besottment by paper relics

California Souvenir Journal: Before

I am heading to California in a few weeks, to meet up with some colleagues and friends for a couple of days, then to attend Kim's An Affaire at Tiffany's event with some other friends - I am very excited!

At first I was going to make a souvenir journal just for the event, but then I decided that I would rather have it for the entire trip. I also really liked having a ringed journal when I went to Minneapolis last year (see the finished souvenir journal from that trip here) so I decided to go with rings again for this trip.

I used a 7 gypsies book-cover and covered it with old papers (the inside is a very subtle vintage wallpaper) and had fun using my vintage anagram collection to spell out California. The word "souvenir" is from a box of goodies by Wendy Addison I picked up on my last trip to Tinsel Trading. 

The inside is just kraft pages at the moment so I didn't photograph it to show you (but I promise to make up for it and show you every inside bit once it is filled!).

Also, remember way back when I had a giveaway for a "little bits" moleskine memo pocket that I saw Michelle have? Well, mine has gotten pretty worn over time, so I upgraded... I used one of Martha's new accordion files from her line with Avery (in white). The only hazard is that there are small gaps in the bottom, so I made the first pocket for smalls and put a glassine envelope in it to hold them and keep them safe. 

Otherwise, I am really happy with it. Here is a peek inside:

I was really glad to get back in the studio and creating. I do keep my daily journal, but I have not had a chance to sit down and spend time crafting, and I had missed it!

Oh - and here is a peek at my new e-course - Core Truths!

 

Crafted: Instagram Photo Album

My sweet friend Danielle takes the most wonderful photographs and she has a great gallery of instagram photos as well... So for part of her Christmas present, I created an instagram photo album for her:

For the cover I used the cover from a very old french cahier (notebook), which I adhered with double sided tape, then lightly coated it with matte gel medium. I did this because the paper was very old and fragile and I did not wish it to tear.

Next, I added a photo of her from her instagram gallery along with the instagram logo (which I propped up a bit to have it stand out). I also used a vintage finding - one that I believe is french and made to go on limoge boxes.

The sides are some pretty ribbon in a soft teal color that I had in my ribbon basket, being saved for something special like this. I lined the sides and part of the front and back with stripes of it. I used a thinner piece of the ribbon to make a little bow, and the bling is a vintage clip-on earring:

The inside cover has more mini sized photos and the instagram icon again. I folded the notebook paper from the front cover over, and used old text pages to fill in the middle:

Inside I used clear sleeves, I had to buy some and alter them a bit since the binder did not accommodate them out of the package. I cut brown kraft paper to 6x6 inches for the backs of the photos and had about 10 of her photos printed at 5x5 inches... I made a note to place after the photos saying that that there were lots more pages waiting to be filled with her future photographs.

The back is the back of the same french cahier I used for the front!

This was a fun project - I really enjoy making things for the people I love!

Winter Souvenir Issue

Here is a peek at my project for the Winter issue of Heather Bullard's Souvenir. I can't wait for you to see it in full, it was so fun to create!

Be sure to sign up to get the next issue when it is available. Click HERE to so sign up - it's free and it's wonderful!

Souvenir Fall Contributor

Do you subscribe to Heather Bullard's free seasonal gazette, Souvenir? Well, if you do, you can see the fun download and project I put together for the fall issue.

Be sure to sign up to get the next issue when it is available. Click HERE to so sign up - it's free and it's wonderful!

* Special thanks to Kari for letting me use her beautiful photographs (of her beautiful children) in this project.

Mixed Media Workshop with Teesha Moore

The second workshop I took while in Seattle by Teesha Moore (see my post about the first workshop by clicking HERE), was called 3D Mixed Media Collage.

Here is what I ended up creating, again, a very bold and heavy project which was a challenge to me.

I was really stuck on what to create so I choose to use letters rather then shapes and images:

We worked on 3 pieces at once, but my letters took much longer then expected so I only completed one piece. Below are the backgrounds of the two other canvases I was working one:

And here is a close up:

I have some fun ideas on how to use the techniques learned and incorporate them into a journal - so I plan to play around with that in the near future. As always, I promise to share the results with you!