A hurricane and a junk journal entry...

Hello friends. It has been awhile since I posted. Since my last post we managed to get a few days up at the Wren's Nest, but didn't get to do much since Hubby had picked up a nasty stomach bug and we cut our trip short. We hope to go back soon.

Hurricane Irma is on her way up to Florida and ready to soon hit the southwest portion of the state as a Category 3, right where my entire family lives...my two children and their spouses, my four grandchildren and my aging dad. My daughter picked up my dad this morning so that he can tough out the storm with them. I am praying for them and everyone else that has already been, and will be, impacted by this storm. And I am also still throwing in a some prayers for those in Texas who were devastated by Harvey.

I actually had the following photos ready to post before we went on our trip, but didn't have the time to do it, so in an effort to get my mind off the stressful stuff mentioned above, I am going to share them now.

I have been following a few YouTube channels done by junk journal artists, and one of them, The Innkeeper's Journal, is hosting a giveaway of one of her journals. I intended to post about it here earlier, but didn't have the time getting ready for our trip. Sue is an amazing artist. You can see her blog here, and on it you can watch her post to her YouTube channel.

Here I will share the photos of the four pages that I submitted. I'm sure that anything I do will not compare to what the "pros" have sent in, but I still had fun doing it. I don't have time to write much more today, so lucky for you this will be photos only!

First page...

...which had this tag insert on the side...

Center two pages...

Tags that were inside right page...

...and reverse side of the tags...

Embellishments...

Fourth page with a booklet in pocket at top...

The booklet...

...and some of its pages...

The back page without the booklet inserted...

Thanks for joining me!

Have a great evening.

Bearded iris, a messy studio, and junk journal pages...

Remember me? 

Friends, our summer has taken an unexpected turn, so I will apologize now for neither looking at nor commenting on your blogs, and for not paying much attention to mine.

Just when Mr. Perch was doing so well with his prosthetic leg, he ended up getting a pin-head sized sore at the bottom of his tibia just where his leg was amputated. After two trips to the emergency room (you may remember why we run scared of wounds that don't heal), and visits to several of his doctors, it was determined that at least there was no infection. Since every time he put on his leg the sore would reopen, he was finally told to keep it off until the sore healed and a new and different kind of prosthesis could be made. This has been going on since just after Memorial Day, so in the meantime we missed out on our trip to Florida to visit my family and to Massachusetts to visit his. Not to mention that The Wren's Nest is becoming a distant memory. In any case, the magical new leg is supposed to be ready next week. We can only dream that it will solve the problem of the mysterious-tiny-sore-that-will-not-heal!! Enough of THAT!

So, what have I been doing with all of my "at home time"? Cooking, cleaning, gardening, and a little art is pretty much it.

Last week my annual haul of bearded iris starts arrived. I ordered them in April from a company that I had seen through Pinterest, and was totally thrilled. I ordered ten plants, and they threw in another four as a bonus. The bonus plants' selling prices were more than I paid for the ones I actually ordered, so they have my vote as a great company to deal with. The company is Stout Gardens at Dancing Tree and you can find them here. They are in Oklahoma City.

Below is a photo of the plants that I received, 

right before I put them in soil-filled pots 

 where they can root a little 

before the voles have a chance to meet them! 

Lovely, healthy plants were these!

So, after cleaning up my art space a few months

ago, I am happy to report that it's back to

its original form... 

...mostly because

I have still been working on one of my

junk journals,

adding a few pages here and there...

 I can't seem to find anything I'm looking for.

Perhaps I should just organize things a bit again. 

Ya think?!

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I hope that you're having a wonderful weekend!

Yesterday's creations for my junk journal...

Happy Saturday, friends!

Yesterday I created a few more pages for my junk journal, including some pages that were mostly left blank, except for just a few bits and pieces of "junk".

I think that this is one of my favorite pages.

I love the photo of the two sweet girls on 

their trike.

Kraft paper is collaged with a piece of

 a vintage hanky, lace, and sheet music. 

To the top I added a flower that I had 

dried from the bunch of flowers seen in this post.

(While the flowers were still looking good,

I cut some and pressed them layered

between paper towels and wax paper 

placed between some pages of old

and heavy books.

I found them when I was cleaning

my studio recently!!)...

I then layered an old piece of mica 

on top of the blossom and fastened it

with some brads.

This was so much fun to do...

The bottom corner was embellished

with a small piece of coffee-stained

lace, a button and some thin twine...

On the back of the page above is a kraft

envelope bought on my shopping trip 

two weeks ago. 

I folded it in half and embellished it 

with some burlap, 

a piece of tissue paper that I received

with an order,

and tulle roses...

...and the inside was decorated with another darling photo...

...and other random pieces of "junk", including

grey tissue paper, a copy of an old envelope,

and satin ribbon. 

I even got to use a rubber stamp 

("lots of hugs") that I haven't used

in a very long time...

This is another set of pages.

I am now getting into the pages to be left fairly blank.

Of course, I can't resist just a little embellishing!... 

This cute little girl in the straw had was a 

postcard. I picked up on the stitching

that showed up from the page behind it

and added the same stitching 

to the photo itself...

...with matching bits and pieces on the

blank page...

And below is another set of matching writing pages...

The little birdie on the music paper is actually

something that holds crinkled seam binding

together from one of my favorite shops

on Etsy, Bluebird Lane.

I also capitalized on the stitching that showed

through from the previous page...

I didn't previously realize that a long time ago

I bought the same punch that the shop owner

uses, so I made a coordinating page using

this punch...

Thanks for coming by.

It has been too hot here to garden,

so I have been having so much fun creating these pages.

Enjoy the rest of the weekend!

Additional Junk Journal Pages

Good morning. 

Here are a few more junk journal pages which I created yesterday.

These two will likely face each other...

As you can see, I used a paint chip for this one.

Peeking through is this sweet little mama bird...

...from the cradle roll certificate shown previously,

and it has been folded into a tag and topped with some

crinkled seam binding (shown above)...

I used some trims and a paper butterfly as 

embellishments...

The next two pages are a farm girl spread...

I love this photo,

which has been clipped on with a mini clothespin

and backed with a copy of

a piece of dictionary page with the word

"peep" on it...

In the embellished envelope underneath her

I have tucked in a vintage receipt

and a tag that I made with a little 

photo of children.

Have you noticed that the base of the tag

has misspelled the word "remember"?

I guess that no one noticed the error 

before it went to print.

I thought it was charming...

The tuck spot created from the photo of

the little girl holding two colts

has been filled with a vintage blue ribbon 

from a long ago fair,

an old recipe card, 

and a sweet little card with a child

feeding a calf...

Thanks for coming by.

I hope that you're having a great day.

Now on to the next pages!

Copies of vintage papers in new junk journal pages...

Hello to all! 

Last week, when I didn't have much to do, I copied some old documents to use in my junk journals. It would be nice to say that I was going to use originals of everything, but since the vintage papers of the world will not last forever, and some are a little pricey, using originals would be cost prohibitive. And who am I to destroy something that has "lived" for the last 100 years or so.

I managed to fit two to a page for most of 

the smaller pieces.

I did not use coffee-stained paper because

the originals already had a lovely aged

patina, 

so I just printed them out
in color as is on ivory resume paper.

That way, the backs, which could be used

for journaling,

are not too stark of a white...

The next one was a very faint script,

so I had my printer darken it a little first...

You may remember this beautiful cradle

roll certificate (top), which I think

I shared with you a while back...

Some of the originals were folded up,

and I did the same with the copies and 

already used one as a journaling spot on 

one of the journal pages I created yesterday.

Here are the pages.

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The page below was just torn from an

old book that I had for years.

It had some of the cutest illustrations.

I embellished it with old lace,

and a piece cut from a cutter quilt

fastened with an old button.

This is the back of the Bingo page that

I showed you a couple of days ago...

Facing the above page is this pocket page.

The pocket was formed with a vintage hanky,

and further embellished with some other

bits and pieces.

The tag was created from a copy

of one of my old photos,

which I embellished with glitter,

crinkled seam binding and a key charm...

Peeking out from behind 

another pocket behind the tag 

is the folded up version of one of the

copied vintage papers appearing above...

...and gives someone a lot of room to journal on the back of...

This is the top of the tag.

I've also been enjoying using the embroidery

stitches on my Singer, which I bought a year or so

back and haven't had much time to use.

I love this pretty tulip stitch... 

It's really been fun creating just for the fun of creating

rather than making stuff to try to get into

my Etsy shop, or something for an entry into a magazine.

Not sure where this will take me,

but I guess we'll see!

I hope you have a wonderful day!