pretty little things

so now that CHA is done and i can keep my cyber-clothes on (see the last post and you'll understand why you should now feel safe in your own home) it's time to actually create something!

this month's design team project was all about authentique paper's new line "journey". in honor of trips and summer time, i created a suitcase full of memories. i took a stack of paper bags and turned them into a minibook stuffed full of cards, with plenty of room for loose photos and keepsakes.

check out the details - each card features something different. we've got acrylic tags, flocking, "sugaring", ribbon distressing as well as my traditional ripping and inking. all of the cards fit into the chipboard suitcase made from tim holtz's alteration die.

in the center of the minibook is a spread made with one of my favorites from the paper line, a little bit of prima bling, and a tim holtz tissue tape flower.

my favorite card is this one with "sugaring" around the edges, and custom tinted flower ribbon using tim holtz distress ink and ribbon flowers.

look closely at this ocean-inspiring swirl - it's actually flocked! i fell in love with "sparkly fluff" from "our craft lounge, which i came across at last year's scrapbook expo. note the tiny - and real (!) sea star too!

both the tags on the suitcase, and the tags here are made ala t!m holtz, using his acrylic tags adhered over authentique papers.

i love this fold-out - so reminiscent of maps! imagine tucking tiny picks in this multi-fold "map", tucked into the minibook

hope you enjoy the techniques featured. the combination of authentique papers and tim holtz embellishments made for an awesome exploration and a beautiful minibook, if i do say so myself!

computer - paper - scissors

i recently read an article about digital scrapbooking and why it's better than paper scrapping. the article raised good basic points we all know - cost, space, being able to crop at starbucks with only a laptop. but then the author started talking about how "lumpy" her pages would get, and how her albums were just so much neater when they were bound in neat book-like volumes of digital output and i thought - "well then what's the point of that???"

i mean let's face it. we all started cropping to satisfy that secret crafty craving. inking, sanding, tearing, gluing, glittering - come on! it's a grown up version of preschool! it's our excuse to get messy fingers, smudgy faces and mysterious marks on our clothes.

i've always laughed at the digital scrapbook embellishments. all that effort to make a digital button look like an actual button. just use a button! while i do see the environmental side of not using papers and plastics, the flip side is the use of chemicals and dyes to output and bind the digitally created albums. what's the lifespan of that CD used to archive your digital scrapbook, not to mention the chemical processes used to make the CD in the first place? the bottom line is everything we create impacts the environment in some way, it's just a matter of which way you can justify to yourself.

so for me, as much as i enjoy the cyber world of untouchable art, when it comes to my creative outlets i'm a paper junky at heart - the feel of it, that new paper smell, the sparkle of embedded glitter that a computer just can't reproduce. and don't forget the embellishments - buttons, flowers, brads, bling, and bits and pieces of memorabilia that tell a story by themselves. yes you can have all of those in a digital layout, but you can't touch it. it's only a picture of the real thing, missing the spirit of the thing itself.

the creative pot is boiling

hi fellow gypsies,

after my flurry of kick-off postings it's time to clear the decks and create MORE. and to start figuring out what techniques i do that would be worth sharing...

look for upcoming projects-in-process: "Book of Life", "Skeleton Closet", and "I am the sum of my parts". and look for new (hopefully new to you) techniques for distressing photos - yes you can distress and ink your photos without losing their beauty.

but what about you, fellow gypsies? what do you see out in the world that you would want to be able to do yourselves? a special technique? a project that makes you say "i wish i could make that"? post your desires and see what the suburbngypsy can provide...