My Passion Is...

February in Photos

2012-03-11T19:19:00.000-04:00

Today, March 11 2012, is my cousin Becca's wedding.
I am so sad I couldn't be there!!

I'm sure it was amazing.

It's my spring break also, but with plane fares so high & all the work I need to do, it just wasn't feasible to go.
February was a long, crazy month!
I haven't had a chance to get out & take photos in forever.
But I do take phone photos frequently, so I thought I'd share some of my month!

(1) The view when I come out of the subway at my school. This is the skyline alongside the south side of Central Park. They started building a new skyscraper this year, it makes me think of Ted Mosby, haha. (2) This is what I do, pretty much everyday. I've got my textbook [this case, civil procedure], highlighters, laptop and coke. (3) Me all ready for a job interview. I've been going crazy looking for an internship this summer. (4) The flat iron building. One day me & Phillip went & got malts & onion rings near there. (5) The empire state building, as seen from outside my front door. I hate living in NYC, but sometimes I've got to appreciate the little things it gives me. (6) The front of my law school. (7) The same day me & Phillip got malts, we also went shopping at the world's largest Macy's. And it really lives up to that name, wow!

Here's to a good March!!

Art Journaling Tuesday: Week 24

2012-03-06T11:00:00.000-05:00

Art Journaling is something I started this past August when I moved back to NYC & started Law School. I update my art journal daily, completing one page a week. It includes writing, drawing, painting, collaging and pretty much anything I can think of to document my life, try out new techniques & have fun! I share my Art Journal pages on my blog once a week on Tuesday [a few weeks behind where I am in my actual journal]. Interested in starting an art journal? Check out my Art Journaling Page with all sorts of inspiration & links to get you inspired! Also come follow my Art Journaling pinboard & My Art Journal on Flickr.

This week was a mod podge.
I doodled, I painted, I misted, I collaged.
I used stickers, I used printable journaling tags, I made my own tag.

And I left a lot of white space.
I like how the page was coming along, especially my rose painting.

But, I'm not sure if it is finished.

I know, I do one page a week, but maybe I will go back to this one at some point.
It just doesn't seem finished.
Do you think?

Blogging

2012-02-29T18:32:00.001-05:00

Ah, so you probably saw there was no Art Journaling Tuesday this week.
I plan on continuing them next week, so check back then, I have some fun pages coming up!

This has just been a very hectic week.

Since I started law school, I just haven't had the time to devote to my blog like I used to.
I've noticed, my followers haven't been growing for awhile now & the followers I do have don't seem to be reading my blogs that frequently.
I've been bad about reading everyone's blogs lately also, I'm working on this.

Law school is really crazy.
It takes a lot of time.

But I love blogging & I don't want to give it up!
Same with scrapbooking & photography & crafting & everything I post about!

But, I have decided my blog needs a little bit of a change.
I think, that I enjoy reading blogs the most that have all the crafty & artsy stuff I love, but also real stories about the blogger's life.
So I can actually get to know them.
I hadn't done this up until now because, well, I had so much crafty stuff to post I never really got around to it.

But, I'm going to try to do this more.
I'm going to post more photos of my life.
And more writing about my life.

And of course still post all my crafts & art journaling!!

I hope I can reconnect with some of the followers I used to talk to more & meet some new ones.
Blogging just hasn't been as much of an escape lately, and I hope that changes soon.

Sorry for no pictures with this post, but I'm typing this over my civil procedure textbook where I stopped reading mid-case to type this.

Hopefully you'll read it anyways.

Currently Album: November Update

2012-02-23T13:00:00.000-05:00

I updated my "currently album" awhile ago but hadn't gotten around to sharing it, sorry.
I finished that album through the end of the year before I decided to start my 2012 album instead.

November was a busy month for me, I was studying for finals, going through training for CASA volunteering & celebrating Thanksgiving.

I made a divider to start the month. This was the birth of the dividers that can be found in my 2012 album.

On the back of the divider, I made a list of 10 important things that happened during the month.

On the left page I made a menu of what we had for Thanksgiving & on the right side I made a playlist of the songs I'd been listening to frequently while studying.

The last page was the schedule of my CASA training.

You will notice, there are no photos this month. I really didn't get out much, I was so busy. But that doesn't mean that I couldn't document the month & looking back at it now I can easily remember what happened that month!

To see the rest of my currently album go here. Check back soon for December updates & the end of the album!

Linking up here & here!

Art Journaling Tuesday: Week 22 & 23 "A Couple Pages"

2012-02-22T11:21:00.001-05:00

Ugh, so I know, today is Wednesday.
I have had computer troubles for about a week now, but I think it's fixed now... *crossing fingers*
I have tons of stuff to share with you so I'll have a lot going up in the next few days!!
I missed sharing my valentine's day project though...lame... I might still share it because it could be altered for other purposes.

This week I went with a blue color scheme.
I also decided to try some embroidering in my art journal for the first time. I love to use it on scrapbook pages, so I just thought I would try it out in my art journal.
I did this by cutting the papers I was using down to size and stitching them, then gluing the finished product into my journal. That way, the stitches didn't go through last week's page.
The tag with the 10 on it & the fifteen journaling card are freebies from here. [Other resources & ideas can be found on my ever changing art journaling page.]

I decided I'm going to share two weeks from my art journal today because, they are kind of plain pages [it was a really busy time for me] & I wanted to catch up closer to real time so that I'm still really excited about the pages when I share them & the holiday stuff isn't so outdated!!

This week I was still on vacation. For tips on how I handled that, check out week 21. Also, see my new Tim Holtz tape? One of my favorite products right now...

The next week was the first week of school, so I knew I would be busy & I didn't want to be stressed over art journaling. Also, I found this really amazing self-adhesive wrapping paper! I covered the whole page w/ it & didn't want to cover it up because it was so gorgeous, so instead I just added a strip of scrapbook paper & added my writing to it each day. I thought about embellishing the page more, but I'm happy with the clean & simple look of the page.

Any readers that are art journaling along with me, send me your pages I'd love to see them! My email is linda.anne321@gmail.com, or you can leave me a link in the comments to where it is posted!!

Art Journaling Tuesday: Week 21 "Vacation"

2012-02-14T10:30:00.000-05:00

Happy Valentine's Day!!

Sometimes there are weeks when you are going to go on vacation. So how do you keep up with your art journal?

Last December we went on vacation for a few weeks & I was determine to not fall behind in my art journaling. And I didn't!!
Of course, you can't bring everything with you to make art freely. So what do you do?

The best answer I came up with was to prep my pages before I went on vacation. I did this by adding a background & a few embellishments before I went on my vacation. Then I brought a few stickers, stamps, pens & glue with me so I could add things as the week went on.

This is the before. You can see I glued paper down for a background. Then I added some other paper, ribbons & stickers to lay down a basic foundation for the page. Through the week I added to it, and this is the end result:

I was happy with how the page came out, I didn't have to lug too much stuff around with me & by being realistic about what I was able to keep up with over vacation, I was able to keep my journal updated the full trip :)

To see more examples of this check out week 20 & week 19. You will also see more of this for week 22...

Art Journaling Tuesday: Week 20 "Blocking"

2012-02-08T09:42:00.001-05:00

Sorry this is up a little late, I've been working on tons of projects lately, but haven't had a chance to share them. This means you'll prolly get project overload in the next few weeks though, so stay tuned!! :D

I've been trying out different styles of page layouts.
This week, I decided to try blocking.

Blocking is where you divide the page into blocks/sections before the week starts. You can do this by simply drawing sections w/ a pencil, marker, etc. or you can designate them like I did here with collaged items.

This is an easy method if you aren't quite sure where the start. It also helps if you know certain days you won't have much time.

To add variety, I used a combination of stamps, stickers & of course collaged items to make the blocks. Then, throughout the week I just filled in each day w/ some journaling, embellishments & mementos from my day.

The awesome brown tag at the top was a cut-out of a trader joe's grocery bag. A few of the rectangular journaling tags are free downloads from creativity prompt. You can find more resources and ideas on my ever-changing art journaling page which can also be found from the tabs across the top of my blog. Be sure to check it out :) And, leave me a comment if you know of any great resources/inspiration that should be added to my list!!

This isn't the first time I've used blocking in my art journal.
I did it here:

[To see more about that page, go here]

This technique can also be used for scrapbooking.

[More about this page here]

What techniques do you like to use to lay out your page?

Linking up here & here.

A fun, free website!

2012-02-01T22:54:00.000-05:00

So, today I found this fun website tagxedo! Have you ever heard of it?
If not, you definitely need to try it out :)
I read about it on this blog & had to try it out for myself.

It makes free word clouds from websites, twitter feeds or just words you type in.
Then you can customize the colors, shape & fonts!

This is a word cloud I made from my blog! Apparently I blog about journaling a lot :)
You should go make one too & share it with me!!

I am definitely going to find a way to use one of these on a project soon, so check back!

Art Journaling Tuesday: Week 19 "Important Weeks"

2012-01-31T11:00:00.000-05:00

Some weeks are just more important because you know something is going to happen that you want to document, the week I'm sharing now is the week of Christmas.

So I knew I wanted more space. To solve that problem, I added a flap with writing & decoration on both sides of the flap [the green piece of paper opens downward]. Also, I was on vacation & knew I wouldn't have many supplies/tons of time to journal, so I did lots of the decorations at the beginning of the week & filled it in as the week went on.

That way, there was no stress & I got the week documented :)

Linking up here!

Art Journaling Tuesday: Week 18 "Disappointments"

2012-01-24T10:00:00.000-05:00

Sometimes [let's face it, most of the time], art journal pages don't turn out as you planned.
This was one of those weeks.
It was my last week before vacation, I had finals, and really, I didn't have much time to devote to my art journal.

This page is mishmashed & I was really unhappy w/ the way it turned out.
However, I am happy I did it.

This is why…
-I learned from my mistakes
-There are a few little details I do like, like the tag from my new jeans [isn't that a great tag??]
-I have a written record of what happened that week, which was kind of an important week for me [first semester of law school finals, definitely life changing]
-It helped me realize ways that I could prepare for days/weeks I won't have much time

Do you ever have projects that don't come out the way you want?

I hope that you learn from your mistakes & stick w/ them because I really love the way my journal is looking collectively!!

2012 Album

2012-01-20T19:25:00.002-05:00

Sorry, I have been MIA lately! But, I am back now :)
I was on vacation for a few weeks & then this week was the first week back to school.
I will be back w/ Art Journaling posts every Tuesday & I have a few other projects & things to share as well, so keep checking back!

So anyways, it is a new year and although I've gotten a slow start, I intend to update more than before so expect great things!! Hopefully I still have some readers :( And about me reading blogs, I have been reeeeally bad lately in keeping up w/ everyone, but I will catch up over the next few days!!

I was really interested in doing a new project w/ a new year, but I couldn't decide what to do. I was really intrigued by Becky Higgins "Project Life" but, it is a huge commitment that I honestly don't think I would have the time to keep up with it, plus I intend to continue my art journal which takes care of the daily updates, I don't really see a reason to do two daily projects.

However, I've gotten away from 12x12 layouts lately, both because I don't have the time & because I've been really excited about mini-albums & mixed media. So, I came up with my own idea for this year. I decided to make myself a mini 2012 album!

This will be similar to project life, though instead of updating it daily, I will just add a few pages a month. It will be similar to my Currently Album, which I finished at the end of the year & will be sharing with you soon.

I made the album from a shoebox that I covered w/ scrapbooking paper [from the Recollections Charming collection] & hole punched. Then I used binder rings to bind it. I decorated the front w/ some ribbon & the year "2012" punched out w/ my cuttlebug.

I made dividers for each month from patterned paper [from the Recollections All Seasons collection] & added ribbon tabs. Each divider is decorated w/ the name of the month. I haven't decided yet if I'm going to add embellishments to the dividers, I guess we'll see as I go.

I will share updates throughout the year as I scrapbook each month, so be sure to check back! How are you scrapbooking your year?

Linking up here & here!

Art Journaling Tuesday: Week 17 "Day by Day"

2012-01-10T10:30:00.000-05:00

This week's page I drew inspiration from this post by Lori @ Elvie Studio. Her art is amazing, you should check it out!!

So, instead of adding a background as usual, I decided to start with a blank canvas!

Day 1: I copied some of Lori's paintings/drawings. Sometimes I'm not that creative to come up with my own & I like copying other artists to get an idea of their style. Plus, this gave me much needed practice with pen/watercolors since I've never really used watercolors.

Day 2: I added the date cut out of an old planner, journaling & a star cut out of a Trader Joe's grocery bag [they had the cutest grocery bags for the holidays with tons of fun things to cut out!!]

Day 3: Was a really quick day! I used a scrap of paper, another cut out from the Trader Joe's grocery bag & a journaling printable from Creativity Prompt.

Day 4: I added some journaling, a sticker for the number & a few stickers from the wrapping of our advent calendar.

Day 5: I didn't feel much like writing so I added a ribbon, an "F" from my cuttlebug to represent Friday, wrote the date and added the word "tough" cut from a magazine for my word of the week.

Day 6: I stamped the word "Today" and the number "10" for the date & added some journaling.

Day 7: I used to last day to tie together the whole page. I added the date, a few holiday stickers & a used Trader Joe's gift card from our advent calendar.

Linking up here!

Art Journaling Tuesday: Week 16 "Found Objects"

2012-01-03T16:08:00.000-05:00

One fun thing about art journaling is including "found objects" or objects that are not intended for scrapbooking, but you find in your everyday life and just add them. This helps incorporate your daily life into your art journal & makes pages look more personalized.

Since I've started art journaling I have really been on the lookout for "found" items. [in my currently mini album as well!]

One fun place to "find" items, that aren't really from your life, but aren't intended for scrapbooking either, is in magazines. The background of this page was a full page design from a scientific american magazine [my bf reads them, then I destroy them for art parts haha]

This page also began December when my future mother in law always sends us gifts in an advent calendar. I used the wrapping paper & #2 from the gift on the second, as well an embellished snowflake from one of the other gifts. Wrapping paper scraps, gift tags & ribbons make great found objects, especially around the holidays!

Other fun "found objects" I have included on other pages: used gift cards, business cards (from restaurants etc.), clothing tags after shopping trips, decorated cocktail napkins, tickets (from flights & events), and so many more items I can't list them all!!

What "found items" do you like to include in your projects?

Linking up here.

Happy Holidays!!

2012-01-02T16:41:00.000-05:00

I've been so busy visiting everyone & celebrating the holidays!! I haven't had a chance to read blogs or comment for awhile, sorry...but I will try to catch up soon!!

I have some photos to share from my adventures over the past week or so while in Arizona.

My boyfriend's entire family & I went to the Luminaries show that is put on at the Phoenix Botanical Garden. It is really nice, anyone in the area, I recommend going. They have all sorts of music being performed throughout the gardens (mainly holiday) & tons of Christmas lights. The best performance was a group of performers playing the bells.

I haven't had a chance to edit many of my photos of the lights [plus I don't have the best camera for night photos] but here is one of my boyfriend & I from the evening:

A few days later we went out for an extremely fancy dinner at "A Different Point of View" this amazingly fancy & delicious restaurant in the area with a gorgeous view of the city!! It was for my boyfriend's birthday/his brother's graduation. Here is my boyfriend & I again from the evening:

We spent Christmas at home with the family.

And we spent New Years at the Tempe Block Party. That wasn't as great as I was expecting, but maybe that is just because I wish I could've spent New Years in Times Square...

I hope everyone had a great Christmas & New Years!! I am so happy I still have more than a week of vacation left :) I'll be back tomorrow with an Art Journaling post so check back then!!

Art Journaling Tuesday: Week 15 "Thanksgiving"

2011-12-27T12:00:00.000-05:00

So, it was just Christmas & I have now caught up to posting my Thanksgiving page. You can see how delayed I am in posting pages [I have been keeping them up though & I excited to show you how I handled taking a vacation with my art journal!]

For Thanksgiving week I of course put the word "Thanksgiving" largely on the page, which kind of sums up the week. You can see another one of my paper trees on this page, as well as some ribbon, various types of lettering, rub-ons & collaged paper scraps.

For the background this week I drew a pattern in white crayon & then watercolored over it. This creates a nice subtle pattern because the watercolors don't stick to the crayon as well [see the grid?]. Of course, I used fall colors because of Thanksgiving.

I hope everyone has been enjoying their holidays & has found creative ways to document their holidays in their art journals as well!! If you have, I would love to see :)

Seriously, anyone who has been keeping an art journal please email me photos or links to your posts on your blog, I would love to feature you!! My email can be found on my sidebar, but is also linda.anne321@gmail.com

Thanks!!

Bye New York!

2011-12-20T19:12:00.000-05:00

Sorry, there isn't going to be a art journal post today, tomorrow I am on a plane to AZ & I just don't have time to get one up!

This is a sign across the street from where I live, sorry it doesn't photograph well during the day

The next few weeks my blog activity will be pretty hectic, but I will try to keep things up!
But for now, I'm done with finals, done with my first semester of law school...
and off to Arizona for the next few weeks!!

Bye New York City for now!! :D

Holiday Scrapbooking

2011-12-16T11:00:00.000-05:00

Scrapbooking the holidays can be so much fun! To get in the spirit I am going to share a few pages from last year in my NYC album!

There are always really pretty decorations around Rockefeller Center during this time of year, they have HUGE holiday decorations & then of course the Christmas Tree. Last year, being my first year living in NYC, we walked around taking photos & seeing all the decorations.

The page has a pocket w/ a tag that you can remove that has a photo on it & journaling on the back.

Then, our tradition (which we started last year) is to exchange gifts a few days before Christmas while we are still in New York. I created a page about our Christmas at home together & our gifts.

Then, we had our flight back to Arizona to spend the holidays with family. I documented our flight also.

Of course, I had many more pages about the holidays during our vacation, closer to the holidays I will share those with you!!

This year we are going through the same traditions: gift exchange the day before our flight & then returning to Arizona for the holidays. Unfortunately, we just don't have the time to go see Rockefeller Center this year...plus there is no snow! I think New York might not have a white Christmas this year... it's supposed to be in the 50's all week!!

It's a crazy year when there's no snow by Christmas, except for the one random time in October. Weird.

Art Journaling Tuesday: Week 14 "Basic Backgrounds"

2011-12-13T13:47:00.002-05:00

I have been busy lately, it is finals period & finals the first year of law school are one of the most stressful & difficult things for anyone to go through. I am holding on though! Sorry there have been no posts this last week, I will definitely fix that as we get closer to the holidays & I finish my exams!!

During Week 12 of my art journal I shared some background techniques including collaging, painting, stencils, misting & mixtures of all the above!

However, sometimes it's nice to have a quick & easy background that gives you lots of freedom throughout the week. Sometimes with those heavier backgrounds they tend to over power the page, so this week I am going to show you a fun & basic background.

You will need:
A medium sized paint brush
Various colors of acrylic paint
Water

Unfortunately, I can't seem to find the photos I took of the steps, but it is really simple! Here is my background before I added to the page (except for a few stamps):

What you want to do is dip your paint brush is a colored paint & water so that you have water & acrylic paint on your brush (almost like with watercolors). Then you want to hold your brush horizontally over your page about 4 inches from the paper & quickly tap it with your other hand.

The result tapping should flick the paint onto your page to create a cute splattered effect!

Some Variations:
*You can use multiple colors (like I did) or just a couple to give your page a theme. If you use red & green your page can be Christmasy!
*You can use colored paper & splatter paint on it, the color should still show up because acrylic paints work on pretty much any background color.
*If you add more water the splotches will be larger & have more splatter lines, but they will also have a lighter color. You should experiment w/ how much water you want to add to get the effect you want.
*You can use this technique for other projects, not just art journaling! Such as scrapbooking backgrounds, tags, gift wrap or cards.

A few other things I did this week:
*You can see I added another one of my trees from this post.
*I used a large rub-on of the word "Live" for my word of the week.
*I traced a circle for one day & wrote w/in that shape.

I hope you enjoyed my post! Have you used splatter paint before? If you have (or if you try it now!) show me your projects!! Wish me luck on my finals & I will be back updating more frequently w/ tons to share soon :)

Art Journaling Tuesday: Week 13 "Page Progression"

2011-12-06T10:30:00.000-05:00

One of the things I love about having weekly pages, is seeing the page progression throughout the week.
This week I thought I would try to share this with you [though I forgot to take pictures lots of the days, so bear with me!]

Monday: I started out Monday by adding my background. I used blue & white acrylic paint & a paper towel to add some textured blue to a portion of the page. Once the paint dried I used a highlighter to write "Monday" and my black pen to write about my day, including some small sketches for planned pages for my mini currently album.

Tuesday: I glued down a printable from here that said "Tuesday" [Other freebies & resources can be found on my My Passion is Art Journaling page] then I wrote about my day in pen & decorated it with colored pencils. I also glued a picture of a sand timer & a picture of shapes cut from a magazine. I added a little bit of mist & watercolored an umbrella & some rectangles. [You can see the word Wednesday in pencil because I forgot to take a photo before I started on Wednesday, oops]

Wednesday: I wrote the word Wednesday, added a rub on butterfly & heart, and added details to the umbrella w/ pens. I didn't feel like writing about my day, so I didn't.

Thursday: I was really busy & barely had time to art journal so I quickly added a little note in black pen only right before bedtime.

Friday: I was just stressed & tired so I added the word "Friday" in crayon & a little writing, but nothing else.

Saturday: I wrote "Saturday" in puff paint & added a little writing & a heart sticker. Sorry I forgot to photograph all of these days, but I really had a stressful, busy week...but you can definitely see how the page progresses throughout the week & how you don't need to contribute a ton everyday!

Sunday: I finished the page by painting quite a bit around the bottom of the page, adding my word for the week "Persevere" & a little writing from Sunday about how I was feeling & about my art journal.

I know there are art journalers who use different time formats: one page a day usually w/ 3-4 pages a week, one full page spread a week, one page a week, just adding to pages until they feel done...

I think one page a week, adding everyday, works best for me because it keeps me motivated & I like that I add to it everyday. If I didn't, it would probably be forgotten for long periods of time. What works for you?

Lastly, here is the full page spread including Week 12:

Mini Currently Album: October Update

2011-12-02T10:07:00.001-05:00

So, I have been behind on sharing my currently album with you.
I have been doing well keeping up with it! I just don't have the time to upload photos & update that often.
I am getting ready for finals now, regular classes just ended yesterday & now I have a week of solid studying.

October was a crazy month for me.
School was crazy busy.
I turned 25.
Me & boyfriend celebrated our second anniversary.
There was Halloween.
My Grandma passed away.

I don't want to be a bummer on my blog, so I like to keep the stressful sadness in my life away from here. But, let me say, this has just been a difficult time for me.

I shared the first part of October from my currently album here.

One theme in my currently album is making lists of 10 things.
So for our anniversary on October 30, I listed 10 things I love about my boyfriend.
We went out to dinner & went for a walk through central park together, right after the first snow on October 29th.

We didn't really do anything for Halloween, since we were so busy with school anyways, and then that evening my Grandma passed away (Which was very expected, she had been battling cancer for nearly two years now & we knew it was nearing the end).
I really do like to celebrate holidays, and I was disappointed after the fact that I had missed it, so I made a list of 10 little things I did for the holiday.

Then I included a couple cards I received, first a Halloween one & then a condolence one for my Grandma.
I like how I can include the cards easily in this album so they don't get lost & I can look back on them.
Then I included some pages to remember my Grandma.

The first photo is of my cousin, me and my grandma the last Thanksgiving I spent in Arizona with her (I've been in NY for two Thanksgivings now), so that was 2009. I included a list of 10 of my favorite memories of her.

The square photo is one of her with my mom and aunt when they were kids (my mom is the littler one).
And the last one is her holding me when I was little.

Ah, I'm bumming you out now. Sorry.

To see more of my currently album click here. You can also view larger photos of the entire project (& many of my projects) on my flickr. I will share November later this week hopefully!

Linking up here.

Pinterest Art Inspiration

2011-12-01T11:00:00.000-05:00

Sometimes I am lacking inspiration, so I turn to pinterest.

One thing I like to do, is to turn to my Art Technique Ideas Board where I save all sorts of inspirational techniques that I want to try, and I try one!

I found these cute little paper trees (aren't they adorable!?) and decided to make some for myself.

From etsy.com via pinterest

It was pretty self-explanatory from the picture, and was a nice way to use up some scrap paper I had.

Here are mine:

[See the awesome use of my contracts case book as a backdrop, ugh law school...]

So, now I have myself a cute little collection of tree embellishments!!
Expect to see some popping up on my art journal pages soon :)

Linking up here.

Art Journaling Tuesday: Week 12 "Prepping a Page"

2011-11-29T09:30:00.000-05:00

Week 12 of my art journal I decided to add a collaged background instead of a paint based one.
One of the most important parts of art journaling is starting the page.
On the day before the week starts, I usually prep my page.

This week I prepped it by collaging the top 1/3 of the page with a newspaper page & the bottom 2/3 of the page with scrapbook paper. I attached the papers to the page with mod podge.
Then I used white acrylic paint & a crumpled up paper towel to apply some paint around the edges.
Then my page was all ready to start adding daily updates!

I like to vary my background techniques on each page.
Some of my favorites are paint washes, misters, collaging or mixtures of these techniques.

On Week 1, I did a plain dark blue water color wash of the page.

Week 7 I mod podged newspaper on the background and then misted stenciled circles on top and printed more circles with sparkly pink acrylic paint.

Backgrounds don't always have to be time consuming though.
Week 8 I just drew a light pencil grid that I filled in throughout the week.

There are so many different techniques you can use & each one gives a page a whole different look!
What are some of your favorite background techniques?

Linking up here.

Cross Stitch

2011-11-25T13:00:00.000-05:00

Occasionally, I like to cross stitch.
Last summer I finished a project I had been working on for awhile.
I haven't had a chance to frame it yet, basically because I'm not sure where to start...
I haven't made something this large before and I don't really know how to stretch it to fit smoothly in a frame.

[As you can see from the photo, I had trouble laying it flat just to photograph it]
Any ideas?

It's a shame to leave it in a ziplock bag in my craft closet for so long.
I have a perfect spot on my wall for it...

Art Journaling Tuesday: Week 11 "Blogging"

2011-11-22T10:00:00.000-05:00

This week I am going to do something a little different.
Instead of discussing my art journaling process, I am going to talk a little bit about my recent thoughts & why I art journal.

Last summer I had way too much free time on my hands, which is not something I am used to.
I've always been a crafter, a photographer & a scrapbooker; but they had always taken the backburner to other things going on in my life.
And then I discovered pinterest.

I got so interested in all the creative things people were doing online & in blogs that I decided to start one of my own.
And I became so excited to meet people from all over the world with similar interests as mine.
And to share my projects & ideas.

However, I ran into quite a few challenges.
One of the things I've noticed while blogging is that most bloggers are stay-at-home mommy's.
And while I would love to have that job someday [at least part of me wants that at some point], that just isn't where I'm at right now.
I am a student, and a law student at that...which is one of the most stressful, time consuming educational experiences you can have.
And I am at a top US law school in NYC, so the competition is really crazy.
So having time to craft & blog has been an issue.
A second issue is that I am poor.
I know there are tons of people way poorer than me, but I am living on student loans & don't have money to buy craft supplies that frequently.
So while I absolutely love crafting & blogging, I have felt pressure through blogging that I never felt when crafting before.

I have seen other bloggers with more time & money to devote to their hobby have their blogs blossom and grow.
And mine well, it's been okay.
I have had a steady growth in followers & I do get comments on pretty much every post.
But sometimes I really feel like almost no one cares what I have to say.

But my blogging experience has been mostly good.
Blogging has been so inspirational to me.
One thing I was inspired to do through blogging was to start my art journal.
And it has really been an amazing part of my law school experience so far.
It has given me an opportunity everyday to sit back and be creative & let go of the stress in my life.

That is one of the best things about blogging, it keeps me from letting my hobbies get lost in the dust.

So I will continue blogging & I keep hoping to improve my blog & do more crafts & get more readers & meet more crafters like me. I hope that you enjoy my posts as much as I enjoy updating them & I really hope you come back in visit me in the future :)

Here is a two page spread of this week & week 10 where I discussed journaling techniques more in depth.

What is your favorite part about blogging or art journaling?
And your least favorite?

Mini Drinks Book!

2011-11-17T22:13:00.001-05:00

Sometimes my boyfriend likes to make mixed drinks.
Then we have a nice relaxing evening at home together with our drinks, movies & maybe some cards.
Unfortunately, we haven't gotten to do this lately with all our school work!

However, a little while ago I decided to make him a nice little book to put all our tried & true drink recipes in!

This book was really easy to make & I think it came out very cute!
A great way to make a quick & cute mini album is to find a theme to go through-out.
Sometimes I like to make completely mismatched mini albums, like my currently album.
But sometimes it's nice to have everything match!!

For this mini I bought a pack of paper, some matching letter stickers & a couple packs on embellishments that went with my theme/color scheme.
Then it was so easy to assemble the album because I had everything I needed right in front of me.
To keep it from getting boring using the same items I cut the papers at different angles & used different arrangements of embellishments, but overall everything matched.

I left blank spots to add recipes as we come up with new ones we want to add.
I added two recipes to the book already when I took these pictures so you can get an idea of what I was planning on doing.
Sometimes it's great to make premade mini albums like this that you can add to as things go.
This works not just for recipes, but for vacations, holiday seasons, etc.

And on the last page I added a bungee cord around the page so that we can slip in notes and written recipes before they're ready to be officially added to the book. This helps with the functionality of the book because, let's face it, I'm not always going to add recipes to the book immediately when we find them!
[Especially not after I've been drinking them!!]

I hope you like my mini drink book!
Do you like to have themed albums, or mismatched ones?
I really like a little of both... but I can't decide which is better...

Linking up here & here.