Working in My Journal

There are always lots of creative opportunities in my journal, and at the moment, that includes finishing off the grid backgrounds that I did for the GPP Street Team June challenge.

If you want to play along with the July challenge you can find it here.  Get out those papers and start tearing them into strips, and most of all, have fun!

Origami Fold Book

I've been cleaning up my studio, including going through the "work in progress" box.  Don't kid me, crafters, I know you have one.  My goal is to do away with the box.  Either finish it, put it in a scrap baggy if it doesn't appeal to me, or chuck it away.  That's my story and I'm sticking with it.

I finished 2 projects so far.  The first is an origami fold book I started many years ago after a trip to Ruby Dog's Art House.  I saw a similar book there and tried to memorize the folds so I could recreate it.

I'm not sure if I was exactly successful, but I kind of like it anyway!  If you look carefully, you can see the tags and other fun things attached to the book with the fibres through the top and bottom corners of the spine.

Finishing the Grids

I was having trouble figuring out what to do with all those grids; all that paper was just too lovely to deface. (Yes, I can still hoard, even if it is cut up and glued somewhere.) Then it dawned on me that this was kind of like a sampler, or a card made with inchies. So, I decorated each rectangle on the grid separately.

Happy Independence Day to my American readers!

Happy Birthday, Mimi!

There were a few birthdays to celebrate in June, and here is a card I made for one of the sweetest people I know.

Sun and Sand

I was busy in June making various books, so the ATC's I made for my swaps in June served double duty.

I made 20 of these and swapped them in the Vintage Collage swap and at the Vancouver Artist Trading Card Group, where the theme was Sun, Sand & String. The "sand" in the foreground is embossing powder. The string I left for somebody else to tackle.

Happy Canada Day to all my Canadian friends!

Happy Birthday, Rylan!

My grandnephew turned one on Saturday, and I made him a couple of things for his birthday.  Well, OK, maybe the photo album was for his parents.

It is called a "maze" book, and can either be tied open to display (above) or closed (below) as an album.  Here's the cover and the first couple of pages:

Starting to think about making him a card, I decided that a one year old needed a card made out of something soft:

This big "1" is made of craft foam, and the greeting is embroidered on the inside.  I think he can safely chew it!

Creativity: Not necessarily a straight line

Today I thought I would show you how to go from to in 10 easy steps.

1. Leave your job and enrol in some art school classes to unlock the right side of your logical, left-sided brain.  Here I learned how to paint with acrylic paints, in a large format, creating backgrounds.
2. Leave your backgrounds to "cure" for 8 years because you don't know what to do with them in their large format, and they are too good to cut up.
3. Receive from your generous sister some Stampsmith photo stamps.  Put these in a box to "cure" as well because you can't figure out what kind of cards to make with them.
4. Take a class in making handmade books.  Make a few, then put this aside.  (Was severe artists' block setting in?)
5. Dream about buying a Zutter Bind-It-All but tell yourself you can't justify the cost.
6. Wait at least five years and then begin the challenges over at Michelle Ward's GPP Street Team.  I have never been one to do the many card making challenges I find on the Internet, and I often wondered why I didn't do these when I needed a creative jolt.  But I recently found this site, and Michelle's challenges seem suited to my love of basic art supplies and techniques, and this one particularly intrigued me.  I started to think about those large papers again.
7. Join a new artists group.  Several people in the Vancouver Artist Trading Card Group make books, and I was drawn back to this wonderful art form.  I made a few hand stitched and folded books and found some wonderful blogs to further inspire me.  Some of the book artists I found on the Internet use recycled materials, and make books containing mixtures of different types of pages.  What a wonderful idea for a journal!  I also started to think again about buying a Bind-It-All and a couple of the people in this group helped me by answering questions about it.
8. Get inspired by iHanna's blog.  (I found this wonderful blog through the GPP Street Team Challenges).  I'm especially drawn to Hanna's use of bright colours and I decided to paint the other side of my large papers.
9. Find a used Bind-it-All.  Many people bought this binding machine and found they just don't use it.  It was sold as a scrapbooking tool, and although there is nothing wrong with the machine, some people like to make their own books and some people don't.  I found that one of the ladies in my local stamping group didn't use hers.  This made both of us happy!
10. A few days before the monthly stamp club meeting, decide to make everyone a little coil-bound journal.  Who knows, they too might be inspired to try a new medium.  I was a bit rushed but I got them all done.  And used up a lot of supplies that had been sitting around for awhile, including some scrapbook paper that had been "curing" for a few years as well. 

Thanks to everyone who had a hand in this creative journey.  Creativity is not necessarily a straight (nor short) line.