I’m taking a class!

Hey Guys!

I told you guys last week that I signed up for the new Christy Tomlinson class (can you tell I’m a little obsessed?) and I wanted to tell you a little bit more about the class!  A few of you have emailed me that you’re really getting in to Art Journaling as well and I thought it would be fun if we took the class together!

It’s called Your Living Canvas and it is a 6 week course.  I’m super excited about it!  You can find out more about the class here.  Each week, Christy has been posting video sneak peeks about the class on her blog and this one really spoke to me:

 

For whatever reason, at the particular moment I watched that sneak peek, it just hit me and I decided that as a part of learning how to slow down, focus and be more present in my own life, I was going to take this class and make myself make time for it.  Just taking that step will help me start down a different path and I am just really looking forward to the journey!

I’ve been working on the pre-assignments, getting ready for the class and I’m looking forward to really exploring myself a little bit more.  I already have a wall in my office that I plan to hang all my canvases on, as a reminder to myself to take the time I need for “me” and to make myself a priority.

SO!  Watch the video and then go check out the other sneak peeks and if it’s something you think you’d be interested in and you sign up, let me know!  I would love to have a buddy in the class!!

 

 

The Summer Journal

OH-KAY!  So yesterday I was talking to my friend Kristin about my newest obsession (see yesterdays’ post) and I showed her my She Art girl.  She told me about a project she’s working on and how it would be perfect for a She Art girl and I was totally inspired!!  So I created a little project that I want to share with you.  But first, let me tell you about Kristin’s project so it makes more sense.

Kristin recently shared her digital scrapbooking solution on her blog.  It’s called Snapbooking and you can read more about it here!  It’s really awesome!  It’s basically a super fast and easy way to get your memories documented.  For me, this is a perfect solution for phone/instagram photos, pictures that friends send me or pictures I snap that aren’t really enough for me to make a whole layout with or about but that I still want to document.  There was a good reason I took the photo and I don’t want to forget it!  I love, love, love snapbooking!

It also helps me stay on top of my memory keeping and allows me to take more time with my bigger 12 x 12 layouts.  For me, it’s given me back one of the things that I love most about digital scrapbooking- the joy of creating.  I can take my time making the full-size layouts I want to make and use my snapbooks for the memories I want to keep but that aren’t inspiring me to scrap.  It’s a brilliant idea and I definitely recommend it!

SO- as we were talking, Kristin told me about a spin-off of her snapbook project she’ll be making for her daughter this summer.  To keep her daughter writing while school is out, she’s going to make her a little snapbook album where she can take a photo, put it in the album and then write about the photo (brilliant, I tell ya!) and she thought a She Art girl would be the perfect cover for the album!

I’m always looking for fun summer activities, especially ones that will keep Zoe reading and writing, and I immediately fell in love with this idea.  [Incidentally, we were having this conversation while I was waiting to pick Zoe up from school].  So as soon as Zoe got out from school, we had some errands to run and one of them happened to be to Michael’s [If I spent as much time at the gym as I spend at Michael's, I would be one sexy-beast].  I picked up a couple supplies for Zoe’s journal and as soon as we got home, I went to work.  I love how the journal turned out, it was super easy- not including the time it took me to make the journal cover, it probably took me 30 minutes to put the album together, and Zoe absolutely adores it!!

To make the album I used  a 50 pack of white Recollections card stock, a piece of chipboard and my Zutter Bind-It-All machine. I cut the white card stock in half (5.5″ x 8.5″) to make the journal pages.

For the cover, I cut 4 pieces of chipboard to 5.75″ x 8.5″ (a little wider than the journal pages) and made two covers by gluing [mod-podging] two pieces of the chipboard together.  I wanted the cover to be sturdier.  Then I used some paper tape to seal the edges.  The paper tape is more for decoration- I just didn’t like how the edges looked with the two pieces glued together.

Then I took one of the covers and added a She Art girl!

I punched holes in the cover and journal pages using my Zutter Bind-It-All machine and bound it all together (heehee)!

Super simple!!  Afterward, I realized I forgot to add the word art to the cover, so I just cut out some words and glued them on:

Zoe loves the journal!  She immediately wanted to start journaling!  I gave her an old point-and-shoot camera that I have and I’m using my Epson PictureMate Charm to print the photos at home (L.O.V.E!). [And if you're thinking about snapbooking- this little printer comes in way handy!!!]

Zoe made her first journal page last night using some of my paper scrapping supplies.  She had a blast!

And the first thing she did this  morning when she woke up was ask for the camera so she could go take a photo.  I just got done printing it and she’s in the other room journaling!  I LOVE IT!!  Thank you so much Kristin!!!

On a side note- last night while I was printing Zoe’s photo, she personalized her journal and I had to share it with you.  **Deep breaths…. deep breaths….**

Heehee.  I love that she made it her own and that it is encouraging her to create.  But I secretly hope she just continues to create on the inside pages….. LOL!

So there ya have it!  Watch Kristin’s blog for a post about her summer journal project!  And if you make one of your own, I wanna see it!!

 

I’ve got a serious problem…

and her name is Christy Tomlinson.  OH-MY-WORD.

So you guys know that I kinda feel in love with Art Journaling when Tangie introduced it to me last year.  Since then, I haven’t had a whole lot of time to do it, but I’m completely fascinated with it and have been dying to just dive in and start making art.  With Digiscrapapalooza wrapping up and now iNSD over, we have a little bit of a lull before we dive in to Iron Scrapper and I have some time to play around with the art journaling stuff.

I stumbled across Christy’s blog (and when I say “stumbled”, I mean my friend Jen sent me a link and said “GO!”) and I immediately fell in love with her projects!!  I am out-of-control.  **You might have noticed I even added her badge to my “Things I love” side bar section.

I signed up for her new class- starting next week called Your Living Canvas.  But I got impatient waiting for it to start, so I went ahead and signed up for her first She Art Workshop, to give me something to do while I wait for the class to start.  And… um… I’m also getting her monthly mixed media kits.   I told you I have a problem!  Right now, I can not wait to make the butterfly canvases from last month’s kit- but I have to wait for the canvases to arrive (pooh).

Anyway, I finally got to sit down and work on a project and I just finished it so I thought I’d come share it with you guys!!

I did this one in my journal because I wasn’t ready to commit to a canvas yet, but I think my next one will be on a canvas.  I can’t wait to start it!  I’m hoping my canvases come in the mail soon!!

So- yeah… that’s all I’ve got.  Heehee!!  Hope you’re all having an awesome week and you have a relaxing and joyful Mother’s Day this weekend!!