Giant Paper Bag Scrapbook Album

Last year our city banned plastic grocery bags.  It has been kind of a throw-back to the seventies before stores used plastic grocery bags and now stores give paper bags, unless you bring your own reusable bags.  At first the stores tried to charge extra for the paper bags, but they eventually realized customers balked and for the most part they do not charge for the paper bags.  We do bring our own reusable bags for the most part, but once in a great while we forget so we are given paper bags.  Well, these were really starting to pile up!  So I started saving a stack of them in my studio.  And finally I couldn't stand it any longer, I just had to make a paper bag book!

I took the handles off of each bag and then folded it in half.  I couldn't find my bone folder, but I remembered seeing that you could use the handles of your scissors in a pinch, so that is what I did to get a nice crisp edge on each bag.  I decorated each bag first with papers such as wallpaper samples, sheet music and paper scraps, and then with various clip-art images and journal spots.  The covers are made from an old Cheerios box covered in some handmade paper from my local scrapbook store.

 Since this book is super tall, I printed images at the largest size I could.  It also allows for big old journaling spots.

I added just one small lunch size bag inside one of the signatures.  That is the one with the orange polka-dots above.

Each bag has a small flap on the inside that I also included a tall, narrow journaling card on.  I adhered the pages back to back very carefully and bound it together with a sewn tapes binding.

And I made large pull-outs for the pockets for each bag.  Because of how big the bags are, I was able to make super big journaling spots.  And there is one on each side of each pull-out.

Free "Words" Printable

We made another Words collage sheet for you.  You can pick it up at our free collage sheet page on the website.  You can use these in your journals as prompts!  Wonderful Ideas (journal some ideas you have brewing), Treat Yourself (list ways you could treat yourself), Privacy (have enough?  Respect others'), Magic (whatever is magical to you), Wishing (what are you wishing for?), Simply the Best (in your opinion, what is simply the best), Favorite (so many directions to go with this one.  Favorite day, favorite color, favorite food, favorite TV show, etc.), Tranquility (what makes you feel tranquil?), Start Now! (what have you been putting off? What are you dreaming of doing?), Trends (in your life, that you see), Bliss (what's your bliss?), Goal Setting (set those goals!) ... 

 

You get the idea.  Enjoy!

Journal for a Friend

I have been busy working on some gifts lately.  So much to do, so little time!  The page here is from a book for a friend's upcoming birthday.  The background papers are just random scrapbook papers and a couple of bits from some painted pattern pages I made in one of Mary Ann Moss's classes.  The image is one of the fun freebie ones that Land of Nod gives away.  And then I just included a journal card from a Project Life set.  I am decorating half the pages pretty much in the same way, some background papers, a quirky image, and a journaling spot.  I am leaving the other half of the pages blank (except for whatever the background happens to be) in order for my friend to fill them in as she likes.  I am just hoping to get her creative juices going with what I've included and see what she comes up with on the other pages. 

Wedding Bells

I have been working on a variety of things lately.  My oldest daughter is getting married in early August.  It is a short engagement and a simple backyard wedding with a potluck afterwards.  I know it sounds funny, but she is marrying a Baptist pastor.  Isn't that what they do?  LOL  Anyway, we started doing a lot of Pinterest in getting ideas for the wedding.  One that she found is an altered guest book, which she tasked me with creating.  Of course I had to make a trip to my local scrapbook store!  And then I found these really cool cards on Etsy.  They're a digital download and I am printing them on cardstock and including them throughout the book.  There are also little bags with tags inside that the guests can sign.  So it's sort of an either/or/both, whatever the guests want to do.  Hopefully the guests "get it."  We'll give instructions, but you never know.  Tell me what you think, please.

This book has been sitting on my desk for a couple of weeks waiting for me to post it to Etsy.  I finally got it posted this morning. 

This is a larger version of one I made earlier in the month.  It is another inspired by the Sewn Class by Mary Ann Moss.

You can see more photos on my Etsy page.

I used some magazine images to create this little collage book.    I think it came out pretty cool looking.  Just another technique learned from Miss Mary Ann.

Painting more paper...

I have been painting more and more paper for the Sewn class I am doing with Mary Ann Moss.  I even did a little bit of sewing to create paper fabric.  It is super fun and rather addictive.  The top piece I painted over one of my husband's old drawings.  Nice big "D" size paper.  LOVE IT!  He saw it yesterday and said he loves it too.  :-)

Pattern Book Cover

I am taking Mary Ann Moss's Sewn class.  LOVING IT!  It's honestly one of the best things I have going on this summer.   Here is one of our projects - this is my pattern book cover, both front and back.  I need to work on keeping my sewing lines straight, but as Mary Ann would say, "THAT'S OKAY!"  And you know what, it REALLY is!

New Altered Art Style Mini Scrapbook Kit Available

Make a Mermaid Paper Bag Album! Just an update that we have some brand new kits available in our mini scrapbooks products section that is made up of quite a bit of Art Chix Studio collage sheets and faux postage, etc. We have a limited number available at the moment, so it's first come, first served. There will be more available later. These are so fun!