Another awesome learning experience !

So for this mini album, I followed a tutorial on YT by MySerenityCrafts.  This makes a very nice (and sturdy!) mini album.

One of the things I love about these minis is that you can add all sorts of extras to them without taking away from the structure of the actual book.  I have added tags and flip pages to mine.  This album is great because it has built-in pockets, and you don't need to figure out measurements and stuff, its all in where you put your adhesive.  This makes a great fast make for a newbie like myself.  I also got very brave and added a faux suede (polyester) binding to make it look more authentic and finished.  The paper is from a 6 x 6 pad by My Mind's Eye called Indie Chic - Safron collection.  Unfortunately the Indie Chic Collections are no longer being made :(.  Good thing I found a bunch of 6x6 pads and stocked up on them...heehee.

Tons of room for photos and journaling in this one what with all the pockets and the additional flip pages and tags!

Tune in next time for more mini albums!

A Whole New World!

I know I have mentioned before that I am terrible at journaling and putting photos in actual albums....I have several photo boxes full of pictures to prove it :)

However, I have now discovered the wonderful world of handmade journals and albums.  WOWZA!  There are some seriously talented and crafty people out there and I would like to give a shout-out to a few I can come up with off the top of my head:  Kathy Orta, Kathryn Kreiger, Luane Kash, Laura Denison, Dawn's Inspirations and Marion Smith.  These ladies have unofficially inducted me into the Love of Making Mini Albums club.  I totally blame them :P  The creativity and ingenuity it takes to come up with such beautiful pieces out of paper bags, and plain old envelopes and file folders.  Just amazing.  Of course, there are many, many, MANY more fabulously creative people on YouTube; these are the ones I can remember off the top of my head.

That being said, here we go:

My very first mini album/journal was modelled after the first YT video I watched from Luanne Kash.  And from there I was totally hooked, line and sinkered.

Front

Back

First two pages

Second and third pages

Fourth and Fifth pages

Sixth and seventh pages

This was so much fun to make.  And so easy for a brand new beginner!  I have made a few of these albums since (pics in future posts) and I never seem to be able to make the exact same one twice!  The paper is from Michael's Songs of Spring Line, and I added a few papers that I had to match.  I also used some Stamper's Anonymous and Recollections Embossing powders.  This was also my first foray into heat embossing, and of course, I NEED to have ALL the colors of powders I can find...hehe.

Please return tomorrow for another mini album!  Thanks for visiting!

Rainbow of Colors ATC Swap

Over on Swap-Bot, there is a group of swaps for ATCs called Rainbow of colors.  Every swap is a different colored flower so that when you complete them all, you have a complete set of all different colors.  This swap's theme is white flowers.

For the background I used three colors of Silk Acrylic Glaze:  Ice, Pixie Pink, and Stargazer.  I basically just slapped them on so that they would mix a little, then dried it.  I used a paper doily as a stencil with Distress Inks in Frayed Burlap to create the stenciled image and tied on white ribbon.  Then I glued down a paper flower and some graduating sized half pearls.  Voila! Thanks for stopping by, see you next time!

More Swap Pieces

Hell everyone, I found more pics of swap pieces that I think you're going to love!

April Tickets for YPP

 April's tickets for Your Paper Pantry were to be flowers, so of course, mine had to be purple.  Purple has been my most favouritest colour ever since I can remember :)

Also on YPP, there is a flower swap and challenge, where each month you make different flowers according to a specific theme or medium.  May's theme was paper.  Well, this was a new challenge for me, I've never made paper flowers before!  Again Youtube to the rescue!  I found a tutorial from someone that does origami videos and here's what I came up with.  You can find the video here.  I followed his instructions exactly, and these flowers are magnificent and BIG!  I also added buttons to the centers and dry brushed the entire flower with gold acrylic paint.  This gives a very nice shimmery, but antique look to your project.

 OK, so, I joined some swaps on SB for Tim Holtz tags, following the tutorials on the Tim Holtz website.  These are great tutorials for learning new techniques, as he demonstrates a new technique or two with every tutorial.  These tags are for January, February and March, and I am now working on April and May.  Pics to come soon.

May's ATC theme for YPP was Clocks.  Yes....that totally spells Steampunk to me, a theme I have definitely fallen in love with.  I used the Tim Holts Stamper's Anonymous stamps, and metal gears and mini pocket watches.  The background is done with stencils and Distress Inks :)  I love distress inks, and you can use them for so much more than just distressing your paper.  I stamp with them all the time, to match the stamped image to my paper and inked edges.

And, last but not least, the Grab Bag Embellishment swap on YPP was Polka Dots, and I chose to do tags and envelopes.  I used patterned paper that I've had for a while, so I can't tell you what brand it is.  I created the tags and matted and added pull tabs using a circle punch.  I also added circles portions to the body of the pockets that are also matted with the patterned paper.

And this ends another episode of my wild paper adventures.  Stay tuned...next post is mini albums!

Slacker's Anonymous :)

Yup, that's me, the director of Slacker's Anonymous when it comes to taking pics and blogging about my adventures in paper, and , well...beading too.

My name is Leah, and I am a slacker.  There I have owned up to it, and now I shall get on the road to being better, way, way, way better.  I try, I really do :)

First of all, I found many more pictures of the different swaps I have participated in.  And here they are:

More mail art envelopes, front and back

Who doesn't love Steampunk?

This series of Steampunk ATC's was my very first Steampunk as well as my first set of ATC's and I fell in love with the size and the possibilities :)  I cut ATC's with my Silhouette Portrait and then gessoed them, with like 3 coats.  Next I alcohol inked them in darker rich browns and blues, and then glued on metal pieces, chipboard, drywall tape, and even had some fun with molding paste. And then alcohol inked over them again, adding shaded areas around the 3d pieces.

These are by far my favourite ATC's to date.  These were for a swap on Swap-Bot.

More of my earlier swap pieces from Your Paper Pantry, these are guy-themed tickets.  Of course, I cut them on my Portrait, and watercoloured the backgrounds in all different colour-ways.  Then I cut out shapes and words on my portrait.  Super simple, but lots of fun!

OK folks, that's all for today!  Check back tomorrow for more fun!

Let's Talk Swaps

I am going to posts a couple of bigger posts in the next few days, just to get all caught up.  This first post is about swaps.  My friend Shelley Turner over at Paper G-Ma, introduced me to swaps in February.  I am not sure if it is a good thing...or a bad thing...lol.

Oh, it's definitely a good thing.  I love doing the swaps.  Swap-Bot and Your Paper Pantry have been my induction into the world of swaps, and I'm not looking back, which brings me to the bad thing...it's all I want to do!  I want to do all the swaps I can find, and then tend to find myself in a wee bit of trouble, time-wise...lol.

OK, so, here we go:  my first swap piece was a mail art envelope, and the theme was vintage grunge.  Had fun with this one, even used my daughters work boot!

And, I won the prize for the grungiest envelope.

These are ATC swaps I did for both YPP and SB:

Some Grab bag embellishment pieces I did for a YPP swap:

And the last one is an ATC I just finished for a SB swap.

It turns out, I am terrible at remembering to take pics before I send them, because I know I have done more than this, but these are the only ones I could find for now :)

I will be better next time, I promise!

And on that note....until next time my paper-loving friends!

New Loves!

My Beady Little Eyes also loves paper!  And colours (no secret there)!

Well, here's the thing.  I have always loved paper.  I have been collecting fabulous paper for years.  I have even tried my hand at scrapbooking, and other traditional things to do with paper, and none of it stuck with me.  I even tried the Project Life style pocket scrapbooking, and that didn't do it for me either.  THEN...I discovered art journals.  OMG, love this new and artsy and crafty thing.  However, it turns out, I am not good at journalling.  Never really was.

Thank goodness for Youtube!  YT has saved the day, once again.  I started watching Youtube videos on making your own albums and journals.  OH what fun!  And guess what!  This is what I will do with my stash (read hoard) of beautiful and exciting paper!  I am having so much fun making every style I can find directions for and have even started adding my own creative elements.

Another new love, swaps!  Yes, you read correctly, I said SWAPS.  A sweet friend introduced me to Your Paper Pantry and Swap-Bot.  Oh what fun places they are turning out to be.  YPP is a Ning community where paper crafters of all kinds and from all over the globe can meet up and chat and join several different swaps every month.  My first month I joined 4 swaps and absolutely loved it.  Swap-bot is the same idea, but has more of a mechanical feel to it, much as the name suggests.  You have to be approved to join (as in YPP) but then you have to find a swap that allows newbies.  Once you get started, you have to gather a rating of 5.0 (and keep it) and you gain stars and hearts for every swap you complete.  The fun part is, there are several hundred different swaps going on at one time, and with people from every country in the world.  You also don't know who your swap partner is until a certain set date for every swap, and then the robot that is Swap-bot assigns you a partner to swap with from those signed up for it.  So far my swap pieces have been sent to the Netherelands, UK, many in the US and some to Canada.  I have also received some from the UK, the States and Canada.  Having a blast.

So, here it is....my last word on this new blog (yes, I know, I'm getting a little wordy here).  This is where I will showcase my handmade journals and albums, memory books and swap and challenge pieces.  If you like paper, this is the place to be :)  Thanks for reading, I look forward to having you visit back often.