Door County Inspiration and More...

Hi everyone!  My scrappy girlfriends and I just got back from a road trip to Door County Wisconsin! What an inspirational place that is!  I'm working on a travel journal to document the trip, but here are a few peeks of the things we did...

We spent a day at the Hands On Art Studio and it was so much fun!!!  Anne and I worked in the mosaic studio. Don't we look proud of our creations?

and Lynn and Christina made some beautiful Fused Glass art. (Christina's has blue tape on it because it was still setting)...

We visited the Edgewood Orchard Gallery, which included a beautiful sculpture garden...

and of course we had to stop at the two Scrapbook stores in town!

Lynn introduced us to barn quilts, which come in all different colors and patterns, and hang on barns everywhere up there.  This is just one example...

One of my favorite things were all of the animals we saw up there.  This cute goat was hanging out on the roof of this restaurant...

And of course, there were the scenic views.  Enough inspiration there to keep me going for a long time...!

I'll share more as I complete the pages of my travel journal.  Thanks so much to Lynn, Anne and Christina for being such AWESOME friends and travel companions!  We had a wonderful time!

In other news, did you see that Christy Tomlinson is offering a class on making artsy bracelets?  Yeayyy!  It looks like tons of fun!  I signed up right away!  Check it out here.

Thanks for visiting and I will see you again soon!

Today's the Day!!!! Welcome to the Party!!!

We are so excited about our party!  Come on over and play along with us!!!

Click here to go to the party!

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!