Project Life Update - March 27 - April 8...

Hi everyone! I'm still playing around with Project Life and trying new things! I've got a couple of weeks to share with you today.

This is April 27 - March 1...
I used my Noel Mignon "Primrose Lane" kit for this week. This was the first time I used the page protectors with the 6 x 6" slots. It worked out well. One thing I noticed after I completed this week, is that I forgot to put a date header anywhere. Oh well!

Closeup of the left side...
Ephemera included: Noel Mignon Kit sticker, and pieces of the tags from my new decorative tape and Cabana slippers.

Here's another shot of the Noel Mignon kit card (sans glare). Everything on this card came from the kit...


Closeup of right side...
Ephemera included: Packaging from organic granola and Art Journaling Magazine label. My fave photo from this week is the "New Kids In Town" one. I love how Johnny showed up in the background!

Here's the layout for April 2 - 8, 2012...

Closeup of left side...
Ephemera included - reminder postcard from the dentist's office.

Closeup of right side...
I tried something brand new for this - a plain, undivided, 12 x 12" page protector. It was fun and saved me alot of time, because I didn't have to worry about fitting things into a certain size slot. I just arranged everything into one big collage. I will definitely be doing this again! Ephemera included: Business card from my hair stylist, and part of the takeout menu from my breakfast at Sunstreet Breads.

Thanks for visiting!

21 Secrets Update - Wonderful Watercolors by Julie Fei-Fan Balzer...

Hey there everyone! I stayed up til 5 am this morning watching Julie Fei-Fan Balzer's Wonderful Watercolors videos and had so much fun! It's my second completed class for 21 Secrets. I thought it would be the perfect time to do this one because I just started a new daily journal and alot of the pages are plain watercolor paper right now.

Here's how my pages turned out...




I can't wait to turn them into finished journal entries! I will share when I do.


Also, here's an update on my doodle page from Diana Trout's class. I've been coloring in the shapes with colored pencils, a little each day - just for fun. Here's how it looks so far...


To find out more about 21 Secrets, click here. There's still plenty of time to sign up!

I hope you are having a simply groovy weekend my friends! Thanks so much for visiting! I will be back tomorrow with a two-week Project Life catch up!

Balzer Designs Stencil Hop - Spring 2012!!!

Hello hello hello! Welcome to the spring 2012 version of the Balzer Designs Stencil Hop!!!



I was absolutely giddy when Julie asked me to participate in her hops this year! I got to pick which stencils I wanted to use, and this one jumped out at me right away! It's called "Pomegranate," and it's made (like all of Julie's stencils) by Crafter's Workshop. They were kind enough to send me both the 12 x 12" and 6x6" versions...To me, this stencil looks like an EXPLOSION OF GROOVINESS! I couldn't wait to dive in and see where the vibe would take me - ha. Here's how my little pomegranate party went...


I got out my watercolor journal, the 12 x 12 stencil, and three of my fave Mr. Huey Mists (by Studio Calico): Custard, Heirloom Blue and Estate Green.

First, I sprayed with Custard...

I forgot to take a picture of this part (doh!), but my next step was to cover the design elements with some Glossy Accents and let it dry. If you're not familiar with glossy accents, it's a clear fluid epoxy, that goes on like glue, and dries hard. I wanted to create a resist.


After it was completely dry, I went back and sprayed the whole page with Heirloom Blue and Estate Green. I tend to be an oversprayer (ha), so I really saturated it...

Then I took a baby wipe and smeared the mist around, and I ended up with this! I just love how the resist let the design show through so nicely!


And here's the finished journal page...
I added some handpainted circles, an image from the web, typed journaling, and the title, which was done with acrylic paint over gesso.

Let me show you some other things I did to make the most of the stencil during the process...

After I first sprayed the stencil onto my journal page, there was still a ton of ink on it, so I got out my jumbo journal and turned the stencil over (ink side down) and rubbed over the top of the whole thing...

It left me with this coool abstract image! I just took a baby wipe and rubbed the edges of it to get the soft yellow around it. This will be the start of a journal page to come...

There was still some ink left on the stencil, so I turned it right side up and used my baby wipe again on an already painted journal page. This created the soft, greenish design on my blue page. This will be another future page...


For my second project I used the 6x6 version to create these flowers...It was super easy to do. I just pounced some fluid acrylic paint through some individual pieces of the stencil. (I masked them off with tape first.) Then I created the flowers by adding petals and stems with a Pitt Pen. The white petals were colored with a poster-paint sharpie, and the negative space in the middle was done with colored pencils.

Here's a closeup...

To see what beautiful things the other hopsters created, check out their blogs here...

Julie Fei-Fan Balzer
Leslie Jenison
Paula Phillips
Michelle LaPoint Rydell (that's me!)

If you want more info about the Pomegranate Stencil by Crafter's workshop, click here!

Thanks so much to Julie for inviting me to participate in this hop! I had a blast! I will be participating in another one on April 26, so stay tuned for that! Yee ha!

21 SECRETS HAS BEGUN, and an Upcoming Hop!

The playground is open and I've begun playing! The first workshop I joined was Gina Rossi Armfield's "15 Minutes to Sanity," and I loved it! I created this art journal page...
It took me more like 30 minutes, but that is partially because I was watching the video while I worked. I can't talk about how I did it (that would be giving the secret away), but I really think this is a process you could do in around 15 minutes! You can still sign up for 21 Secrets. If you are interested in finding out more, click here.

I also have some exciting news! Julie Fei-Fan Balzer is starting her Spring 2012 Stencil Hops, and I am excited to be a participating blogger for two of them! Julie's got a whole bunch of new stencil designs (that are all fabulous I might add), and and each of her upcoming "hops," will feature one of those designs, and how each of the hopsters have used them.

The first Balzer Designs Stencil Hop is this Thursday, April 5th; and I can't wait to show you what I made!

Scrapping The Music has a Whole New Format!

We've changed things up again at Scrapping the Music and we hope you find it as fun as we do! We are now posting challenges twice a month (on the 1st and 15th); but each time we post, we are bringing you TWO challenges - one is a song (just like always), and one is a prompt! You can choose to do either the song or the prompt or both!

This week the song is one I picked - it's "The Time Song" by Matt Urmy. I love love love this unique song! Here's what I created, using the lyrics...
I just couldn't resist - ha. Knowing our cats - I could just see this scene. It fits their personalities. Check out the video for the song here.


The second challenge this time is to scrap a concert that you've attended. Here's what I did...
This was such a fun prompt to work with! Live music is one of my favorite things in all the world; and the Amos Lee concert at the State Theatre last year was amazing! Click on the image to make it larger, if you'd like to read the journaling. It's all about the magic of hearing music live. Photo of Amos is borrowed from the web here.

Head on over to Scrapping The Music to see all the details about our new format! You can hear the song, see the video and check out all of the design team layouts for both prompts. We are going to have a lot of fun with this - and we'd really LOVE to have you join us! Click here to go to the challenge.

Project Life - Week of March 19 - 25, 2012: Keeping it Simple...

I've seen a lot of people around the web posting that they are falling behind on their Project Life. Some are even quitting. I feel your pain. This project does get to be pretty darn time consuming, especially if you have other projects you are also trying to do. This past week I fell behind too, and so, in trying to catch up, I kept it simple. Hardly any embellishing. Just photos and patterned paper. I must say I still love how it turned out!

Here's the full spread. I used my Cocoa Daisy "By The Numbers Kit for the base this week...


Left side...
I have discovered that it's quicker for me to have one card where I highlight the events of the week, rather than embellishing each photo with detailed info.


And here's the right side...
The middle right image is one of my favorites from Maxfield Parrish, who is listed as my favorite artist on the card right next to it on the left. We visited daughter Becca and her boyfriend Chad on Saturday and I forgot to take a pic (doh!); so I just used a pic of them from awhile ago.

I saved a lot of time this week, and now I am keyed up for this week!

Scrapbook Soup Interview...

I'm so excited to be interviewed today on Julie Fei-Fan Balzer's blog! It's part of her Scrapbook Soup TV series that has been going on this week. Check it out here!

Almost Done With My Record Album Art Journal...

I've got a little journal update for you today. I've only got two or possibly three more entries before this journal is full. I love that.

Here are some pages from March 23 - 25th...




I hope you are having an awesome week! Thanks for visiting!

Inspiration from my Nothing Book...

Would I sound old if I said I was around when the very first blank book came out? HA. Depending on your age, you may or may not remember "The Nothing Book." It came out in the 70's and seemed very innovative at the time. It was just a bound book with blank pages. I had one and I guess you could say it was my very first art journal.

Here it is. I love the clever title...


I only finished two spreads in this journal um nothing book. Here's the first one...

On the left page is a memorial to Brian Jones, who was a member of the Rolling Stones that died in 1969. The quote is from his headstone.

On the right page is a list of all of my favorites with a date of October 18, 1976. It's so fun to look at now. What's even more fun is that I did an updated list six years later and put it on the next spread...

This one is dated September 18, 1982...
Fun to see the changes. On the left side is a poem with a little drawing.

Anyways, the reason I bring it up, is that I was reminded of these favorites lists when I was working on the current prompt of "A Year In The Life of an Art Journal," and I decided to pull them out and use them as inspiration for an updated list - this time (gasp) 30 years later! Here's the prompt and my list...

THE PROMPT: These are a Few of My Favorite Things
THE STUFF: List of your favorite things. ie: fave color, book, coffee creamer, drink, season, flowers... etc.
THE TECHNIQUE: Brown paper ie: "brown paper packages tied up with string" and labels from some of your favorite things

I didn't use the brown paper, but here it is...

I used an 8 1/2 x 11" piece of white cardstock and a Sakura Glaze Pen in black. The coloring was done with sharpies. I'm going to tape it into my record album journal. I pasted copies of the old lists on the back side just for fun!

If you want to play along, head on over to the Year In the Life blog by clicking here...

Thanks for visiting and I will see you again soon!

Art Journal Catch Up...

I'm getting so excited because my Vintage Record Album journal is almost full! I don't know why that makes me giddy but it does! Here's a little update...

March 9th was when my Cocoa Daisy kit arrived. I had a narrow page in my journal that day, so I took the brown paper bag that my kit came in, and sewed it on to the right side. Ta-Da! A pocket for more journaling. Here's how the pages for March 9th and 10th turned out...
It's mostly just different shades of pink and orange acrylic paint on top of scrapbook paper/brown paper bag; plus bits of scraps and two magazine images.

Here's where I hid the journaling for March 9th...


Here's March 19th.
The left side background is all tissue paper, the right side is a page from a photography book.


And here's today's page. Totally random mix of vintage magazine pages, maps, scrapbook paper, etc...

If you want to see all of the pages of this journal so far, click here.

Thanks so much for visiting! Peace to you my friends!

Another Week of Project Life: March 12-18, 2012...

My process for doing project life is still evolving as I go and I am still LOVING it! More and more actually! Here's an overview of last week....
I did not cut background papers in advance this time, and I must admit it made it harder to put the puzzle together in the end.


Closeup of left side: A new little squirrel visiting our yard, a thrift store shoe score, and happy mail from a swap are among the highlights...
I love that my swap partner Jennifer, just happened to write me a note on a 3x4 sheet of paper! It went right in my project life - yeayyy!!! Thanks Jennifer!


Closeup of right side: The cats are starting to shed an enormous amount of fur since the weather has changed, so I wound some of Johnny's and Willie's together and included it on the page. I also included a photo of my mom because it was her birthday on Saturday. I still miss her so much. Doesn't she look beautiful?
My favorite part of this week is the photo for Sunday! Michael works in a very urban area and he came out of work Sunday afternoon to find TWO TURKEYS standing in the parking lot. Luckily he had his iphone and took a photo. He walks in the door and says to me - you have to see my two new little buddies. HA. How funny! You can hardly see them in the picture, so I also blew them up a little, cut them out and pasted them onto the inspirational postcard to the left. They are greeting the girl in the field of flowers. LOL.


I discovered a new way to work on my week as I go, and I am loving it. I have two stacks of plastic scrapbook supply containers, and the lids are just the right size to layout a weeks worth of papers. No more struggling with the page protectors during the week. I just pick up a day at a time and complete it. Here's how this week looks so far...
I'm thinking it might be a better way to take a photo when the week is complete too. I could avoid the glare of the page protectors that way!

I hope your week is going well! Thanks for visiting and for your comments! I really appreciate them!

Pearl Jam gets Spiritual at Scrapping The Music...

This week's song at Scrapping the Music is "Just Breathe" by one of my all-time favorite bands - "Pearl Jam." I loved this song from the first time I heard it.

This is a page from my vintage record-album journal. It fits inside one of the record sleeves...
"Just Breathe" inspires me to think about all of the little things I'm grateful for in my life. My husband Michael took this photo out of a plane window on one of our trips. I'm always mesmerized by our ability to fly over the clouds like that. It's just one example of the amazing beauty all around us.

The background is done with red maya mist sprayed through the hole in the record sleeve, collaged tissue paper layers, neocolor II crayons and a china marker.

Come on over and play along with us - we'd love to have you! Click here to go to the challenge, hear the song and see what the other design team members created!