New Smash Book & Art Journal Pages!

Over the past couple of years smash booking and art journaling have become some of my favorite hobbies. I‘m a big believer in having creative outlets and these are definitely my go tos. I love sipping on some iced coffee and spending a couple hours making a mess in these books.

I use my smash book, which is by K&Company (the pink one), as a scrapbook of sorts. It’s a place to “smash” in anything I love. I sometimes use my art journals the same way but I’ve been trying to use them more for experimenting with paints, sprays, and other fun mixed media supplies. Am I good at it? Well that’s beside the point to me lol. It’s simply just fun and freeing to make a happy mess. That for me is the point of both smash booking and art journaling.

So I thought I’d share some new pages with you guys today!

That picture of a chocolate cake I made last year that I was really proud of was the inspiration for this page. Also used an old birthday card I kept, cute baking stickers, a peanut butter blossom recipe from Crisco, a paint sample, washi tape, a doily, and a recipe card to write on.

A random girly page. A photo I took of cute rain boots I found in a boutique, magazine clippings, a couple drawings by my cousin that I kept from years ago (because I’m a pack rat), paint sample, stickers, washi tape, a post card, and a clothing tag from Maurice's.

Breakfast! A photo of the lemon ricotta pancakes with blueberry sauce I made a while back, a magazine clipping, stickers, stamps, paint sample, and a journaling card I printed out. And totally random but the whole time I’ve been typing this that old Newsboys song “Breakfast” has been going through my head… “When the toast is burned and all the milk has turned and Captain Crunch is waving farewell.
When the big one finds you may this song remind you that they don't serve breakfast in hell.”. Any former fellow 90’s Christian music fans feel me? Ahem, anyway…

Had some things lying around from when my parents and I went to GA last March to visit my sister so I decided to finally go ahead and smash ‘em in! I added some photos clipped together by a cute mini clothing pin and a journaling card.

No real theme, a random page. A receipt from Kerbey Lane in Austin, a coffee sleeve, a birthday card that I thought was pretty, a tag from Natural Life, stickers, stamps, printed out photos,  ect. 

Another random page. Made the page on the right while my sister was visiting in November. She has a smash book too so we made sure to get some smashing in while she was here. Lots of stickers, die cuts, stamps, a doily, and a fortune from a fortune cookie. Page left, print outs, stamps, washi tape, and sheet music.

My new art journal and some fun supplies I recently bought.

The first few pages in my new art journal! Just had a lot of fun playing around with paint, sprays, and printed out pictures.

Hope you enjoyed taking a peek and will maybe consider giving these hobbies a shot yourself.  :)

Smash Booking!

I have talked about my mad love for art journaling quite a bit on this blog and now I think it's time for me to talk about my new obsession: Smash Booking.

It's official, I have fallen in love with Smash Booking! I knew it was only a matter of time before it happened. I have been drooling over these lovely books full of their pretty paper (I'm a total sucker for pretty paper) in the Wal-Mart craft section for months now. So finally I caved... I bought one for me and one for my sister, (who I just turned on to the craze, she has now been bitten by the Smash Book bug too).

Smash Books are a lot like art journals except the backgrounds are already done for you and you can just freely "smash" in whatever you like. Pictures (I have been using it as a scrapbook of sorts), ticket stubs, notes, quotes, anything at all really. It's basically art journaling's little sister, in my opinion. And it's so much fun, I'm seriously addicted!

They have different color Smash Books you can choose from and each have different paper that coordinates with the theme, such as: Pretty Pink (which is the one my sister & I have), Retro Blue, Doodle Red, Mod Black, Eco Green, Simple Orange, etc.

They also come with a really convenient pen that has a glue stick on the other side, it's pretty awesome, I love it! The Smash Book company (K&Company) also have tons of products and embellishments that make the experience even more fun, so definitely check those out as well. I love collecting them!

Below is a little flip through my Smash Book. Hope you enjoy taking a peak at the pages I’ve done so far! They were so fun to make! :)

My “Pretty Pink” Smash Book. I have yet to decorate the cover but definitely plan on doing so soon!

The inside of the front cover and first page of my Smash Book. My introduction pages, if you will. I used a picture of a dream catcher I recently made for my room and a quote that I love from Madeleine L'Engle.

A summer themed page. I added a list of summer goals, an old post card with a picture of the bay in my town, and a picture of the sun that my cousin drew a few years ago.

Pictures of my visit to Walton's Fancy & Staple in Austin!

A totally random, fun page! Some things I used were a magazine clipping, paint sample, Starbucks Via package lol, an envelope, an old ticket to an Imax movie, and another drawing by my cousin that I had lying around (Yes, I’m that girl, I keep everything…but I refuse to be called a pack rat! lol).

A page dedicated to my visit to Le Cordon Bleu in Austin last month!

A 4th of July themed page I made using a picture of the fireworks my sister (who came to visit from GA that week)  took at the bay in our town. As well as a picture of the Key Lime Pie we made for dessert!

This is another random page, I used an old birthday card (loved the bird embroidered on it), a page from an old book, stamps, washi tape, as well as other embellishments. This page turned out to be one of my favorites!

So that's my Smash Book so far! I hope you guys are now inspired to pick one up and start smashing for yourself! It really is a fun creative outlet! :)

From This Valley – An Art Journal Page

“Oh the caged bird dreams of a strong wind that will flow ‘neath her wings. Like a voice longs for a melody, oh Jesus carry me.”

So I think I’ve been on a kick lately of creating art journal pages around the lyrics of some of my favorite songs. This is a page I made a couple weeks ago inspired by one of my all time favorite songs, “From This Valley” by The Civil Wars. Oh this song… I just can’t even. It honestly makes my heart feel like it’s just about to explode with happiness! And part of it may be in the way they perform it with the most overwhelming sense joy, it’s contagious. You can’t help but smile… this is my happy song.

“From This Valley” is actually an unreleased song that became a live show staple for the duo. All of the lyrics to this song have my heart but the lyrics in the bridge stand out to me the most. The expressive words just paint the most beautiful picture. So those were the ones I chose to use as inspiration for this page.

I used pretty scrapbook paper, lace, ribbon, doilies, sheet music, washi tape, stamps, as well as other embellishments. This was a really fun page to make, the song was just going through my head the entire time. I love the way it represents this very beautiful lyric and I’m really happy with how it turned out!

Oh and since we’re talking about The Civil Wars, if you’re a fan you know that they had been on an indefinite hiatus since November of last year, claiming irreconcilable differences & internal discord. Well now they have just recently announced a brand new self titled album to be released this summer! They still have been very hush hush on whether this is an actual reunion (the album was written & recorded before the split), I’m a bit skeptical but here’s hopin’!

Some new art journaling supplies I used for this page. Pretty Washi tape and some fun embellishments. -

My growing washi tape collection. You can never have to much… yeah, I’m obsessed. -

Brightly Wound – An Art Journal Page

“I shall never grow up/Make believe is much too fun/Can we go far away to the humming meadow” 

That’s the chorus to my favorite Eisley song called, “Brightly Wound”. It’s also the song that inspired this art journal page I worked on last night! This song is actually from their very first album entitled, “Room Noises”. I’ve been a huge Eisley fan since I saw them in concert in 2005 and even years later, this is still my favorite song by them. It’s so whimsical and magical! It never fails to make me feel happy and warm whenever I hear it.

I’ve been listening to it a lot more lately than usual and always find myself humming it throughout the day. The lyrics just evoke such a child like innocence. It’s the type of song I will probably sing as a lullaby to my future kids someday. So last night, as I was listening to this song, I got inspired to create an art journal page with this lyric in mind. I’m really happy with how it turned out! In fact, I think it’s the best one I’ve done so far.

I think my favorite elements are the floral fabric I used for the background and the letter stamps I used to add the lyrics onto the page. It was a really fun page to create! It was fun to go crazy and make it just as whimsical as the song. :)

P.S Eisley has a new album coming out on May 28th entitled, “Currents”. You can listen to a song from the new album here: “Drink The Water”.

Art Journaling: New Pages!

Whenever I feel like being creative one of my favorite places to run to is my overly full, just about falling apart now art journal. I’ve been working in this particular one for a year now… and needless to say, I think it may be time for a new one. I posted about my adventures as an art journaling newbie here last summer, but seeing as how I’ve created quite a few new pages since then, I thought it was time for another little peak.

I feel like the more I art journal the more I fall in love with it. Getting all my supplies out, putting on some music or a movie and making a big mess for a couple of hours is sort of therapeutic. Even though my pages are no where near the amazing art that I’ve seen some girls fill their lovely journals with… but that doesn’t really matter to me. This is my “art”, if you will. The art that I’m capable of making… just for the sake of making it. This is my place to be creative. My place to play.

I don’t believe there are any rules to art journaling except to let your imagination run wild and just create. And to do it for yourself. It may be scattered or messy but it’s all the pieces of you that make it beautiful.

It still continues to be one of my favorite hobbies so I hope you enjoy this little look into what I’ve been filling my art journal up with lately! And I hope you give art journaling a try if you haven’t yet… you just may find yourself a little addicted.  :)

I made a page for one of my favorite pictures of my sister, Cecily and I at her wedding last October. This picture was taken after the festivities and is very special to me. I framed the picture in little leaf jewels and added a piece of burlap on the adjoining page for writing down memories from the day, which I have yet to fill in.

A page displaying a couple photos I took while visiting one of my favorite bakeries, The Sweet Boutique in Sugar Land, Tx. They have some of the best cupcakes & macarons I’ve ever tasted. I used a flower shaped cupcake liner to write down a little bit about the bakery.

This was just a totally random page I made. A page to just put together a bunch of different scraps lying around. I love using really random things to create pages that, while they may not make much sense, are just fun to make & are pleasing to my eye. I also added a little list of songs I’ve been listening to lately.

This is a page I did while following Elsie Larson’s art journaling course. The theme was “Night Dreams”. So I used a greeting card I had lying around that has stars and moons on it, stick on letters, and a torn book cover from an old children’s book and wrote down a couple weird recurring dreams I’ve had.

A page where I wrote down what is sort of my theme for the new year; to learn to better love & accept myself.

Another random page; as are the next two.

Randomness used: Lots of washi tape, stickers, a stamp, stencils, paint chips, ticket stubs, notebook paper, a receipt, a perfume sample, and a fortune from a fortune cookie.

For some great art journaling inspiration click here, here, or here.

Flaws & Learning To Accept Them

The Day 30 topic of the January Blog A Day challenge was “Your Biggest Flaw”… which was …um …yesterday (which should come as no shock seeing as how I haven’t exactly been keeping up). But I decided to go ahead and post about it anyway.

I’ve actually been thinking a lot about flaws lately. It’s hard to say what my biggest flaw is because on most days I feel like this imperfect human being made up of so many countless flaws. And I am…

* I’m the worlds worst procrastinator

* I can’t seem to keep up a work out plan to save my life these days

* I eat semi healthy for a few days then end up caving to the evils of chocolate or Dr. Pepper

* There’s a hole in my jeans

* I can be stubborn and hot headed

* I can be crazy insecure

* Slightly clumsy

* Hopelessly awkward

* Too afraid

And the list goes on and on. But out of all these flaws I’d say my biggest one is not accepting my flaws and not accepting myself.

I am imperfect and I am flawed… but I ‘m finally at the place where I’m ready to stop lamenting it and start accepting it. To accept myself… just as I am. Just who God made me. Flaws and all.

Now that doesn’t mean that I don’t want to improve myself…because I do. I desire to grow and learn and become all that God wants me to be. But I think that may start with being comfortable in my own skin. Learning to love and accept myself. Being good to myself instead of beating myself up over all these flaws.

There’s a beautiful freedom in letting go of the idea of perfection, because perfection does not exist. And I’m glad that it doesn’t… I mean how much would I truly rely on God if I was “perfect”?

This is something I feel really compelled to work on this year. In fact, I even dedicated a page in my art journal to this idea as a reminder:

This art journal page may not be perfect and I may not be perfect… but that’s okay. :)

Art Journaling…a Hobby/Obsession

Hey lovelies! Today I wanted to stop in and talk about one of my favorite past times, art journaling! I feel like the idea of art journaling and smash books are becoming so popular lately, and with good reason, they’re super fun! If you’ve never heard of it before, art journaling is kinda like a cross between journaling and scrapbooking. Holding all of your thoughts, photos, doodles, paintings, and more.

I will confess though, it’s true, I may have become slightly obsessed with this hobby. Which may be evidenced by all the admittedly strange things it’s made me do… such as incessantly pinning art journaling ideas, racing to craft aisles to buy paint, stamps, washi tape, and lots of scrapbook paper. And maybe the strangest of all…  collecting receipts, ticket stubs, magazine clippings, and even wrappers from Starbucks to use on my pages. Okay, so I’m fully aware that it may sound a little nutty … but trust me, it can be addicting!

I was first introduced to the idea of art journaling and mixed media arts from blogger/crafter extraordinaire and owner of Red Velvet boutique, Elsie Larson. When I first started following her blog, A Beautiful Mess a few years ago she would talk about art journaling and show pages that she had done, and I was always so intrigued by the creativity of it all.

I’ve always loved journaling and have boxes of journals and notebooks I’ve kept through out the years, so this idea totally struck a cord with me. Actually, looking back at my old journals from when I was younger, I sort of did dabble in art journaling. I of course wouldn’t have thought to call it that at the time, but I would sometimes add photos, magazine clippings, and ticket stubs to certain pages.

In January, after having wanted to do it for a long time, I signed up for Elsie’s Art Journaling All Year E-Course. It’s a collaboration between her and her long time friend and fellow Red Velvet girl, Rachel Denbow.  They have both mentioned how art journaling was a shared hobby that they would do together when they first became friends years ago (this is one of the many e-courses they offer, so check out them all out here). It’s a series of prompts that you can do through out a years time. I really love it, there are so many creative and fun prompts to tackle. However, while I’ve done a lot of them, I don't do them as often as I used to.

To be honest, I just fell in love with the whole creative process of art journaling and started letting my imagination take over to make my own pages. There’s just something so freeing and so fun about sitting down with all your art supplies and a blank sheet of paper and going wild with it. Making it whatever you want it to be. It’s a really great form of self expression. I think one of my favorite things has to be putting on some good tunes, sipping on iced coffee, and spending a couple hours art journaling. It’s just really fun and relaxing to me; to cut, paste, paint, stamp, and write. To create something that’s beautiful and special to you.

So I thought I would share some photos of my art journal pages and supplies with you guys! Now, disclaimer, while I adore art journaling I’m not claiming to be great at it. I’m still very much an amateur. But I try very hard not to focus so much on things looking perfect because that just sucks the fun out of it. I just want to keep it about self expression and creativity. These are some pages that were fun to make and are special to me, so I hope you enjoy getting a peak at them!

My Art Journal ~

My jumbo journal that will now barely close, ha! I just embellished it with some scrapbook paper, doilies, and buttons. Not super fancy but I like it! :)

My Art Journaling Supplies ~

Cigar box filled with found papers and other ephemera to use in journaling, and a bowl filled some supplies. 

A few photos of my growing collection of art journaling supplies… the beginners kit, if you will. Mod Podge, paint, sponge brushes, washi tape (I have a love affair with washi tape!! Need more!), scrapbook paper, stickers, stamps, buttons, pens, markers, paint chips, ect. All of this stuff is super cheap at Wal-Mart and Hobby Lobby. In fact, I got some of this stuff for 97 cents in the Wal-Mart craft section.

A couple folders filled with magazine clippings and printed papers to journal with.

My Pages ~

Some of these pages don’t have any writing on them yet as I sometimes just enjoy making the pages and filling them out later.

The page with the photo on it is of me, my cousin, and my sister. This is a page that I made to document a really fun and goofy “photo shoot” that we did one night in 2008, I believe. I mod podged the photo onto a paper I printed out that had that quote on it. Oh so fitting for us! I even pasted in a little picture of a flower my cousin drew a long time ago that I saved; I think it gives it a nice touch. :)

I made a cd of the songs I’m listening to this summer, pasted a cd sleeve into my journal, and slipped the cd in. That way I can always go back and listen to what songs were my summer 2012 soundtrack.

Iced Coffee & Good Tunes ~

Okay, so iced coffee is a must in the art journaling process… well, at least for me anyway. It just makes it so much more relaxing to me. Art journaling and iced coffee just go together in my book. I made this Caramel Macchiato by brewing two shots of espresso, filling a glass with 1 cup of milk (leaving room at the top for the espresso), 2 tbsp. Torani’s Caramel Syrup, 2 tbsp. Torani’s French Vanilla Syrup, and 2 packages of Splenda; stir and fill with ice. Then top it off with espresso, mix, and drink up! Trust me, this is delish!

And of course, I always need good tunes to listen to while art journaling! Milo Greene, The Civil Wars, and a couple summer mixed cds.

Hope you enjoyed looking around, and consider picking up art journaling yourself! I’m actually gong to be taking part in another art journaling class over at the blog, Everyday Is A Holiday. Blogger/designer, Jenny Holiday and her husband Aaron are avid art journalers (is that a word? …spell check doesn’t like it apparently) and will be giving the classes every week.

They also have a link up so everyone can show off their finished pages. So stay tuned as I will sharing my progress from these classes! And click here to take part in the fun!