art journal adventures

One of the hobbies I've picked up lately from watching YouTube is art journaling.  One of my biggest enablers to date is Tanya McGuire, who made and sent little journals to several of her subscribers last year.  In Sunday afternoon live stream events, she works on hers and many people work along.  Sometimes I'm logged in and working along, but more often I'm working later.  This month I've been additionally inspired by Lost Coast's 31 days of Halloween and their Furry Friends Challenge:

I used Stampin' Up! inks for the background and the Carmen's Veranda Small Witch background.  The rest of my page is various papers and die cuts from mostly unknown sources.  The black cat image came from PixelScrapper - she reminds me of my cat Smudgie.

After this page, we had two pages left, so it was time to think about making new journals if we wanted to continue to play along.  Most people used 6"x9" envelopes from Dollar Tree for their cover, and I intended to.  The local store only had yellow ones, and I didn't really want to paint the whole thing.  Also, the original journal had a wrapped cover that I really liked, and the envelope flap wasn't going to be long enough to wrap around to the front, so I was thinking about alternatives.  One idea was to glue scrapbook paper to the envelope; another was to make a piece of "frankenpaper" out of security envelopes and glue it to the envelope or just use it as is for a cover.  In the back of the box where the security envelopes are stored, I found an old gift bag that was provided instead of a plastic bag when I made a purchase at the local (but since closed) Hallmark and stationery store.  I've always wanted a handled journal, but never had a reason to make one, since I rarely use journals these days.

It's not a full wrap closure, and I still have to decide how to hold the flap down, but I'm really pleased with it.  I went with two signatures of various pieces of paper I just have sitting around.  I attempted to machine-stitch them but the tension was wrong, so they're hand-stitched using the machine punched holes LOL.  

The flowered paper was folded in half like a greeting card and only printed on one of the four sides - I have no idea where it came from!  The music paper is a digital file I printed; I don't even know whether it's from a real piece of music.

This was the penultimate page in the original journal:

I used Stampin' Up! inks again, and the background trees stencil is from the Basic Pattern Decorative masks.  The tree is Sizzix Tim Holtz Alterations Scary Tree cut from cheap (probably Dollar Tree) construction paper and the quote is something I found online somewhere.  

I'll be working on the last page this evening so I'll be caught up with the group and ready to start in the new journal!

some new challenge adventures

I've found some new challenges recently that appeal to my sense of adventure - I hope you enjoy them, and maybe even join in? 

Lost Coast Designs and Carmen's Veranda had a booth at the Scrapbook Expo I attended last year, and I bought some stamps I think will be great for art journaling.  They have very unique rubber stamp designs, and I've recently discovered they also have a challenge blog - yay!  This card from Fiona Bradley was so perfect for the orange and yellow prompt, I just used the same Stampin' Up! design she used:

stamp set - Flourishing Phrases; ink - Pumpkin Pie, Daffodil Delight; Stampin' Write marker - Pumpkin Pie; card stock - Whisper White

Crazy Rebecca at Dances With Pit Bulls is doing her second year of #DWPB100ThingsChallenge.  The rules are pretty simple - make 100 things with the craft supplies you already own before you buy any more!  I needed a little book in which to record my 100 things, so my thing number one is these paper-napkin-covered journals made of flattened toilet paper roll tubes:

Thing number two is a sign for Rebecca to use in her YouTube videos. I don't want to post it before she sees it; if I remember I'll show you later, although it's not really all that special - just some clip art I copied and pasted, with a fun font, on metallic card stock.

Thing number three is a junk journal page for a swap - another new thing I've gotten involved with this year:

The base page is long-retired Flirtatious specialty designer series paper; the tags and pocket are bits and bobs from my stash.  It's not complete in this photo - I added a mini envelope to the front that I made from a scrap of deli paper.  I could have used vellum, but the deli paper was on its way to the bin, and seemed like a better choice for a junk journal.  I'm looking for something that says Mother's Day to put in the envelope, to tie into the monthly swap theme.  I hope to also add a decorated paper clip when I work on that challenge later this month.

And then thing number four is a postcard for the Sunday Postcard Art challenge I've just started following.  This week they're looking for crowns & wings - I added a bit of fun & fantasy:

stamp sets - Lucky Elephant (retired), Favorite Thoughts (retired), Extreme Elements (retired), Timeless Textures, Touches of Texture; ink - Pineapple Punch, Wisteria Wonder, Elegant Eggplant, Tangerine Tango, Peekaboo Peach, Tempting Turquoise, Rich Razzleberry, Strawberry Slush (retired), Lemon Lime Twist, Island Indigo, Wild Wasabi, Rose Red, Hello Honey (retired); card stock - Whisper White and Wisteria Wonder; punch - Pretty Label; Big Shot with Beautiful Butterflies Bigz die (retired) and White Tea Lace paper doilies (retired)

This is the first postcard I've ever made from scratch.  In retrospect I think I probably should have coated it, and possibly also added a second layer of card stock.  I mailed it in an envelope, though, so it will arrive safely in spite of my oversights.

bookish adventures

Love Today is the ring-bound planner kit available from Stampin' Up! this year - I love mine!

In addition to monthly dividers, monthly pages and weekly pages, it comes with more stickers than I'll ever need (I used only three for the cover) as well as pockets, flags, sticky notes, and photo pages.  But I felt I needed a few more accessories.  I started with a simple tasselled paper clip.  I found the elastic band pencil pouch (seen in the corner of the photo above and on the left below) on clearance at one of the big box stores.  I found a vinyl pocket folder at Dollar Tree, turned it horizontally and cut it down to provide another pair of slip-in pocket pages for loose papers:

The small art journal in the slot of the left pocket was one I made while I was still working, folded from one piece of copy paper according to an Instagram tutorial I saw.  The "art" is office junk mail collages and highlighter designs lettered with encouragement.  The Instagram version wasn't covered, but I used a discarded report cover to give mine a little more protection.

In the other pocket, I felt I needed a small separate notebook.  When I read about the Mini Album Makers Challenge blog launch, I decided to make one:

I had many blank dot and grid pattern pages left in the back of an old spiral-bound planner, perfect for card sketches or notes on the run, so I removed and slightly trimmed them.  My original intention was to make a traveler's notebook style, and the cover was a file folder that I cut down for that purpose.  I didn't want the signatures nested, though, because that would separate the patterns from each other, so I perfect-bound the pages (folded each sheet in half separately and spread glue on the spine edges).  I inserted the pages into the cover using the traveler's-notebook-style elastic spine, so I could reuse the cover.  It's sort of a hybrid, but I think it's going to work for me!

Just this evening, I tried my hand at another type of book art.  My public library hosted a workshop where we used fabric and trims (and a lot of glue) to transform blank bound dollar-store journals: