A New Year

Things seem different this year. Even as it starts I know some things have changed. One of the big things for me is that the Year of Color blog is over. I was able to focus much of my art from inspiration led by the blog. I was also able to participate in several outstanding swaps through it. I hope to be able to find more swaps to be a part of, but it seems I'm always finding them AFTER the deadlines. I also still need to finish one project from Silver Bella last November, and I was inspired and motivated even from sign ups late spring. Hopefully this will return when I see the class list for this year, I truly hope to be able to participate again!

But with the lack of mixed media focus, my attention has once again shifted to the scrapbook paper arena. Basic Grey has always been a favorite line of mine, and I've been able to dabble in color chemistry on two new collections based on "Nook and Pantry" and "Origins". Of course I started with ribbons! I also loved expirmenting with dyeing paper flowers, dictionary papers, and crepe. Both lines are now in my etsy.

Summer Apricot:
Moss:

Leave me a post telling me about your favorite pieces, or what lines you'd like to see next and I'll draw a name next week Friday (Jnauary 29th) for a free set of Summer Apricot ribbons and Paper Botanicals!

Catching my Breath

Ah, the end of Christmas break. So much has been cleaned, wrapped, unwrapped, eaten. We even spent a fun day at our Frederik Meijer Gardens, a local family botanical center with a fabulous Christmas display. My Dearest Husband and son love the miniature train displays.

And the girls and I love the Chrismas trees from around the World display. A very lovely afternoon spent.

I've been doing several highly involved journaling challenges that have been consuming much of my writing time, but several of those will be wrapped up shortly. I've also laid out the dyes and ribbons/flowers to start a new year in the etsy shoppe. Hopefully soon I will be releasing dyed embellishments for Basic Grey's Nook & Pantry and Origins.

Crepe and Scrapbook Layouts

Every now and then I stop what I'm doing to actually do a scrapbook page. I took my newly found embellishment making skill to create a felt button for the "K is for kiss" page below. The layout uses some of Jenni Bowlin's chocolatey sweet Town Square line (the brown soda water paper is exclusive to her kits- Love that paper!) and also some of her new circle letter stickers.

Next layout uses one of my friend Lita's sketches (No 7) and one of my all time favorite Basic Grey lines (Urban Prairie). I got to use some of my own hand dyed ribbon, attached to the layout with little French knots, and a bit of vintage millinery. This was also my first time journaling on the computer (mostly cause my handwriting underneath was awful and my pen was drying up, hmmph)

Wonder what the Crown Princess was thinking of?

Lastly, I finished up a collage I had started earlier (I may post the whole thing later, only a sneak now). Can you tell what holiday it is for?

And finally, I found this crepe monster in my photo studio (aka my living room bay window). Looks like it's having a bad hair day. Madness crepe will join the etsy shoppe later today. Cheers, and go make some soup!

Another Lita Sketch

Just wanted to let my friend Lita know that I really AM trying to keep up with her sketches. I was able to kill two birds with one stone with this double page spread- Lita's sketch combined with a challenge from Jenni Bowlin's BPS class using the red and white Dennison labels. I also got to use papers from one of my favoritist companies- Basic Grey. I've heard many say that their Junebug line is too loud, but I adore it!

The photos are of the Princess Royale at her Farm Day at Preschool. "C" was diagnosed with autism at the age of two, and one of her difficulties is keeping her eyes focused on yours (or the cameras) so the photo on the right hand page of her with the hat is very rare and a favorite of mine.

Riot of Ribbons

It is so much fun photographing the new silk ribbons, they take to the camera more easily than the seam bindings. I really tried to experiment with color mixing for Pears, Raspberries, and Bluebirds set. The aqua is a single color, but the green and pink required two colors, and the yellow was dyed then partially re-dipped into brown to give that just ripe pear color. I didn't twist them because I think they may set the wrinkles more quickly than the rayons. And though I didn't intend it, the colors match surprisingly well with Basic Grey's Urban Prairie line. Hmm, maybe I should save myself a set.

I also wanted to do a deeper colored Patriotic set, below is the new Betsy Ross set, also silk.

This photo snuck out of order....

Lastly, wanted to share a photo of a custom order I did for a dear who wanted aqua/light blues. Near the front are silks, in back are a few seam bindings.

Now back to your regularly scheduled program.

It's Actually All About Me!

Well, at least this altered composition will be. When I decided I wanted to do a scrapbook album of my own thoughts, ideas, favourites, etc. I knew I'd want a place to track some of these ideas before they hit album pages. On Scrapshare we've taken to calling these albums "Book of Me" or BOM after the book written by Angie Pedersen. I have yet to start my album, but at least I have a cool composition to inspire me! This one is covered in Basic Grey's Haute Couture line (one of my favourites) and a vintage book page. Some of the ephemera is printed by K&Co. and some other bits are by Jenni Bowlin. Little green pearls and golden circles are from my craft box. I also used vintage collage images I had collected off of etsy.
The spine is tied in yellow seam binding and holds a crystal chandelier drop.
The back- you can also see ribbons from Basic Grey's Haute Cotoure to divide "chapters"
Happy thoughts once again, this time running up the inside of the back cover.

You're my Cuppy-cake (Journal)

I started keeping notes in a plain old composition book on ideas for arts-and-crafty goodness. Things like themes, great color combos, favourite supplies, and a list of my Doodlebug embellishments (they are so yummy and come in so many colors I had a hard time remembering which I had of what!). But the cover was so dull. So I dressed it up in my favourite paper line (Basic Grey) and added my favourite colors (red and pink) and favourite sweet (cupcakes) and loads of my favourite embellishments (Doodlebug, Jenni Bowlin -love crepe paper!, evalicious newsprint buttons, wish tickets, seam binding, ribbons of all varieties)
A small pocket inside the front cover
Aside from the cover stating to "Think Happy Thoughts" a perfectly "Happy" flashcard adorns the back.
And absolutely everything in here is full of inspiration!