Smash book pgs 11 - 14

 I don't even know how long I've had the page on the right.  Those two little girls having their tea party is so like my little girls playing with their friends when they were little.  I tore that page out of a magazine and kept it for years.  I also had saved various tea bag pouches hoping to use them some day in an art project.

 I decided to glue them across the pages and make tags with "tea" quotes on them.  Each tag has a ribbon tied in the end to make it easy to pull out of the pouch and read the quote.  I cut the blue coffee cup from one of our coffee bags.

Here I pulled out two tags to show how I put the quotes on the tags.  I also saved numerous Stevia and Truvia pouches to glue to the pages.  I also have several tea-themed rubber stamps that I used on these pages.


I am not through with this book yet.  (**)  I have a page with a horse on it and I'm looking through photos to find some of our daughters with their horses when they were young.  Also, I have another page that says "You have bright ideas"........trying to come up with an idea for that page!  LOL

Smash book pgs 9 & 10

 I dedicated two pages to my honey.  The page on the right is full of hearts and Valentine sentiments.  On the left side is my story of our meeting, school years, wedding date, children and gkids.  "Opposites Attract" is the most appropriate tag for us!  I added some hearts that I cut out of magazines.

      I love these pages!!!  When I saw the title "Man, You're Cool" it brought to mind my little grandson's (Jacob's) favorite thing to say.  He's the one in the upper right corner.  The photo on the bottom of that page is his sister. (Emma).   At the top on the left is Emma and her best friend Addy.  At the bottom of that page is my co-teacher for Sunday School (Deidra) and I.  We were wearing our "shades" at our yearly block party.  We did face painting for all the little children that came.

Smash pgs 7 & 8

 This guy is really trying to look French.....maybe he is.....but I thought he was funny!  LOL   I had cut out the word EXPLORE and thought this was the perfect page for it.  At the bottom is a photo of Pat, myself, Judi and Susan on our way to the flea market at Clignancourt.  The flea markets were our favorite thing to do while there.  ")  We were actually able to go to a street one for the neighborhood where we stayed.  It was such fun.

I used these two pages to collage photos of people, places and things on our trip there.  On the right side I put 10 of my Favorite Things in Paris and surrounded it with a few photos.

Pages in Smash book.....

 The line across the middle of these pages just begged for somersaulting clowns.  ")  I love this little stamp.  I got it in an art trade at one of our stamp club meetings a few years ago.  I cut out the ferris wheel, the ticket and the "Circus" word from the front of a toy magazine.  The little clown holding the lollipop is another Mary Engelbreit figure.  The unicycle just seemed to go along with the clowns.

 This page had a picture of a man on the left and the word adore on the page.  I ended up putting photos of the grandchildren, magazine images and stamped images and layered over them with Tim Holtz tiny film strip.

I placed a "to do" list on this page and wrote out several things that I'm always saying I'd like to do.  Like the trip to Paris with the art group.  Had to add the Eiffel Tower.  Judi and I thought we would not even go there.  Then we ended up going to the top floor!  It was a great adventure.  ")

     I loved our neighborhood.....the 5th Arrondisement or the Latin Quarter as it is known.  And Notre Dame is there.  WAY across town is Sacre Couer at Montmarre.  We would just jump on the Metro and go any place we wanted.  Fabulous way to travel.  Being from a small town and never having lived in a large city where the subway is the way to go was quite a treat for us.

Smash book (?)

 I've had this Smash book for 2 years....  yes, I know it's supposed to be a fast paced little book to slap things down with a little glue and move on along.  BUT every time I turned a page, my head was filled with all kinds of ideas of wonderful ways to decorate it.  Soooo, it has taken me two years to get this far.  Yeah....I'm not though yet.

Mary Engelbriet is one of my favorite artists.  I love all the dear children she draws and all the wonderful quotes she puts with her art work.  I used "Running Away From Home" (upper left) because I feel like I've run away from everything when I'm involved with my art.  I also used this perky little girl next to the chair to invite everyone in for look.

Our Christmas Baby.......

 Christmas presents crowded around Sharla's tree.  Chris and Sharla were our hosts for our family Christmas Eve Eve get together.  And there were still more to come!

 

 But this is the best present!  This little guy (and he WAS little) was born the day after Christmas in 2006.......three months early.  He weighed 2.7lbs and was 15" long.  His mother had been told not to expect him to live.  Many, many prayers went up across this land.  God really gave us a miracle!  He is sooooo healthy, vibrant and active!  We always celebrate his birthday at our Christmas gatherings and thank God for giving him to us.  We stop each day to look at him and think what a miracle he is.  But we also look around at our other grandchildren and thank God for such a beautiful healthy bunch of kids.

     Birthday donuts were Jacob's choice to celebrate his birthday this year.  Thank you, Livi Lee's for a job well done!  Yum!

Ooops!!!!

Yeeah........started to post this on Dec. 4 and then was interrupted.  Just noticed I had a draft and clicked on it to see what it was.  My December 365 calendar!  Only 20 days late getting it posted!  LOL  Oh, well.  It's done.
Merry Christmas everyone!

Christmas time! Christmas time!

 Nana has been a busy little elf!  LOL  Oh, my!  You've heard the phrase: "don't bite off more than you can chew"?  Well, here proof that I did just that!  The envelopes were filled with money for the gkids.  And, of course, I JUST HAD to decorate them.  ")  The decorated tags are for the "stocking buckets" shown below.  And they are the ones for the gkids.  The plain manila shipping tags with names and one sticker are for all the adults because this little elf ran out of time!  LOL

     The buckets shown here are in place of all the stockings everyone has hung at home.  We go a little crazy with stocking stuffers!  LOL  So, our youngest daughter saw these cute buckets while running through Dollar Tree on one of here shopping sprees and grabbed enough for our whole immediate family (plus one girl friend of our oldest grandson).  We usually stuff and stuff items into stockings until you just can't get one more thing into them.  Then we start little piles of gifts under the appropriate stocking, and, needless to say, things get a little mixed up and wild and crazy.  So Ru thought this bucket idea would be a great remedy to all that craziness.  And she was right!  But I decided I would make cute tags to go one each bucket.  ")  Well, at least the gkids got their's done.  Everyone was crazy about this idea except our leader (who hates change) ......known as Papaw to all his family.  ")  We had our family gathering last night (Christmas Eve Eve) so gkids could go to the other grandparents for tonight.  Merry Christmas everyone!

Christmas Gift Card holders

 Christmas time!  Busy days!  I give lots of gift cards at Christmas.  Our grandchildren are always excited to have money to spend after Christmas and we give them lots of gift cards..... large and small.  From the six year old to the 17 year old, they love it!  Well, even the adults love it!  LOL  I measured a gift card and decided how much paper to cut for total length and where to make the folds.  I had seen a die to cut these out but decided I could make my own pattern.  It turned out really well.

       I gathered as many "Christmasy" papers as I could find and started cutting and folding.  I decided to put a contrasting color on the flap.  I also had these wonderful little labels from Jenni Bowlin that I used for the front.  That allows me a place to write the name of the recipient.  After the gift cards go in,  I have little gold-seal stickers to hold the envelope closed.  Needless to say, I'm very excited and pleased with this project!  (Now, on to tags for our "over-flow" buckets.  We all have stockings but we usually end up with little piles of goodies that wouldn't fit into the stockings.  So this year we have little red, green and blue buckets to put the over-flow into.  I'm making tags for the buckets.  Happy times!)

Photo Album for Etsy Shop

 I've been dying to get started on my little journals or photo albums for my Etsy shop (inkybrustudio.......of course!)  I wanted to make a cute, interesting, beguiling little book that would make someone want to hold it and open it up to see what surprises were inside.  I also needed to keep the cost down so customers would not flip out at an exorbitant price.  I think I have done that......well, there are some things I'd like to change, but there are other albums brewing in my mind.  ")

 You will notice that I have edged all around each page with washi tape.  I think this give a real finished look to my pages.  I actually used recycled, light-weight cardboard as the base of each page and covered it with decorative papers on both sides before adhering the washi tape all around.  I love using vellum envelope pockets for photo albums.

 I tried to make different pockets for each page (although I did use the vellum on more than one page").  The left side has a double pocket as you can see with the inserts I added.  I did make a Christmas tag for the book and if the buyer chooses to give the book as a gift, they have a tag to use.  ")

I also added some vellum pages in between some of my pages for photos to be glue-dotted or taped to them.  Just gives more places to add photos.  I don't know if I'll have time to make another one before my cut off date.......
which is Dec. 15.  This is Thanksgiving week and then the madness of Christmas shopping for gifts for family and friends begins.  But, oh! I love it!!!!!  Enjoy your families and a great dinner together.  ")
Of course, you can go to my shop on Etsy and see other pages for this book and also other items I have for sale........and, yes, there will be BLACK FRIDAY items!  

Sara's pages in my altered book......

 Sara did the whole month of February in my altered book.  I love that she chose to go with the Valentine or Love theme.  Her colors are so perfect for these pages.  The first two-page spread has this adorable little doll on the left side.  She is holding a piece of candy and a card that says "Be Mine".  I love the border at the top.  These pinks go so well with the green already on the left side of the page.  What a beautiful picture of roses on script paper as a back ground for this little doll.  The butterfly is a gorgeous touch.  The right side has a gorgeous white and gold heart medallion at the top and the lower right corner.  Sara has rubber stamped Browning's love poem, "How do I Love Thee" on white mulberry paper and added it to the left side of the page.  I love that she left the "February" showing at the top of the page.  She has cut a heart that also has roses on it to add next to the poem.  On little red bordered labels, she has added the words:  Love, Destiny and Forever.  She has made a little calendar to go in the upper right corner and added the definition for lover across it.

     On the next two-page spread, she has used a punch to make the scalloped edge and sewn lace and a Valentine ticket to the page.   I love that the ticket has a little message written to me on it.  ")  Over this page that features advertisements, she has added large Xs and Os.  She has also added a sweet little blue bird to the bottom of the page.  On the right side, she has attached a picture of a girl on a bridge in Paris and letters falling all around her.  Sara was also in Paris when our group was there.  She and her daughter Kimberly had signed up Catherine  Moore's group to go....which inspired the rest of us to go.   ")  We were able to meet up with them there.  So this picture on this bridge brings back some really good memories.  I love this red lacey heart tucked in behind the image.  The envelope is one she had received from Pat and she used it as a pocket on this page.  The pocket contains a little message from the original sender.....written in Italian so I have no idea what it says!  LOL  Sara has added another one of those sweet little hearts to this page.  She added a lacey washi tape around the edges of the image.

 The next two-page spread has some muted heart papers as the backgrounds.  The left side is a creamy color with light pinks and blues in the hearts.  She has sewn some mini Valentines down the center of this page and finished it off with a lace edge and some pink felt flowers with rhinestone centers.  The page on the right is pink with muted touches of cream around some of the hearts.   The focal image here is the little girl in a light pink dress with a darker pink bow in her hair.  Sara has sewn it to a piece of white paper on which she has used a punch to create a frame.  She added the square next to the photo which has the word CHERISH and the definition on it.  Below the photo she has added two dark pink tickets with "xoxoxo" and "Be Mine" rubber stamped onto them.  Also for the finishing touch to the page, she has added two of those pink felt flowers with rhinestone centers.

     For the last page, Sara has made the focal image the stack of tea cups.  I love the legs sticking out of the top cup!  She knows I usually add a touch a humor to my pages and I appreciate her humorous touch here!  Also love the quote from Alice in Wonderland:  " No time to say, hello! Good-bye!"   Sara has attached her signature card to a hand dyed ribbon with a safety pin and silver heart.  Sara has attached a pink tab to each of her pages.  Thank you Sara!

Susan's pages in my altered book....

 I am an avid bird watcher and love that Susan did my pages with this theme.  Have you ever seen so many postage stamps with bird images?!  Fabulous!  I love this image in the middle of the page.  What a gorgeous and unusual bird......I think it's an American hoopoe (?).   She has added some nice corner frames for the birdcage in upper right corner and bird in lower left corner.  Love the green.

 Susan painted these pages white before adding all these beautiful bird images.  I love that she die cut them with a label cutter.  The feathers are a most awesome addition!  The rubber stamped word "Fly" really give it a Victorian touch.  In the middle of the pages, Susan has added an acetate flap with a rubber stamped bird image on it.  She has also attached her signature card to it.  I love this page.

Susan has laid down a page with a nice bouquet in the center of it and bordered all around the page with more of those awesome postage stamps with bird image.  In the center of this page is a menu:  "Birdwatchers' Banquet".
              Enchanted Forest Green
         Exotic leafy vegetables with
     Canary yellow mustard vinaigrette

           Robin Red Breat Potato Nest
        Yukon Gold potatoes, deep fried in
       a nest and topped with cheese twigs

           Savory Faux Chicken Pot Pie
          Homemade crust, tofu squares, fresh
       vegetables and sprinkled with birdseed

              Drunken Berry Crumble
         Wild Olalieberries with cherry sauce
               Watch out for Windows

Isn't this just priceless!!!!  What a great stroke of genius, Susan!  These pages are delightful!  I  am so glad you did the whole month of January in my book.  Thank you!

More altered pages.....

These dreamy pages were done by Minori.  She has laid down a beautiful silvery blue and purple background.  On top of this, you has stamped these adorable tiny trees, cranes, and that sweet little boy.  She has also stamped
hearts around the pages.  I love the words (don't know if they are hand written or stamped): loved, inspired and home.  She has added some little birds in some of the trees.  Rub ons?  On top of this she has made some beautiful textured stars.  They are white and touched with gold.  Gorgeous!  Her signature card has a tiny little bow added to it and it has been stamped with those adorable trees.  Thank you, Minori!

      These pages were done by my dear friend Pat.  I love the pages edged with all the glorious pink, blue and purple blooms.  The envelope on the left side is also a pocket.  I believe the writing on the envelope is Italian.  Tucked into this pocket along with her signature card are a few religious cards and a photo of a young girl in her confirmation dress.  I love the jewel and the ribbon on the signature card.  The right side has a triptych stamped on top of a postcard which she has sewn onto some decorative paper and then added some lace to the bottom of the card and adhered it to the page.  She has added this adorable "angel".  She made wings for this little darling from toile and papers.  I love this!  Pat's quote starts at the top of the page and ends along the bottom where she has used a label maker for the words:  "Angels are amonst us always".  Sweet!

      For Pat's second two-page layout, she has used the colors:  red, white, blue.  I not sure but I think this is Italian for the ascention of Mary.......is this by the painter Ferragosto.....or have I totally missed the mark here?  Pat?  I guess I'll have to email her and come back to correct it if I'm way off on this.  ").  I love that Pat did all the pages for August!  Thanks, Pat!

Altered book pages

 These pages were done by Jan.  Lots of details here.  ")  Love the collage!  These hanging branches are such a favorite of mine.....and I think of Jan's!  The alphabet is dry embossed.  (I'm a little alpha crazy!  love it!)  I really like the way she added the bird and the moon to the image in the upper left corner.  The image of the man with the details above his head give him a Roman look.  I like the way she added the fruit to the tree limbs.  Really looks like it belongs to those branches.  Her signature card has the "Genuine" on it.  Very nice touch.  On the right side, Jan used the word of the month May to start her quote:  "May your heart be filled with joy".  I love the image of the Chinese man holding the baby.....perfect for the quote.  ")  I haven't decided if the woman in the upper left corner of this page is a cat woman or a dog dressed up in a woman's dress, but it is priceless!  Nice touches with the stars and the bird at the bottom of the page.  Thanks, Jan!

The Asian themed pages were done by Marsha.  This theme is one of my favorite and I never seem to get to use it very much.  I was delighted when I saw that Marsha had used it for these pages in my altered book.  She has added so very many items that evoke a sense of the Oriental.  The folded money is one of my favs on the left hand page.  I love Marsha's use of the fortune cookie strips.  (HMmmm, is she among the many of us who save them all?!!  LOL)  Love her fans on this page.  I really like the touch of red in those felt cut-out butterflies across the corner of the page.  Her rubber stamped image of the lady with all the tags hanging off is beautifully colored.  She has used layers of Asian newspaper panels to backdrop all of her images.  I don't want to forget that sweet Koi faux postage stamp.....beautifully layered with gold paper.  The right hand page has as a focal point the chopstick paper cover and that gorgeous green paper umbrella!  Love it!  I don't know what those strips of paper are that stick out from the geisha faux postage stamp, but the cutouts on the ends are really delicate.  And just love all the fortune cookie strips..........and they all speak of talents.  Great job, Marsha!

My altered book is home................

 This is where it all started back in February 2014.  I altered a calendar book that I had purchased from Stampington and Co.  My book has been all around the world and across the United States.  Really!  (Route:  Sand Springs, OK; Tulsa, OK; Japan, England, Oklahoma City, and Minnesota before coming home to me!).

These page were done by Judi (who happens to be one of my very closest friends!).  Since Judi lives a few miles from me, I was able to hand deliver all the books to her.  We were roommates in Paris when 6 of us traveled together to Paris in the Fall of 2011.  I was thrilled to see that she chose this theme for the pages she did in my book.  I love the lady she dressed up on the left-hand page!  Notice the baguettes in her hand.  ")  Love that she put an address by this lady.  The right- hand page is soooo Moulin Rouge.  We spent an afternoon up there and had such fun!  Street musicians entertained us all along the way.  And the artwork we saw was so inspiring!  And, yes, we did end up going up the Eiffel Tower!  Love the piano keys on the edge of this page.  I particularly like the horn player down in the corner.  The washi tapes used on these pages are so perfect for a Parisian theme.

November is here...............

I painted these pages with brown, light orange and gold paint.  I stamped and cut out about 40 leaves to go around the edges and layer some under my journal squares.  I love Autumn! and it really doesn't seem like the season is in full swing until after Halloween.  We had our first freeze Halloween night, which it usually does.  We have had some hot nights for those little tricker-treaters, though.  I hoping to be able to have some time to enjoy this month a little more.  We started the first day off with some of our girls and a sil coming out to help cut firewood.  They labored in the woods while I labored in the kitchen.  ")  When they arrived back at the house, I had homemade chicken and dumplings and homemade biscuits ready.  (Need I say more?!  LOL)

October is gone........

Pumpkins, cats, spiders.......Oh, my!!!  It's hard to believe that October has come and gone.  What a busy month it was around here!  I worked the first two weeks for a local Mom's Day Out.  I love being with those little ones.  The ones I was with range in age from 16 months to 2yrs.  What fun!  Love watching them engage in their art projects.  They did many Halloween themed painting projects.  How they love to paint!!!  Their reactions to the paint brush in their hand was marvelous.  Can't show any pics (I'm sure those of you with little ones understand the precaution).  It was amazing to see some of their motor skills at work, from the littlest who barely dabbed to the oldest who really handled brushing on paint quite well.

I loved putting the paint down for these calendar pages.  Love that purple with the orange.  These colors always bring visions of Halloween to me.  Some people really put black at the top of their Halloween colors, but I love these two.  ")  I did attend a really great Halloween party.  My friend Kimberly has her sisters and nieces and nephews over every year for a really great, creative time.  They all make their own costumes!  It was awesome!  (I bought kitty-cat ears and tail.  ").  

Journal Soup 2 - Pg 1

Kate Crane has a new online class.  If you aren't acquainted with her work, go over to The KathrynWheel and see what she offers.  I had already taken Journal Soup 1 with her and learned so much about laying down color on my art journal pages.  I like painting with my fingers (well, I use brushes, too ") and was pleased to see that she used her fingers in that first class, too.  For this class, Kate uses the color wheel to give an idea of complimentary colors and those that contrast.  Laying down color and blending it with other complimentary colors is really a great lesson to learn in getting beautiful, vibrant pages.  I love the process of layering on designs and images to create a page.  I've just finished page 1 in this class.  And, of course, I ran into many barriers around here as I tried to work on this page.
Kate used a lego block to create some dots on her page.  So I scoured the grandsons' toy box to grab one........not one lego!  I had small suitcases full of legos around here when the girls we small...........evidently some of the grandsons have taken them to their homes.  Soooo, I found a piece broken off one their sponge bullet launches and used it.  It had an extended piece that looked like an X out on the end.  My little red dots are made with it.  When I loaded it too heavily with paint, it printed out as a circle.  So, I have some circles and some Xs.  ")  Included in this class are downloads of textured surfaces that Kate has photographed.  I used one of the textured surfaces as my fence.  And at the end as I started to print out my sentiment for the page, no ink!  I didn't want to make a trip into town to buy more ink last night, so I hand printed it out on paper and cut it into strips to attach it to the page.  Kate added butterflies to her page at then end.  Since I had written "love" on my house, I added a few hearts with words added.
(Kate also shows a variety of houses to make in this video.)  Come over and join us in this adventure.  The class can be done at your own pace.  It took me two days to go through the first video..........life gets hectic around here!  I often have to run up to the local school and grab my two youngest grandsons.  It's easy to pick back up where I've left off and continue the class.  OK......so, don't take my word for it, see Kate's blog today:  thekathrynwheel.blogspot.com

365Calendar - September

Autumn is just around the corner!   My favorite season.  I can already smell the cool autumn air.  LOL   Well, maybe tomorrow morning I'll be able to smell it.  Our weather report says that we'll have a Canadian front moving through here late this afternoon and it's going to cool us down.  We'll be 90 degrees by lunch and by 6pm, we'll be about 70.  Woohoo!!!!  getting out my sweaters today!!!
     I'm not quite through with this calendar.  I'm wanting it to have a "back to school" theme.  Seems like I'm trying to wrap up so many projects this month that I just keep going back and forth from one to another.  I swear I have adult ADD.  Sometimes I can't keep my focus.  I hate that!  I like to sit down with a project and really spend some time on it to make it the best I possibly can.  I'm not happy when I feel like I'm throwing something together because it has to be done.  But, hey, life does get in the way and you just have to keep going.  Which is a good thing!  Could be a different ending...............

365Calendar - August

This is July finished.  Wow!  I find that I'm never ready for a month to end and prepare for a new one.  ")  I guess time does fly when you're having fun!  LOL

Here is my August calendar.  I really had the feeling that summer was nearing an end.  We have had a very unusual summer.  Very few 100 degree days and lots of rain.  Very weird for Oklahoma......but nice!  I used a beach theme for this calendar.  Although I have not had a bathing suit on for years!  (**)

365Calendar- June and July

This is my finished June calendar.  Oh my!  This makes me feel like the year is flying by!  I love doing this "lazy journaling".  ")  If you haven't tried it,
jump in!  It's so easy to jot down a few things from the day or just one item.  I love looking back over the months and seeing some of the happenings going on in my family and with friends and art associates.


For July I went all out Red, White and
blue!  I painted my background and then
added strips of music torn from a copy of the Star Spangled Banner.  I picked out reds and blues for the majority of the squares for each day of the month.  And, of course, I had to add some firework blasts!  LOL

Faces #6 and 7

 I was probably more pleased with this face than any other I have drawn so far.  I started using my Copic markers to get the face coloring and shadows.  I also quit using the Stabilo Alls pencil because it smears so easily.  I am happier with the results.

I love this one!  I used raw umber and white to get the coloring right.  She looks so pleasant.....
or maybe just pleased with herself.  I've got to get with it and do another face!  I'm loving this challenge.  ")

Faces 4 and 5

 I thought this face had a sweet look to it.  I did my background in green, so I had to gesso in the area for her face and neck.  (I had gessoed the whole page first.)  I really didn't want her face to be green.  ")  The hair leaves a lot to be desired, but that just means I get to practice, practice, practice.  LOL

Face #5 ended up rather a mess.  I had spritzed some color ink across the page.  Once I started trying to make shadows with a slightly wet paint brush and was pulling the lines in from my Stabilo Alls pen, it began to smear really badly.
Bless her little heart.......I'll have to try her again without spray inks.  ")