Free Printable Collage Sheet

We have a new free printable collage sheet on our website.  It's a sheet of three couches and one chair. 

I love to cut these out and use them in my planners, scrapbooks, journals, etc.  I tried to find images that are easy to cut and not too fine of details that make them too difficult to cut.  I then like to take images of either children or people sitting and place them on the couch.  Here is one from my journal that was kind of fun.

You can get a full sized PDF printable from our website here.
 

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!

23 Paper Bag Journals

My youngest daughter, Rachel, and I got a bit ambitious this December!  We decided to make paper bag journals for a local drug rehab center's residents.  These are mostly young women who are working at getting their lives back from the horrible disease of addiction.  They are the happiest, sweetest, and most grateful people!  It is amazing how the smallest thing just means so much to them.  When we started this project I don't think either of us knew how much work it was going to be.  I started by doing a couple while my daughter finished up her college classes for the semester.  By the time she joined me, we realized we had a lot of work ahead of us, but I had already committed us and we take that pretty seriously.  So we worked and worked and worked and delivered them just in time for Christmas!  It was a lot of fun, but if we do it for next year we need to start now and just do one each every month.  Then we won't have any stress at the end on if we are going to finish in time or not.  It was well worth the effort though and we are sure we're going to do it again! 

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. 

Calendar Journaling

For the month of May I wanted to try the calendar journaling that I had seen online.  It was easy enough to just jot something down each day of the month.  It's kind of cool, but at the end of the month I missed three days and today I couldn't remember a single thing from last Thursday.  Ha ha

Japanese Stab Binding

I have been playing around with some different bookbinding techniques.  I know the Japanese Stab Binding technique already, but I liked the duct tape on the tutorial I saw over at Cocoa Daisy.  I tried my hand at a little painting and stamping too from a Cloth, Paper, Scissors video.  I love online learning.  Always so fun!

Another upcycled project

Another one of my upcycled book projects.  On this one I tried a new stitch I had learned in another one of Mary Ann Moss's classes.  I believe this one is called the Double X Binding.  There are 3 signatures in this one.  It's a little tricky because you are working with three signatures at once.  But I finally got the hang of it.  This was my first attempt at this type of binding.

I put it in my Etsy shop.

Fabric and Lace Book

I have admired the beautiful lace and fabric books that so many people have been making.  I finally tried my hand at my first one and here is the result.  The covers were actually the easiest part.  I struggled a bit with what to put on the inside pages.  I think I might try one that just has a fabric cover as this one does, but with paper for the inside.  But oh it was fun to use up some of my abundant supply of fabric.  I did not have to purchase one item for this book.  Everything in it was already in my stash.  I have listed it in my Etsy shop, but if it doesn't sell I may just keep it for myself.  :-)

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.

Open to Suggestions

Do you remember those gum wrapper chains we used to make as kids? Well, a friend of my daughters has this really cool purse she got in Mexico that is made out of gum wrappers. So I got on the Internet and found some instructions on making a gum wrapper purse. I guess people are making them out of potato chip bags, cookie bags, magazine strips, etc. Well, I have a ton of magazines sitting around for collage and such so I decided to use those. I started making the purse, but as I'm plugging along I thought, oh, I could make an art journal or a mini book. So I made this for the front, and I was going to put some watercolor paper inside and make another like this for the back. My plan had been to bind it with my Bind-It-All machine, but it is too thick! I know they have a new machine out that might be able to get through it, but it's a bit pricey and I don't have one yet. The Big Bite would also probably work ~ but I don't have that either. My hole punch won't go through it. So I am open to suggestions on a binding for this book. In the meantime, back to my purse ... By the way the magazine papers are cut to 4-1/2 x 2 and you sew the rows together with fishing line or I got some Tandy black waxy thread at Ben Franklins. Please help me figure out how to bind this book! I'm looking for ideas!