some 'new-school' and some 'old-school'

[First for the New School part of the post: Mists and Spray Inks are trendy in scrapbooking right now.]

Still in an organizing and purging sort of vein, here's a crafty bit of organization that was inspired by a post on another scrapper's blog (Sue Althouse's Life & Memories) which was inspired originally by someone on the October Afternoon design team, if I remember correctly. (I love how the internet works that way, don't you?!?) This is the first 'crafty-ness' I've actually done since before Christmas... it's about time, I think! (I can tell when I haven't been creating anything for a while; I get that 'itch' to do something again, but have to work myself back into the creative mindset. This was a good way to start: a small, easy-to-complete project.)

Tag book showing spray mist / ink colors

I have a few bottles of spray ink and color mists, but I haven't really used them much on my SB pages. I've mostly used my spray inks and mists on journal page backgrounds such as these, but I've only used them on a couple SB pages (these Street Art SB pages are about the only ones I can remember). I'd like to use them more often, but I don't really think about them, and from just looking at the bottles, it's difficult to figure out exactly what the colors look like after they're sprayed. That's where the organizing part of this comes in! I'll keep this tag book of color swatches somewhere handy so I can see which, if any, colors match the project I'm doing.    

The cover- a manila shipping tag

The cover was made very simply using my Tiny Attacher stapler (I love that thing!), some graph paper, and a couple different alphabet stickers. Funny thing: the green alphabet letters were a Big Lots discount store purchase... they're American Crafts brand stickers, and they smell like green apple!! lol!! They also had some stickers that smelled like fruit, I think-- very funny! I remember scratch & sniff stuff from when I was growing up, so I had to get them! (plus, I really like the font.)

my favorite Dylusions spray ink colors... yummy!

I typed the names out with my typewriter (thank goodness it still works after all these months of sitting idly in my craft room!) and stapled them to each tag with the Tiny Attacher. Now if I want to see whether a particular color works with a project or not, I can just hold the tag up to it.

Mist and spray ink collection January 2013

Mist collection April 2012

As you can see from the pictures above, my collection hasn't grown too much; they still all fit in the same container! But, I really would like to use them on my SB pages sometimes. Hopefully this tag book will help do the trick!

[Now for the 'Old School' part of the post: stickers.]

Remember how scrapbooking stores used to have an entire wall full of rolls of stickers?? Stickers of every color, shape, and theme you could think of. Need stickers for Easter? got 'em. Need stickers for moving into a new house? got them, too. Need stickers with pizza or popcorn on? yup, they had those, too! 

'old-school' stickers... 

In my purging and organizing, I've tried to be pretty honest with myself about what supplies I think I will or won't use. I have a decent-sized stash of stickers here, some of which have got to be at least 10- maybe closer to 15- years old! I kept organizing and storing them, thinking 'I might use them someday, so I should keep them.' Well, not any more. I know this kind of sticker is not my style any longer, so they're headed to the scrapbook store's garage sale where they'll hopefully be bought by someone who will use them, instead of just 'storing' them for years.

A collection of Susan Branch stickers. They're pretty,
but they're not my style any longer, at all.

Most of these stickers are 5-10 years old at least, if not older. And I can't remember the last time I used one of them; it had to be at least a year or two ago! They are pretty, though... I've had to stop myself a couple times from taking things back out of my 'garage sale' pile-- doing it makes me think a bit of the people they showcase on the television program Hoarders, though- you know, those people who are so obsessed with their stuff that they won't let any of it be thrown or given away- so I usually put the item right back. (except for one or two pieces of paper, I think... but that's all!)

Brands like Mrs. Grossman, Frances Meyer, and Deluxe Cuts...
that wall of stickers at the scrapbooking store was so much fun!

Of course, if I kept them long enough, maybe they'll come back into 'scrapping fashion' since that seems to have already happened with vellum and some other scrapping trends. (I still have my vellum, too- I'm keeping that! lol!)

just a bit goofy

not every page is some deep, dark exploration of my innermost thoughts! Okay, not many of them are that intense and introspective, actually... but sometimes, they're totally goofy, for fun, random sort of things-

cowgirl kitty image from a free collage sheet I found on
Flickr (I just love her attitude- lol!), collaged paper from
a Teesha Moore collage sheet, butterfly from wrapping paper, and
details made with gel pens and my Signo white en.

This was a funny magazine clipping my mom sent me recently; the
poor bunny had gotten stuck in a fence! I thought it was so cute,
I had to save it for posterity in my journal. Just the thing to put on
top of this crazy-colorful spray inked background.

Journal Pages in the 5x7 journal

pink and purple

an unfinished 2-page spread in my 5x7 journal: watercolors, a bit of stamping with gesso and teal StazOn ink, along with some collaged paper and images. 

hearts and hand 

a one-page horizontal spread in the 5x7 journal. (I have to remember that even though the book is bound vertically, I can still rotate it to make a horizontal page if I want.) Watercolored background with collaged paper. The palmistry hand is a Tim Holtz stamp that I stamped onto vintage paper with teal StazOn (permanent) ink then cut out, and the hearts are stamped on the background then colored in with Sakura glaze pens. I think it might look a bit better if the hand was outlined with a black pen or pencil, but I'm not going to worry about it too much.

An unfinished page in the 5x7 journal. This page was sort of an 'experiment' in ink use. I have a number of stamp pad re-inkers (small bottles of ink that you can use to rejuvenate a stamp pad), and I wanted to see if I could use them to create a page background, similar to using the spray ink or cake watercolors. I saturated the paper with water, then dripped the re-inkers onto the page, to see what would happen. The drops of butterscotch color sort of 'bloomed' into a really cool pattern once they hit the wet paper. The green ink was more of a 'line' that I drew with the dropper tip, then it spread into the water. (I do like how this turned out, but I had to get the paper sooo wet to get it to work that I probably won't be doing this again anytime soon.)

lines and colors

Another unfinished 2-pages in the 5x7 journal. These pages were started out with the black stamping, then I scraped a bit of gesso onto the page (the whitish, lighter spots). Eventually I hit it with the spray inks in a random pattern to create the colored background you see here. (the gesso acts as a sort of resist or the color, so the color isn't as saturated in those spots.)

boy and his dog

A somewhat simpler page than some, with various 'blobs' (do you like that technical term?!? lol!!) of watercolor paint overlapping for the background. The image is a vintage photograph that I bought somewhere, scanned and printed onto regular paper. I wrote around the photograph with a fine-point pen. I really like the contrast of the brightly colored background with the vintage black & white image, and not every page needs lots of layers,  time, or a detailed, polished finish. (not that I don't like doing that sometimes, just not all the time- lol!) 

art and stuff...

a few of the latest art journal pages I've been playing around with... 

a fold-out page: the collaged image is from a gardening magazine. (the cigar band on the pot is covering up some advertising, or something). Loose lines added with black permanent marker.

The entire page, unfolded. This will (probably) be the base layers for more collage work: yummy bubblegum pink and lemon zest spray inks sprayed thru my new Dylusions stencil, a piece of collaged striped scrapbook paper (which actually covers up a rip in the paper), blue washi tape on the fold, and some scribbles with a red wax pencil. Not sure what's next with this page...

Here's the 'stuff' part of the post: the first personalized license plates I've ever gotten! Also the first specialty license plate I've ever had!  (fyi, It reads live 4 art, or love 4 art, whichever you want.) I usually think specialty plates are kind of a waste of $$, but I really like the design of the AZ centennial plate.

Journal page close-up: this page is basically just collaged paper, with some colored details. Not sure if there will be more added to this one, or not. My pages lately have been mostly just art, with very little writing; I'm okay with that- since there's no right or wrong way to journal, whatever I feel like doing at the moment is 'right' for me.

A view of the entire page: the cats are from a vintage book (from a collage pack I bought from Kelly Kilmer ages ago, I think); the black and white bits are from a journal page photocopy, and the other pieces are SB paper, magazine, vintage map, etc.

This page will definitely get more added to it, but I like taking photos of my pages in process. so I can see the progression. Over the weekend I broke out some acrylic paints and stamps, and went back out onto the patio. (it wasn't as windy as last time, thankfully!) I used fluorescent pink and orange paint on this page, along with some paint 'scraped on' using the edge of an expired gift card. (the scraping allows what's beneath- the faint scribbled circles- to show through. 

More of the fluorescent pink paint, along with some other colors, on a vintage book or magazine (National Geographic?) page. I like the pops of black I used on these pages; I'll definitely be doing more of that.