Art Journal Caravan 2012

I joined the expedition. I jumped on the bandwagon. I'm getting ready for my upcoming adventure to map out my creativity. Yay!!!

I was looking on the forums and discovered a challenge to write a letter to yourself to keep you motivated throughout the year. As I am very aware, I tend to jump in with both feet and then get tired and abandon all projects when I get tired of them. A crate of art supplies with half a book gessoed tells me this.

So I think this letter is a stroke of genius. I can read this when I am flagging in desire, when I get frustrated, or when I'm just bored. So I wrote a letter to myself in my head, thinking about what I was going to say. Then I wrote it down a bit later scanned it and my letter is digital, though it's actually handwritten!

I 

I used Tangie's kit that came with the AJC and I also used pieces from Sherrie JD's Reflections. I also made the doll myself using Tangie's Ultimate Art Doll. Do you know how fun it is to make a digital doll like this? It's better than playing with paper dolls! This doll is several different pieces I put together. 

I also made my first desktop for Scrapbook-bytes desktop challenge. It was  a lot of fun and I don't know why I never made one before and actually used it. I can look at this daily and wonder at my amazing creative talent, LOL. 

this was made using Pieces of Time by Designs by Helly. The calendar bits came from Kristmess designs. I love the colors and the elements, especially the violin and the flowers.

I am still working on the monthly challenge for the caravan, the idea is brewing in my mind. Tomorrow marks the first prompt for the week, and I'm excited about that. Hopefully this will enable me to actually use my art journal, and not the digital one. I want to get my hands dirty!

It's 2012!

I have not been doing much scrapping lately. I really want to stay current in challenges at Scrapbook-bytes and post regularly. I am planning on changing that this year.

I am going to join the Art Journal Caravan Expedition 2012 found at Scrapbook Graphics hosted by Tangie Baxter.  It officially starts on Friday and the prompts are given each Friday for the rest of the year. This is a new way to scrapbook, without photos, and letting the creativity flow. I look forward to doing this challenge.

I will post some of my layouts as I get them done. I need to get started, and soon!

Hanging in there

I did survive DSD this year. It was a fun, crazy time. I hosted a few games over at Scrapbook-bytes, and I think they were pretty successful.


I'm still in a scrapping slump. I don't know why. I don't even carry my camera around like I used to to take photos, and when I do, I don't take any! It's crazy I know. As the family memory keeper, I need to document these things. I've been feeling so apathetic lately it's almost scary.

I did maybe 3 layouts last month, which is good, but I really want to do more. I don't have the mojo. There are lots of great layouts in the gallery, but nothing is really calling me to scrap anything at all. I hope it comes back soon, because I like to scrap and make layouts.

I want to get a new camera. It's a bridge, between SLR and point and shoot, combining the best of both worlds. I want more focus and more manual control in my camera, but I still want it to be able to catch photos on the fly. I decided on a sony cybershot HV100. It's a bit over $400, but it's well worth it. I've done tons of research, so I know. Now I need a little fairy to drop off my camera or the money for one. LOL!

That's my update for this week.  

Still Scrappin!

It's been some time since I posted. 8 months, to be exact. That's a lot of layouts to show. Really, I won't show that many, not that there's tons, but in 8 months, I did get a lot done.

I do have to make a confession. I did kind of slow waaay down with my scrapping. I went from doing 3 layouts a day to doing 5 a month!

But I did become part of the Praise Team at Scrapbookbytes, my new home! I love the challenges and the rewards there. You get a point for each layout, and five points is worth $1. Nice huh? Well, if you use all SBB products and do all the challenges, we're talking at least $10-$15! That's several kits worth, all for doing what you love!

Like I said, I have slowed down a bit on my scrapping. Partly because my camera is crap and partly because...I don't know...it's just one of those things, right? I love looking at the kits in the store, but I seldom have the photos I think would go with those kits. And I love my kids and all...but...I guess to me it gets kind of boring doing the same layout over and over...

Maybe that's why I got into Art Journaling. More on that in a future update. Here's some of the more recent layouts I have completed.

This is my 11 yr old daughter. I love the pink and the blue flowered paper. This is over at SBB for the font challenge. I used the kit All About Me; Tweens by Trixie Scraps.

Also over at SBB, this one was for a jouranling challenge. I used Danimoy's Inner Beauty kit.

So that's the update for now. I'll be back with more layouts soon!

Budget!!!

What a time to go on a forced budget. I love Valentine’s Day. I love the red, the pink, the white, the hearts. I love love. Oh yeah, and my birthday is on Feb 13th, so I may be a bit biased.

I got myself an early birthday present (with help from hubby) and now I have no $$ to spend on new and upcoming kits. It’s killing me. I don’t even want to look in the stores because then I’ll see what I’m missing out on.

It’s ok. I will make a wish list. Then, in a few weeks, watch out!! I’ll be back with a vengeance. Or not.

I did too many layouts last month, trying to do individual pages for 4 different sites. On average, I made 3 layouts a day. I was burned out before the end of the month. At least I made it more than halfway through. I’m taking a small break, but I feel ready to jump back in. I just have lots of other stuff on my plate. Like a bunch of baby knitting. Yeah, I’ll scrap about that. And my early birthday present. And….Ok, gotta go!

I'm on Amy's Blog!!

Whoo Hoo! I made a layout for ScrapMatters. The challenge I did was called Word Up and the page I made was this:

I had to do a layout with a poem and I made this haiku about our kitten. I used the kit Just Me by Amy Stoffel and I got picked to be the member spotlight on her blog!!! How awesome is that???
Wow, I am just so excited. To read my interview, go here and don't forget to stop by  ScrapMatters and get some of Amy's goodies.

Week 1 of 52

I was going to do these on Sunday, but since Friday was day 7, I figured today would be better. I gathered all my photos I'd taken for P365, copied the summaries from my blog and pasted them onto the template, and I came up with this:

I got some help from eNKay Design by using the kit 365 Collection Bundle. You can get it over at Scrapbook-bytes.  You get a ton of stuff: 4 templates, frames, a few different choices in dates, and a kit called You Make Me Smile. I like these for everyday moments as well.

I went to Staples today and got a calendar/planner. They didn't have the one I wanted, which was refillable and cost around $25 for the refill. The planner was another $35. I passed and got a cheaper wire bound one, two days to a page. I figure if I decide to keep these, it's better contained than a refillable one. I'm trying to stay more organized. I have about four notebooks sitting on my desk taking up space. I bought this nifty refillable 3 subject notebook and transferred the contents of my other notebooks into the one. Now I can go to one spot instead of shuffling through them to find what I'm looking for. I like things in its own place. It makes me happy!

This past week I learned a few new things. I learned how to make "swiss cheese" paper. A paper with cut-outs that shows the paper below it. Very cool and easy. I also learned how to thread a ribbon around stuff. I've found that a pretty handy thing to know. I also learned that you can nudge your elements by first selecting it, ctl + T and then using your arrow keys to nudge it (PSE8). I've used that a lot too, especially for getting the alpha in the right spot! Sweet.

I'll be back soon with another update.