Blogiversary party, so I can't share it with you yet.  I'm getting really excited for our special challenges and prizes!!!  I hope you will join us over at Scrapping The Music starting August 1st!!!

Have you been catching the news here and there online, about all of the new products that are being released at CHA this week?  Oh my goodness it's so inspiring!  Some of my favorites are:

Julie Fei-Fan Balzer's new stencils
October Afternoon's Midway and Farm Fresh Lines via Shimelle's blog (love that cherry washi tape!)
Amy Tan's "Ready Set Go" line 

There are tons more things on my wishlist, but a pocketbook can only handle so much!

Thanks for visiting and for your comments, I really appreciate them!  See you again soon!

Somewhere Over The Rainbow...

Sharon is hosting over at Scrapping The Music this time around, and she's got two AWESOME challenges for you!  The song is Somewhere Over the Rainbow -- the Israel Kamakawiwo'ole version!  It's beautiful, and so are the design team creations for it!


I was inspired to do an art journal page...

 The photo was already part of the magazine page, and it made me think of this song!  So I gessoed around it, and then used my neocolor II crayons to make the rainbow.  The clouds were stamped on tissue paper and cutout.  Glue stick works great for adhering tissue paper to just about anything. The title was done with india ink and a fine paintbrush.


 The prompt this time is to scrap a song that you remember your mother singing to you.  Here's what I did...

I actually had the old sheet music, which was so much fun to use. (I scanned it into my computer first, so I would still have the image).  I'm not sure, but I think this might be the first layout I've made about my mom since her passing.  It felt good to do it, and relive those memories.  Miss you mom.


Come on over to Scrapping The Music and play along with us!  We'd love to have you!!!  Click here to go to the challenge and check out the video and the other design team members layouts!


Thanks for visiting and I will be back tomorrow with another update!  Take care and have a wonderful Sunday my friends!

Thanks for the feedback, and an Art Journalista Update...

Hey there everyone!  Thanks so much for the feedback on what types of classes you would like to see me offer.  Please feel free to keep the suggestions coming.  I'm getting some good ideas, and right now I'm shooting for the first of the year to have at least one class all set to go.  That may seem like a long way off, but it will go fast, and I want to make sure it will be fabulous and chock full of good learning and fun!

Anyways, I've got a new Art Journalista assignment to share with you today! It's all about grids, pattern and color.

Here's how it turned out.  I call it "Sweet Dreams and Light..."

I set myself a goal of using only images from the magazine I made the journal out of, and I did it.  It's fun to have limitations sometimes.  It gets you thinking harder...

The right side was one of the pages that I left in the original magazine when I made it into a journal. I loved the image so much I didn't change it.  Just added a title, a little doodling and a quote...

I hope your Wednesday is wonderful!  Thanks for visiting and I will see you again soon!

Project Life - Week of July 2 - 8, 2012

This was the quickest week I've ever had as far as putting together my Project Life layout.  I think it really helped that I was thinking about it all week, and collecting things daily.  I also REALLY LOVE using the combination of Design  A and  the new Design D page protectors.  It meant I had an equal number of horizontal and vertical slots in both sizes, which was really fun! 

Here's how it turned out:

Left side closeup:

 It was crazy hot last week, so I got a picture of the weatherman reporting it on tv.  Other ephemera includes the drivers license renewal notice for Michael and I, along with the numbers we got when we were waiting in line at the DMV.


Closeup of the right side...

The calendar is a free printable from Owl Barn.  Had to mention the passing of Andy Griffith.  His show was such a staple in our home growing up.  The other news photo is about the horrible fires that have been going on in Colorado.  I am so glad they are getting those under control now.

I think I will stick with this page protector configuration for awhile.  How is your Project Life going?

What Would You Like to Learn?

Hi everyone!  I've been getting some questions lately about if I will be teaching any online courses in the future, which makes me really happy!  I've been wanting to do that for some time now, and would love to get your input! So, tell me, what sorts of things would you be interested in learning from me?  Please list any ideas you have in the comments.  Thanks so much and I look forward to hearing from you!

"Art Journalista" and "The Perfect Collection" Updates...

Another new page in my Art Journalista journal...

 This post is part of the Inspiration Everywhere blog by Michelle Rydell.

The image of the flowers was provided by our teacher Teresa - isn't it gorgeous?  Other materials used for this one include neocolor crayons in flesh and pink, Charcoal Maya Mist, raven image that was in my stash, vintage office supply stars (another new LOVE), and some pink chenille that is stitched on with a sewing machine. Still loving this class!

In other news, I finished "The Perfect Collection" workshop by Shimelle that I mentioned a couple of posts ago, and it was FABULOUS!!!  It teaches you how to cut up your papers in certain ways so that you end up with tons of layouts from one collection.  I was so excited I stayed up all night (again - ha, that's no surprise these days) cutting up a collection and trying it out!  It was FUN!  It got me thinking about a whole new way to approach scrapbooking, and now I'm coming up with my own ideas of how to cut up the paper and put together "starting points," as Shimelle calls them.  Here's a link to a thread at 2Peas that is talking about the fabulousness of the class.  If you decide to take the class, I'd love to hear what you think!

I hope you are having a wonderful weekend!  I'm off to clean up the studio before starting on another project!  Thanks for visiting and I will see you soon!

Dream, Dance & Play...

I've finished the title page for my Art Journalista Journal, and I'm excited to share it with you!  One thing I'm really loving about this workshop, is the freedom to create in my own way.  I am learning so much from Teresa; but I still feel like my pages are completely my own, and I LOVE that!  That is an awesome teaching skill if you ask me!

Anyways, here's my title page...

 

The photo of the bird is one that I took in the neighborhood.  The image of the dog is from Best Friends magazine (my favorite source for animal photos!!!)  The other materials used include acrylic paint, Studio Calico ampersand stencil, Mr. Huey Perfect Plum mist, China marker, Pitt and Sharpie markers, alphabet stamps from Pink Paislee, and Alphabet stickers from the hardware store (intended for labeling your mailbox, I think), and my current love - sequins!

(this post is part of the inspiration everywhere blog, by Michelle Rydell)

I created a little pocket on the inside cover, by sewing on a piece of Hambly transparency.

I hope your weekend is full of inspiration and creativity!  Thanks so much for visiting and I will see you again soon!

Art Journalista Update...

We are moving right along in the Art Journalista class!  I've got three new pages to share with you...


In this one, I painted on top of a whole pile of washi tape, rubbed the paint off the taped areas, and then took a few of the washi tape pieces off to do my journaling...

The background on the next two are a combination of acrylic paint, neocolor II crayons, Liquitex liquid ink, and Dark Calico Mr. Huey spray ink.  Images are from a thrifted black and white photography book, and the "Where Women Create" magazine that I used to make this journal...

I love Teresa's teaching style, and I'm feeling extra inspired with this journal - really free!

If you want to check out the class - click here, or on the Art Journalista widget in the sidebar.

Okay, I keep telling myself I'm going to wait on signing up for any more classes, but I just couldn't resist signing up for The Perfect Collection by Shimelle.  It's all about using up every last scrap of your kits/collections; and I've been hearing tons of good things about it!  I haven't gotten access to the class yet, but I will keep you posted!

Have a wonderful Wednesday my friends; and if you are in the U.S.  have a safe and happy 4th!  

Project Life June 25 - July 1...

I've got a Project Life update for you, but first I want to invite you to a party!  Scrapping the Music is celebrating it's 5 year anniversary in August, and it's going to be lots of FUN!

Stay tuned to Scrapping The Music for more details - the fun starts August 1st!

And now - on to Project Life...

The year is half over and I'm still loving it!  I am so happy about that!  This past week was the final one in my first binder for the year, so it's just one page. That worked out good because there wasn't much going on...

 The ATC in the top left corner is one I made in about 2009.  I took the photo in St. Paul - I was drawn to the graffiti on the train car!  Ephemera includes the label from a new kind of lettuce we discovered and we just love!  HA.  I am documenting lettuce.

Anyhoo, it's super fun to see my first orange binder all full!  I'm excited to start the second one this week.  I ordered a new style of page protector (Design D) and it just arrived today from Amazon...

I think it's going to be a fun addition to work with!

That's it for today folks!  Thanks for visiting and I will see you again tomorrow!

My 30 Day Journal is Finished...

I was up til 6:30 am this morning, putting the final touches on my 30-Day Challenge Journal!  I was having so much fun I lost track of time!  I still had pages left after I did all of the prompts, so I filled them in with random journaling, collage and misc. stuff!  Here are the final pages I haven't shared yet. They are in the order they appear in the book...

Here's the finalized cover.  I added the words "June 2012" to the doily, and stapled on a ribbon to help it close...

 Prompt #28
The prompt was to make a list of 10 prompts for future journals.  I decided instead to record the ideas I've gathered in my head for future journals.  They aren't really prompts but they are things I want to remember...

Pen and marker doodles on the back of a prompt page...

I shared the tribute to Michael page before, but here's how it looks in the book. I glued the photo part onto the end of the restaurant guest check...

and the back of that same page.  I used a piece of watercolor paper to test out some colors for a different journal, and it was too pretty to throw away, so I stuck a piece of it here...

I added some things to the left side of the hands/paws page...

Prompt #26
Record your day.  I did that on the left-hand page.  The right side with the kitten, is the other half of the guest check (that the Michael Tribute is on)...

I journaled some final thoughts in the empty places throughout the journal and numbered them (since they aren't on consecutive pages).  This starts on the backside of the kitten page...

Prompt #15
I will not be defined by...

Long story short on this one - I was looking at the trailer for the latest edition of Anthology Magazine, and was struck by the lyrics to the soundtrack, so I captured them here. Image is from an old thrifted photography book..

Here's another chunk of that same watercolor paper that I used earlier on the page with the robot...

another one of the journaling pages...

Prompt #29
Record some goals for July...

A quote from a local band called the "Minnesota Barking Ducks."  These words always make me smile...

and the inside back cover is a thank you to Janel for hosting this challenge!  It works out perfectly because prompt #30 is to say thank you to someone...

and that's it.  My journal is done and I'm just giddy about it!  Thanks soooo much for letting me share this little journey with you!

If you want to see the whole journal, click here to go to my flickr set.

Thanks for visiting and for your kind comments!  They mean so much to me!