Art journaling kits and fun stuff

The idea for travel journal kits, or journal kits... or anything like this, isn't exactly original - I am NOT claiming in any way that this is some grand idea that I had all on my own.

What I did do, was realise that I have an awful lot of goodies collected from years of hoarding, working in a scrapbooking store, and general magpie tendencies. I will never use them all, and that is a real shame, so I have collected some things into packages, made some books to go with them, and come up with these.

I personally think the books are GREAT. These ARE my idea, because I don't like it when books swell up because they get overfilled (which happens all the time) but I also don't like wire ring type bindings.
This way, I have been able to put together a lot of paper that I love, make a book which is wire bound - and can therefore expand as things are stuck into it, but have a cover to protect the spine, and cover it up when it's on the shelf.

thats what he said...

Sometimes other people say things that make you laugh.

Sometimes other people say things that inspire us to be better, braver, and bolder.

Sometimes other people say things that make you sit back and think, "oh yeah, that's totally true" and your view on the world is ever so slightly altered.

Sometimes other people just say things that reflect an exact feeling that you've had and thought was unique to you, and so even though you will probably never meet them, it feels like you're connected.

Sometimes I write those things down.

I made this book just like normal but with the left over bits that come from cutting 12x12" scrapbooking paper down to A4 (for binding A5 books) After figuring out that I could do this with all my scrap paper, you can expect to see more. They are also a great size to carry about, write things in, and all that kind of stuff.

This one, in all its double sided patterned glory is going to be a quote book. Because putting inverted commas around a 2 year olds statements makes them "official"

"Mums a pimple" -Lola (age 2) 

See?

These kinds of things have to be saved for posterity... And all those other more meaningful ones too.

As easy as 1 2 3

Earlier I was going on about what I wanted to put up in Gabriel's room.

So today I made this... it's super easy and uses up paper scraps of which I have many. 
I got a cheap plastic frame from a $2 shop (it cost more than $2, but on a side note, those shops are seriously awesome) Then I cut some craft paper to fit inside, traced letters onto different patterns of paper, cut them out, stuck them down and closed the frame.
So easy.

 The letters I traced were die cuts (di-cuts?)... (whatever)... from Basic Grey that I had from my days working at the Scrapbook Burrow. This is the first time I've used them since then. I imagine that it would be a simple thing to use any kind of font you wanted (thanks The Internet) it would just take a little more prep. That way you could change the size up too.

I didn't have the time, or patience. I did this while Gabe was sleeping.

Easy.

Button Tree

Due to financial restraints and some crafting mental illness I have, I decided to make (nearly) everyone's presents for Christmas.

Not that I think any of my family reads my blog, but just in case, I didn't post the things that I gave them. 

So now that the gifts are given and the stress is over, I can share some of what I made with you. 

Starting with this button tree. For mum. (I wrote all the kids names on certain of the buttons... you can kind of see it in the photos)

Corrugated cardboard is awesome. We bought some furniture from Ikea and so I have a seemingly endless source of the stuff so I have made books out of it, boxes and now art. 

I used a craft knife to cut out the design of the tree and then peeled off the top layer of paper to reveal all the corrugated guts. Then I stuck on buttons. 

Easy.