Stamps Ahead

I was inspired by paintbyles to create this quick to make small journal cover Cover denim and fabric pieces from my stash. Vintage button that I have had for years, ceramic bead purchased last year in a gallery in Tea Gardens, NSW, stamping, my handwriting and cord made from calico I had tea dyed.  Signatures will be added later. Covered open. Inside.  Now before you say or think "oh my she has posted photo upside down!"  No, it was an  oopsie' that I will embrace as I place signature in future. In all it took my around 1 hour to put this together using items on my table.  I can see more in my future. Thank you for looking, and thank you to paintforbyles for your inspiration.  Margaret

My sister recently led the youth group (teenagers up to age 14) at her church and the activity would be that they would make gratitude journals.  Here are the sample covers that I designed for them.  They had to be quick to put together and interesting enough that they would enjoy making. My sister and I cut out the strips and stamped sayings - many choices for them.   They were each given a pack containing a note book  the strips that we cut.  They then selected the sayings they wanted on their journal and finally they added the circle stamps to finish off their journal.  Feedback was that they really enjoyed this activity with several of them even putting some of the sayings onto pages in their journal. This is a great way to use up scraps from other paper crafting projects. Thank you for looking, Margaret

It has been wet and cold where I live in New South Wales - time to stay inside and make a journal. It all started when I came across a Pinterest item referencing aging your paper.  So please sit back and look at what I came up with.  Paper aged with tea and small amount of coffee.  I did take an easy option and ironed the paper after the dye process (it was proving hard to dry naturally in the weather we have at present). I used 4 sheets of the paper, folded in half (about the size of regular card) for my journal.  Plenty to use later. Cardstock cut to make covers - embellished with a bookplate, tea dyed calico (that I put in the die bath after I removed papers). All pages, stamping and stencilling done with Frayed Burlap Distress Ink. Page 1 - a cluster made with part of a doily, book page, tea dyed lace and flower.  Extra space for another tag behind the dark blue cardstock.  Page 2 - Pocket tags.    Page 2 - close up of the  tag.  All...

 Yesterday, I created a paper bag journal.  Please settle back as I show you the individual pages.   Front and back pages.  After folding, I then gathered together bits and pieces from my stash to make the individual pages.  There are pockets, tags and even a small note book I made with papers I used on one of the pages. I have learned a lot about making journals from creating this little book - I went for pages that were fairly much the same size.   I started with a small white paper bag that I used to make the cover and then decorated.  I used thread and needle to sew the pages together.  Maybe next time I will use many paper bags to make the journal.   Thank you for looking, Margaret