Friday, July 31, 2009
52Q: 29 (dream)
Thursday, July 30, 2009
52Q: 24 (understand)
(digital card created in broderbund printshop; background paper: gabriella by laura skathi; flourishes: hipster plume korners-n-edges #4 by anna aspnes, designer digitals; business form overlay: "bits of history" scrapartist; arty frame & little magic fairy sparkles: vera lim; fonts: diesel, broken 15 & ck typewriter)
text reads, "this probably sounds crazy, but...i wish understood prejudice. not to validate it--au contraire!--but because it still seems to play such a dismayingly large part in our world, and it feels like the divides between religions, races and nations are becoming ever more deeply entrenched. maybe if we *knew* why so many people seem to hate each other ON PRINCIPLE, without even knowing each other, there would be something we could do on a "grass roots" level to try and stop it?"Tuesday, July 28, 2009
52Q: 27 (found)
text reads, " i FOUND a whole lot of tiny ants swarming an open bottle of robitussin in my cupboard. i FOUND them hard to get rid of, despite a great deal of scrubbing & disinfectant & ant traps. i FOUND the whole experience very upsetting."
Monday, July 27, 2009
52Q: 26 (walls)
Saturday, July 25, 2009
happy caturday, darlings!!!
Friday, July 24, 2009
52Q: 23 (kinder)
(digital supplies: chandelier brushes from scrap-n-fonts; brickwall (re-colored pink) & distressed edge from broderbund printshop; fonts: ck typewriter & pea stacy doodle script)
if you were around these parts in january, you may remember that the final entry of last year's journalling project, (elise blaha's awesome PAPER ADVENTURE!*) was entitled, "resolutions" and that mine was rather relevant to the topic at hand. i thought it was sort of fun to re-visit this...particularly as we've just passed the halfway point of the year...and see how i am doing. thus, i made a slightly smaller version of the paper adventure page to remind myself of my resolution!
treat ♥YOURSELF♥ as nicely as you treat others, darlings!!!
(it's the OTHER golden rule!)
*the full archive of my paper adventure pages is still up on flickr...i'm not sure for how long...i'm getting close to my picture limit for the free account and not too keen on shelling out for "pro"...
Thursday, July 23, 2009
52Q: 28
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
52Q: 25
text reads, "having had the spectacular good fortune to marry one of the loveliest men on the planet, my answer to this is, "YES!!!" ...every single day!"
i hope *you've* had a hug today, also!
if not, i'll give you one--don't worry, i made EXTRA!
(♥♥♥)
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
52Q: 22
(materials, front: anahata katkin clipart hands, sunflower cut from a magazine, heidi swapp ghost clock, ek success dimensional compass, dover butterfly sticker, colorbox inks, manual typewriter; materials, back: 7 gypsies patterned paper, making memories alphabet rub-ons, american crafts bracket stickers, copic super-fine-tip outliner pen)
every time i post about this project at least one person says, "oh i wish i was doing this!" to which i reply:
♥♥♥ DO IT!!!!!!!!!! ♥♥♥
don't worry that we're halfway through the year: you'll either catch up, or, at the very least you will end the year with the answers to SIX MONTHS of interesting questions...where is it written that you have complete every project from start to finish?? (no disrespect, but your mom was WRONG about that!)
don't worry that you're "not an art journaler": yes, this project is intended as such, but you could type your answers in a word document, or write them on index cards, or put them in your diary...whatever...who says an art journaler is one specific thing? who says you're NOT an art journaler, anyway??! (maybe you're just not one *YET*!)
don't worry that you don't know how you'd answer some of the questions: start with a question that piques your interest. do another when you feel like it, and maybe another after that...no one is EVER GOING TO CHECK that you did all the questions, in order! (i PROMISE!!!)
don't worry that you'd feel uncomfortable sharing your answers: some people post theirs to the 52Q flickr group and/or their blogs, some don't. some people--including emily falconbridge--share the side of their card which bears the question, and keep their answers private...whatever feels most comfortable to you is 100% "the right way" to do it! (having said that, i've found the "sharing" part gets easier, and is weirdly liberating!)
all i'm saying is (as someone who spent a big chunk of time psyching myself *OUT* of stuff without even trying it) the next time you think, "oh i wish i was doing that!" whether it be in regard to 52Q...or art journaling...or skydiving(!)...why not let your next question be, "HEY! why am i *NOT* doing that??!"
Monday, July 20, 2009
it never rains, but it pours!
they also provided the design team with loads of fab goodies and so of course the team went mad making invitations, favors, cards, gifts and place tags...in short, everything one would need to pamper a bride-to-be or expectant mum on her special day! go check out the flickr gallery!!!
since lhj & i were just leaving for vacation when this challenge was announced, and i knew i'd have a bit of catching up to do when we got home, i--sadly but practically--opted out of the product gallery, but i have made a slightly funky, vaguely vintagey bridal shower card for the occasion. wanna see?
the text going around the central design of the card says, "something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue" and i used that tradition to guide my product choices, as well. i have the vintage bride image (OLD), some k&co glittery dimensional stickers (NEW) (well...new-ish...), a length of of gorgeous scalloppy lace i "liberated" from my mother's sewing room (BORROWED) (kinda!) and a piece of basic grey "lily kate" patterned paper (BLUE)!
since blogger sets the image sizes based on having vaguely square photos, it's hard to see detail on this long and narrow card (it's roughly 5 x 10"...an odd size, i know...but it was built around the image & i just *hated* the idea of cropping that pretty--if oddly proportioned--oval!) so here is a detail shot which shows how the whole oval panel is raised on a layer of foam tape to better feature the texture of the lace, and the little sticky-back pearls i added at the very end:
Saturday, July 18, 2009
travel book pages
but for *me* the best part of ANY project is the embellishing part... (as well you know!) ...so i spent a saturday afternoon doing "the fun bits": i added some stickers, applied a rub-on or two, and where i felt that a story or activity needed a bit more detail, i wrote on journalling cards which i either stapled to existing pages, or punched and bound straight into the book. i chose my favorite pics from the trip, or cut out bits from the chamber of commerce magazines to illustrate things of which i had no photos. basically i just PLAYED with all my trip stuff & tried to figure out how to get ALMOST ALL of it into the book!
to make the chipboard covers a little more exciting... (b/c trust me...homemade books *DO* get judged by their covers!) ...i used a roadmap of south carolina we got free from triple A as my base, adding a few more layers to the front. i had put a palm tree sticker on the green circle transparency before we left (gettin' in the spirit, so to speak!) but it didn't quite stand out as well as i liked over the map, so i outlined it with a sharpie, and added the "MB 09" rub ons to the circle which is right above myrtle beach on the map.
the photo is one i took of our rented beach umbrella! (an idea i stole blatantly from the man whose umbrella was next-door-but-one. i did say "THANK YOU" ...which i think freaked him out very slightly more than seeing me take the same photo he was taking 30 seconds after he took it!) i loved that it had the place name as well as the card with OUR NAME and the date...that just totally screamed "book cover" to me when i saw how well it came out! you can see from the pic above that all the elements are on the ring separately, unattached to each other; i wanted them to already be pages which said something about the trip. the photo card even has a little bit journaling on the back!
i like to vary the size of my pages for interest anyway, and the basic "use EVERYTHING you love from the trip" principle of travel books really encourages this. i've got postcards layered over photos, which are just slightly smaller than journalling pages. you see glimpses of a lot of layers from a lot of different angles. (this happened accidentally in the very first travel minibook i made...now i plan it!)
i printed all my photos for this project at home on my hp photosmart using kodak "ultra premium" high gloss photo paper. i used my xyron to laminate my pics so they were strong enough to be freestanding pages. some utilize their regular proportions and are sized at either 4 x 6 or as wallet size; some i cropped (in photoshop) into 9 x 4 "panoramic" shapes, i even made a couple of full-page photo collages. (these are extremely fun to make but more time-consuming than i imagined...i have a seriously increased respect for the popularity of templates on digi-sites!!!)
of course this would not be MY PROJECT if there wasn't something funky & vintage in here somewhere, now would it?! i was rather excited to find a page or two in my collection of old, falling-apart, garage-sale books which related to south carolina. i snagged a neat picture of the state flag in a children's encyclopedia from the 1950's; this illustration & paragraph from a rand mcnally children's atlas is actually about myrtle beach!!!
there isn't a lot of "product" in here, but there's a bit. i grabbed a pack of little yellow bicycle travel-themed word stickers and journalling cards from my lss after we got home. i had some old 7 gypsies vacation stuff, and miscellaneous travel diecuts and rub-ons. i didn't need much, really, there was already a lot going on with the ephemera...on the other hand, had i felt like creating "proper" pages... (or should i decide to do so later, even!) ...the flexible "just punch a hole in it" binding gives me the option.
the rest i filled in with non-specific stuff from my stash: i used some transparency scraps to add interest and a "clear factor"...what a great way to add in a page with "decorations" that adds to existing matter without covering it up! i love heidi swapp's teeny ghost hearts and stars anyway, and again, they make a great addition when you've already filled the whole page with handwriting...but it looks a bit dull! ek success' watercolory vellum clouds are a necessity of mine--i buy a pack everytime i use the old one up, and will weep bitterly should they be discontinued. ribbon scraps of various manufacture decorate the ring.
Friday, July 17, 2009
big fat cheater's super-fast travel scrapbook
ok, so it's not a *traditional* scrapbook. (i don't really make those, except for the nieces.) i just wanted a place to put all the stuff we accumulate when we travel, record the fun we had, and maybe add some photos from the trip. so i planned AROUND the stuff i would be collecting, to make the brochures and things we tend to gather integral to the design.
and it was alllllllllll downhill from there, baby!
the naked book: measuring a standard brochure, i cut plain chipboard (the free kind you get in your 12 x 12 patterned paper order) into two 9 x 4.5" pieces to serve as front & back covers. i designed a simple page template in broderbund printshop & made a page for each day of the week, plus activities i knew i'd want to write about... (such as "the beach" "bbq" "charleston" & so forth) ...i added some blank pages, too, as well as a few transparencies cut to size--some decorated and some plain. i punched holes in the top left-hand corner of each page with my crop-o-dile, popped everything onto a staples bookring and i was ready to go!
tomorrow, if you like, i will show you some of the inside pages, and the bits i added in after our return!
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
busy doing everything but MAKIN' STUFF (arrrgh!)
you'll have noticed that new creative achievements have been slow to arrive here on at the old blogstead...because i'm even more than usually slow to achieve them! you know how sometimes REAL LIFE just muscles its way in and makes you do loads of BORING stuff when you could be making cards and atc's and fun little projects?!
ah well, i am sure things have to slow down sometime. for now, howsabout i tell ya a few things i am currently enjoying?
listening to: the best american travel writing (ed. by ian frazier) on audiobook. which was particularly appropriate whilst i was...
finishing: the big fat cheater's superfast travel scrapbook from the myrtle beach trip (it just has to be photo-ed...i just have to be home & idle for five minutes during daylight...)
watching: brand new miss marple programs on masterpiece mystery! (much as i love julia mckenzie, i must admit she doesn't exactly embody *MY* mental picture of miss marple...having said that, i do think this series is verrrrrrry good!)
eating: astonishingly good mexican food at los sarapes (chalfont, pa) last night with some of our oldest and dearest friends--both of whom were in our wedding in 1985!!! (awwwwwwwww!!!)
re-reading: to say nothing of the dog by connie willis (a favorite of mine from years ago!) ...having just read three men in a boat by jerome k. jerome (having read thames by peter ackroyd just before THAT) ...i am entirely steeped in victorian era river thames...not at all a bad thing to be in mid-july...
visiting: my mom this afternoon to see her vacation photos from *BRAZIL*!!! (stay tuned to see if there is a suave, sun-tanned, speedo-clad, portugese-speaking 25-year-old stepfather in my future, lol!!!)
voting for: my lovely & amazin' caardvarkian colleague heidi van laar who's in the top 15 over at papercrafts' gallery idol!!!!! woooooooohooooooooo heidi!!! (you GOTTA SEE her latest card!!!) (no seriously...g'head...i'll wait...)
crocheting: (very verrrrrrrrrrrry slowly; see "real life" note above) amigurumi ice cream treats...well, treat, singular...i'm making the sundae at the moment. i've got a scoop and part of a bowl finished. (oh for more hours in the day & more energy to use them!)
looking forward to: the special torchwood miniseries thingie that airs all next week on bbc america (there's a new doctor who the following weekend, as well!) can i get a sciencefictional "WAHEY"??!
so what are *YOU* lovin' right now?!
Monday, July 13, 2009
the long awaited myrtle beach post
we went to one of the loveliest spots in the south. brookgreen gardens has both plant and animal life, beautiful flowers, amazingly tended grounds, interesting history exhibits, and one of the largest outdoor sculpture gardens in the united states. and we ate some barbeque.
we visited the nearby town of murell's inlet (named for a 19th century pirate captain--ARRRRRR!) explored the marshwalk, saw loads of gorgeous seabirds, and (for reasons we never discovered) marvelled at a small offshore island full of goats! and we ate some barbeque.