Tuesday, November 25, 2014

free is good!

it's also the subject of this week's challenge at shopping our stash: we want you to make a project which incorporates something you got for free... and please be sure to TELL US in your post what it is and where it came from!  it just so happens my mother recently gave me a couple of the most wonderfully kitschy red doilies, made of some sort of funky plasticized paper, that i absolutely fell in love with; so my choice was pretty clear, and the embellishment for my december journal cover was completed in record time!

funky red vintage doilies of mysterious origin that my mom found in her dining room cupboard; flowers cut from an old christmas card; lace cardstock paper by k and co; red chipboard thickers; hambly snowflake transparency; chipboard book covers wrapped in vintage music paper; little scrap of pink tulle i found; ink: colorbox; adhesives: elmers gluetape runner, 3m foam tape, sewing machine

as you can see, just remembering how much fun i had doing december daily last year was enough to make me cave pretty quickly on the subject of whether or not i was making a december journal for myself this year. because of course just making the blank books for my etsy shop wasn't quite satisfying enough, i really wanted one i could keep and work in, so i whipped up one more 5x7" ringbound book. i had some pretty cool vintagey things leftover, so most of the pages are made up of scraps, old greeting cards, sheet music, etc. there are also a few "outtakes" from the other books: pages accidentally trimmed too small, or ones with the hole punched in the wrong spot. there's nowhere near enough pages here, but i know from experience that there'll be days i'll want to build something from the ground up, so i didn't get too caught up in the numbers.


did you notice the "over cover" built on a piece of transparency? i suppose, since this is my own book, i could've just embellished the music-wrapped chipboard, couldn't i? but i had a piece of hambly snowflake print that was serendipitously the perfect size, and i couldn't resist.


should i be embarrassed at nabbing the very coolest vintage ornament page from one of my old christmas ideals magazines to use as endpapers? naaaaaaaaaah. there are at least three styles of bauble in this photo that i actually own, and since they'll be hanging happily on my vintage tree again this year, clearly i HAD TO have this photo page for my own book! 


being as thanksgiving weekend is nearly upon us here in the states, bringing its heaping helpings of travel and family and food and fun with it, this challenge will span two weeks; thus you'll have twice as long to jump in and play! meanwhile, be sure to check out the awesome work of my sos teammates! ♥

10 comments:

  1. absolutely FAB Lauren! I am still on the fence about whether I am doing a daily album this year - might end up being a "here and there" sorta album. We'll see, as time races on and I don't have enough cards yet and I have yet to decorate and and... ha, we'll see. Yours, however, is absoluteley scrumptious and I adore the over cover!!! Can't wait to watch it all unfold during the month of December - I so enjoyed your December posts last year! Your play by play really encouraged me to dig deep to find the time for mine (which is as yet not quite finished, lol - but I Loved the process!)
    Cheers,
    Shanna :)

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  2. p.s. Have been thinking how lovely it would be to hang out and create together someday, or maybe go thrift shopping! If you ever feel the need to venture North, the door to my creative space is always open! lol You know, I have this amazing group of crafty friends who get together and crop one in awhile at a hall, how fun would it be to have a Guest of Honour such as you join us!!! ;)

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  3. And hey, if you feel the need to explore the Great Outdoors up North, I can help you out, lol! Skiing, snowshoeing, hiking, take your pick. I suppose we could call Thrift Shopping exploring since there's a good chance haven't explored Thunder Bay, ON before!

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  4. Holy, wow, do I love your books! And I'm happy to say I OWN ONE, and I look at it every day. <3

    I do envy you and your ability to put so much stuff together and have it look FABulous.

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  5. WOW. You've been a busy bee! Those red doilies are so fun and this journal is absolutely WOW.

    How grateful am I that I own one?! LOVE mine.

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  6. Great cover!! Great pages too. I'm curious-- do you write in these or make art or add memorabilia or all three or it's none of my bee's wax?? You also reminded me to pull out an Xmas Ideals mag I snagged at an estate sale earlier this year!

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  7. Ohhhhhh ya that is ALL kinds of awesomeness missus! WOW...I can't stop admiring!!

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  8. Wow! This is amazing! I can't stop looking at all the eye candy you crammed into this journal - and it's not even done yet! Awesome!

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  9. Seriously, seriously amazing, Lauren! How could you have resisted that transparency? And those doilies! I absolutely LOVE all the awesome details!

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the *BEST* part of blogging is the comments, dontcha think? thanks for taking time to leave one! ~♥~