One Week Journal

The My Little Shoebox designers were given a personalized mini-album from Clear Scraps to alter about a month ago. Since my name is 7 letters long, I decided to do an art journal for a week. I chose a random week (November 1-7th) because I wanted a brief glimpse in my regular life.

This is how it turned out.


I began by painting (acrylic paints), misting (Shimmerz Spritz in Cotton Candy), and stamping (Inque Boutique) the background. I chose three colors: pink, yellow and baby blue along with white and black. This kept the project cohesive.


I adhered my My Little Shoebox chipboard letters and letter stickers next. A bit of outlining makes them pop.


Then I cut out tons of images from My Little Shoebox papers and adhered them to the borders of my pages. I pretty much stuck with one theme per letter.


Then I embossed the edges of each letter with JudiKins sparkle silver embossing powder. This was a mistake. I should have embossed when I was all done writing. I went through pen after pen trying to write over stray embossing powder crystals. Darn it.



I tried to write something each day, but I got behind after day two. (Of course) I ended up writing a few days at a time, but I have a pretty good memory so I don't think that it really matters.


After I finished writing, I embellished like crazy. This, in my opinion was the best part. I added buttons, chipboard elements (Basic Grey), ribbon (Making Memories), rickrack, mini mosaic tiles (Harmonie).


I also added some bling with Shimmerz Blingz in Hi Ho Silver. Wow, that stuff is cool! (See the silver cloud around the date? That is Shimmerz.)


I love how My Little Shoebox papers have so many cool images to cut out! Here's one of my little scenes.


The mini mosaic tiles by Harmonie are another one of my favorite additions. They just add something extra.


I also did a few flowers using My Little Shoebox papers and some Shimmerz Spritz in Cotton Candy. (It may just be my favorite Spritz color.)


I also added some Hi Ho Silver Blingz to the flowers to give them even more sparkle.





This is my favorite date. I think it turned out absolutely perfectly. To make it, I painted a very small border around a Heidi Swapp butterfly mask using yellow. Then after I removed the mask, I painted a little blue border inside. I wrote the date then outlined with a pink colored pencil. The pink butterflies are made of acetate colored with alcohol ink and edged with Hi Ho Silver Blingz again. I can't get enough of that stuff!


I added some ribbons and some Melissa Frances tinsel to the rings to finish it all up.


This was a very time intensive project, but I absolutely love how it turned out!

Now for some less interesting personal stuff. (hehehe)

This weekend, the bigger girls, my friend Sara, and I went to my sister, Mandy's musical: Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. This was D and Z's first live performance (that they can remember) and they were completely enthralled. They were so bummed when the musical ended and asked me if we could go to every performance in the future. It was a lovely evening for us. I'm now looking into children's theater because both of them have serious interest especially Z. (No surprise for those of you who know her...) If you know of any good theaters in the Phoenix area, please let me know. I need some leads.

I just signed up for a cool paperclay class at Mystic Paper in Mesa, AZ. I can't tell you how excited I am. I've always wanted to work with paperclay and now I have the chance! There are still openings if you want to learn how to make this cute guy (look for the Polka Dot Pixie) and hang with me. I've only taken two other live classes (one on soldering and another by Tim Holtz) and each time I complete a class, I experience a major creative high. I love it.

I'm on ScrapScene again with a few Christmas cards. It is always a thrill to appear there!

If you haven't checked out The Next Step lately, you are seriously missing out. Jeanet Kuiper is our guest artist this month and she did a great tutorial on using scraps, paint and misting to make lovely backgrounds.

Oh, and Lucy Edson has a wonderful new video tutorial up on Shimmerz (I was just totally inspired to get misting on fabric after I watched it) and the My Little Shoebox blog has been updated with some fun projects including the DT scraplift results.

Have a wonderful week!

xoxo
Bethany