Finished Journal Page and another Cocoa Daisy Challenge...

I am really learning alot from Julie's "30 Days In Your Journal" class! One of the biggest things I am learning is the art of building a page bit by bit. It's becoming quite the adventure to see how the page progresses from day to day!

Here's my final page for November 11 - 14...

On the last day I added poster paint sharpies to fill in the circles, acrylic paint for the splatters, and Lumocolor pen for the doodling. This page was an absolute joy to create!

The next page we are working on is something totally different! Can't wait to share it with you!

I also finished another one of the Cocoa Daisy Fall Crop Challenges. This one was called "Home Baked." The rules were to follow this recipe:

FLOUR - Something white (I added white labels)
SUGAR - Something that sparkles (pink glitter across the top border)
BERRIES - Something red or pink (red gerbera daisy, pink watercolored piece behind photo)
AND LET IT RISE - Add some texture (orange fabric banner, turquoise pom pom trim)

I haven't done any challenges in a long time and I'm having so much fun! For this page in my daily record, I included leftover bits of patterned paper from my table, and a doodled flower and ladybug that I had done during a phone conversation. I love that I have somewhere to put these little bits of life. The photo was taken on my walk with Michael.

If you want to check out the Home Baked Challenge, there's still time - click here!

Did you see that the teachers lineup for the 2012 "21 Secrets" Art Journal Workshop has been posted! It looks like an AWESOME lineup! Check it out here!

I hope your week is going well! I will see you again soon!

30 Days Journal Progression - November 11 - 13, 2011...

I've been having a lot of fun with this next journal page! I forgot to take a picture on the 11th, but here's the progression through November 12th...


and the additions on the 13th...
The butterflies are 7Gypsies rubons, and the image is from a thrifted photography book.

Tonight I'm working on finishing this page up. I will show you how it turns out tomorrow.

Thanks so much for visiting!

Cocoa Daisy Crop Challenges and Smashbook Pages...

Hey there everyone! I had a great time at my monthly girls crop yesterday! I worked on a couple of the Cocoa Daisy Crop Challenges and can't wait to share the results with you!


The first challenge was Vicki's Sketch Challenge. You can see the challenge by clicking here. Here's how my layout came out...

That's son Stevie this past summer when he met his little cousin Georgie for the first time. I just love these photos - so it was fun to have a chance to scrap them! I used my new Studio Calico Handmade kit.

I also did Lisa's "Creative Label" challenge. You can see the challenge here. Here's my take...
I did a smashbook page about my crop yesterday; and included the labels from our Jimmy John's lunch and our trip to Caribou Coffee. The girl in the gingham dress is a vintage valentine I've been saving. I thought she went with the smashbook background paper just perfectly!

I also have a couple more smashbook pages to share with you today. These were just daily pages - not for a challenge or anything. Here's the one for November 10...
p.s. I made the little kitten button (next to the felt apple) with the epiphany crafts shape maker. I love that thing!

and here's the one for November 11...

Today, as soon as I get myself woke up, I'm going back over to Cocoa Daisy to do some more challenges - the crop is still going on! Come on over and join the fun!

Thanks for visiting!!!

30 Days Journal Progression - November 10th...

When I get stuff in the mail from Best Friends Animal Sanctuary, it ALWAYS has the cutest animal pictures on it! Even their envelopes are ADORABLE! So, when I got my latest newsletter this week, I knew right away what I wanted to do with the envelope! Use it on my journal spread...

The kitten was already printed on the envelope - isn't she cute? I painted around her with orange and magenta acrylic paint and glued the whole envelope right on the page. Other things I added include:

Studio Calico journaling stamp
SiStv "Be Creative" sticker
7 Gypsies tissue tape
7 Gypsies #10
White poster-paint Sharpie for journaling.

If you want to see some of the other "30 Days In Your Art Journal" student's pages, check out the flickr group here. It's super inspiring!

Have you heard about the online crop over at Cocoa Daisy this weekend? There will be challenges, tutorials, games and other stuff. It sounds like great fun! I am planning to participate - how about you? Check it out here.

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

Progress on "30 Days" Spread #2...

I'm excited to share my progress in my "30 Days In Your Journal" class! Here is the progression from November 6th through 9th...

November 6:


November 7:


November 8:
November 9:

You know a class is a good one when you can hardly wait for the next lesson! LOVE THAT!

I hope your week is going great! Thanks for visiting!

Daily Record Smashbook - Week of October 31st to November 6, 2011

Another week at the Rydell household. Fall weather, two birthdays and typical projects for Michael and me. Here's how my Smashbook spread turned out...



And some closeups:
I wanted a little extra color on this page, so I backed the Smashbook paper with some Sass Lass.Other things used on this page include pink Amy Tangerine tape, stickers from Sass Lass and October Afternoon, and polkadot Smashbook tape.


More Sass Lass stickers. Plus I printed out the blog badge for Julie's art journal class, and included it with a photo of my first spread.



This page in the Smashbook had a fun retro picture of a guy on it. I hated to cover it up, but it didn't go with our week. Instead I put - you guessed it - more Sass Lass Paper - ha...
What I love about this page, is that I got Michael to contribute. I asked him to write down what he said to me about having the kids over, and he agreed! More Amy Tangerine tape here too.

I'm thinking I might start doing more than a spread per week in this Smashbook. I'd like to finish it this month, because after November is over I will be starting a December Daily, and I don't really think I need to do both at the same time. Not sure yet, just mulling it over.

Thanks so much for visiting! I will see you again soon!

Three Cards...

I haven't made any cards for awhile, but I had a chance last week! We had a few family events going on.

This first one was for a baby shower for my niece...
It was fun making this one because everything I used was from my Sass Lass Grand Finale Box, which I just received! The only thing I added was the white and black doodling.


We also celebrated two family birthdays - son Stevie turned 20, and daughter Becca turned 22...

The chipboard 20 on Steve's card was also from my new Sass Lass box of goodies! The paper is from the American Crafts "Campy Trails" line; the arrow is a Sass Lass stamp which I shaded with colored pencils.

Finally we have Becca's card. She is our girly girl so I always try to include a little bling and/or glitter...
Most everything on this card is from the Pink Paislee Soiree and Daily Junque Collections. The velvet flower is from Maya Road.

I'm very excited because I received my Project Life Page Protectors today! I got the big variety pack, plus some extra A's and G's! And Speaking of Project Life, Lisa Truesdell has an awesome post about her Project Life process on her blog right now! It's full of tips and photos - check it out here!

I'm excited to be featured at the Smashbook blog today! I'd love it if you come on over and leave me a comment! Click here to go to the post.

That's all for today, but I will be back soon with more updates! Thanks so much for visiting!!!

Oops! Now I'm really truly done...

Just when I thought I was done with my journal page - Julie busted out another lesson on adding details to finish the page! I'm so glad! It's amazing how adding those finishing touches makes me feel like the page is complete!

Here's the final final page...
This time I added punchinella stenciling with pink and orange acrylic paint. I also managed to add another day's journaling right under the word "acceptance."

Tomorrow we start a new page! I'm so excited!

Thanks for visiting and I will be back again soon!

Day Four - The Completed Page...

It was fun to finally finish my journal page! Here's how it turned out...


One fun thing that I am learning is that I don't need to preserve the ability to read my journaling. Just getting it down is the therapy. Once it is down sometimes I actually don't want to read it again; and other times, I just feel like doodling something over the top of it and I can go ahead and do that without thinking about it.

This time I added:
Black and Teal acrylic paint
More Neocolor II crayons
Misc. bits of tape
Magazine words
White Poster-Paint Sharpie
Pitt Pens

Aundria asked what type of journal this is. It's a new one for me and I just love it! It's a little bigger than 8"x10" and it's made by Global Art Materials...
Here's a link if you'd like to check it out.

I can hardly wait to see how we are going to start the next page!

I wish you a wonderful weekend my friends! Thanks for visiting!

Day Three of "30 Days In Your Journal..."

Still playing in my "30 Days" journal and loving it!

Yesterday Kelly asked if we are going to be fitting all 30 days onto this one journal page; and the answer is no (thank heavens!) I wouldn't be very good at that. I write too big. Ha. I know there will be multiple pages; how many remains to be discovered! It's really a different way of working for me, and I love that.

Here are my day four additions:

I added:
Neocolor II crayons
the words "needs love." doodled with a pitt pen, and filled in with a signo uniball white pen.
a Prima #3 sticker
and more journaling, of course. :0)

I can't believe it's already Friday - can you? These weeks seem to fly by faster and faster.

Thank you again so much for visiting and for your supportive comments! They really mean a lot to me!

The First Two Days of "30 Days In Your Journal"...

It's day three of Julie's "30 Days In Your Journal" class, and I'm having a blast! I love my new journal, and building a page a little at a time is new to me - so much fun! Here are my first two days results...

Day One...


and Day Two...

I can't give away any details about the class, but I can say that it's tons of fun, easy to do, and has a really neat, supportive community going! There's a widget in the sidebar you can click on for more information.

I hope your week is going well! I wish you sunshine and creativity! See you again soon!

The Daily Record Smashbook - Week of October 24 - 30, 2011...

I tried something new with my Daily Record Spread for this week. I wanted to be able to see the whole week at a glance, so I tore out a page from further back in the book, and taped it on the right side with some Smashtape, and now it's a fold out...
It's hard to see in the photo, but I only taped the left side of my postcard...

so I could flip it open and put some more details behind...
I love including little details that I would not think to put in a 12 x 12 layout, like this little bit about who we are rooting for on the X-Factor...
My fave part of the week is the conversation I heard between our cat Willie and Michael, which I jotted down and then transferred to the blue Smashpad page (above).




Thanks sooooo much for visiting and I will see you again soon!