Inspired by Lauren

I am very often inspired by the wonderful Lauren and today's item is no exception. Recently Lauren has posted some pages from her daily art journal and I have been inspired to begin one myself. I don't think I'll have time to make a page every single day....but I'll try, and you never know, I might even show you some of them...LOL!!

Today however, I am just going to show you my journal. I made this myself from scratch....using my brand new Bind-it-all!!!! (It's even PINK!!!) My first go at binding was slightly less than perfect, but that's all part of the charm of handmade things right? Before you know it I'll be a total pro and making all kinds of cool stuff. For this book I just used some light weight chipboard covered in Petals and Paisleys DSP for the cover and Very Vanilla CS cut to size for the interior pages bound with a one inch white coil.
Seeing as it's an ART journal, I went a bit crazy with the decorating...after all it's just for me and so I could just do whatever I liked. The letters spelling out ART are from On Board Lots of Letters, sponged in Tempting Turquoise and covered in Crystal Effects. The *wings* are from some random chipboard shapes I got ages ago and have been hoarding for a special project...'cause I really love them...and they've been sponged with Pink Passion ink, covered in CE and sprinkled with Dazzling Diamonds glitter....aren't they pretty?
This cool flower is something I've been wanting to try for months...ever since Lauren (again!!) put up instructions on how to make one. Of course I didn't follow her instructions...because I am a little anal/pedantic and the idea of free form cutting was just too much for my poor little logical brain to cope with! So I went with the next best thing...punches and die cuts! I did crumple them though and swipe the edges with ink....and most scary of all is that the centre *petals* are punched from a BOOK!!!! An old dictionary to be precise, but I almost had a panic attack doing it....it's a BOOK!!!!!!! Anyway, the bits are all held together with a pretty blue rhinestone brad.
Finally I wanted to show you a close up of these awesome buttons. Lauren sent them to me in my birthday parcel and I've been hoarding them too! But I decided that this was the perfect project to use them on! Aren't they just too cute? I've threaded them with some Linen thread that I dyed by dragging it across the Pink Passion ink pad while holding it down with a sponge dauber.....I love how it turned out and will be trying that again...why buy heaps of different coloured threads so your buttons aren't nekkid when you can just dye your own the perfect colour to match!
So, there you have my first BIA item, my first Art journal, and my first attempts at stepping out of the box, all in one project! I will be back tomorrow with some cards to show you....it's a very special day, but you will have to come back then to find out why....LOL!

Kristie