I'M STILL HERE!

 Hi friends!

That 25 days of Christmas was a struggle towards the end. Trying to get through everything I needed to do and I failed to bring anything here. 

The Pink Christmas journal is finished and available for purchase. You can see the final flip-through video HERE.

I also wound up with a lot of Christmas cards. I'll try to show some of those on Friday's this month.

My plan for this month is to finish the Patriotic Journal. I need to stitch in the five signatures then I can start the decorating process. In a perfect world I'd love to finish the journal this week but I have to pace myself with author stuff and household duties. I'm determined to have An Ozarks Homecoming done and ready to go before the 31st. Let's hope!

Sadly, no pictures for  you today as I'm crunching this in on Saturday just before supper but I did want to check in.

There will be a TagTuesday video late afternoon Tuesday. I'll be working on tags for the Patriotic journal.

Let me know in the comments below; what are you working on?

Creative Blessings!

~ Kelly

I'M BACK! - With Video Link

 Good morning, crafty friends!

I'm finally back in the studio and doing fun things again. The office isn't much farther than the Disaster Video but I'm making progress.

I've mostly been busy pressure canning foods for the pantry. I brought back #40 of potatoes from the retreat. I still have about #8 to work through. I've also canned baked beans and have apples in the crockpot as I type to turn into apple butter.

But today, I have a couple of things to share. 

I'm planning a patriotic journal for this month. I've picked up these pairs of earrings at Walmart for $5. they do these seasonally for all types of themes. I've picked up hearts for Valentine's Day, bunnies for Easter, shamrocks for St. Patrick's Day.... you get the idea. 

While these are post-backed, they can be broke down into individual charms. I plan to use the star on a tassel and the smaller individual charms for page edges. 

The other thing I have is an on-line haul video from Rebekah Wills. She was one of my table mates at the retreat and does lovely handwork as well as sourcing vintage items. Drop back by later today for the video link or just go to my YouTube channel around noon CST and the video should be the first one in the list. 

I'm off to plant flower beds and hang laundry before I come back in to curl up with a book I need to review on my author blog tomorrow.

Creative Blessings!

~ Kelly

#KCDJANJJ23 Challenge - Week 1

Good morning!

As I set up this post I realized I had not posted the details about my monthly challenge here! I was sure I'd moved the video over. 

I've been busy, to put things mildly. I've spent the past four days cataloging over 30 paper packs from Stampin' Up! that never got cataloged - over the past 2.5 years!!! Geez. Was way overdue. That project is done and I now at a flip through my binders what paper I have. 

So quick note, I'll leave 2 videos today. The first will be the Monthly Challenge details and the 2nd is of the stick pull for Week 1.

Basically, we're doing a month - long challenge with your base colors being BLUES, WHITE, SILVER (or gray).  Then each week, I pull an art stick and that is one of the items you're to make. You have all month to complete any part of this project. Choose to do the ones that excite you and skip the others. No minimum requirements... just have FUN!

Challenge video with complete details:

Week 1 item:

I'll be back tomorrow to show you the 1st item going in my shop.

Creative Blessings

~Kelly

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! - First Project Details

 

Good morning, everyone!

I am so ready for a new year and to get back on track. I'm not sure what happened in 2022 but I just couldn't stay on the merry go round.

I've chosen my word of the year - CONSISTENT

My plan is to stay consistent on the following areas:

Blogging

Social Media Marketing

YouTube

Writing

6M4L - I'll explain in a later post

Today, I'm kicking of 2023 with a challenge I've wanted to play in for the past couple of years but I never seemed to get in on the ground floor.  

MEGJOURNALS offers a January and a July version of this challenge.

You'll find all of the details HERE:

Basically, you have a prompt every day of the month to do something in your journal. You do NOT have to play every day. You can skip prompts that don't jive with you. Other than that, it's just a time to let go and be creative as it comes.

The journal can be anything. If you go to Meg's YouTube Junk Journal January Playlist, you'll find all the several options from great creators. There are 29 collaborators in this project. 

I decided to do flat sheets then I'll put them together with binder rings.  

The other thing I'm doing is blending this with Madi's Spectrum Art Creations Christmas Challenge - which she has extended to January 15th.  There are 42 Challenges for us to do  - each one completed enters us into a drawing (for each number so 42 chances to win!)

I'll explain that part in a minute. But first, this is what I'm starting with:

For Madi's challenges we have to use at least 50% of products purchased from her in each of the projects.  I'm starting with the brown packing paper that comes in my orders. I'm going to cut each down to 4.25" x 6". Technically the working space will be 4x6 but the 1/2" gives me binding room.  I'm going to cut the mats from the brown paper, glue together in the center then stitch around the parameter.  The stencil, stencil butter, washi and Lyndi's Magical powders were purchased from their Spectrum Art Creations store. That stencil, by the way, is their own design.

Then I have all of this lovely ephemera to play with when doing the prompts:

Some of the pieces came in a box from my friend, Terri, in London. Others, like the book paper (Stamperia), the botanical cards, tickets and ephemera packs are from Spectrum Arts. I also have a box of clippings from the personal journal I did last week. 

Here's the video for that journal:

I will be back tomorrow where we will talk about Birthday and Anniversary cards for the month of January. 

Creative Blessings!

~ Kelly

MAKE IT - MAIL IT Monday

 Good morning, everyone!

There are storms in the forecast for this morning so I'm trying to get ahead of them. 

Today, I'm sharing a card made using sketch SC06 - which is a Splitcoast sketch.

Here's the card I made using Flowering Fields DSP and Flowering Tulips stamp set:

This sketch also lends itself to a corner double tuck for a journal page.

RECIPE:

Flowering Fields designer series paper DSP

Flowering Tulips stamp set

Mango Melody cardstock

Basic White cardstock

Layering Circles dies

Evening Evergreen ink

Evening Evergreen plaid ribbon

Tombo liquid adhesive

Stampin' Dimensionals

Stapler

Start with a Mango Melody cardbase - 5-1/2" x 4-1/4"

Cut a piece of DSP 5-1/4" x 4" and layer on top of the card base

Cut a second piece of DSP 3-1/4" x 4-1/4" 

With this dsp portrait 3-1/4"  wide across top & bottom - cut from the top left corner to the bottom right.

Glue to card front

Cut a coordinating piece (You could also use a piece of Mango Melody) 1" x 4"

Stmp the sentiment on a piece of either the DSP (as I did) or from Basic White cardstock, then cut out using the 3rd smallest layering circle die.

Line up 2 Stampin' Dimensionals across the back of the circle - lining up with the Thank You. Place on the card.

For the tag, you'll need a piece of 3" x 4" then cut to make the corners. (Directions in video HERE

Cut a piece of ribbon 3", fold in half then staple to top of the tag. 

For the inside of the tag, cut a piece of Basic White cardstock 4" x 5-1/4". Stamp a design on the inside using the Flowering Tulips stamp set then add a note or additional sentiment.

Your card is ready for the mail!

I'll be back tomorrow with a belated Card Chicks card.  Until then...

Creative Blessings!

~ Kelly

MIXED MEDIA MONDAY! - Finished Journal - almost

Good morning, everyone!

Effective at 12:01 a.m. this morning, Missouri went on a Stay At Home Order. I was out and about all day yesterday making sure I had bills mailed/ dropped off and any last minute things we might need at home for the next 30 days. I still don't know if Bob is going to work tomorrow or not. He still needs to call the office.

Our bandwidth is REALLY slow but I'm still trying to get videos up. Today, I have a short one -less than 10 minutes of the March Spring Stashbuster Junk Journal Challenge - BONUS journal.

The only thing I need to do with this journal is to add a bead dangle on the edge of each of the three signatures. I've not checked my stash yet but my plan is to make a dangle from a black, burgandy and cream bead. When the dangles are in place, this journal is going into my etsy shop for $25.  That will happen before April 15th.

Here's the video flip-through.

I'll be back tomorrow with either a Teapot Tuesday card or Card Chicks. I finally found Barb's envelope from February!

Creative Blessings!

MIXED MEDIA MONDAY - Crazy Brave

Somewhere along the line, when I put the book together, I got calendar pages out of sinc. This was supposed to be February's prompt. Given the subject though, I think the challenge fits any month of the year.

New Years resolutions are great when we make them. Goals are even better. The plan is to make this year the one where I am UNSTOPPABLE. Even though I may drift from my goals, I don't have to abandoned them all together - I pick myself up and get back to work. Falling off the wagon doesn't have to be permanent - unless I CHOOSE it to be so.

Well, I DO NOT choose that path. I'm stubborn that way. What I want to achieve may take a little longer but I believe in accomplishing what I start out to do... no matter how long.

Not the best picture. I just could not seem to get things in a flow yesterday. May have something to do with my first Monday with Bob back home. I did find my larger doll stamp and used her this time on a 2-page spread. My husband was quick to point out that my shoes are going the wrong direction... well, they weren't for the stamp! LOL Maybe I'm going to make this journey backwards. 

The shoes mark the path along the calendar year. You'll see that I have a GOALS image along the way - reminding me that if I'm not where I thought I'd be, I can readjust and KEEP GOING! There are several signs along the way reminding me DON'T Stop. This is part of My Story at the end of the year. The SUCCESSES, Stumbling Blocks and Drop-Off's along the way all make up MY STORY. 

You'll see a rainbow in the top left of the My Story image, then there's a smaller sticker. This is left over from my UndercoverWear days... a motivational sticker by The Booster.  The sticker says:

LIVE YOUR DREAMS

After I had all of the elements in place, I just played with my Recollections Watercolors. 

This isn't one of my best spreads but the message is there in spite of having an off day. 

MIXED MEDIA MONDAY - Crazy Brave!

I sat down to work on this post yesterday (Sunday) and for the life of me I could not find that girl stamp I used last month.. you know, the one I wanted to use in every spread. I saw it yesterday morning as I was setting stuff up for a massive card making expedition. Do you think I could find the stamp last night as I began assembling materials? I get really frustrated when I KNOW I just saw something then said item seems to have vanished when I need it.

So, this morning I chose to do the layout anyway.. with a different stamp. I picked these adorable SANTORO stamps up in a scrapbook store in Branson a couple of years ago. I bought several plus gifted the PBR girls each with one.

Since this week is about the journey as well as the twists and turns along the way, I chose this stamp:

Aside from having limited selection this week I chose The White Rabbit because I seem to always be at the tail-end of whatever's current. All the way back to grade school. Dad always conceded to letting me where the latest clothing style as it was fading. Leaving me embarrassed rather than enjoying being part of my peers. 

As I embark on the mixed media, art journal, planner craze I can't help but feel I'm lagging behind the pack and by the time I'm full in - something new will be the craze. 

But the cool thing about art - Art never goes out of style. Mediums change, but the concept of CREATING something from nothing, EXPRESSING our intentions, BARING our souls on paper in some form will always be a part of our journey.

My journal page for this month:

I've used Recollections watercolor-filled brushes, The Paper Studio Bubblebilities stickers and perma markers to create the journey as well as the fork in the road. Every day I have to choose to do the 'real life' stuff or play in my studio. And... there I am at the fork in the road, debating if I can find time for both.

My life is CRAZY but I am BRAVE and STRONG!

Creative Blessings!

MIXED MEDIA MONDAY - Crazy Brave!

I'm doing my best to stay on track. Aside from my day planner to keep me focused on the various challenges and art projects I want to participate in, I have an art planner where I list just challenges. To make sure I don't miss anything I have a monthly write-on/ wipe-off board so I always have things in view when I walk into my studio.

This week, we step into the Crazy Brave & Wicked Strong calendar. I'm not going to worry about whether or not I'm in the current month. Rather, I just want to enjoy playing.

This January spread talked about our Journey or Course and how we navigate the road blocks and turns helps form the outcome. I thought the quote I chose worked perfectly, as well as representing the twists and turns in the flourishes

This Prima doll stamp will be a constant in the layouts as I go. I used Stampin' Up! Stampin' Blends as well as the Watercolor Pencils to color her as well as the leaves. The flourishes is from Stampendous - Flourises v2. The flowers are from a retired SU stamp set 'Morning Meadow. I drew in the leaves with an Old Olive watercolor pencil.  The quote isn't really visible and I'm not sure where the stamp set is from - after a google search I see that some, but not all of the stamps are from Tim Holtz.

The quote says... 

THE 

JOURNEY

IS NEVER

TRULY

OVER IT

JUST

CHANGED 

COURSE

 Last year, I came across a calendar by Suzy Toronto. Check out her website - lots of FUN stuff and great gifts!

The monthly pages were just as colorful as the front cover and each month contained a full calendar page as well as an 'empowerment' type of thing. Well, the 2017 calendar is still on my shelf. I didn't use it last year because I'd lost track of it... finding the item about August as I was doing the deep clean. Then I found a 2018 and decided THIS was the year I would play.

Here's a sample of one of the inside pages?

I wanted to combine this fun calendar with thought provoking messages with the lovely set of 36 Gel Pens Bob got me for Christmas. You can order them through the link but Bob found mine at Walmart.

I've already ordered a pen case from Scrapbook.com  I have one of these cases for my planner pens. The case holds 48 so I'll have room to add my white signo as well as a couple of black art pens, a graphite pencil, sharpener and eraser. 

I wanted to turn this calendar into a workable art journal with 2-page spreads. The only paper I had was a 9x12 Watercolor pad. I cut the pages down to 6x12", cut the calendar pages in half and coil bound everything. I bound each 2-page spread with a paperie tape from ms sparkle and co. I'm not happy with the tape but we'll see how it holds up.

Here's a blank spread:

In the finished journal:

I just got this idea last night so I don't have a spread done for this post but I'll double up somewhere throughout the year.

Since Mondays are primarily Mixed Media, I'll be showing the current month spread on the last Monday of each month. That gives me the entire month to work on each layout a little at a time

WOMAN UNLEASHED - The Cover Story

For the first time ever, I'm actually participating in a retreat from the very beginning... okay, I'm a couple of days behind but that's because I hadn't checked email. I hadn't noticed the dates to see that I was just getting in at the start date.

I listened to the first video last night about putting our journal together and decorating our cover. I chose this lovely college-ruled composition book from Clementine that I'd picked up at Marshalls. I had no clue at the time what I would use the notebook for but the ombre sunset tones spoke to me so in the basket it went. 

I didn't want to cover up the beautiful ombre tones but knew my cover needed 'something' that spoke about my journey on this retreat. In the introductory video, Amber spoke about about opening the door to our heart. She also mentioned 'monetary passion' - which is exactly the path I'm starting out on in 2018! I won't say she is psychic but the synchronicity of this project and my determination to participate in the retreat couldn't have had better timing.

To keep with the colors, I chose to collage my heart from torn pieces of the Painted With Love Designer Series Paper from the Stampin' Up! Spring 2018 Catalog. 

After gluing the pieces to a heart I'd torn from printer paper, I coated the whole thing in clear gesso. Once that dried, I glued my heart to the front of the journal.

I talked about my concept on the inside front page:

      Something Amber said about the heart spoke to me. Opening our heart's door to the possibilities. 

At first I thought about actually making the heart as a pair of French doors. Then I knew I didn't want to separate the whole. Instead, I chose to make the heart the front of the cover -

   Opening this journal opens up a world of insights into those possibilities.

Periodically, over the 10-day retreat I'll share bits and pieces from my #womanunleashed journal. I look forward to the discovery and how the pieces of my heart's desire fit together to form the whole of my dreams.

Creative Blessings!

Kel

MIXED MEDIA MONDAY - En Mass Journal Returns!

Back in February of last year, I told you about a Junk Journal project I was starting - En Masse Journal. You can see the first post of how the journal began HERE.
The next post went along rather smoothly and on time (gasp!) HERE.
From there, I'm not sure what happened but the journal never made another appearance - because something got in my way (surprise surprise!) and I never got back to it.

So out it came for this week. Originally, I'd planned to run this the 4th Monday of each month. So I think I'll stick with that.
So here we are - October 23rd and I'm diving into one of the color sections of the Journal.

Originally, I had punched out all of the tabs for the journal, but had never sat down and labeled any of them. The initial pile looked like this:

I went to add them to the journal last week and they've vanished. Something in the back of my mind says I threw them out when I was decluttering the space, not realizing what they were for and determined that when I remembered I'd just re-punch them... so that's what I did. 

But this time... I labeled them and put them in place in the journal.. allowing a 2-page spread for each.  Here's a shot of the new tabs in place:

I used the tab punch as I had before for the categories. But the COLOR and ALPHABET tabs were punched from the new SU set  TABS FOR EVERYTHING from our current All Occasion catalog. I used Recollections cardstock for the colors. The letters were stamped using a retired SU set - Collage Alphabet, which I purchased from my stamping friend, Maggie  (aka Maggie's Cat House blog)

While I've not actually begun working in the journal, I can now that the categories and colors are in place. Each 2-page spread is interpretive. I can play however I want. 

I'm going to attempt to list the categories here - in no particular order just in case blogger throws me a curve in posting:

Circles, Finger Paint, Animals (wild), Tea & Coffee, Paper Dolls, Tags, Yarn & Fibers, Postage Stamps, Stars, Business Cards, Zippers/ Fastners, Textures/ Rubbings, Cowboys/ Western, Squares, Photos, Punches, Fabric, Washi Tape, Store Receipts, Faces, Triangles, Hardware/ Washers/ Gears, Glitter/ Sparkles, Colored Pencils, Buttons, Lace Doilies, Song Lyrics, Horse & Tack, Candy/ Food Wrappers, Quotes, Labels, Woven Paper, Markers, Rectangle, Leaves, Paper Scraps, Beads, Flowers, Crayons, Lists, Window Envelope, Security Envelopes, Dogs, Cats, Fruits, Vegetables, Birds, Books.

Then I added Holidays/ Seasons because I had pages left over in the signatures:

Snowflakes, Time, Valentine's Day, St. Patty's Day, Easter, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Wedding

As well as things I love:

Planners, Baby, Teddy Bears, Negatives, Flags, Witches, Water, Football, Hearts

There are also 4 FREE pages to whatever I might find that would make a good category.

I'm enjoying playing again.

First off, I apologize for falling off the wagon on the 13 Days of Halloween. I just ran out of time. I had the projects but could not get them posted before I had to focus on packing and leaving for the conference. Then my BIL/SIL visited for a week. Rhonda and I spent the best part of two days in the studio. I managed ALL DAY on Thursday where I put together my October Daily album together from start to finish! Well, except for actual inclusions - but the base of the book is done. I'm still debating whether to use it for this year or put it away and I'll be ready to go next October. We shall see. I'll keep you posted.

Creative Blessings!

Kelly

MIXED MEDIA MONDAY - Documented Life Project Progress

Happy Monday, everyone!
When this post greets you I will have just returned home from my first trip to Texas. So I'm scheduling this. If I can add a couple more pics between then and now I will. For now, not really exciting.

Really exciting pic, eh?

You are looking at one of the three composition books upside down. This is so I can get a better stroke with the brush. You can just see the other 2 in the background.

Okay - 3 Composition books = 1 per each quarter of the year. I've already been using one for the first quarter and nearly finished as a plain 'Daily To Do' journal process. I'll go back and make it blend with the other three quarters over the year - maybe. But I wanted to get these other journals prepped for the remainder of 2014.

In the first quarter journal I've written my 'daily tasks' on the right hand side of the page, then when I turned the page, anything extra like tracking numbers for packages, addresses of people I've mailed stuff to, etc were written on the back of that dated page. 1 piece of paper, 1 date, lots of activities.

In the remaining three quarters I needed to move things a bit to accommodate our weekly artistic challenge at The Documented Life. So I decided to set the pages up like a typical dayplanner 2-pg spread. My Daily Tasks will be on the left hand page and other items, as well as doodling will be on the facing page... incorporating the other items into the 'art work'. But I did not want to be limited to just ink/ gel pens for my doodling. What if I want to add bold color with a marker or some water color? Typical notebook paper pages would never hold up to that type of playing.

At first I had planned to cover that page with a sheet of watercolor paper. But then I realized doing that on every page would add MORE bulk than I'm already going to have with the tip-outs and art challenge pages. So I opted to put a coat of gesso on every right-hand page. I'm working all three journals at once for this process and it goes rather quickly. A coat of gesso only takes a couple hours to dry enough that I can slide a piece of waxtex between the pages and start the next one.

This process is still going to take a few days to complete all 3 journals - and I'm going to lose some prep time over the weekend while I'm on my trip. My plan is to just work through them as quick as I can so that I'll be able to start using the Documented Life Project planner with the beginning of April.

This morning, I got all of the calendar pages trimmed to fit inside the journal and washi-taped the seams. They are all ready to add into the journals. Next week I'll show you more progress and some added items I picked up at Office Depot.

Creative Blessings!