Category: Tutorials

February 14, 2024

Pretty Journaling Spots From A Paper Bag

I had this idea of reusing paper grocery bags to make journaling spots kicking around in my head for a while. Thankfully a ripped grocery bag came into my life and helped me put the vision to a test. I’m happy to say the journaling spots came out even better than I expected. Not only are they pretty, in a grungy way, they really feel good to hold. They are definitely sturdy enough to be put in and pulled out of journal pockets over and over.

I challenge you to find one of the many paper grocery bags you probably have kicking around your kitchen closet and make something fun and useful for your journals.

June 15, 2023

Easy Painted Papers For Crafting

I recently had the urge to get up to my elbows in paint since it’s been such a long time. I decided to make some painted papers to use as journal pages and to tear up for collage fodder. These two videos show the processes I used to make a whole bunch of fun papers. The paper, tools and paints are all basic supplies that most crafters readily have on hand. No gelli plate was needed so no worries!

This first video shows how I made the base layers of paints.

In this second video I demonstrate how to add fun details on top to make your painted papers extra special.

I hope these simple steps have inspired you to get out some paper, paints, pens and markers and have a good old time. Enjoy!

January 18, 2023

Stash Busting YouTube Collaboration

I am proud to be co-hosting an open collaboration on YouTube with three very talented crafters. The collaboration is called #stashtotreasure and I am co-hosting it with Susan Hiles Art, Sheree from Turquoise Dreaming and Maria from Maria’s Miscellany.

The prompts for this collaboration were picked to spark creativity with craft supplies we already have in our stash. The prompts are just suggestions, of course, but they can help jump start your creative process. Here is the first video I have made for the collaboration. New videos are uploaded on Fridays through the end of February.

I would love for you to play along with us. You do not have to have a YouTube channel to play along, you can just do it for the fun of it! All the instructions and prompts are listed in the description box of this video.

Let’s get using up our stash!

October 17, 2022

Prayer Book Finish to Start!

I know that sounds backwards but it will make sense when I explain. One of the goals I set for myself this year is to complete working in the junk and art journals I have started but never finished. I love making journals and I was only half (or less) filling my journals and then making a cooler, newfangled one. So I have a pile of not finished journals. Well I’m happy to say, I am working on them and finishing them.

The prayer journal in the video linked right below is one of my all time favorite journal. I just love how it filled up nice and chunky and I love the prayers and spreads inside it. To see the complete flip through watch this video, but be sure to come back because there is more!

Now that this pretty is completely full I had to create a new one. Below are the links to the three part videos of how I constructed my new one in the same fashion as the one above. The video below shows how I constructed the cover and put in the elastic.

This video shows how I made the signatures and put them in the journal. I’d call this a traveler’s style journal.

Finally, no journal is complete without something fun dangling from the cover. This video shows how I made a really fun tassel to hang from the side.

There you have it. Super easy journal that will hold your prayers, Bible studies or favorite Scriptures. I really hope you try making one, or many, for yourself. Just remember to fill them up!

July 28, 2022

#holidaycraftwithus Christmas List Pad

This week’s #holidaycraftwithus prompts are to make a Christmas journal card, altered paper clip or notebook/gift list. I am a list maker by heart so I opted to make the notebook/ gift list. I decided I wanted to make a pretty holder for it as well so I decorated a glassine bag to attach inside my 2022 December Daily to hold the notebook. I hope you enjoy the process!

July 20, 2022

Christmas In July Part 1

I am taking part of an open crafting collaboration titled #holidaycraftwithus. This week’s prompts are to make a Christmas/Holiday ATCoin, flat ornament or cluster. Anyone who knows me at all knows I jumped at the chance to make some more clusters! This video shows both my process and the finished results of my week one project. Enjoy!

October 3, 2021

The Minimalism Game Days 26-29

Today I have 4 days of the Minimalism game to cover. I admit it was getting hard finding stuff in my house, however, I hadn’t hit my craft room yet! I could probably do another whole month just with items from my craft room but I decided to add some here. These are all items out of my house so it’s not cheating if I include items from my craft room too. So let’s see what is going for these four days.

For day 26 I have 9 tops, 2 scarves, 4 pairs of pants, 3 books, 3 sticker sheets, 2 pumpkins, 1 veggie holder, 1 makeup brush and 1 small house decor.

On day 27 I have 2 pairs of pants, 1 pair of shorts, 2 tops, 2 scarves, 1 egg collecting basket, 1 alarm clock, 1 lamp, 1 package of oil pastels, 10 decorative tapes in dispensers, 1 cosmetic bag, 1 ink refill bottle, 1 squeeze bottle and 3 small vintage diaries.

On day 28 I’ve included 5 sets of washi tape, 1 bag of sheet protectors, 1 stack of hanging file folders, 5 colors of chalk ink, 3 packages of confetti, 6 colored ink pads, 2 craft storage bins and 5 books.

Okay, my last lot to get rid of in this post contains 29 items. They include 9 plastic photo storage boxes, 8 yards and threads, 7 packages of paper flowers, 4 boxes of seed beads and 1 bag of paper sentiments for card making.

Some things I am learning from doing this is that clothes are almost always included because I see what I’m not wearing every time I go into my closet or drawers. I have to get real about the projects I’m really going to do versus the ones I want to do someday. Sentimentality has little room when you’re decluttering your life. I do keep some sentimental items but not everything anyone I love has ever given me.

Now that I’m working in my craft room, my last post with 30 and 31 items should not be far off. I hope you are playing along and finding some breathing room in your home!

January 24, 2020

Cute Winter Tag From Three Kitchen Items

Here is the second weekly challenge I am doing for the Paper Outpost Facebook group. This weeks challenge is to take three items from the kitchen and make something from them or using them. Thoughts of strainers and other cool kitchen gadgets used for making marks in mixed media came to my mind. I came to my senses quickly and decided spraying inks and using acrylic paints on my cooking utensils probably wasn’t the wisest thing to do.

After opening and closing all my kitchen draws and cabinets I decided look in the recycle bin instead.

Here are the three items I pulled out to use. One is a letter from a window salesman but it is printed on very heavy white paper. Then I chose a Trader Joe’s cookie box and a pull tab off a can.

I cut the box around the cutout star and then cut it to tag shape. I cut a solid tag piece from the box for the backing of the tag. I cut the white letter paper to fit the tag and then applied white gesso and a blue mermaid marker to create an icy looking background.

A cute little snowman sticker was sandwiched between the two box pieces. The tag was then inked around the edges and the can tab was added. I embellished the tag with pompom trim, wavy glittered tape and little glittered stars. Leftover blue wool pieces were used for the ties.

These mini challenges are so fun and really get my creative juices flowing. If you would like to join this Facebook group the address is:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/3469195439809733/. You will be required to answer three easy questions to enter the group. I hope you join us and stretch your creativity!

September 18, 2019

Making And Using A Mixed Media Master Board

I have been making a lot of junk journals lately and although I love making them I find something lacking in the repetative process. What is that something? Paper, paint and glue!!! I miss making a big mixed media mess. So I decided to make a master board with no end projects in mind but rather to let myself have some free play time.

First I just randomly glued papers to a large sheet of drawing paper. I also got out some tags to use up any leftover scraps. I even included some glittered tissue paper from wrapping Christmas gifts.

I chose a few colors of acrylic paint I thought would go well together’

I pretty much just scraped it here and there over the substrates with an old gift card.

The colors were too bright and garish for my taste so I toned them down with some white gesso. Then I splattered them with watered down paint for a fun effect.

I stamped over the painted with orange, black and white stencils.

When the master board was completely dry I added a few doodles with a fine tip black marker and a gold marker. I then used dies and punches to cut out all these mixed media elements that I will be able to use on upcoming projects.

Here are the finished tags I made using some of the pieces I cut from the master board and the matching tag bases.

I encourage you to make some master boards and have fun getting paint and glue all over your hands! You don’t have to think of how you will use them until a later date. As a matter of fact it would be great to have a stash of master boards on hand for when you get inspired to create with mixed media!

March 26, 2019

Collaged File Folder Pocket

I just finished making the cutest pocket or pouch out of a plain manila envelope. I was inspired by a video by Christina Betts in which she made one to hold some of her ephemera pieces. I made mine with the thought of using it to send happy mail to a friend. Here is the link to Christina’s video:

I also made a video of my process in making my pouch which you can find here:

Unfortunately the video cut off a few minutes before I finished so you didn’t get to see the final results. Here are some pictures of my finished happy mail pocket.