Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Project Life week 17

Since we're about a third of the way through the year, I thought I'd write some of my thoughts on Project Life so far. I still love the idea and the result. I haven't done scrapbooking in years- I never finished my wedding scrapbook from more than 13 years ago. Last year, I started a smash book/ junk journal type thing, but I rarely bothered with printing out photos I had taken, so it mostly has ephemera. I love the fact that I'm actually using the photos I take, instead of just leaving them on my computer.

I like the baseball card pages I'm using, but I feel I'm stuck with using small photos. I've thought of several ways to incorporate larger photos, but I haven't as of yet. I'm also glad I chose to do one page a week instead of a two page spread. I sometimes struggle to fill one. I use a lot of pictures of my dog and way too many pictures of the sky. (I don't even know why I take so many sky/ cloud pictures.) I really need to start taking pictures of people. I think I've only used one photo of my husband, one of an aunt, a few of a cousin, and several of my nephew. None of my parents or any other family member. Definitely something I need to work on.

I hate that my first three weeks are not color coordinated with the rest, as I started out using random paper scraps before deciding to buy scrapbook paper specifically for Project Life. I've thought about going back and redoing the first weeks, but I haven't yet, so I probably won't bother with it.

I don't know if I'll go 12 x 12 next year. If I had to chose today, I'd probably stick to the baseball card pages.But since I've got eight months to think about it, who knows?

And now, here's week 17:



1 Date/ week card
2 Annabelle
3 Impossible Astronaut Day
4 My cousin, Katie
5 World Book Night
6 Annabelle
7 Art Journal Page
8 Sky
9 Read this week : Getting the Pretty Back by Molly Ringwald




Friday, April 26, 2013

Art Journal Page

It feels very strange to be sharing this page because I really don't like it.


I didn't really have a plan, and it seemed like everything I did made it worse, or at least didn't improve anything. I finally gave up and decided to leave it. I thought about gessoing over it, but couldn't really be bothered. I was just completely tired of the page. The only parts I like are the background and the drippy bits (which looked much better before I tried to make the top of the page look like storm clouds).

I was playing around with some little kid stencils I found.
I didn't like the flowers so I thought they might fade into the background if I ran drips over them.

The drips made me think rain so I tried to make the top look like clouds





I added this, hoping it would finish the page and make it look like there was a point to all this mess. It didn't really work.. It looks black in the photo, but it's actually matted on dark purple. I originally tried it without the matting, but it just faded into the background. I think it looks off to be because of the scale- the flowers are as tall as the man.

Oh well. At least I got a page done. I've been feeling rather uninspired and non-creative this week. I think I'll give it a rest for a few days and see what happens next week.







Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Project Life week 16

I'm running a bit late this week. I usually work on Project Life on Sunday or Monday, but here it is Wednesday, and I'm just now getting it done. I can see that it would be so easy to get really behind. I am trying my best not to let that happen.


1 Date/ week card
2 I can now say that I've watched every episode of Friends
3 Extreme Close-up of Annabelle
4 Early Morning Sky
5 Art Journal Page
6 Azalea bush
7 Filler/ quote card
8 Annabelle
9 Read this week: Complete Poems - Dorothy Parker



Friday, April 19, 2013

Art Journal Page: Wishy-Washi

Here's my newest art journal page. I'm calling it Wishy-Washi, as it is made with lots of tape, mostly washi (or washi style tape). But there is also duct tape, deco tape, decorative packing tape, there's even some address labels that were printed with washi type patterns: pretty much any tape-like substance I could find.
As you can see, I have a nice collection of tapes, but I seem to hoard them instead of using them. So this page was an effort to use some of my stash.
The butterfly embellishment was made by covering a piece of card stock with tape and running it through my cuttlebug. I then mounted it on another piece of card stock.



Monday, April 15, 2013

Project Life week 15

Here's week 15!

1. Date Card
2. TARDIS nails
3. Annabelle
4. Filler card says "Get excited and make things"
5. Interesting Clouds
6. Art Journal Page
7. Annabelle, again
8. Azaleas
9.Books read this week. If you're interested in what I read, find me at goodreads.com

Friday, April 12, 2013

Art Journal Page: Untitled

I'm really bad at coming up with titles for my pages. I usually try to come up with something, even if it doesn't really fit, but I'm drawing a blank on this one.

The quote says "It is always wise to stop wishing for things long enough to enjoy the fragrances of those now flowering. - Patrice Gifford"


Monday, April 8, 2013

Project Life week 14

Week 14! And an insert with pictures from my nephew's 2nd birthday party.






I made the insert by cutting down one of the baseball card protectors I use, turning it on its side, and punching new holes for it.

Thursday, April 4, 2013

Art Journal Page: Happy

Here's my new art journal page! I really like this one.

The background was made with white card stock embossed with my Cuttlebug- I think the folder I used was a Tim Holtz texture fade. It took four pieces to cover the page. Then I used several colors of spray ink,and I sprayed it on really thickly, with several layers. Then, with a credit card, I spread gesso on just the embossed parts (mostly- I wasn't very careful about it). The butterfly is also a cuttlebug thing. I used a (dry) baby wipe that I had cleaned up with when I used the same ink colors. I still have the other piece so you might see that on pages to come.

The words at the bottom are:
"Happy is the person who knows what to remember of the past, what to enjoy in the present, what to plan for the future. A. Glason"


Tuesday, April 2, 2013

TARDIS stamp

Today, I hand-carved several rubber stamps, but my favorite is this TARDIS. (For anyone who doesn't know, the TARDIS is from the British tv show Doctor Who.) The stamp is very small, only about an inch and a half tall, which is why it isn't very detailed. I might make a bigger one some time, but for now, I'm rather proud of this one.

Project Life week 13

Here's week 13!


1 Date card with week #
2 Annabelle
3 Sky picture
4 Picture of a bunch of postcards I got (158!) for $2 at the Unclaimed Baggage store
5 Some journaling about taking my cousin to lunch for her birthday
6 Art Journal page
7 Sky picture #2
8 Annabelle
9 Read this week: The Language of Bees and The God of the Hive, both by Laurie R King (#s 9 and 10 in  the Mary Russell Mysteries series)