Currently Loving

Happy Monday! I recently purchased some new craft/art supplies and I am loving them!

I bought a Dylusions Creative Journal a few days ago and I absolutely love it! It might just be my favorite art journal. I still love the Strathmore Visual Mixed Media Journal as well as their Strathmore Visual Watercolor Journal. However, I think I will be purchasing more of the Dylusions Creative Journals. I really like how the paper feels and that the pages are not thin. When I used some watercolors in the journal, I did notice that it bled through the page, but it was not a lot. Also the pages did not warp a lot either. Overall, I think the pages hold up well especially for watercolors. I haven't tried acrylic paints, but I am sure it will turn out ok.

You may have remembered me mentioning that I purchased the Sakura Koi Pocket Field Sketch Box (24 colors) a few weeks ago, but I am still loving and obsessed with it. It has everything that you need in this box. I love that there is a palette, sponge, and a water brush. There are more than enough colors in the box. 

The new Distress Crayons are awesome! I love that there are so many things that you can do with them. You can blend them, use shading techniques, and use them as watercolors. What's even better is that you can find the Distress Crayons Watercolor Kit at Michaels. I believe that they are $25 USD, but I was able to use a 50% off coupon and got it for half price. The kit comes with a stamp set, brush, acrylic block, five watercolor papers, small Distress ink pad (black), a technique booklet, and of course a six pack of the distress crayons.

I will definitely share what I have made so far with these items in the next week or so.

What are you currently loving?

Thanks for visiting!

Until next time...

Travel Crafting Kit

Hey! Over the weekend, I decided to make a traveling crafting kit. I have been wanting to make one ever since I decided that I wanted to explore my city more. I plan to visit new places as well as old places and I want to be able to document it. If I have time to craft while I am out and about, this kit will be perfect to get it done.

I subscribe to Freckled Fawn and won a giveaway a few months ago so I have an extra October 2015 kit. I decided to use the extra pouch to hold the items for my travel crafting kit.  Look at all the goodies inside!

I decided to put the essentials in my pouch. I wanted to put items that I use in various projects like layouts, cards, art journals, etc. My essentials are enamel dots, washi tape, stickers, and adhesive. I will most likely use this kit for my art journal so I chose items that were mainly flat. The only thing that will have some dimension are the enamel dots. I added some items that were in the October 2015 kit such as the enamel dots, transparency circles, one roll of washi tape, and the felt feather stickers. I do a lot of stamping so I will be adding an ink pad to my kit. I also added one of my favorite stamp sets which is a Freckled Fawn stamp set from September 2014. Below are a few close ups of the items in my kit.

I think this kit is awesome and has everything that I need. If you decide to make a travel crafting kit, I recommend that you add your essentials. Everyone has a different style and some people may use other items that are not pictured. Add the items that you know you use the most, but if you are trying to use up your stash then maybe you could add a few things that you have kept for a while.

Supplies Used:

• Freckled Fawn Pouch
• Tombow Mini Power Tape
• Washi Tape
• Sharpie Pen
• Scissors
• Scraps of Paper
• Ephemera
• Journaling Cards
• Stamp Set
• Ink Pad (not pictured)
• Acrylic Block (not pictured)

Have you made a travel crafting kit? What do you keep in it?

Thanks for visiting!

Until next time...

Happy Little Life-Art Journal Page

Hey! Hey! Wow, it's been a long time since I shared a page from my art journal. That will definitely change this year. Last Saturday, I worked in my art journal and used a few new items so I'm excited to show you all my favorite page .

I purchased some Tim Holtz mini Distress Inks and mini ink blending tool a while ago and have been wanting to try them out, but felt intimidated. I finally decided to try them out and used a Heidi Swapp stencil. I love how the colors blended and made kind of like a green or yellow-green color in some spots.

I didn't know where exactly I was going with this entry. I literally had no idea whether I should add writing, a picture or embellishment so I decided to check out what I had in my crafting basket. I found a Project Life card and decided to use it to decorate the page. I also decided to use the sentiment on the card like a prompt and journaled a bit about my love for my boys and husband.

Random Fact and Tip:

I always keep a medium sized basket with various items that I know I will use in various projects. I have been crafting downstairs a lot so keeping this basket has been convenient and I haven't had to make a lot of trips to my room to get stuff. If you tend to craft in various areas of your house, I recommend getting a small or medium sized basket and fill it with items that you will use in lots of projects like Project Life, cards, mini albums, traditional layouts, etc.

Do you have an art journal? What have you been making?

Thanks for visiting!

Until next time...

Art Journal-Doodling

Hello! Hello! I can't believe that this month is almost over, but I'm really excited that Halloween is just a couple of days away. I haven't even eaten any of the Halloween candy...ok I lied, but those Kit-Kats are just too tempting.

Today, I worked in my art journal and ended up just doodling. When I first started my art journal, I felt like everything had to be perfect and that I had to know what I was going to draw. I am still learning that it's ok for things to turn out differently and that it's just feels so much better to start drawing, doodling, etc. without worrying or trying to force myself to make something perfect. With that being said, I want to share what I made in my art journal.

Today, I felt like doodling and writing random words. It may not look perfect, but I am loving the colors. I used my distress markers for my page and love that the markers have both a brush tip and a fine tip. Those markers are so awesome! I definitely plan to use my distress markers a lot more and may even purchase another set of markers soon.

Supplies Used:

• Tim Holtz Distress Markers

• Strathmore Visual Mixed Media Journal (5 1/2x8 sized)

Do you have an art journal?

Thanks for visiting!

Until next time...

Awesome Ladies Project 1.1

Hello! Happy Friday! It's been about a few weeks or so since the Awesome Ladies Project came back. Each week there will be a new challenge posted on Rukristin's blog, IG, and you can also get an email sent to you with information on the challenge.

The first week's challenge was all about entertainment routines. The challenge was to document how entertainment plays a role in your life. I was inspired by Rukristin and how she documented her Fall television routine. I decided to do something similar and document the shows that I had watched for a week and will continue to watch.

*Sorry for the bad lighting. It just wasn't working for me on the day I took the picture.*

It was really simple to make this layout in my art journal. I just filled out the Project Life card. Then I glued it down onto the page. Then I started stamping around the card. I think I probably should have just stamped the triangles first and then glued down the card.

Supplies Used:

• Freckled Fawn stamp set (from March 2015)

• 5th and Frolic Project Life card

• Ranger Ink

• Tombow Adhesive Glue

Are you participating in the Awesome Ladies Challenge? 

Thanks for visiting!

Until next time...

Art Journal-Halloween Trick-or-Treat

Hello there! Lately, I have been using my art journal a lot and I have been loving it! Today, I want to share a Halloween themed page that I created. I was inspired by Marcy's scrapbooking in her Traveler's Notebook. You can see her post in Crate Paper's blog here.

I wanted to document a few places that we usually go to trick-o-treat. I love that adding stickers can make a list so much more fun. I am in love with Crate Paper's After Dark collection and just knew that I had to use some stuff from the collection. I used Crate Paper's After Dark accent stickers and a Pumpkin confetti that I found at Walmart. 

Supplies Used:

• Crate Paper After Dark Cardstock Stickers with Foil Accents

• Pumpkin confetti

• Strathmore Visual Mixed Media Art Journal

• Sharpie Pen-Fine Point

How are you documenting your Halloween?

Thanks for visiting!

Until next time...

Find Your Voice 2015-Lesson 1

Hello! A few weeks ago, I heard about Kristin's (from Rukristin) Find Your Voice workshop. This is a free workshop that started on July 1st. All you have to do is just register for the workshop on Rukristin's website. I have been catching up on the challenges and reading materials for the past week. Today, I want to share a few pages that I created for the first lesson/challenge.

I am using a Strathmore Mixed Media Visual Journal for the workshop. It's 5 1/2 by 8 and it's the perfect size. I decided to decorate the cover with some Thickers.

The workshop includes a pre-workshop worksheet and a follow along worksheet for each week. These are super helpful. I also love all of the information in the PDF as well as the contributor inspiration. The workshop also includes chats, forums, and galleries. I love that there is a chat session every day so if you can't make it on a certain day, you can chat on another day or look at the chat transcript.

I will be putting my completed worksheets in a DCWV Inc. envelope. I have had these envelopes for a really long time so it was so nice to put these envelopes to good use. I plan to use an envelope for each week. I just adhered the envelope onto the page.

There were so many ways that I could have completed Lesson 1. The first lesson was about documenting stories and why those stories are so meaningful to us. There are so many different stories and topics that are meaningful to me. I decided to make some pages on TV shows, books, music, and movies.  

For my first page, I knew that I would want to document my favorite TV shows. I included a few reasons why these shows are my favorite such as story lines, characters, and a few other random thoughts.

I decided that I wanted to list some of my favorite books. I love reading so it only made sense to make a page related to books. I want to thank Kristin from My Life as a Teacup for introducing me to Neil Gaiman's books. The Graveyard Book was one of the selected books for her book club and now I have become obsessed with Gaiman's books.

For my music page, I decided that I wanted to list my current favorite songs. I used some neon tags and wrote down some of my favorite lyrics.

I chose to document my favorite movies and put down some reasons why these movies are my favorite. 

Supplies:

• Strathmore Mixed Media Visual Journal
• DCWV Inc. envelope
• October Afternoon Daily Flash Alpha-Strawberry Ice Cream Shop Front
• Freckled Fawn Label Stickers by Rukristin
• Me & My Big Ideas Die Cut Arrows and Speech Bubbles
• Me & My Big Ideas Happy Day Banners
• Rukristin journaling tags

Have you signed up for Rukristin's Find Your Voice workshop? If so, how are you liking it?

Until next time...

Art Journal--Thankful

Hello there! Today I wanted to share two pages from my art journal. October was kind of a stressful month so I am glad that this month has been much better. Due to so much stuff happening, I had to push back several things on my to do list. Even though there were things that happened that were out of my control, I realized today that I just need to pause, breathe, and then keep on moving.

I really like this page. As I said before, I definitely needed to press pause. I used the new Heidi Swapp Project Life Interchangable Stamp as well as the Heidi Swapp clear magic medium and some color shine. I was actually surprised that that interchangeable stamp had ink in it.

For my second page, I used some of the Heidi Swapp mini stamps and stamped the words onto the page. The only thing that is in my handwriting is the ampersand. I also used Stazon ink for the first time and I love it! I definitely need to find a new cleaner for the Stazon ink because it did stain some of my stamps.

Despite having a few rough weeks, I still think it is very important to be thankful and grateful everyday. We all have our bad and stressful days, but it's important to remember that there will be other days that will be awesome. There is always someone out there that has it worse than we do so we need to be grateful for what we have. So for anyone who is having a bad day, just remember that things will get better.

Until next time...

Art Journal--Stars & Outlander

Hello there! So today I wanted to share two pages from my art journal. Even though Halloween is over and the finale of Outlander aired a few weeks ago, these two things are still on my mind. So I of course decided to use that in my art journal. 

I have fallen in love with Outlander and the show's opening theme song is amazing. So I chose to write some of the lyrics down. I used watercolors and my Sharpie brush tip marker.

For my next page, I used Heidi Swapp's color shine mist in black velvet, white acrylic paint, and a Heidi Swapp stencil. I am kind of messed up on a few of stars because I accidentally moved the stencil. So I decided to put a 3x4 journaling card that I made out of white card stock. I ended up using some more of the color shine on the journaling card and added the cat. I purchased the little cat embellishment from Walmart...apparently it's supposed to be confetti, but I thought it would be perfect on some journaling cards and handmade greeting cards.

It was fun using some new products and trying new techniques. I definitely plan to to use these techniques again.

Until next time...