Thursday, September 30, 2010

Back to the Trusty Old Art Journal...

Hey there everyone! Marit and I are still working like crazy getting ready for our "Mixed Emotions" workshop, so I haven't been doing much other creating lately. I am trying to keep up with my art journaling tho, so I've got a few new pages from September to share...


I'm actually starting to get towards the end of this journal already! I've been thinking about what kind of journal to start next...

In this next spread, the image of the renaissance woman is one I received from Marit - thanks Marit! and the "Walk The Path" image is from a book called "How to Make a Journal of your Life" by D. Price...

I did a small amount of journaling while at Scrapfest, so I just tore out the paper from my composition notebook, folded it and tucked it right into my journal behind the froggies...

That super groovy image of the butterfly woman is an actual vintage postcard given to me by my friend Lynn - isn't it just the coolest??!!!!
The rainbow photo is one I took a long time ago, but I just love it. Also, I have a thing for cows...

Also, there are new challenges up at Scrapping the Music and the Fave Things blog! Head on over to check each of them out!

Thanks so much for visiting everyone! I will see you again soon!

Oh, and p.s. - there's still time to register for our Mixed Emotions Art Journaling Workshop! It's going to be a lot of fun and we'd really love to have you join us! Click here to find out more about it and/or to sign up!

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Scrapfest Day Three - The Last Day...

Scrapfest continued with it's last day on Sunday. The first class I attended was Maya Road's "Creating Art - a Banner Process." What a fun class that was! The teacher was awesome, and I just loved the banner we made! Here's how mine turned out...


It was really a lot of fun doing the embellishment layering...


We maya misted the letters and blue flowers over plain chipboard. I have tons of Maya Mist, but I've never tried it on plain chipboard before, and I was truly impressed with how bright and true the colors were! The coverage was fantastic, and it dried almost instantly!


The kit we got to take home was one of, if not THE best of the whole weekend! Take a look...
And, you can't really see it in the photo, but it came in a super cool blue coated box which is made for misting in! Yeayyy!!!


Next was the only class that all four of us took together - The Ranger/Tim Holtz "Key to Creativity" mini-album, taught by none other than Tim himself!

I have to say that of all the workshops I attended, Tim was the most inspiring speaker. He's fun to listen to and really makes you feel like you can do anything; and he shows you all kinds of things you can do with his products!

Here's Christina at the class...

and Anne and Lynn...

and here is the super groovy little album we made! We used a number of colors of distress ink to decorate the cover. I used barn door and wild honey. I just LOVE how it turned out!

These little pieces of filmstrip ribbon are just the right size for those index pics that come back from the photoshop...

I never thought I needed a tiny attacher, but after using one in this class I had to go right out and buy one - they are awesome!!!

We got a great class kit to take home AND we each got a full-size package of grungeboard flourishes AND a new package of texture fades embossing folders! SO FUN!

Here we all are with Tim...

After that there was one more class - the Unity Stamps "Everything Matters" mini album. I didn't get very far on my album - I was too busy playing with all the stamps - ha! But it's going to be really cute - and we each got a stamp and the class kit to take home.

Scrapfest 2010 was the best ever for me, and I can't wait for next year!

Thanks so much for visiting and I will see you again soon!

Friday, September 24, 2010

Scrapfest Day Two...

We continued the fun on day two of Scrapfest at the Mall of America!

Here's a picture of the main rotunda area. On the left you can see a shopping area with tons of goodies to buy. On the right is one of the larger workshop areas.

Here's a picture of us at the start of day two...

This right here is a picture of the world's largest scrapbook page! Archiver's always has one of these, and you can actually get your picture taken in it! I've done this every year since 2006 and it's a lot of fun to collect them...

Here's how ours turned out...

I had three more classes on Saturday, the first one being the Prima Floral Art and Stitched Card Class. Here's a pic of the layout we made (I'm not quite done) and the extra supplies I got to take home! Such beautiful stuff. I especially loved the black sparkly edge on the background paper...

After that was the October Afternoon Thrifty Nifty Flashcard Album. This was a super fun class and we got to meet the owners of October Afternoon who were so nice! I didn't get very far on my album - you can see it in the upper right corner of the photo. But look at all the cool stuff we got to take home and finish it! Yeayyyy!!!

My last class of the day was Creative Imaginations' "This Brings Me Joy" Mini Album. I just love this little album. It's made with the Foofala line, which is just adorable! Again, I didn't finish, but also got a lot of cute stuff to take home...

After the classes were over we met back at the hotel room for an evening of cropping! Lynn and I went together to buy a HUGE grab bag of 100 Basic Grey Papers from miscellaneous lines. We had so much fun laying them all out and taking turns picking a couple of sheets each...

Here's my pile after we were all done dividing them up. Isn't it colorful?!!! I just wanted to keep looking at it - ha!

Then we had a super fun game of round robin. We each started a layout using the same picture of the four of us (from earlier that day). Then every 15 minutes we moved the layout to the next person. In the end we had each worked on everyone's layout! It made for a really fun souvenir! Here's how mine turned out. I had everyone sign their name...

Then we laid them all down together and took a picture. Isn't it fun how we each started with the same photo and ended up with four very different layouts? I love that...

By the end of our round robin game, it was time for bed. We had to rest up for day three!!!

Thanks for visiting everyone! I will be back next time with our final day - day three of Scrapfest!

Thursday, September 23, 2010

Scrapfest Day One...

Scrapfest started for me when I met up with my friends Christina, Anne and Lynn at the Mall of America in Bloomington last Friday morning. From there, we started our quest for three days of Scrapping Bliss!

My first class was at noon: GCD Studios "Breathe In Life" mini album, which was taught by the super nice Melody Ross... We learned how to use Melody's chipboard hammering tool to create an embossed look on the front cover of our albums. I didn't get very far on my album in the 45 minutes of the class, but it will be a fun project to finish up at home. Here's what I got to take home...
I think I am going to make it into an album of painted journal pages - perhaps with poetry or something?


Next came the 7 gypsies Amazing Artist Trading Cards class. This turned out to be one of my favorite projects of the weekend! I bought a printer's tray to display my cards in, and here's how it turned out...
I revised the card designs just a tiny bit so I could include my family photos.

We even had a little bit of leftover tidbits to take home...

Between classes I had a chance to vote for my favorite in the Wall Art contest. Each entry was GORGEOUS - here's just one example. I just LOVE all the details!...

Next was my last class of the day: Tattered Angels' "The Power of Glimmer" Mini Album class, which was taught by Heidi Swapp! Here's the class kit we got...

and a pic of Heidi who was just as sweet as can be...

I only got three of my pages done, but I learned a lot! It was so fun misting these pages and seeing the resist designs pop out...

After getting checked into our hotel room we had a little dinner, and we were off to the Cosmo Cricket Crop Around Town! Julie and Lindsay of Cosmo Cricket led the crop and they were so much fun! We got a kit to complete two layouts and three cards, there were prizes, and everyone got to take home one of these beauties!...

Here we all are at the Crop. From left to right it's Christina, me, Anne and Lynn. I'm so lucky to have these wonderful women in my life!

Here's me goofing around with Cosmo intern Laura, who was soooo sweet and fun!
The crop ended at 12:30 am and we headed to the hotel for a good night's sleep. What a fabulous day it was!

Next time I will tell you all about day two of Scrapfest! Thanks so much for visiting!

Monday, September 20, 2010

Ledger Giveaway Winner!

I can't wait to tell you all about my weekend's activities at Scrapfest! But that will have to wait because first I want to announce the winner of the CSNstores.com giveaway...

The random winner of the beautiful ledger from CSN Stores is.......

Diana Trout!

Congratulations Diana! Please email me with your address at michellelapoint@yahoo.com and I will get that journal right out to you!

Thank you so much for entering the giveaway everyone! And for visiting my blog! I really appreciate each and every one of you!

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

It's Time for Another Giveaway!!!

Remember when I said recently that I was inspired by this? Well, look what came yesterday from CSN Stores - isn't it gorgeous???


I can't wait to alter it! I've been wanting to try one of these ledgers for awhile, but because they are a bit pricier ($31.99) than your average notebook I had been waiting. Well, now I see you get what you pay for! This book is significantly larger than your average notebook (12 x 8), heavier, and beautifully bound (thread-sewn) into the vintage-blue cover, and the detailing is so pretty! It will be a real keepsake! Here's a look at the inside pages...

I think it's fun that they are laid out like a ledger rather than plain lines - it will be great for making lists as well as regular journaling. I also like that they are numbered! I'm going to use it for my next daily writing journal, and decorate the pages as I go!

and the best news is...

I GET TO GIVE ONE OF THESE BEAUTIFUL JOURNALS AWAY!!!!!

If you would like to win one of these lovely ledgers just leave me a comment on this post. I will draw a winner next Monday (September 20th). I'm so sorry it's for U.S. Customers only.

If you can't wait til Monday, you can buy one now by clicking here!


I will leave you today with a couple of pages from my current journal...



Don't forget - leave me a comment on this post if you would like a chance to win the ledger journal!

Thanks for visiting!

Sunday, September 12, 2010

Beautiful Neighbors...

Look who we saw on our walk today! Aren't they beautiful? It was so amazing to see them there on our neighborhood trail...
Right around dusk is when they come out to feed, so I guess we timed our walk just right! They seriously made my day!


Journal pages for September 9...

I stuck a Maxfield Parrish illustration that I cut from a book on the back of the journaling card (which is actually packaging from some prima embellishments)...


In the comments from an earlier post, Alison asked if I save my scraps to use in another art journal page, and the answer is yes! I have a hard time throwing any scrap of pretty paper away. I keep these two carts under my desk. The one on the right is full of rubber and acrylic stamps. The one on the left is full of papers and other bits that I plan to use in my journals...

There really isn't much rhyme or reason to which drawer stores what - they all look like this...

It would be nice to have a more organized system, but I've tried that and it always ends up all mixed up again - lol.

I hope that answers your question Alison!

Have a wonderful Sunday my friends and thanks for visiting!