Sam's Zine

Another project that I've never shared is the zine I made for Sam in the "7 Things in 7 Days" Swap.  The deal was you make something everyday for a week.  Then you make a little zine telling your partner all about your week.  It was tons of fun and was probably the most productive week ever!  I've shared some of the stuff I made that week already, like my hat and the arcade games.  The rest I'll show in a follow-up to this post.  I don't want to bore everyone to death all at once.

I decided to make mine more like an art journal and I loved the results.  It was huge!

I started by prepping the pages to match the item I was going to showcase.  Each page is made up of two 5x7 unlined index cards.  The front one is the funky, pretty side and the back one would have a picture of the item on it.  I glued them back to back, making each page pretty strong.

 Here are a few of the pages before I wrote anything on them.

Here's a few after they were finished.

This last one is my favorite one!

Again, some terrible lighting on this last group.  These were taken late at night.  Anyways, all the pages are held together by a metal ring in the upper, left corner.  Which works great since the pages were thick and some were oddly shaped.  I had a ton of fun making this!  Art journaling is something I've mainly admired from afar, but this swap definitely inspired me to do it more often!

What's your take on art journaling?  Yay or nay?

Speaking of swapping, I'm certainly getting in the mood to start up again.  However, I've got to get on the ball with my etsy first.  And I'm thinking about doing  my first craft fair this summer.  So those will keep me busy for a while.  It's ok though, it feels good to have bigger priorities.  On that note, I've got to get back to work.  The computer is a huge time killer for me!

See you soon, have a craftastic day!

The 30 Day Journal Challenge

Hello, everyone!  How have you been?  I've been a busy bee lately.  I'm rushing around trying to get everything ready to go out of town later this week.  In addition to household stuff and gathering up gear, I'm also piling up crafty stuff and art supplies to keep me occupied while I'm gone.

So, have you seen anything about The 30 Day Journal Challenge ?  Well, Janel over at Run With Scissors is putting it on.  So far she's had great prompts.  You should join, I did!

It just so happened that I was about to dig into a brand new sketchbook.  Perfect timing.

Day 1- Introduce Yourself

Hi, I'm Jackson 5.

Day 2- What is the best part of your day?

That's easy.

Day 3- Draw a picture of someone you love.  Then write a letter to them.

No, he's not really a robot.

Don't bother reading it...it's mushy, lovey junk.  It might make you sick.

I'm saving the rest of the prompts so far for when I'm camping.  It'll give me something to do while I'm getting sunburned and drinking beer.

Thanks for looking!  

Have a craftastic day!

Messy Pages.

A few more pages from TBOL (The Book on Love.)  They're messy and not so nice to look at, but it's my first art journal so I don't really know what I'm doing.  I have a hard time deciding what to put on the pages.  I know the whole point is to be free and just go for it, that's hard for me.  I'm getting over that though...quickly.

 

I decided that the whole book can't be about romantic love because I would go crazy.  (And it would probably turn out to be very cynical, lol.  Don't get me wrong, all that mushy stuff is fine and all, it's just not for me.  Especially when I'm in a bit of a funk.)  So, I'm going to include other stuff that I love- like paintings, books, and mobsters!

Do you keep an art journal?  Where do you find your inspiration from?  Do you find it's better to have a journal with a theme or just go with whatever you are thinking at the moment?

Anyhoo, thanks for looking!  I'll check back in later since I've been so lazy about blogging lately.

heart!

 

 While walking our dog I found this lovely little walnut shell.  Isn't it just perfect?  I want to go back and get a whole bucket of them!  I have so many ideas of things to make with them.  During my frenzy of blurting out all of my thoughts Dillon mentioned it would probably make a nice stamp.  Genius!

Using acrylic paint,

I gave it a shot in The Book on Love.

I probably should have used a dremel to make the surface a little bit more even, oh well.

The first page is officially started!  The white paint smudged and it's driving me batty so I plan on doing a lot more with it.  Updated pics to come.

Thanks for looking and have a craftastic day.

The Book on Love.

I had been wanting to make an art journal for a while now after seeing some fabulous how-to videos from Artiste Nouveau.  I'm sure you guys remember her from my list of happy blogs a little bit back.  I have plenty of journals and sketchbooks but I wanted something that I made all by myself.  I have a slight obsession with paper goods and stationary items so that also fueled the fire on this one.

It began with a bit of drunken midnight crafting.

So, here it is, The Book on Love.

Most of you will recognize the pattern from the Sublime Stitching Craft Pad.  I stitched it up on vintage pink linen that I snagged while thrifting.  I loved working with this fabric.  Due to the loose weave the floss just slid through it so nicely.  But it wasn't so loose that it pulled out or the tension got all wonky.  I even stitched it up without a hoop, which was new for me.  Because it was so easy to stitch on I used lots of metallic floss and kept all six strands for a majority of the floss.

I will eventually paint the title on it when I decide the exact wording.  I'm not 100% sold on The Book on Love yet, although that will be the themes for my entries.

Little charms on the spine.

  

I tried couching!  Although, I had originally picked a purple floss to go over the top.  However, I was in the zone with stitching that I grabbed the bobbin next to it, the yellow, and just went to town.  I didn't even notice until I was almost done with it.  Isn't it funny that how sometimes you can just get so wrapped up in something that you are staring at it but not even really seeing it?  Or maybe I just don't pay attention...  I'll have to think more about that one.

The inside covers both match.

 

As you can see, I used black paper for the signature.  I used a bit of vintage gingham ribbon to hide the little space between the decorative paper cover and the signature.  Nothing matches 100% but most of it goes together with all of the pinks.  I had originally intended to make it a monthly journal this one would have been February, so I think I had girly valentine stuff on my mind.  That's also why I made it with 28 pages... but as I didn't actually start it working in it on the 1st of the month.  So yeah... I digress.

I attached the spine and back cover fabric with Mod Podge.  I was out of Matte so I just went with Gloss.  Unfortunately, I didn't consider how much it would change the color of the linen.

You can see the difference in these shots.

In progress, before attaching the front cover with the Mod Podge.  (I figured, screw it, they should match on both sides.)

 

  

After.

Crazy different, huh?  I'm not so happy with the way the Mod Podge pooled up around the beads and some of the edges of the stitching.  However, I'm not going to dwell on it.  And I'm happy with the total piece overall so that's all that matters.  A plus is that it made it super strong!  The covers are very rigid and the stitching is ultra protected, so I don't have to worry about it getting destroyed over time as I work in it.  I probably can't journal about love every day so I wanted it to be tough enough.  This baby will outlast me.  In fact, a friend was over this weekend and she happened to pick it up while we were in my studio.  She yelled, "HOLY CRAP!  This thing is crazy...it's probably strong enough to be used as a deadly weapon!"  As it looked all dainty she was a bit surprised.  I took it as a good sign that I had been successful with my first handmade art journal.

Thanks for looking and taking the time to read my ultra long post today.  I'll share pics of some pages soon.  Have a craftastic day!