Tuesday's Tip

I always like to use stamps and/or materials in a variety of ways. It can help "justify" the purchase (I know you know what I mean!). Not long ago I bought cotton thread to make my own baker's twine. I have used it on a variety of projects. Since it is white, I can color it with markers, re-inkers, etc. I also found a great way to make flowers with the twine. Keep it flat and create a flat spiral circle. I put it on a piece of carpet tape to hold the circle tight. Remember to color the twine before you wind it around.

Yikes, it is so difficult to stay creative when you are traveling. It seems that I have been gone every other week since August. It makes for difficulty in finding motivation to create, and in finding the time to do it when so many real life issues need to be addressed!

We are getting to the end of the Periodic Table ATC's - and I was able to sneak a few minutes to get a couple of them done before the deadline (only 2 more to go after December 1st). I continued my usage of transparencies with Radon. They are great fun and I need to make a not to use them  more.

The transparency is used as the radon gas. I thought, to stay with the theme of invisibility, I would stamp the atomic abbreviation in Versa Mark ink.

Happy Thanksgiving

It is late morning and the calm before the storm (in the kitchen!) My daughter is home from college for the weekend and my son will be popping in and out. It will be a happy Thanksgiving with both kids home. I hope you all have a wonderful holiday with family and friends. Good luck to those participating in Black Friday. If you find any Maserati's for $100, let me know. That would be one of the only deals that I would brave the mobs/wait in lines...

Tuesday's Tip

When my kids were younger, they spent an afternoon creating paper ornaments with their Nana. She cut various squares from old Christmas cards, added glitter, and glued them into shapes. With all the different punches on the market, it makes these types of homemade ornaments quick and easy! Circle punches are particularly versatile. Larger size shapes can be folded in half and glued together to make balls of various thicknesses. Some of the smaller (1/4 inch) sizes make great additions to cards.

I have been traveling a lot lately. Usually, I visit Boston 2-4 times a year to visit my daughter at college. I usually bring my Nook to continue whatever book I am reading. I also tend to break up the trip (5 -6 1/2 hours depending on direction and winds) to catch up on magazines.

 Recently, I was reading some scrapbook magazines. One had many layouts with creative clusters. These clusters were smaller photos, words, images, ephemera. Interestingly, these clusters were in random vertical and horizontal strips.The strips were placed in various locations on the pages and were floating. I am not a big fan of floating - images not grounded to an edge/other image. I am sure you have seen this before - random diagonals on a collage card, ATC, canvas. Or, floating clusters on a scrapbook page.
These combinations of ungrounded clusters were quite distracting to me. One friend once told me she thought people did that to be "artsy". I do not know about that. Each page contained one or two photos at most, but quite a few clusters...

Scrapbooking is not my number one hobby. I enjoy it, but not as much as stamping and mixed media. When I do scrap, I tend to keep things simple with clean lines.

For me, this way of scrapping keeps the focus on the photos of the memory that I am showcasing. After all, most people tend to look at photo albums to see if they or someone they know are in the photos. I try to make it easy for them.

So, in looking at the featured layouts, did I focus on the photos? Not at all. Yet, is not that why many of us scrapbook?

Birds...

I have still been traveling - this has been a very busy Fall. It has been difficult to get into a routine for anything, because it changes week to week! I have been squeezing some creativity in, in small bunches. Mainly, I need to finish a couple of projects before their fast approaching deadline!

The above journal pages (I think I have mentioned before that I usually coordinate facing pages) were fun bird variations. Of course, my friend Kelly, found me the word "supper". She knows me well!

Tuesday's Tip

I have purchased various chip board collections in the past. I think many of us have them, but do not always use all the pieces. I find there are certain favorites that I tend to use up. As much as I love the parenthesis chipboard shapes, I find them a challenge to use at times. I recently saw a fun way to incorporate these shapes into art - as photo corners. They can be painted, glittered, stamped and Washi taped! I plan to dig them out and start using them!

Fall Pages

I have decided that I really like to add color to my pages with inks and paints - as well as papers and ephemera. Again, a fairly normal page I created. There are layers of stamping and Gelato water colors on the right page - it is difficult to see all the layers in the photo. I really loved the image on the left. I cut it from a Juxtapose magazine.

Completed Journal

I have many handmade books and journals. Actually, I have a drawer full of them. They all have some pages done - but none are fully complete. Until now! Finally, I have finished an art journal! Feels pretty good - only umpteen more to go!

This is the final 2 page spread - although I may eventually go back and add some words.

Transparency Fun

Another one of the journal pages I made recently. I love Hambly transparencies - they really work well to add a little something to art. The chicken wire was a favorite this particular weekend!

Tuesday's Tips

I was catching up on my magazines, when I saw a clever idea for an embellishment. With Halloween over and Christmas on its, I thought these would be cute for scrapbook pages or cards. To create fun candy accents, wrap brightly colored buttons in cellophane (in a color similar to the button). Tie the ends with baker's twine, and you will have a clever little candy embellishment!

Art Journal Page

I know - it took me long enough to take photos of some of the pages from last weekend. I have been busy unpacking, cleaning and completing a few things.  The above  are 2 pages from yet another newly made book. I generally work on 2 pages at once as I like them to be somewhat complimentary and cohesive. I also used Faber Castell Gelato watercolors to add some color around the doll images. I like to add paint/ink to my pages and these are very easy to transport.

The images were taken from a Cloth Paper Scissors magazine. I find I cannot keep all my magazines, so I pull images that might be useful in collage and place them in a storage container. The butterfly overlay swings both ways so it can also go over the house. Yes, this was a somewhat sedate (and normal) page for me. Do not be discouraged - the unusual ones will come.

Tuesday's Tips

I just spent a couple of days at art journaling classes. We had a lot of ephemera, glue, stamps, journals, rulers - you get the idea. It was so easy to lose some of the smaller or flatter tools (especially awls, glue sticks, and rulers). A great way to prevent losing tools is to use a plastic cup. Place all the little tools inside the cup when you are done and waiting to use them again.