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Friday, September 28, 2012

how I feel - a smash book page

I am really, really LOVING my Smash Book now that I dismantled, reassembled it and turned it into my own book.  You can learn more about that adventure here.  But, I am having a REALLY hard time finding the time to work in it.  I have quite a stack of this and that to put in it, but no time to stick them in.  And, now that I look at these pages, they aren't really Smash Book pages....they are more like art journal pages, but oh well.  It's my book, right? lol

I had cut out the first girl awhile ago and she's been sitting on a page waiting to be worked on.  I have been having lots of fun using images that I've cut from magazines lately and this is the time of year to buy fashion magazines just for that purpose.  They Fall issues are HUGE with over 600 pages of goodness just waiting to be cut out and put into your journal.  Marc Jacobs has quite disturbing ads this year. lol  And even though they bother me so much, I have used his ads twice in just a few months.  All of the ladies in them look awful. lol  And, I hate to say it, almost like strung out drug addicts or something like that.  You can see a sample of them here.  So, after I knew how I wanted these pages to go, I immediately grabbed one of his ads to use for the second page. lol  Sad thing is that how this girl looks is pretty much how my allergies are making me feel. lol






Well, it's Friday and my goal is to spend some quality time in my book this weekend adding all of the things that I've been collecting.  I think part of my problem is that my life is BORING. lol  And, right now, we really don't do much so I feel like I don't have anything to add to my Smash Book.  Well, I really don't have anything to add!  No receipts really, no flyers of places we've been, nothing.  I'd really like to start adding small photos.  I need to dig out my color printer and see if it still works.  Maybe printing off some of the photos from my phone will help me feel a bit better about my book.  I'm always taking photos of silly things throughout the day.  I wonder if I start adding those it will show me how my life really isn't that boring.  I mean, I have an 19 month old and 5 year old running around with me all day, that seriously isn't boring at all.  It's chaos! lol  Then toss in my older kids and it's quite an adventure around here each day. ;-)

Oh well. lol

Take care and have a wonderful day!
di

Tuesday, September 25, 2012

the list - an art journal page

Wow, I have had this page churning around in my mind for weeks and I was finally able to get it all out onto paper!  I have to say that this is one of my favorite things about art journaling.  It is a way for me to say things, do things, express things, whatever......creatively.  Take it out on paper in my journal.   Yell and scream and write it all out, cover it all up, squish and scrap paint around, tear things up and glue them down....all of that can be such a great release!  Whew......I've been creating a lot of angst-filled pages lately....time to work on something happy next I think. lol

You can watch me create this page here......






I snapped a quick picture of one of my journals too..... I love how thick it's getting!


And, I think I might work on these pages next.....I scraped some extra modeling paste through a butterfly stencil onto these pages and they are just waiting to be painted on.....

Thanks so much for visiting and I hope you all have a wonderful, creative day!
di

Monday, September 17, 2012

my Un-Smashed Smash Book - making it your own

Hi everyone!  I got sucked into the whole Smash Book craze even though I resisted it for quite awhile.  But, once I started buying things I just couldn't stop.  It was all of those done stickie-notes, envelopes, tape, ugh....just too fun to look at and collect!  And then I let it sit.  And sit.....and sit............and sit................you get the idea. lol  Then I started to feel guilty about it.  Here was all of this stuff that I had spent my hard-earned money on and it was collecting dust in a basket on the floor.  So I pulled it all out and let it sit some more, looking at it every now and then.  I wasn't sure what my problem was, but I just wasn't excited about using it for some reason.  Then I got this bright idea to cut it apart, add some of my own papers and envelopes, re-bind it and go from there.  I thought about it for a whole week.  I mean, did I really want to take a box knife to my $15 journal that was perfectly fine and cut it all apart? Was I crazy?  I finally decided that if it didn't work, I could salvage the papers from inside and chuck the cover in the trash or use it for something else.  At least I could use the papers in my other journals on on scrapbook pages.  So, I  finally got brave and had at it.

You can watch a video of me making my "Un-Smashed Smash Book" here.

And, below you will find tons of pictures of my finished book. I'm really, really happy with it and started adding goodies to it as soon as I finished it!  I think I'm addicted. lol

 The cover was embossed with flowers, so I used my  Inktense Pencils and
Neo Color II's to color in the image.  I added the white dots to help things
pop.  And some odd's and ends in the bottom corner.

I bound my book with satin seam binding that I had colored last year
with some color washes.  Be sure to put Fray-Check on ends so your
ribbon doesn't unravel!

I had originally punched holes in the front cover much farther in that I had wanted and 
ended up punching new holes closer to the edge.  That left me with three holes on the front, so
I decided to sew buttons there to cover the holes.  In another photo of the inside cover, you can
see the bottons that are sewn to the other side of the ones pictured above.



 Here are the buttons that are sewn to the buttons on the front cover.

 I really liked this vellum page that came with the book, so I decided to
color it in wish Sharpies to highlight the words and pictures better.
I drew this girl a couple of weeks ago and decided to add her as my first page.

Alien cut from a box of Puffs tissues....my 5 year old will be very angry when
she sees this because she was saving the box to make something out of it.  I
do have another one of these upstairs, so she will still get one for herself. lol
I just thought he was too cute to not use!  And, exactly the thing to put in your
Smash Book, right? ;-)
Adding things here and there and will be adding more to these pages
as I go along.....







Here are some photos of the type of extra pages that I added to my
Un-Smashed Smash Book.  I pretty much went through my stash of
papers and pulled out whatever caught my eye.....
book pages......

pieces of music paper and papers with doodles on them....

ancient index pages for Club Scrap kits and scrap paper
with excess color sprays from stencils on them....

scrap paper that I've created other art journal pages on and 
one with a doodle made by one of my children....

 I even added some envelopes....

I hope that you enjoyed seeing how I turned my Smash Book into something that's truly ME and now something that I will be using for sure!  I'd love to see how you're using your Smash Books, so please leave a link in the comments if you would like to share!  And, be sure to visit often, because I plan on sharing pages from my book as I complete them.

Thanks so much for visiting and I hope you have a wonderful day! 
di

Monday, September 10, 2012

allergies are a b***h - an art journal page

I have been very, very sick with my allergies this year and finally had to let it all out in my art journal. lol  I'm SO ready for winter!!!!

You can watch me create this page here.




Thanks so much for visiting!
di

follow your heart - an art journal page

sharing another completed page......feels so good to be getting my fingers all covered with paint again....

you can watch me create this page here...




Thanks so much for visiting!
di

catching up on icad's - part 2 - cards 28-36

More icad's to share with you....I hit a wall and stopped working on these and didn't make it through July.  I'm thinking about starting them back up though.  I really enjoyed working on index cards.  They are small, but not too small and just a fun challenge for me to work on.  


Day 28

Day 29

Day 30

Day 31

Day 32

Day 34

Day 35

Day 36

Thanks so much for visiting!
di

mad about color - an art journal page

Hi everyone!

I've been ages since I've posted anything and I went through a huge dry spell......just over stressed, over  worked, over tired, over sick...lol  You name it.  But, I've been able to get back into my art journal a bit and have a few new pages to share with you. ;-)

Be sure to scroll down to the bottom, because I'll share a link to my You Tube page where you can watch me create this page....




Be sure to click here so that you can watch the video of me creating this page.

Thanks so much for visiting!!!
di