besottment by paper relics

Minneapolis: Wonderful Visit

The day before I left we headed to the Mall of America (scary!!) to attend a ScrapFest class with Kari's sister, Laura. We had a great time!

I have such a great relationship with her kids - they were both so excited to see me, and me them!

We headed to Nye's Bar in downtown minneapolis, it has one of the last remaining vintage photobooths, and we try to get to one every time we are together.

I love this photo of us at her parent's house:

We worked on so many projects while we were together - it was so much fun staying up late with some wine (or in my case, champagne), talking and crafting!

We even got to the pumpkin patch one day!

It was such a wonderful trip - I love that we meet up every year and have so much fun! Missing people is sad!

Recent Journaling (Mid Septemeber)

Here I used some vintage letter stamps I got at Junk Bonanza (do not worry, I still have a couple more posts to share about my trip, including one about Junk Bonanza!)

Here is a page I showed you a start of in my last journaling update - it is all done now...

This spread was fun to make - the left took a while, but I was pleased with it, then I was able to do some wrtiting to tuck inside the envelope. On the right is a page with "beauty" written on it, I got in with an order from A Bushel and a Peck, and I wrote some beauty quotes around it. I added a cool tag from a sweatshirt on top.

Here is a peek under the tag:

Here is a spread I did about my recent visit with Kari.

Minneapolis: Estate Sales

I love going to visit Kari because she always takes me to the best estate sales!

This year was no exception, we hit nine sales - 9! - and we both bought things at every single one! Below is a photograph Kari snapped while I was paying. I love vintage office supplies (started to collect vintage rulers) and found so many great things.

We each got empty cabinet card albums for $3! Kari wanted to the covers and me the insides, so it worked out great. I found an old ledger, a vintage label maker,

Vintage photos, more rulers and dennison labels,

and lots of old cigar boxes, and so much more! Just look!

Oh, and this pack of miscellaneous vintage graph paper - ONE dollar! I was so excited!

Here are some other goodies ... I thought the scrapbook would make a great journal cover:

My suitcase was very close to the weight limit, and I had a huge carryon - but I managed to get it all home!

Uncommon iPhone Case

A quick break in Minneapolis posts to share my new case! One of my friends told me about Uncommon cases a while back, but they were not offering them for iPhone 4's. So I signed up to be notified when they would start, and had forgotten about them. Well last week I got an email saying that iPhone 4 cases were in!

The best thing about this site is that you can use the artwork they ready for you (lots of fun designs to chose from) ... or create your own case. I opted to design my own case, using a silhouette girl I made and a french proverb I love... 'hope is the dream of a soul awake.' They printed and shipped it so quick, I had it within days... here are some photos:

I also made myself some matching wallpaper for my lock screen:

I highly recommend them! The case looks great in person, and it was so easy to create and order. Of course, Kate Spade did finally come out with iPhone 4 cases too - so I may just need the pink one for days I feel I need a splash of color.

Minneapolis: The Creative Connection HandMade Market

I have a few Minneapolis posts to share (in no particular order)- each one will have a peek spread at my souvenir journal, and then the last post will have my entire journal for you to see! The entire trip was wonderful - I love getting to spend time with Kari and her family, and this year we had a so much else to do too!

First up... The Creative Connection - we did not attend the event, but swung by the HandMade Market one day.

Hutch Studio was a wonderful find - both Kari and I loved their booth and products (she took the photo below)

I got to see way more people than I took photos of... but here we are with Jenn! Her booth looked great, and it was so nice to see her!

I got to see some clients too, Laurie of Bittersweet Designs (postcard I designed shown below), Stacy of Buttermilk Basin (first time I met her in person - she was wonderful!).

Here is Kari and Jessi - you can see more of Jenn's booth in the background too.

Danielle had to rush to class as soon as we got there, but she texted and wanted us to stop by, so we did. She was taking a class by Laurie Meseroll,

After class (and my and Kari's mad dash across town to get in some vintage photobooth photos - more on that soon), we headed to Buca's for dinner with Melene, Jana and Danielle. I also discovered Bellini's, my new favourite drink!

Here are some of the goodies I purchased at the market, some things from Hutch Studio, a bracelet by Ruth Rae and some fun journaling tags.

The pouch has a little message inside - 'it is these thoughts that make life enjoyable.' Love.

Stay tuned for more - Junk Bonanza, estate sale finds, and more!

Home Sweet Home

I am home from Minneapolis - and have lots to share... I am working on several posts:

Junk Bonanza

The Creative Connection HandMade Market

Estate Sale Finds

Souvenir Journal (it is so fat, filled with memories!)

and more... so stay tuned!

Oh, and be sure to pop over to Kari's blog to wish her a happy birthday!

Journaling Early September

Here are some photos of some journaling spreads I did before I left for my trip. As you can see, sometimes I jump ahead to a new spread before I have finished one. I will go back and finish them all - but wanted to show you the work in progress.

I was having a bad day here on the left - just feeling off. Hate those days.

Every now and then I will find a random snipping from a magazine - this particular one (on the left side below) I cut out ages ago and just stumbled upon it and thought to use it, on the right, the subpage has several great quotes:

Back of the subpage and a bit about my upcoming trip - and a fortune from a sweet girl:

Here is the close up of the fortune I was given:

Minneapolis Souvenir Journal (Before)

This week I am heading to Minneapolis to visit Kari, and to check out Junk Bonanza and The Creative Connection HandMade Market. If you plan on being at either - leave a comment so I can keep an eye out for you.

Anyway - another trip... you know what that means... Souvenir Journal time! This time I decided to try one of 7 Gypsies little journals. I decorated covers, one for me and one for Kari. I have been using colorful elastic seam binding (thanks to Pam Garrison for that idea) to keep them closed (I have been using it on my moleskine cahier's too). These notebooks have quite a lot of pages in them, so for mine, I tore some of them out to make it smaller.

Here is my cover up close:

Since the best part of creating a souvenir journal is working on them while on the trip, there is not much inside yet... but I did do a few little things.

I wrote on the inside cover:

And added a cute tag with a photo of me & Kari last fall:

I wrote a little on the inside back cover pocket and filled it with some journaling bits that I may want to use.

As always, I promise to share the finished journal with you upon my return!