Do what you like...

Yesterday was a glorious day to stay home and play with my books and paper! Well, after the grocery store, and the pet store and the recycle center, that is.  But it was a crisp, cold day, the perfect day to air out the pillows and feather bed beneath the blue skies with the sun shining bright.

And in between all the "required" busy-ness of the day, I devoted the better part of this day in my creative space, listening to Blind Faith on the turntable, DOIN' WHAT I LIKE!... tea dying papers and ribbons.  For this batch, I used plain old Lipton tea bags, with a few Raspberry ones tossed in just for kicks. It sure does smell good.  Different than the coffee dying frenzy I was on during the past week of crazy weather causing 2 power outages which I thoroughly enjoyed!

For added texture in some of my projects, I like to use tea or coffee stained medical gauze, and if you haven't tried dying industrial paper towels, you simply must! It has wonderful texture that shows up beautifully when stained or dyed.

This fabulous sheet is coffee dyed!  And yes, it has that crinkly sound after baking!

And this is the glorious underpaper, the baking sheet! 

My dyed paper stash...it smells wonderful! And I don't even drink coffee!

  

This gives me great JOY...along with the WIP, Hawaii; my junk journal/scrapbook of my trip to Waikiki to meet some beautiful island Ohana for the first time!

My lovely island Mama is on the cover!

 

Thanks for stopping by.  Soon I will have some of these fabulous papers and other items for junk journals up in my etsy shop...stay tuned! 

Loaded Paper Bag Swap

I had to create an extra little folder that I tucked inside the lace wrap to hold all the extras that wouldn't fit inside the mini "bookbag".

I recently joined a vintage junk journal group online, and quickly found myself in a swap of a loaded paper bag. Well, I never heard of such a thing, but it sounded like fun, because I have a passion for papers.

The idea is to fill a small paper bag with at least 10 things that could be used in a junk journal. Well, how hard can that be?  I have a paper stash that even I envy, if you catch my drift.  But, where oh where to begin? And how to begin?

Just jump in...I guess.  Hmmm, this was much harder than I thought, and it took me a while to get my groove on for this project.  But once I started digging into the stash, it began to flow.

It started out with a gift bag that I saved, even though it was ripped.  But I love the pattern and wanted to make it into a "book bag".

I used just one side of the bag to make a wrap around cover to hide another "bookbag" inside, with lots and lots of goodies for my swap partner to use in her journals.  The handle becomes the closure, all tied up with lace.

2 mini paper bags sewn together, tags tucked in front and back.

I had to create an extra little folder that I tucked inside the lace wrap to hold all the extras that wouldn't fit inside the mini "bookbag".

This project was a collaborative effort with some of gal pals from the Arty Tea Party.

I filled one of Nina's glassine postal envies with cancelled stamps, some very old, and used the wax seal to hold them in.

Andrea contributed her lovely mini crochet embellishments that totally fit the Victorian theme that my swap partner loves.  And of course, this theme was right up Rosebud Sandy's alley.  She unloaded a crate full of her lovelies to include. Thanks also to Kitty for the fabric swatch tucked inside the lace on the back holding all the extra goodies in.

AND NOW FOR THE WONDERFUL PACKAGE RECEIVED FROM MY SWAP PARTNER...

Her lovely bag was AB FAB!

And fully loaded..so much fun!

I can't wait to dig in to this stash for my next journal...

Thanks for popping in to peek at my creative chaos!   Aloha!

NEVERENDING BOOK HOP/SWAP...STILL!

Lucy's Book

The Neverending Art Journal Book Hop/Swap continues, as Lucy is the next one to claim her well traveled treasure!  This is her work on the cover.

Her inside book cover.

The inside is covered in vintage lace with sparkling glitter, complete with a pocketful of tags for each of the participants to use.

On this page she adds all the names of the talented chics of the
Arty Tea Party Guild.

My page usually has some RED!

I let some of the text on the page sway me in the direction of Love and Passion!

This is my RED page, because to me passion is RED and flaming hot! And with the text already reading..."Hello, Love...Thanks, Love...Cheerio, Love"...well you can let your imagination run wild with what is going on here!

For the rest of the pages in Lucy's book, pop in over at the ARTY TEA PARTY BLOG. 
 Lots of fun with those TALENTED CHICS!

Thanks for stopping by!  ALOHA!

Altered Board Book Journal

"Count Your Blessings"

When perusing the used book sales at the local library, I always find some little treasure that just calls out to me...and this old board book had some scratches and such that it was ready to rock and roll with me!

Using leftover scraps of dyed linen that we did at an Arty Tea Party, I used old dictionary pages to make my flutterby...fly!

With a place to add photos of your blessings, enhanced by lace and a peacock feather.

A little pad for journaling and extra wings to record your thoughts/dreams.

Another little pad for writing secret messages.

With pockets and tags and many textures to tickle your creativity as you journal your way through your blessings.

With a few extra pages not shown here, but truly a joyful place for you to 

COUNT YOUR BLESSINGS!

Thanks for stopping by!  ALOHA

Art Journal Swap/Hop

Well the neverending Art Journal Swap/Hop is coming to an end.  Here's a sneak peak at a few pages of Judie's book.  Don't want to divulge too much in case Judie is looking.  We want each book to be a surprise upon return to its rightful owner.

What I love about this book is that Judie embedded a real tea spoon to signify the name of our group,
ARTY TEA PARTY... And Lucy, went right on into the next page using original story text to complete her page, complete with a photo of what she thinks the character looks like.  Great idea!

Every picture tells a story...

A natural wreath from Nina's gardens of Happy Herbs Soap at Two Crow Cottage

And of course, the incredible detail needlework of Andrea.

So, for more of the Neverending Art Journal Swap/Hop, check back for the completion and the return of all the books to their owners.  I can't wait to see the talented additions to my own book which started out like this...

 


 Until then, Aloha!!!