In a 70's State of Mind...

Hey everyone! The new song over at Scrapping The Music this week is "We Will Rock You" by Queen! What a fabulous song for scrapping! There are so many directions you could go with this one. For me, it made me think of my high school rock concerts! I spent most of the day yesterday working on my layout and I had SO MUCH FUN! I went through my high school scrapbooks and scanned a bunch of newspaper clippings and ticket stubs from concerts I went to back then. Then I printed them out in black and white and made a background collage. What I ended up with is this double-page layout (remember to click to see more details)...The pics are from a Boston concert in 1976 or 77. I'm the one on the right (in case you can't tell - LOL).

The journaling reads:
I have always loved music, and when I was in high school I lived for rock concerts. We had a group of friends that would go to every concert we could possibly afford. The 70s was a great era for music, and I have some awesome memories of those times. These photos were taken of Judy and Danny, Diane and me at the Boston concert at the St. Paul Civic Center. Diane and I had custom t-shirts made that said "Boston" in holographic letters. There was a shop on Hennepin Avenue in downtown Minneapolis, where you could design your own shirt, and they would make it up for you while you waited. Good music and good memories!

Here's how the individual pages look...

Come on over to Scrapping The Music and play along with us! We'd love to see you there!

Normally I would post my Project 365 photos today; but now that I have the kit, I am going to start posting them on Tuesdays. That will give me Monday evenings to do my layout so I can show you that too!

I wish you a wonderful week my friends - full of photo opportunities and creative inspiration!

See you tomorrow!

Fun at the Crop...

I had so much fun at the Crop yesterday! I spent the whole 12 hours working on my Project 365 kit. I had read this article by Kolette Hall, and decided to take the same approach and pre-organize my pages. It should make putting the weekly layouts together so much easier!

I finished my first week's layout - here it is...
everything is from the kit except for the little bird stamp which is from Stampin Up.

More to come on Project 365 as I try to get caught up!

I'm excited about the coming week's song at Scrapping The Music! It put me in a nostalgic mood! I will be back later to share my layout. Until then, head on over to the STM blog to check out the slideshow for Hello!

Project 52 Week Ten...

Happy Friday everyone! My Project 52 ATC is a super-simple one this week. I felt so extravagant because I bought some expensive skin-care stuff. It's a bit of a turning point so I had to document it - LOL! Just a photo of my new goodies, pasted on a funky 70's playing card with a little border of stickles...The journaling is on the back...
just realized I left a word out of my journaling - ha! It's supposed to say "the Philosophy BRAND was highly recommended - oh well.

I've been meaning to show you the new upper tier I got for my Clip-it-up! It's fantastic! Now I have a spot for all those little Kawaii stickers, and it doubles my storage - gotta love that. Step by step I am getting all of my storage solutions figured out. It feels great!

Tomorrow is my monthly crop and I'm so excited because I am planning to work on my Project 365! It's so easy to pack this time - all the ingredients from the kit fit into this one little container...
I'm hoping to add a few things to the kit from my Local Scrapbook Store to make it more customized to my style. I'll let you know how that goes! Now I just need to add a paper trimmer, some adhesive, and the album and I'm good to go! I love it!

So how are you all doing with your ongoing projects this year? Anyone doing the Project 52? or the Project 365? I'd love to hear updates!

As for me, I am off to work on a Scrapping The Music layout for Sunday's song. I have an idea...

I will be back with another update after my crop tomorrow! Happy creating!

EEEEEEK - It's Finally Here!!! - plus a new Art Journal Page...

OMG I could hardly believe my eyes when the Fedex guy dropped my Project 365 kit off on our doorstep today! It's so exciting to finally have it - Yeayyyyyyy! I can hardly wait to start putting my layouts together! It's perfect timing because I am going on a crop this weekend, so I will try to hold off til then. It's a perfect crop project! Anyhoo, in case you haven't seen what a Project 365 kit looks like, here it is in all its glory...There is a super cute 3-ring album, specially divided page protectors, daily journaling cards, day of the week stickers, a date stamp and more - in super cute colors and patterns! I even love the boxes that the cards came in - aren't they cool? Waiting til Saturday to put it together will be difficult!!!

In other news, I finished another art journal page for Dina's class and had so much fun! The idea behind this assignment was to teach us to stretch our ability to use layering on our pages. We were to create a page with at least ten layers on it. I used 18! HA! I never thought I could do that many, but it was fun! Here's a close up of each page, and then how they look together (remember to click on the picture to see more detail)...



Here are my layers in the order I added them to the page.

Gel transfer (didn't work out very well so I covered the image up - just used it for texture in the bottom left corner)
Magazine ad
gesso
bubble wrap with spray ink
masked swirls with spray ink
monoprinted turquoise acrylic swirly things
photocopy of a photo
painted dictionary pieces
journaling
doodling
Stamped figure with Stazon ink
dots coming off figures hand and foot
orange splatters
teal oil crayon
more green spray ink and masking
sequins
white gel pen (in doodles)
crystals
lyric journal strips

OMG so fun - you could just keep going with this stuff forever!

Alrighty then - that's it for today, but I will be back again tomorrow with another update!

Have a wonderful Wednesday my friends!

A Quick Update...

SiSTV had their second season premiere webisode today, and it turns out I'm a "Haute Shot"! I'm so excited! My "Say What You Need to Say" layout (made with the SiS Retro Modern Collection) was picked as the collection craze layout of the week! I feel really honored! They have a fun, new format to the show too - if you haven't seen it - check it out!

Also, I got my orange patterned masking tape today and it's super cute, albeit smaller than I had pictured. I had this vision in my mind of rolls of masking tape the size you get at the hardware store, and these are nowhere near that big - LOL. But what they lack in size they make up for in cuteness! I LOVE the color and there is quite a lot packed on there, so for a little over $2.00 a roll, I still think it's a good deal. They have these rolls in all different pretty colors - check it out here if you're interested.
I've been working all evening on the latest assignment for my art journaling class and having an absolute blast! I can't say enough good about Dina Wakely's class! I will take a pic and post it tomorrow.

I hope you have a terrific Tuesday my friends!

Project 365 Week Ten...

It's been TEN weeks since the start of Project 365 - WOW - I can hardly believe it! And I'm hoping to get my kit this week so I can start putting my layouts together. YEAYYY!!!

Here are this week's photos:

Monday, March 2: Willie starts to go a little crazy around midnite...

Tuesday, March 3: My beautiful little dreamer...

Wednesday, March 4: It warmed up to the mid-30s so Michael and I got out for a nice winter walk.

Thursday, March 5: I've been busy with my Art Journaling class. Look how beautiful my paper towel blotter is getting. It makes me happy just to look at it...

Friday, March 6: My fabulous froggie find...

Saturday, March 7: Breakfast at the Seward Cafe with my good friend Becky. The Seward is a great little hippie-type cafe in Minneapolis that I've been going to since the late 70's. It's got great vegan food choices, and tons of atmosphere...

Sunday, March 8: I'm learning to alter photographs in my Art Journaling class and it's a TON OF FUN!
And with that a new week starts! As always, there is lots of fun in store! Tonight the new season of SiSTV webisodes starts at 6pm Eastern Time. They've announced that they've made some exciting changes to the format of the show, so I'm really excited to see what it's all about!

The new song at Scrapping The Music this week is "Hello" by Sugarbomb. The design team has made some amazing layouts! Come on over and play along with us!

I'll be back tomorrow with another update - take care my friends!

Project 52 Weeks Eight and Nine...

Hello and happy Sunday my friends! I finally got some time to finish my last two weeks worth of Project 52 ATCs! Yeay! I knew what I wanted to focus on for each of them, but just hadn't been able to carve out the time to create. Here's how they turned out.

Week Eight (February 25)...I used the "Non-Conformist" collection from SiSTV for this one, plus Red Thickers, October Afternoon Alpha Stamps, a random ticket, and a journaling pen. The back explains the front...

Week Nine (March 4)...
for this one I typed the background in my word processing program and printed it out on regular typing paper. The flower is a monoprint (a new technique I learned in Dina Wakely's Art Journaling class) done with acrylic paint, and the word "grow" is Stampin Up's Newsprint alpha stamps.

I'm so excited because I got another organizing tool today - it's an upper tier for my Clip-It-Up! This is really going to help me put my smallish stickers, rubons and embellies to good use because they will be out where I can see them! I will take a pic when I get it all filled up.

I hope your Sunday is fantastic! For us here in Minnesota, we have to turn our clocks ahead one hour today - do you have to do that where you are? Let's make every minute count!

I Made A New Friend At The Second-Hand Store...

Happy Saturday everyone! I have a little story to tell you! I stopped at my favorite second-hand store today to look for art journaling supplies. There on one of the shelves was the most uniquely adorable frog I've ever seen! He had jingle bells for eyes and a zipper for a mouth, and his skin was the coolest retro 70's fabric in my favorite bright green colors! I just knew he had to come home to live in my scraproom! When I was looking him over I found a little metal tag on his foot that said "Lisa Drumm" on it. I figured that must be the name of the person who made him, so I googled her when I got home. Sure enough, she is a soft-sculpture artist and she makes the coolest stuff!!! She and her husband have an online gallery - (he does metal sculpture). Check it out! Notice if you unzip his mouth he has a huge orange tongue that comes out! So FUN!!! Now I have to think of a name for him. What do you think? Any ideas???Here is my frog friend along with my other finds of the day. I love the vintage scrapbook too. It's filled with light pinkish paper that's got a great soft texture to it. It's going to be my next art journal! That pink camouflage fabric is like thermal underwear material - it's super soft. I'm picturing some sort of project that will include the matching pink pom poms you see there... Oh, and that is a set of three canvas boards behind it. Talk about fun!
and here is a pic of Willie meeting Mr Frog for the first time...

So, I've been obsessively trying to track my Project 365 kit with the tracking number they gave me. So far I just get a message that says I can't track it yet. AARGH. Waiting is difficult!

I'm off to do a little scrapping before I hit the hay. I will be back tomorrow with another update!

Funky Fabric Fun!

I received a beautiful package in the mail today! It was a beautiful package of fabric from the fabric swap I joined at SiSTV! Look at all this yummy goodness...So many beautiful colors and patterns! And our hostess Cassie did an amazing job of organizing it all - she even included beautiful extra pieces of fabric and a little sewing kit! How cool is that! I honestly didn't even own a regular needle and thread so that was a blessing! Thanks Cassie and everyone who contributed! It was really a day brightener to receive!

I also found out that my Project 365 kit shipped today!!!!! YEAYYYYY!!! I am so excited to receive it!!!! It will be the perfect project to bring to my crop this month! I can't wait to pick out some extra embellies to add to it - to give it that personal touch!

I worked on my Project 52 ATCs tonight. I finished the one for this week, and I'm almost done with the one from last week. I'll take pics and post tomorrow.

Have a fantastic Friday everyone! I will be back tomorrow with another update!

E is for Elusive...

The "A Year In The Life of An Art Journal" group is up on the letter E and the word is Elude (I used Elusive). Here's what I've been thinking...I am absolutely loving this project because the process is at the same time freeing and thought-provoking. I've been wanting to do more writing this year and this is helping me focus on that.

Materials used are Peerless Watercolors, Making Memories Acrylic Paint, Jazz Blue Glimmer Mist, A magazine image, Basic Grey alpha stickers, and a white sharpie (which I just tried for the first time tonight and I'm absolutely loving).

I guess that's it for today. I will be back tomorrow with more to share - take care my friends and have a wonderful Thursday!

Project 365 Update...

Peek-A-Boo.... I see you Willie... LOL (just had to share).
So, I spent all evening yesterday researching alternative ways to put together a Project 365 kit. I've been waiting for over two months for Creating Keepsakes to send their kit and I was starting to feel like maybe the backorders were never going to be filled. I even started shopping around for the different supplies. From what I could figure, it was going to cost about $119 to purchase a 3-ring album, and enough divided page protectors and 3x4 journaling cards to make my own kit. And that's not even considering extra embellies or anything. Yikes. I suppose I could make my own journaling cards, but the idea was supposed to be to make it EASY to document your year, and I could picture myself at my paper cutter, cutting 365 journaling cards - ugh.

The good news is that I called Creating Keepsakes again today and they told me the backordered shipment has arrived in the warehouse, and would be shipped out in the next few days. Yeay! Then I got an order confirmation email - double yeay! Now I am hoping to get the actual kit soon, with even more of an appreciation of the $35 price tag. Once I get it I am planning to put together some embellies from my stash so I can personalize it a little bit. I can hardly wait!

So it's Wednesday, which means its Project 52 day again, and I have TWO ATCs to make - last week's and this week's. Last week's subject was excitement about SiSversary, and this week is yet to be determined...

I hope your week is going well! I will be back tomorrow with another update!

Lesson One of Dina's Class...

I am absolutely LOVING Dina Wakely's Art Journaling 102 class! I'm only on the first assignment and I'm learning so much! Here are the first few pages in my journal. For the first one I took the raven that I cut out to use as a mask on the other pages, and stuck him right on this page. I love how painty he got! The border is made with water-soluble oil pastels...
The very first page is this little shipping tag - I used it as a title page. The #4 was done with a Heidi Swap Mask and a black oil crayon. I tore my name off of a bill and the stamps are the collage alphabet from Stampin Up...


Here's the back side of the tag...

And this is the next spread. I had so much fun playing here. The materials are acrylic paint (Claudine Hellmuth and some miscellaneous other brands), vintage sheet music, a hand-drawn and cut-out eye (colored pencils), Alpha stamps, a couple of Stampin Up background stamps, spray ink and water-soluble oil pastels.
Close up of the left side...
Close up of the right-side...

The subject matter was inspired by Angie Backen's daily inspiration threads at SiSTV (based on the book "Simple Abundance").

The thing I love about Dina's classes is that she teaches these wonderful techniques that you can apply to your own style of art, and use over and over again. I am still using the techniques I learned in her first Art Journaling class (which you can still purchase, by the way).

That's about it for today - I will be back tomorrow with more to share - have a fantastic Tuesday everyone!