Cool Challenge Blog Discovery....

Hey everyone!  I experienced a delightful bit of synchronicity this week.  Don't you just love when things happen right when you need them to?  This was just a little thing, but still - it was fun!

I like to give handmade greeting cards, and I am all out right now; so I put "make 5 greeting cards per month" on my list of to-do's.  The next day, just like magic - I happened upon the "Mojo Monday" challenge blog!  Mojo Monday is a sketch blog specifically for making cards!  How great is that?!!!  I was so excited about it that I made a card from the sketch they had up, even tho I missed the deadline to enter it into their contest.  Here's the sketch, and here's how my card turned out:

 It's 6"x6," and made from bits and pieces from my stash.  I especially loved using some old thrift shop plaid material for the ribbon.

 I think I am going to try to make it a weekly challenge for myself - to play along with Mojo Monday!

Here's my take on their current challenge...

This one was done with a combo of my "Homespun" and "Summer Wind" kits from Noel Mignon.  My fave part was misting the canvas button (on top) with Cherry Maya mist.  It was originally just a plain canvas color. 

Do you make greeting cards?  If so, where do you find your inspiration?  I'd love to know.

I will be back tomorrow with an art journal update.  Thanks so much for visiting!

Project Life - May 28 - June 3, 2012...

Okay, before I get into Project Life, I just have to share the story behind this photo.  Last week, Michael and I were inspired by this video that Mary Ann Moss posted on her blog.  (Click here to see it)  So we decided to play the same sort of game with our cats. 

We came up with this, and Johnny was more than happy to play along...

And now, on to Project Life for May 28th through June 3...

Closeup of left side...

 I just love that photo of Michael and his buddies at the golf course. 


And a closeup of the right side - with insert...

 Our first attempt at our little cat game was with a box, and it didn't work out because the box was too small.  So I decided to cut the end off the box  and include it in Project Life for this week - why not, right? It took some figuring to get the placement right, so that Johnny's little face shows through the frame.  Ha.


 And here's the right side without the insert...

 Note: I stapled in a little end strip from a Hambly transparency I used this week.  I wanted to make note of the sad news that Hambly is shutting down.   I went with a plain 12 x 12 format for this side because I had numerous odd-shaped bits of ephemera that I wanted to include.  It worked out pretty well!


Note: Noel Mignon's "Summer Lovin' Crop" started today!  Come on over and play along!  There are challenges, games and prizes to be had!  Click here to check it out!

Thanks for visiting and for your kind comments!  I appreciate you!

Monday's Meditation...

Have a wonderful week my friends.  I will be back tomorrow with a Project Life Update.

Thanks so much for visiting.

The 30 Day Journal Challenge: Days 1 and 2...

I decided to use my Amy Tangerine Daybook for the 30-Day challenge, and I am having so much fun with it!

Prompt 1 was to create a cover...

It's kinda hard to tell on the photo, but the blue paper, doily, washi tape and label are on the kraft cover (behind the transparency), and everything else is on top.


and prompt 2 was to Create a list of 3 - 5 goals for the challenge.  Here's what I did...

I think this will be the perfect little book to hold all of the prompts.  I just love how the pages are all different sizes and types of paper!  Can't wait for prompt 3!

If you want to play along, just click on the widget in the right-hand side bar.  It will take you to the challenge info.

Now I'm on to working on my cover for "Pieces of Me."

How is your weekend going?

Finish 'er up Friday (on Saturday)

I have been hanging on to this little project since 2007, when it was a make and take at Elsie Flannigan's booth at Scrapfest.  I thought it was so cute, but couldn't figure out what to use it for.   Thanks to Finish 'er up Friday, I can finally share the finished project with you - I'm so excited!

It's a little tribute to my cat Willie (also known as Wilbie to us)...

 What Elsie had shown us how to do was to put together the playing cards with her adhesive fabric to make a little book.  She also showed us how to make the window in the front card, and we got to choose a little rubber charm for the front.  The rest is what I did this week to finish it up.

 Stickers and tape are by Amy Tangerine...

 Cavallini tape on this page

 the little paw clip is from Basic Grey

 

 more Amy Tangerine on this one...

and on the back cover too.

I can't even begin to describe how much fun it was to finally finish this little project!  What was I waiting for???

In other news, I started two new projects yesterday!  One is the 30-day Journal challenge, which is hosted by Janel of Runs with Scissors.  This is her third year doing the challenge, but my first time playing along.  I'm so excited!  It's free, so hop on over if you'd like to join in!

The "Pieces of Me" workshop also started yesterday over at Two Peas In A Bucket, and I'm totally excited about this one too!  It's the CUTEST little mini-album; and there are tons of contributors who share their version of the album, so it gives you lots of ideas to put your own twist on things!  Check it out here if you want to sign up.

I am also happy to say that all of my scrappy boxes have now been sold.  Thank you so much for your support!

I thank you so much for visiting, and wish you a super-groovy, crafty weekend my friends!

It's a Special Scrapping The Music...

Hi everyone!  I'm going to have to share my "Finish 'er up Friday" project tomorrow, cuz today I want to focus on the reveal for the new Scrapping The Music challenges!  It's an exciting month, because Noel Mignon's kit club is sponsoring us!  And for this first challenge - the Noel M Design Team played along with us!  There is so much inspiration at the STM blog it's crazy!!!

Anyhoo, the first challenge this time is the song "Whole Wide World" by Mindy Gledhill.  I happened upon it on youtube and knew we had to scrap it!  I decided to create a journal page using my fave lyric in the song...

 The red girl is a mask (reverse stencil) I made a couple of years ago.  I thought it looked cool, all full of layers of paint, so I glued it right on the page.  The clouds are stamped with my handmade cloud stamps, and the little pink bird is a rub on from Studio Calico.

Click here to check out the song, and the DT layouts!


 The second challenge is to scrap a special song that you share with someone as "your song."  I decided to scrap the song that my sister Renee sang so beautifully at our wedding.  It is "Stay With You" by John Legend, and it will always have a special place in our hearts.  Here's the layout I created...

 The photo was taken on our honeymoon at Ragged Point in California.  Almost five years ago now!

Here's a video for the song.


Click here to see what other design team members did!

Come on over and check out our special challenge!  We would love to have you play along!!!

I will be back tomorrow with Finish Er Up Friday (er, um Saturday).

Thanks so much for visiting, and have an awesome Friday my friends!

Art Journal Every Day Update...

I've been having a ton of fun with my art journal this week!  The Blue Kitten Journal is almost full!  Here's what I've been working on:


This page was inspired by Traci Bunkers' 21 Secrets class "Self-Awareness through Visual Journaling..." 

Both images are from the web. Raven and deer are two of my animal totems.  I'm noticing that my pages are coming together more intuitively lately.  I'm not thinking about them, just letting them flow.  Lots of layers here. Patterned cardstock, magazine images, tissue paper, spray ink, gesso, acrylic, and tape.

 This one was inspired by another 21 Secrets class - Jane Davenport's "Frolicaholic," 

which was tons of fun!

 Supplies used include colored pencil, watercolor, and a black journaling pen. 


 The next two are for "A Year In The Life of an Art Journal..."

The first one for the April 30th prompt, and is a quote from Thoreau (I forgot to put his name on the bottom before I took the picture)...

THE PROMPT:  Nature is a wondrous thing
ie: use pics of nature
THE STUFF: Don't quote me on it
ie: use a quote or quotes
THE TECHNIQUE: Gesso & stencils ie: try something different and use Gesso on your stencils for texture!

I followed the first two parts of the prompt, but didn't do the gesso and stencils part.  I decided to experiment with a different style of writing, and had a lot of fun with it! I wanted to use a mallard because I see them every day in our neighborhood, and they are so sweet!

 
 This one is for the May 15th prompt, and I put it on the inside back cover of my Blue Kitten Journal, so the base is chipboard...

Spring is coming!!
THE PROMPT: Bloom Where You're Planted
ie: count your blessings
THE STUFF: Scrapbooking flower embelishments ie: prima flowers, stickers
THE TECHNIQUE: paint/stamp/stain the flowers

This was a ton of fun!  I'm not one for using a whole lot of flowers on my layouts, so I had a pretty big stash to choose from!  I used a combination of Maya Mists and Mr. Huey's to spray about 2/3 of the flowers.  Then I just started glueing them on randomly.  Fun, Fun, Fun!

I get into bed each night and one of the things I thank God for is the flow of creativity.  It's amazing to me how therapeutic it is!  It truly calms my soul.

How has your week been going?

Thanks so much for visiting and for your kind comments - they really make my day!

Project Life Tuesday - May 14 - 27...

I've got two weeks of Project Life to share with you today.  May 14 - 20, and May 21 - 27.

Here's an overview of May 14 - 20...

Closeup of left side...

The postcard that says "hello," is something that came in a SiStv kit back in 2008.  It's actually made of wood, and I love it; but could never figure out a use for it until now.  Another reason to love Project Life!!! The red "everyday life" card is from the Clementine kit.  Everything else is from my stash.


Closeup of right side...

The only ephemera here is the advertisement for the Summer Crop coming up the week of June 4th, at Noel Mignon's site.  It came with my latest NM kit. The orange "this week" journaling card is from the Clementine kit.  Everything else is from my stash.


Moving on - we've got the week that just ended (May 21 - 27)...

 

 

 Closeup of left side...

 Did you know that if you go to google search and type "site:addressofyourblog" and click on images (on the left column), you can get a mosaic of all the images that have been on your blog?  I learned that from my computer whiz hubby, and it's so cool!  That's what the bottom right pocket is.

 Closeup of right side...

The little kitty and turtle card is from october afternoon.  Pic of American Idol winner Phillip Phillips is from the web. (Yeayyy Phillip!)

One thing I am noticing now that I am almost halfway through the year; is that putting a week's PL spread together is suddenly flowing much more smoothly.  Is anyone else noticing that?  I love it! 

Thanks so much for visiting!

P.S.  There's only one scrappy box left for sale!  If you've been thinking about buying one, now's the time!  Click here for details and photos.

Meditation Monday...

Acrylic paint, Graphic 45 Alpha Stamps, Neocolor II Crayon, Washi Tape, Poster Paint Sharpies, Cityscape Packing Tape, Vintage Glass Glitter, Antique Book Endpaper (the word Joy).

I wish you much joy this week my friends.

P.S.  The slideshow is up at Scrapping The Music.  Check it out here.

Art Journal Everyday Update...

Note:  I still have some boxes of fabulous scrappy goodness left to sell- one could be yours!  Click here to check out all the pictures and information.

I'm still working away in my Blue Kitten Journal.  I've got three new pages to share with you today...

This one has been developing in layers over a few weeks...

 The layers went like this:

magazine collage

gesso mixed with acrylic paint

tissue paper

stamping

more collage

journaling with india ink and a paintbrush

 This next one is a collection of bits of paper leftover from miscellaneous projects I completed in May...

 I really enjoyed doing this.  Maybe I will make it a monthly practice.  It might be fun to see how the colors and patterns I'm drawn to vary month to month.

More layers here...

This one has modeling paste as a bottom layer, and texture drawn into it with a paintbrush.  The turquoise bubble wrap part was stamped with versa mark ink and embossed with zing embossing powder.  In real life you can really see the difference between the rough, matte background, and the shiny blue embossing.

Did you art journal this week?  How did it go?

Project Life Tuesday...

Note:  I still have some scrappy boxes left to sell- one could be yours!  Check out all the pictures and information in the post below or click here.

I I have been so busy working on my scraproom reorganization I haven't done my project life layout for this week; but I did reorganize my Project Life workstation, and I've got a few pics to share with you...

Here's an overview.  I really love how my current week's layout fits right in the middle, so I can leave it out and add to it all week...

 I inherited an antique wooden salesman's suitcase from my mom; and inside it has two drawers.  I discovered that the compartments inside one of the drawers were just the right size for project life cards!!!

 Here's a closer look at the drawer...

 On the right side in the front compartment are all the 3x4 cardstock pieces that I cut from patterned paper scraps.  In the back I've got the blank PL grid cards, Other little cards like OA Wildcards and mini-bingo cards, and Smashbook pads.  On the left I have mini-alphas, Journaling tag stickers, and Ormolu date badges.

My 7 gypsies library drawer still holds my official Project Life cards, plus 4x6" cards in the back that I've cut from paper scraps.

So there you have it!  I feel all organized and ready to tackle project life again!  Can't wait to dig in!

Don't forget about the scrappy box sale!  It's really a heck-of-a deal!  Check it out here.

Scrappy Box Sale!!!!!

I worked all night last night purging my supplies and getting some super fun boxes of scrappy stuff ready to sell!  I ended up with five boxes instead of ten, cuz I wanted to make sure they were super full for you!

Here are some photos of the process:

FYI - These are all things that I would still use myself....

Some of the brands include:  Studio Calico, Sassafras Lass, American Crafts, Pink Paislee, Hambly, Cosmo Cricket, Jenni Bowlin, etc.  I've only included full packages of embellies - no leftovers...

Each package has at least two full alphabet sets...

Here's a side view of the paper piles - they are huge and heavy!

And these are the final five piles before I put them in the boxes.  Each one is different, but I tried really hard to divide things up equally so no matter which box you end up with you will be happy!

 I am asking $30.00 per box plus shipping ($11.95). U.S. Only 
Edited to add:  I weighed the boxes and each one is over 7 pounds!  This is a lot of stuff!

I'm so sorry that it has to be U.S. only.  I looked into making these available internationally, but I would have to use different boxes and the shipping would have been astronomical.

If you would like to purchase one of these boxes, please email me at michellelapoint@yahoo.com, and put BOX REQUEST in all caps in the subject line (this will make sure I don't miss your email). I will send you a paypal invoice for $41.95.

The first five people to email me will get the boxes.
As of 6/1/12 the boxes have all been sold. Thanks so much!

Once the five boxes are sold I will post that here so you know.  Okay?