{ATC Binder} and {WOYWW}

Hello! I hope everyone is having a great week thus far.  It's Wednesday so I guess it's time to share WOYWW :) Please visit Julia on her blog for more info on WOYWW.

Here is what I've been busy doing:

This is actually a project I started awhile back but never finished till now.  I decorated a mini album binder with the intention of making it a place I could put some of my art experiments in.  I like to play with different techniques/mediums and thought it would be fun to have that all in one binder that I could go refer to for some inspiration. 

I was at the dollar store the other day and found some trading card plastic sleeves and bought them because, well, they were a dollar, and I was also thinking that I'd like to play around making some ATC's.  I know I'm way behind on the times, but it was something that I never got around to trying :p

When I got home I scoured my space for a spare binder to store my plastic sleeves in and although I found some, they were just not pretty enough to store some artsy atc's. I could have decorated a binder but I just was not motivated to. As I pondered what to do I spotted something from the corner of my eye sitting on a dusty shelf, yep it was the mini binder I decorated way back when. So light bulb flashing in my mind I decided that was where my future atc's will be housed in.

So, to get to the point as this is becoming a rather dull long post :p I began by trimming down the plastic sleeves to size. The sheets come with 9 pockets (3 across and 3 down) but I had to trim off 1 pocket in each row of 3 in order to fit the binder, no biggie :p 

The plastics were pretty flimsy so I decided to reinforce where the holes would be for binding by adding a strip of light weight chipboard. I tried at first to sew the plastic and chipboard so that it would look pretty but that didn't turn out as I hoped (I was able to sew 2, then the machine quit on me).  As I've mentioned in a previous post somewhere I don't own a sewing machine, what I do have is one of those mini machines that are suppose to be for scrapbooking. There's no way I would ever consider that a sewing machine (at least not with a straight face :p). Anyway, now I know why that machine has been sitting on my shelf collecting dust for the past 8 yrs or so!

I ended up stapling the chipboard to the plastic with my TimHoltz tiny attacher.  I then decided to add a piece of washi tape to cover the staples and make it more pretty.  I punched some holes with my crop-o-dile and then I was done!

Here are some photos of the binder and the plastic sleeve inserts:

Can't wait to start filling it up!  I hope you enjoyed a peek at what's on my workdesk this Wednesday.  Now that I've shared, I'm off to clear off my desk so I can start on those atc's.  If anyone knows of a good place for swapping please let me know :)

Have a great day. Take Care!

{A Journal Page + Video}

Hi there!
I can't believe it's been almost 2 weeks since I've last blogged! Sorry for the inconsistency, you know how things can sometimes get hectic!  Anyway, I hope you've all been doing wonderfully!

I just wanted to quickly share a journal page I did for the Feb.15 prompts over at A Year In The Life Of An Art Journal.  I haven't journaled much lately and it seems the only journaling I have been doing is because of their prompts and the want to keep up with it.  So although I'm pretty late in my posting, I'm glad I'm accomplishing that goal regardless :)

Here are the prompts:
THE PROMPT: My Favorite Things
ie: a few of the things you LOVE about someone you love. Can be alive or dead.
THE STUFF: Lists and ephemera
ie: have a few tokens from that someone? Maybe the cover of the CD with "your song" or a napkin from the restaurant you both love to eat at...
THE TECHNIQUE: Pockets
ie: Use pockets to store those "things" on your page

I decided to do a journal page about my furbabies, I just love them!

Here are some photos:

Here's what the front and back of the journaling card (behind the photo) looks like:

Here are some photos of my nosy little girl :)

Always interrupting my photo taking sessions!

Here's the video of the page in progress, hope you enjoy it :)

Supplies Used:

*Liquitex Soft Body Acrylic Paint in:

-Medium Magenta

-Cobalt Teal

-Cobalt Turquoise

-Mars Black

*Golden Fluid Acrylic in Yello Ochre

*Golden Gesso

*Golden Matte Medium

*Washi Tape

*Deco Tape

*Tissue Paper

*Heidi Swapp Alpha stickers

*Stapler and Tim Holtz tiny attacher

*Jillibean Soup Journaling Sprout

*Sequin Waste

*Tim Holtz Adage Ticket

*Basic Grey Rub-ons

*Studio G ink pads in white, teal, and pink

Thanks for stopping by, Have a wonderful day!!

{WOYWW}

Hey again! I just realized I haven't been keeping up with my WOYWW.  I'm glad to say my "art" desk is cleared off at the moment, but here's what my "craft" desk looks like:

It's been like this for almost a week now.  There's remnants from working on my Valentine treat boxes from last week and then remnants from the mini album I created for the box a couple of days ago. At least it's basically from the same project then, but I think it's about time I cleared it off anways :p
If you're wondering what WOYWW is, it means What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday. You can find out all about it on Julia's Blog. Go check her out, i'd love to see what's on your desk :)

Thanks for having a look!

Happy *belated* Valentine's Day!

Halloo! Hope you all had a wonderful Valentine's Day with your loved ones. 
I've always had mixed feelings about this "holiday" and find it to be way too commercialized.  Then again, what holiday isn't?!

Seriously, shouldn't we celebrate love everyday? I think it would be so much more meaningful to receive a love token unexpectedly on any given day...just because. Instead of having to feel obligated to give something or receive something in return.  Then again, maybe I'm just bitter because I'm single, LOL! I'm not however, single..yes, bitter...no :p

However, I guess I will have to back track and admit that I do love all the pink and red themed goodies that come out at this time. I also like to make and give a little something special to a few of the special people in my life. 

So, I guess I digress and will say Happy {although belated} Valentine's Day again! Hope you had a wonderful day with your loved ones and let's try and start showing them how much we love them, on a more daily basis :)  That being said, I'd like to share with you the mini album I made to go in the Valentine treat boxes I created from this post. Lol, I think I may be sounding like a bit of a hypocrite at the moment :p

I made the mini album super simple, otherwise it might not fit in the box. This was made for my future SIL with pics of her and my brother. I added a love quote on one page and a pic of them on the other.  I'm glad I created the mini, that way my Valentine gift can be enjoyed all year long. LOL, I went back to my previous topic again, sorry, i'll stop now :-x

Here's a pic with some Hershey's Hugs and Kisses inside:

Here's a pic with the mini album inside :)

I can't believe this is the first time I've used this die.  I think I'm gonna have to make more mini's using it, love how it turned out, especially with the see thru window.  Hmmm....I think I have some ideas already in mind :p  

Anyways, I think I'll leave you here so I can go to the store and take advantage of the after Valentine sales.  Yep, definately sounding like a hypocrite! I love me my Reeses Peanut Butter Hearts, what can I say!

Thanks for stopping by, hope the rest of your week is wonderful! Take Care!

{Imagine} Art Journal Page

Hiya!
I just wanted to quickly share the journal page I did for A Year in the Life of an Art Journal's second prompt for January.  I actually created the page last week but I wanted to edit the video I made of the process and put it in one post.  Unfortunately, Windows Movie Maker and I are having abit of a disagreement :p 

So, I decided to share my page now since I don't know when WMM and I will make up and the new prompt will be posted on the 15th.  I will post the video another time if I ever get to edit it. 

Here are the prompts for Jan.30:
THE PROMPT: Imagine
ie: what's in your imagination or where do you imagine yourself
THE STUFF: Pictures or words from magazines/newspapers etc
ie: Words, letters or images that develop your idea
THE TECHNIQUE: mask/stencils
ie: can be anything from flowers, letters, rubberbands or professional mask or stencils

Some of the details:

-I tried to incorporate all the prompts and began by using a stencil and some sprays to create the background, but you can't tell because I ended up adding more layers of gesso and spray.  The letters however are alphabet masks by Heidi Swapp.

-The picture of the bench was an image that I printed off the web 

-I used a stencil and some molding paste for the flowers around the title.

-The flowers along the bottom are paper flowers by Prima

-The tissues that I collaged on the page are paper towels that I used to wipe of excess spray from a previous project

Supplies Used:

Homemade Colorwash Sprays

Gesso

Soft Gel

Tissue

Paper Flowers

Stencils/Masks

Light Molding Paste

Watersoluble Oil Pastels

Watersoluble Wax Pastels

Sharpie Pen

Thanks for stopping by! Hugs :)

{February} Calendar Page

Hey there! The first week of February has already passed so I guess it's safe to say that I am definately late on showing you my page for the 2012 Calendar Challenge over at Kate Crane's blog.

I was so determined too on being on time :(  In my defense though, I did start the page in January, but never got to finish it till now :p 

Here's my page, I'm glad I wrote in my daily planner what I want to transfer onto the little calendar blocks otherwise the first week would end up being full of just doodles (not that that's a bad thing)!

Supplies:

Acrylic Paint

Stencils/stencil waste

Stamps

Rub-Ons (used for the Title and stitches)

Distress Ink (Vintage Photo)

Staz On Ink (Sepia)

Lace

Sakura Souffle Pen

Vintage dictionary paper

Scrapbook paper (DCWV)

Paper Punch (Stampin Up)

I did video the process while creating the background of the page, but unfortunately when I went to edit it the quality was just horrible.

I hope you like the page though. Thanks for taking the time to have a looksy!

Take care!

{Love is in the Air} Valentine Treat Boxes

Heya!
I am Roses is currently having a YouTube contest to create some Valentine treat boxes.
You have to incorporate some of their awesome flowers in your project, with the added challenge to use some lace as well.
I thought I'd give the challenge a try, plus I really did need to create some treat boxes anyways :)

Here's what I ended up making :)

                                     

Here's what the back looks like:

I also made a video of the project, here it is:

They didn't turn out how I originally envisioned it, but I'm still 

happy with the outcome regardless.

I think I'm also going to create a mini album to put in the box so that there's

something to put inside once all the candy is gone :) 

Thanks for stopping by.  Take Care!

{Mail Art Swap}

Hello hello!
Sorry it's been awhile.  Things were unusually busy towards the end of Jan. and I've been abit under the weather for the past couple of days as well. 
Yesterday was definately no exception as I found myself in bed for pretty much the entire day with a massive migraine.  So I was definately relieved when I awoke this morning with just a dull, sort of heaviness to my head instead of the sledge hammer pounding feeling from the previous day :0

But anyways, I digress :p  I just wanted to quickly share something I received in the mail that just completely made my day. 
I participated in my first mail art swap this past January hosted by Micki Wilde on her blog at The Secret Hermit.  I've been a huge fan of hers for awhile and if you're into mixed media I'm sure you know who she is.  I just love her work and when she said she was gonna have a mail art swap I jumped at the chance to own one of her little paintings.

So, when I opened the mail box and found a colorful painted envelope in the box instead of your usual white business envelopes, I totally jumped for joy with excitement!  I opened the envelope oh so carefully, and the painting was also packed in a cute striped paper bag with a paper doilie and tag. Super cute!

Inside was this precious little painting, I just absolutely love her!!!

I can't wait to find the perfect ribbon to attach and hang her up on the wall.

If you're curious to what I sent in exchange, I decided to paint a little mermaid painting since I just love creating them.
Here's what she looks like. She came out very similar to my last mermaid painting but on a smaller scale :p  I was a bit bummed however that I had to cover up the envelope when I mailed her.  The post office I went to ran out of small customs labels, so I had to put the artsy envelope into a larger manila envelope to mail out.

Thanks for having a look :)  I have some other projects to share with you

but unfortunately I haven't had the chance to photograph them yet. I will soon though, promise!

 Until then, Take Care!