Travel Journal

Hey crafty people; today I share with you a travel journal I made using the super awesome World Traveler collection by Carta Bella.  I totally loved the vintage look of this collection and the colours are awesome...rich reds, vintage greens, greys and blacks!  I teamed it with a variety of creme, dark red, brown and kraft card stock - I had the perfect book for it too! With the exception of lace, paper clips and a few bits and pieces Paper Lane stocks everything I used on this project!

Lets take a look at the cover shall we...luckily the cover of the book I used has an old leathery look to it - perfect yes?!  I adhered some beige crochet lace on the spine and a matching doily to help accent the vintage look.  Cut outs from the pages, stickers and chipboard accents complete the look!  I also used a white dabber to create a bit of a worn look.  The leathery strips wrap around the book perfectly securing whatever you have inside.

 I love how bulky the journal is!

For this project I also used from the collection the travel cards, element and alpha stickers, chipboard accents, layered stickers and journaling cards - Paper Lane also stacks the 6x6 paper pad, matching brads and washi tape. I love how this journal turned out - it is totally ready for a vacation - all you have to do is journal daily, collect memorabilia and take oodles of snap shots!

The inside cover reads "packed my bags", it also boasts a map I fussy cut from the paper collection and holds place to insert the flight ticket, boarding passes etc.  Take a photo as you are ready to leave... with your luggage around you and your biggest grin of excitement ever and slip it under the twine on the creme card stock photo mat provided.

There are 14 kraft pages in the journal - each page divided by a creme journaling paper insert - I bought a pad of parchment paper, printed a date space and writing lines and tore and inked the edges with vintage photo distress ink.  I don't know about you but when I go on vacation I love to journal about my day - what we did, saw, ate, etc and to insert any collectibles under a paper clip...see one of my pages below.

There far too many pages in this journal to showcase so I will showcase just a few...enjoy!

I slipped a regular clothing safety pin through the twine of the two tags and adhered to the "get up and go" sentiment before gluing it onto the paper doily - I love the  outcome because the tags lift up, is totally movable, leaving space for a photograph to be admired.  The paper to the left reads the days of the week, is not glued down and slips under the paper clip (good place for the photograph to be slipped under)  I embossed the words relax and travel with white embossing powder.

I found an airmail envelope in my stash, cut it down to size, punched a half circle, inked and added some embellishments   Plus I only adhered it to the left and right so one can easily slide some memorabilia under the top of the envelop  The checkered ribbon on the deep red card stock unties to reveal place for 6 of your favourite snapshots

I left the one side blank for the user to maximize; I have done this on several different locations throughout out the journal.  On the other side I created a double page pocket with the parchment paper and memorabilia can be inserted in on top and in the pocket provided!  The page turns to reveal a double photograph spread on the other side - great way to make usage!

Three photo mats for great snapshots here and it also allows for all kinds of collectibles to be inserted plus the tags are also available for notes or anything you wish to record on it.

The journaling cards in this collection are awesome!  Two of them are tucked under the side flap on the right and are held together with a paper clip.  Each journaling card has a super image with a sentiment and is a post card on the flip side so it could actually be used as a post card for friends on family while you are on vacation!

Imagine taking a journal like this along with you on your next trip??!!  A travel journal makes a better keepsake than a disc of photographs - I mean how often do you take out the disc to look at the photographs??  With a journal like this you can slip it off your shelf and page through the memories whenever you feel like it AND you can show it to your friends and boast about it too.

See you all soon and happy crafting...Janine

Double Zig Zag Card

Hello there curious blog hoppers and followers, it has been a while since my last post.  Apologies, I had a situation and yeah we all know family comes first...but hey am glad to be back crafting!

Have you taken a look at the Heartfelt Creations Paper Pads??  Wow they are awesome awesome awesome!!  I could not choose between the Timeless Amour Collection and the Vintage Floret Collection so I purchased both.  The papers are fabulous!!  Each paper pad has 24 12x12 double sided papers; 2 sheets of each design.  The designs are absolutely beautiful and if it was not for the fact that there are 2 sheets of each design I would horde it because I would not have the heart to cut them.

I made this card for a swap I participated in...the theme of the swap was to make a feminine card but not just an ordinary card...a fancy fold card of your choice.  I decided to make a double zig zag card and because of my bulky rose I made a matching box for it too.

The cover of the box show cases the beautiful rose paper; stunning!  I added some gold glitter to accentuate them.  As I said ladies, these papers are absolutely beautiful!

Box for the card

Side view of the box - yummy lace

Front view of the card

Side view of the card

Back of the card with a tag

Sentiment card from the Vintage Floret Collection

I hope you enjoyed my card using these stunning papers!!  If you live in Dubai pop in at Paper Lane and get some for yourself, you will not regret it!

Altered notebooks and a tag

As you all know besides making mini albums, I love to alter things.  Recently I have altered two notebooks and also decorated the pages making it a semi smash book/journal of sorts.

Here is the first one and it was part of a swap...

The image above and below are taken with different backgrounds and angles. 

I love love this journal!  I used Webster's Pages for the cover with lots of lace and flowers.  There are several charms too.  The black and white tag is a pull out and the alphabet is by XXX

I made another using A Ladies Diary and this time I made a tag too..........

I love the lace on the edge of the journal above and the lace flower below!

The images above and below are of the inside of the cover of the journal.

Just look at that tea pot!  This collection is awesome!

The above tags slide in the pocket and below is close up

The images above and below are but 2 of the many pages inside the journal

The above image is the back of the journal

The tag I created for this journal

I love the little pink dress on a hanger charm - suits this tag perfectly!

A Tim Holtz dress form, metal flower and lock with key are some of the elements on this tag.

Fussy cutting with this collection is amazing; adds so much more to your project!  

Stash Record Book

Hey scrappers; hope everybody is scrapping away to their hearts content.  Do you guys also have withdrawal symptoms when other tasks prevent you from slipping away to your craft room?  I do!!! I have been busy with other important tasks and even though I managed to slip into my room now and then it was not enough for my soul :-).  Yesterday I popped into Paper Lane, bought  KaiserCraft's Lake House Collection amongst other things and feel totally revitalised. Tomorrow is also a public holiday here in the UAE so today and until further notice, my order of business is to craft, craft, craft :-)  But first a blog post..

Today I am blogging about a booklet I made a few weeks ago to record certain items in my stash.  I don't know about you guys but more than once I have duplicated a purchase of a certain distress inks or a glimmer mist especially the ones I do not use as regularly as my ever faithful favourites vintage photo and aged mahogany.

I wanted to create a book that was not going to take up space in my bag and was versatile enough to record the items I wanted.  I used one sheet of 12x12 paper to create the inside pages of this booklet and tags inserted into the pockets act as my recording or stock sheet.  Tell me what you think...

I used the Jumping Joan sheet from Graphic 45's ABC Primer 12x12 paper pad for the cover.  The front and back cover and spine were made from chipboard making the cover durable and flexible.  Details of the items I used are listed at the end of my post.

Ladies I would really like to mention the black and white stripped ribbon I used to tie the booklet together.  I attended school at a girls convent and when my mother purchased the blazer, she also had to purchase the ribbon and sew it onto the blazer herself.  My mother was not good with sewing at the time so she bought more than enough ribbon just in case she messed it up.  Well she didn't mess it up and she kept the excess which she in turn gave to me.  This ribbon has travelled from South Africa to Dubai and it is the first time it has found a second usage.  Love it!!!

In this booklet I have pocket space for 8 tags and a longer tag insert on pages 2 and 4.  I used foam tape to secure the sides of the paper and secured a strip of creme lace on the sides too.  This gives height which will afford me to have double tags inserted into a pocket if I wish to record more stash at a later date.  The tags have the journal lines printed on both sides and its pretty useful for those of us who need to have 1 of everything in a range or collection :-)

The labels I printed off my laptop and are also secured with foam tape.  Everything is inked with vintage photo and the laces and trims are all leftover pieces from other projects - as you can see their lengths are small and its a really awesome way to have found a use for them. 

On the inside of the front cover I secured a black piece of chipboard with a black clip.  This acts like a board to clip your list on.  I recently started a white and blue project and found this little clip board useful to record items I wanted to buy to complete the project.  

See a note slipped under the slip.  As you can see the front of the booklet has not use at this stage.  At a later date a pocket can be adhered to it to render this little booklet even more versatile. 

Supplies used

An ABC Primer by Graphic 45

- Jumping Joan for the chipboard cover

- Calico Kids for the inside page

Primrose Journal Page by Marion Smith

Chipboard, white card stock to print on

Blue and white ribbon (my senior school blazer)

Black Felt Flourish by Ornate Accents

Glass beaded leaf accessory bought locally

Rolled flowers - Cameo Silhouette

Prima leaves, black stationery clip

Tim Holtz adage ticket

Black and Creme flower bought locally

Fibers, laces and trims from my stash

Black and white ribbon 

This booklet is awesome ladies, I have used it on several shopping trips since I created it.  Make one for yourself and never duplicate a purchase again!

Bird House Garden

I love gardens, birds, butterflies and flowers.  The 'fairy' in me always imagines there are indeed fairies, gnomes, pixies and other ethereal creatures living in their beauty.  This was exactly my thought when I was given a wooden bird house as part of my DT project...to create a garden for the birdhouse - one beautiful enough to attract fairies, butterflies and a few nosy creatures!

Take a look...

For the base of the garden I used a wooden in tray, painted it in Martha Stewart's curry green satin craft paint.  I flipped the tray around and hot glued a grass square to it.

I painted the bird house with vanilla bean paint and once it was completely dry I applied Martha Stewart's weather crackle effect to the back sides and roof only - I left the front as is.  The image below shows the crackle effect beautifully.

The image below is the back view of the birdhouse and garden.

I attached the decorative wreath to the opening of the birdhouse and it fits perfectly.  Positioned the bird hovering to enter the house and adhered a toadstool to the right hand corner.

In the image above and below can you notice some of the nosy creatures who wanted to eavesdrop on the conversation the fairies were having?  Besides the butterflies I see 3 - can you spot them?

I mostly used artificial leaves and flowers; in between I used some peach coloured roses and a sunflower.  The white fence is actually drawer space dividers purchased locally and they resemble a picket type fence perfectly!

All the items in italics and red are available at Paper Lane.  A full range of Martha Stewart paints,  accessories and tools are available at Paper Lane - when there browse the wide range of embellishments and papers too and make your project now!  There is no limit to what you can do with these paints; they are fantastic to use and they wash off easily if you make a mistake.  Pop into Paper Lane and stock up on all your Martha Stewart products...you will not regret it!

So that's it from me today - I hope you enjoyed reading the descriptions and looking at the pictures and I certainly hope you try and create a project with a bird house too!  I think this birdhouse garden would be a perfect gift for a girl  - who would not love to move the fairies around - yeah I did not glue them down!

Thanks for stopping by...