december "daily" journal

i say "daily" only because i didn't really journal every day as it happened.  i was on a roll with my daily september and october journals but i kind of lost steam by november. and then december just showed up out of nowhere and in a blink it was gone again!

i love journaling in this haphazard kind of way.  just taking photos and slapping them onto a page with some fun decorations (tape, labels, stickers, cut-outs, etc) and then writing a little bit about the photo or what happened that day.

cavalini stickers.  love.

so, since i didn't really start my december daily until, like, over half the month was already done, i just put together a little page (with the help of my google calendar!) of the little things that happened each day.  i will go back later and print out any photos i have and stick them into the journal to illustrate the events.

i like to write more in my journals, especially when documenting big events like birthdays and christmas.  it's nice to break up a big block of writing with colorful photos and stickers.

i love peek-a-boo pages, too. love having multiple layers so you can kind of see what's coming next.  it adds depth and dimension to a 2-D project.

i like using a variety of colors for holiday projects besides the typical or traditional color schemes.  for my december daily i chose red, green, blue, pink with little bits of gold and glitter.

hope you had a merry christmas and here's to a wonderful new year!

Holiday Shop Update & Giveaway!

I've updated my Etsy shop with vintage paper goods, vintage Christmas ephemera and embellishment packs and vintage mixed-paper recycled journals and scrapbook mini albums.  Yay!  Blog Readers, enter code BLOG2011 at checkout for a 20% discount on your order!

I absolutely love vintage Christmas cards.  The one above is a sweet angel, embossed and made to look like a patchwork quilt.  I could see this in one of my holiday journals or used as an embellishment on a scrapbook page.

I've restocked the Christmas journals/mini albums.  Each journal/album comes with a little stash of goodies tucked into the back pocket so you are ready from day 1 to start recording those holiday/everyday memories!

The journals are filled with my favorite vintage paper: pages from holiday books and kids workbooks, ledger and graph paper, as well as current favorites such as brightly colored scrapbook and handmade paper.

 The journals also come in shades of wintry blue for those who prefer a more subtle winter pallet.  Pages are also embellished with labels and stickers from the Cavalini sticker tins.

And these are my favorite!  Precious packs of my favorite embellishments, perfect for holiday crafting!  Each pack has a glittered gift tag, and an assortment of vintage and new paper and ephemera.

here's a more detailed photo of what is in the ephemera packs: patterned scrapbook paper, handmade paper, vintage dennison seal, scalloped cardstock, glittered Christmas tag, vintage green-and-red playing card, vintage book illustration images.  Each pack comes tucked inside a glassine envelope.

Well I am excited for the holiday season to begin!  

Have a Happy Thanksgiving (if you're in the U.S) and have a wonderful weekend!  I'll be drawing a name from the comments on Tuesday, November 29th.  One lucky commenter will win a mini journal and ephemera pack of their choice!   All you have to do is leave a comment and tell me, what are you most thankful for?  

october journal pages

so, wow. october is done and gone. that was fast!!  now we're getting close to thanksgiving and christmas.  always a fun and exciting time.  i am just finishing up my october daily journal.  i'm about to start a mini "thankful thoughts" november journal.  i'm taking an online class over at something splendid.  this mini will be a little more mixed-media (yay! i get to pull out those acrylic paints!!)

so, october was filled with art and costumes and candy and manic weather (rain-sun-rain-sun-cold-hot-cold!)  i placed whatever photos i took this month in my little mini october journal and wrote little bits so i wouldn't forget the details.

october was very active for us on the homeschool front!  there were field trips and garden days and school photos and lots and lots of playgroups (which end up being really great support groups for us moms who are new to this adventure!)

i like this approach to daily journaling/scrap-booking.  i love to see my photos of our every day life with little written thoughts.  nothing complicated, just simple.

i played around in this journal with a little bit more collage-y elements.  here i'm using washi tape, sequin scrap and a playing card.

still having fun with the instax camera, too.  ran out of film tho! so i'll have to find out where to get more.  probably amazon. ;)

this month, my daughter also joined a group that meets once a week with other homeschool kids from across the bay area and they learn through play in various county parks.  it's a branch of the homeschooling philosophy known as un-schooling or free schooling where the child's interest dictate what is learned that day.  the kids spend a whole 6 hours outdoors with two nature experts who are there to answer their questions or to help organize a game and to supervise their play.  my daughter comes home soaked and muddy with tales of animal tracks, how to identify different plants in nature, how redwoods collect water, and also of her adventures building rock castles with her friends or braving a rope swing over the creek.

one day after "class" we were fortunate enough to meet up with my lil' sis who just started college.  we got to spend the afternoon with her,  and celebrated her birthday.  all right in the middle of a "school" day.  i really love how homeschooling frees up our schedule and lets us explore the world.  we have more time for adventures, more time for family and friends and more time to just ask ourselves, what do we really want to do today?

i mean, we've only got one life. we might as well live it to the fullest that we possibly can.  we are all here for different reasons. i am sure that i am here to explore and have fun.  and i love that i can do that with my two little ones in tow!

what adventures have you been up to these days?  what brings you joy?

random fall pages

here are a few pages from my little daily september journal/scrapbook.  there were a few days/memories that i didn't have photos for, but i still wanted to include in the journal. so i made a cute, scrappy title with some random alphabet stickers and wrote in all the details i could remember about the photo-less days/events.

close-up of a page.  i used some cardstock cut-outs from crate paper's random line (love it!!)

no journal of mine is complete without some hand lettering and doodling.

a little close-up of my somewhat neglected xtra large moleskine cahier...i got a little wrapped up in my 4x6 size mini book/daily album that i kind of forgot about my other journal. ;)

more page close-ups...

the above page is still in the works...needs some coloring-in of the writing, but i like how it's coming together.

and you've gotta try taking super close-up photos of your journals/artwork and then printing them as labels on sticker paper or as photos and then re-using them in your artwork/journals.  so much fun.  each page is full of new artwork just waiting to be exposed! :)

words to live by

here are a few more pages from the album i've been working on.  i really forget how much i like making these little scrapbook pages!

i love mixing colorful washi tape, boarders stickers, alphabet stickers (mix matched colors & fonts!) and using my moonlight gel pens to add little designs to the background.  and of course, i must have the pilot permaball to outline and journal and add little bits of texture and dimension to some of the elements on the page.

here is the cover of the album.  it is made of 5.75" x 5.75" envelopes from papersource (love LOVE that store!!)  i bought a super awesome kit on etsy once that taught me how to make the envelope album and now i'm hooked.  love it.

look at all these yummy colors!  and since it's made of envelopes, you can also use the pages to tuck in little bits of ephemera, notes, photos, secret journaling, etc.  i think these would make awesome journals, too.

i love the faux stitching on the border stickers on these two pages.  the stickers are from sassafrass lass.  makes me want to experiment with stitching (in the style of amy tangerine!)

some more examples of adding details with the gel pens.  i'm loving these banner stickers by sassafrass, too.  love adding them to the sides for a unique twist.

and i had to include a photo of my dear 81-year-young grama in my album!  i love her smile and her laugh.  she is the inspiration for the name of my blog, too.  love you, grama!  and i printed all the photos from my camera using the pogo printer.  fun!

my scrapbook style

i guess i would say my style is colorful and eclectic.  i don't do a lot of scrapbooking, but i am starting to kind of like it more and more. especially since they hold all of my precious photos of my day-to-day life. if they weren't in an album of some kind, they would just sit on a computer or in a dark box on my shelf!

so thank goodness for free classes like the one going on at big picture classes right now.  i am just that kind of crafter/artist that is motivated by daily assignments and "deadlines."  each day, a different teacher posts a new word of the day and a template.  i print out the template on colorful cardstock, cut to size, add a photo (printed from my portable pogo printer--LOVE!!) and then i'm good to go.

i've made 10 pages so far and that's 10 more photos that i will actually have the enjoyment of seeing and sharing with others. yay!  

and this is just a random shot taken with my phone at a red light on my way back home from running errands this afternoon.  i was just inspired by the super blue sky and the pop of red and yellow from the old western appliance sign.  (excuse the crazy dirty windshield!!  i must've run into a bunch of crazy bugs or something).  but that sign has been there for as long as i can remember.  now i am actually a little bit inspired to go around my town taking photos of all the old signs and buildings.  i'll keep you posted!

scrappy pages and spontaneous rainbow giveaway!!

i'm made a few more pages for my album. it feels so good to finally be putting these photos onto pages and into albums! and i have the class "got paint?" by emily falconbridge to thank for it! :)

i always forget this trick/tip, but it is SO much easier to create almost ANYthing when you get a few steps done ahead of time.

i painted and stamped all my pages at once and then when it was time to lay the photos down, i worked on several pages at a time, flowing between each one when i'd get "stuck."

i have almost a full 6x6 album now. all colorful and rainbow-y and full of photos of me and my family! yay! so let's celebrate with a GIVEAWAY!!

i've been cleaning up my studio--organizing, rearranging, and creating more messes (suddenly, surrounded by my art supplies and treasures, i'll be inspired to create!). so, i found two packages left over from a past rainbow giveaway/swap and i thought i'd offer a package full of RAINBOW goodies to the first TWO COMMENTERS! starting...NOW! **remember to leave a way for me to contact you either an email or blog or something!!**

good luck!!

painting scrapbook pages

just wanted to share some scrapbook pages i've done lately. i'm taking a class with emily falconbridge called "got paint?" over at big picture classes. i met emily at a class i took with anahata katkin in september of 2008 (wow, was it that long ago?). i've been following her blog ever since. and when i found out she was teaching an online course, well, i just had to sign up!

it feels REALLY good to finally be getting these photos onto pages and into albums. i've never been much of a scrapbooker, but when i saw how artistic you could get with pages and all the "non-traditonal" styles and methods, i couldn't resist. these techniques are simple and they get me motivated to get my photos out and get those pages into an album. once i started one, i couldn't stop.

it's super easy. i painted the pages with some quick background colors and when they were dry, i added some stamps in contrasting color paint. i spread the pages all out in front of me and started laying down my photos (this was kind of random, but sometimes i'd place a photo down on a page if it looked really good with the colors). then it was time to add the embellishments. i'm really loving boarder stickers! i can't get enough. especially the ones by k & company. the brigher the better! :)

so, that's about all. it's been too cold and windy to get outside to do spraypainting in my journal (and i still need the right mask!). so i'll wait til it warms up a bit. spring is lovely and all, but it can be so temperamental! warm and sunny one day and cold and windy the next! (can't wait til summer! that's my favorite season!!)

hope you are all up to your elbows in paint and paper and crafty goodness!