Close enough...

Hello lovelies,

So if you are into paper and crafting, you have come across scrapbooking or journalling in some form or another.

I have tried both ad neither really stuck, but I do love the idea of putting elements together on a page and just playing with textures / colours etc.

For this little play-session in my craft room, I had a bunch of bits and pieces that I really loved, but didn't really know what to do with, so I just did a few pages of randomness.

Mixed media page with pockets

I created two pockets on the page. The one was from some pretty packaging (it was a stamp set if I can remember correctly) and I simply just put red washi tape along the edges to secure it to the page. The other was made with an old calendar page from a small diary with a frame stuck over it. The frame has cellophane in it to serve as a window.

Tags

I made these tags to put into the pockets. I love how the colours correspond to the page.

Mixed media page with old letter as pocket

Here is another page I made with random pretty things. I found this old letter in a secondhand bookshop and just love how pretty it is. The bird at the top of the page is also a tag that is tucked into a cellophane-window pocket.

Mixed media page - highlighting the pockets

Here you can clearly see the letter pocket as it is flipped open and the bird tag removed from it's pocket.

Page insert with pocket

The thing I love about crafting is that there really is very few hard and fast rules. Here is a bit of graph paper that I turned into a small page between pages. It has a pocket and some pretties, but truly, it's just a piece of paper secured with some washi tape to the previous page. A great way to add more oomph to a little experimental craft book.

Tag with tinsel

I got some really pretty tinsel lying around and I was looking for something unique to do with it. I made this tag by punching a circle in heavy cardstock and then placing cellophane over it. I inserted the tinsel in between and used decorative staples to secure everything together.

Page insert - other side

So to make the graph paper page more study, I pasted some scrapbooking paper to the back. I wanted a space to write tiny little notes, so I used tags and just used washi tape to stick them down. The washi tape also serves as the fold to fold them over with.

So if you have a few treasured paper bits lying around that you are not sure what to do with, why not put them together in a book? Give yourself permission to play around and you might just surprise yourself.

Have fun :)
Mar

Swap Bot fun

So to push my arty ways and have mailbox love from all over the world, I have fun on a swapping site called Swap Bot.

It's an American based site, but it has quite a strong international following. If you are into exchanging things with people from over the oceans, come have a look :)

So here is what I have done for some swaps recently:

Black&White Valentine ATC

I love playing with darker themes every now and then, so this was an instant draw. It's pretty tough not to associate this theme with old black and white movie, so I wanted to force myself to think outside the box. I went for a little grunge and dark Alice-in-Wonderland-y angle.

Blue ATC

This one was a pretty simple swap. We just had to make an ATC where blue was the main feature colour. Easy peasy. Valentine's day is on my mind, so why not make something a little more lovey dovey? 

Black ATC

Same as the above swap in that we had to make an ATC with one colour as the main focus. This time is was black who had to take centre stage. Off course I couldn't resist going a little spooky ;)

Love-themed bookmark:

This swap celebrated two of my favourite things: love and reading. Resistance was futile off course. Love can be a little grungy right? So that's what I went with for this swap.

 

Tag-o-Love:

I do love playing wth tags in my craftroom and this swap was the perfect excuse. I thought I'd mix it up a bit and instead of going the usual vertical tag, I went oh so horizontal. 

Spruced up envelopes:

This is not so much a swap as a little something to make the swapping experience more special for my partner. I dress up the envies I send the swap in. I tend to forget to take pics of them, but here are some I caught before they went on their journeys. Maybe blogging will help with that? Hopefully.

HINT: I tend to make a bunch of envies in a big batch. Then they are ready whenever I need them. I take it on as a seperate project. Or just keep some envies lying around and as you craft, use them as the 'clean up' paper. You'll be surprised how quickly they come alive :)

Took the photo after I added the address, so blurred that out.

That's it for now gang.

Mar