A "crafty" shopping spree...

Hello there!

One day last week I did something that I have not done in quite some time, namely, I went on a crafty shopping spree. Michael's and Hobby Lobby loved me.

Below are my purchases, all with the hope of using them in junk journals.

Kraft envelopes, Tim Holtz doo-dads,

and two sweet rubber stamps.

I don't buy many stamps anymore...

More doo-dads, and some washi tape,

little of which I have used in the past...

At some point I want to make a ballerina-

inspired junk journal,

so I loved these...

These stick-on word pads are great,

and you get a lot of bang for the buck on them.

And two distress ink pads in colors that 

I never had.

Sometimes they are hard to find

around here...

More cool embellishments,

which were buy one, get one...

And these two.

How could I resist the birds?...

I bought one of these Jim H

paper packs before and fell in love with it,

so bought another.

Beautiful botanicals in this pack.

I thought it was discontinued.

Also the little cutout "people"

which will be lovely in journals, cards,

or anything else for that matter...

I thought this stamp pack

would be awesome for journaling...

Some paper fall leaves,

and mini wooden clothespins in

neutral colors...

Recently, on Caterina Giglio's blog

(see my sidebar) she had a sweet video

tutorial for something she did with

photos of flowers.

I think I will try it. 

Thanks Cat!

She uses Mixed Media paper,

which I have not tried before...

The chipboard word cutouts below were to die for.

I will likely never have a machine that does this,

so these ought to hold me for awhile...

And these two kraft chipboard books

were so pretty to me.

They were cheaper than it would cost me

to make them...

And though I don't buy too much Halloween

stuff because it is too "cute",

I loved this stamp and these embellishments.

Maybe my next journal will be a 

Halloween one.

I can only dream!

Most of this stuff, if not all,

was on sale, so it was not that big of an investment.

Now I just need to find an organized place to put it.

Right.

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OK. Another post about basically nothing!

Thanks so much for coming by. 

Pages for my Junk Journal

Hello! Yesterday I worked on a couple of pages for a new junk journal that I started (and no, I have not completed my nature journal yet!). I am really enjoying using some of my stash that has been accumulated over the past several years. After a long time spent deliberating over whether or not to work with vintage textiles (which I love) or with vintage ephemera (which I also love), I really found a home for both together in this thing known as "junk" journals.

This was from a large set of old Bingo cards

that I have had a while. 

The beautiful image is from 

Ireland Rose Studios on Etsy.

Also used from my vintage stash was

an old flower, rusty safety pin, 

and ledger paper...

The little "bless" word was from a digital 

printout from Iralamijashop, also on Etsy...

And this will be the facing page which

I embellished with random scraps of paper 

and fabrics,

and some machine sewing around the edge...

I'm getting ready to move on to the next set of pages.

I hope you have a wonderful Fourth of July tomorrow!

Having fun with coffee staining...

Happy Saturday and I'm hoping that yours is a nice holiday weekend. We did not have any plans, and The Mister is not feeling well, so I am having a stay indoors party working on some crafting and getting ready for my foray into junk-journaling. It's pretty hot outside so this is not a bad thing.

During this past week I saved unused coffee for a few days and experimented with more coffee staining. I used the process that I talked about here.

Here is a mix of stuff that I stained...

It includes tags...

...and more tags...

...envelopes...

...other odds and ends...

...tickets and glassine bags...

...various notebook papers...

...and even some scrapbook papers...

These were in various strengths of coffee...

...and this one I experimented with painting

on the coffee through a leaf stencil...

 

The above papers were printer paper,

but the ones below were different colors of 

thicker card stock.

The pink in front picked up some of the

green that I had set behind it.

Interesting effect I think...

And today, I cut some in half,

and dry-brushed on some cheap white

paint...

While I had the paint out,

I ripped up some corrugated cardboard

and dry-brushed some of the paint on it...

And I coffee stained some lace and a doily.

These were not old and too white for my taste.

They came out pretty nice...

It felt good to play for the sole enjoyment of 

having fun, and not worry about what I was actually 

going to create with it.

Have you played with anything lately that you will use in your art?

Thanks for coming by!

Greeting Cards: America

Happy Friday!

This week I set out to make a couple more cards and use up the materials cluttering my work table. Not only did I do that, but I also listed them in my Etsy shop just now. It has been a long time since I have made anything to list, and I all but forgot how to do it. Does that ever happen to you?

Anyway, here are the cards. They have a patriotic flair, but are not only applicable to July 4th, (I know...I'm a little late on that one!!), but I think that they would be nice to give to someone you know in the military.

The photo that I used in the card below was the very first

patriotic photo that I ever purchased.

It was on eBay, not up for bid, but at a

"buy now" price of $100.00. Gulp.

I fell in love with this photo,

but didn't want to run the risk of getting murdered

by my hubby if I ever paid that much for a photo,

so saved it to my favorites and hoped for a miracle.

Lo and behold, it didn't sell,

and then the seller opened it up for bid.

I did win the bid for a fraction of the original price.

To this day, this gorgeous photo is my favorite.

What a beautiful little boy this is...

Again, I made some use of those glittered stick-on stars

that I purchased in the Fourth of July decorating section

in Hobby Lobby.

The papers on the front of the card were from Bo Bunny, and...

...the inside was made of papers from Bo Bunny

and Picky Chicken's (Etsy)

digital papers...

I think that I showed the photo in the card below

to you not too long ago.

I used a copy of some old sheet music, and

the digital papers used on this card were all from Raspberry Road,

also on Etsy, plus they have their own website...

The words on both cards were Stick-A-Bilities from The Paper Studio,

and also purchased at Hobby Lobby.

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Well, my friends, have a lovely weekend.

Thanks for visiting!

Greeting Cards: Heroes and Football

Happy Tuesday evening. This will be a quick post.

I previously mentioned that I was going to wind up my card-making for a while, other than a few I would make to use the materials that I already had pulled out.

Here are a couple that I finished yesterday.

This is a one that I made for a young family member,

but I will not be able to give it to him for a while.

I got to use some of those glittered stars that I showed you

a few posts ago...

The digital scrapbook paper was from Picky Chicken

on Etsy...

...and the rubber stamp that I used was from

Stampers Anonymous, I think

(the lettering was worn off on the side of the stamp)...

And this one is for my grandson's birthday which is

coming up shortly.

He will be 10 and has been playing football for a couple  

of years now...

I really don't have a lot of  "boy" stuff,

so purchased this old photo on either Etsy or eBay

(I don't remember which).

The papers were digital scrapbook papers from

Studio 9 Illustrations on Etsy...

You may not tell from the photo,

but I cut out the footballs on the left,

and attached them with glue dots for some dimension...

As you can see by the little kids in front,

this photo was taken in 1939...

On the top panel of the inside,

I glued this line drawing,

and it was from Vintage Retro Antique, also on Etsy...

The sentiment I found during a Google search for

football quotes,

and I printed it out from Word...

I guess they came out OK,

considering I didn't even use any lace on them!!

Thanks for coming by!