Crafting + Ephemera Kits Coming Monday!

It's been a while since I took the time to put together those crafting + ephemera kits that you all love so much. Who am I kidding, I love them, too!

Set yourself a reminder and drop into the shop on Monday to find your new favorites. Until then, here's a sneak peek of some cuties waiting to find new homes. Wink, wink.

Find all the new goodies, and some old favorites here.

Junk Journal January Days 7 - 15

If you're looking for a fun project for the rest of January, check out the #junkjournaljanuary challenge on Intagraam. Along with my gratitude journaling, this is one of #my2020creativeprojects. 

A PEEK AT MY JOURNAL PAGES

Day 7
Save A Tag
My tag is from a sweater I bought last month and I tore off the price from the bottom and used the back side as a date holder on the left side of my page. 

I love how this month’s prompts are bringing up stories I can tell.

Day 8 
Vintage Vibes
I'm using this mixed paper journal and added the pink hang tag {from this set}, a mini white tag + a tree image from one of the printable ephemera set which I printed on vellum. 

Day 9
Happy Mail
Who knew that saving Christmas card envelopes would come in handy? 

Day 10
Nature Lover 
I love a new year and new projects! I printed this ephemera set onto vellum instead of card stock, added it to the left side of my journal spread and then documented a little story from city girl to country girl for me. 

Day 12
Sweet Treats
We lost count of how many rounds of homemade Banana Pudding Ice Cream we made last summer, we were hooked! So good, so easy and gone in a flash because it's that good.

Find collections of shipping tags in manila and fun colors here.

Day 13
You know I’m a huge fan of layers and texture, but did you know I also layer it up when I’m dressing? Oh yeah, cami, shirt, sweater and maybe even a scarf. 

I’m a cold natured person, usually, but this Menopause thing has me all about of wack. 

Day 14
Cozy Drink
Coffee is my fave, but I do love a hot peach green tea, too! 

You can find more paper doilies here and this is the journal I'm using. 

Day 15
A List
Today I used a tag, a teeny tiny scrap from a paper doily, several sticky notes and an ampersand stamp to mimic my patterned paper page.

You can find a similar watercolor style shipping tags here. And here's a set in blue.

MIXED PAPER JOURNALS 

Here are some fun journals that have 30 pages, making them perfect for any listing challenge:

MORE JUNK JOURNAL JANUARY PAGES

Days 1 - 3
Days 4 - 6 

JOIN THE CHALLENGE

Want to join in the Junk Journal January challenge? Find out more info here.

Find this journal here and also more journals + mini books in my Etsy shop.

Junk Journal January Days 4 - 6

Have you ever junk journaled before? It's such a fun way for me to use my stash and carve out some creative time in a mixed paper journal. I already shared some inside pages and close-up pics here, and here are Days 1-3 of the Junk Journal January challenge. I've been playing along with this green + blue themed mixed paper journal. 

JUNK JOURNAL JANUARY

Day 4 | Morning Pages
I’m not even sure what morning pages are, but here you go - and it’s done and was fun. I'll let you in on a little secret...this page spread may have been done at a time that wasn't technically morning. What???

The date journaling spot is something I'm thinking of adding the shop, in a variety of colors, and decided to give it a test run. For my journaling, I punched it out with my 1" circle punch and used a foam dot to adhere it off center to the circles on my pattered cardstock.

I used my black pen to doodle some around my page a few times.

Day 5 | Textured
Let’s see, I used a stencil and molding paste, a torn paper doily, a journaling spot, a white tag I watercolored and stamped, stickers and a printable date die cut round. 

There’s a mix of goodies from my stash as well as goodies from my Etsy shop. The roller skate stamp prompted me to document my lingering thoughts on the first time I went roller skating as a kid. I was probably in the 5th grade, very shy and had short hair. 

And yeah, I was too shy back in the day to tell those skating rink people that I wasn't a boy, even if I did have short hair, and that I wanted a pair of girl skates.

Day 6 | Stickers
Anyone else ever walk in on their kids with a whole roll of your self stick stamps going to town with a random sheet of paper? I know I can't be the only one.

You can find a sticker collection in the shop that includes the red label I used for my journaling and as my date holder.

CLEARANCE SALE

While supplies last, many items are now 60% off in my Etsy shop, I Love It All.

JOIN THE CHALLENGE

Want to join in the Junk Journal January challenge? Find out more info here.

Find this journal here and also more journals + mini books in my Etsy shop.

Read more of my Mini Book blog posts.

Junk Journal January Days 1-3

I already shared some inside pages and close-up pics here, but now I can share Days 1-3 of the Junk Journal January challenge I've been playing along with in this green + blue themed mixed paper journal. When I went about choosing papers for this journal, I knew that I wanted something bright and inviting after the intense holiday colors of the December journal I had been using.

Here's the journal + embellishment kit you'll see me using this month, see what I mean about the fresh feel of the color scheme?

JUNK JOURNAL JANUARY

Day 1 | New Resolutions
I am not one to make resolutions because I seldom seem to carry through on the list I've made. I did make list, though, of creative projects I want to work on this year. You can see how I do with that by following #my2020creativeprojects on Instagram. You can find the printable tag labels here.

Day 2 | Cozy Vibes
I’m all about the cozy vibes and a warm blankie to cover my legs while I journal on the couch or watch a show or even write up blog posts. And layering a journal page with bits and pieces to add texture gives me a cozy vibe, too.

First, I layered my paper bag with some modeling paste using a stencil, but only filling in parts of the stencil in a random sort of way. I used the Made Me Smile printable label for my journal prompt holder and placed in top of a heart pattern speech bubble. I spelled out "cozy" down by my journaling with my letter stencil.

Day 3 | Upcycled
I have always been a fan of collecting bits and pieces from interesting packaging or clothing tags to use in my journals. The book page tag comes in the embellishment kit included with this journal. When I was playing around with where all the items in the embellishment kit would go, this book page tag certainly fit on the page...but, I wanted to do something unexpected with it. So I did.

I folded over the bottom of the tag to form a pocket and then punched some holes along each edge, placing it atop an old mouse pad so as not to damage my craft table, then hand stitched along each edge to form the pocket. The pink along the left edge is a used sticky note that I tore the edge on and placed beneath the tag and the kraft paper is recycled from a travelers notebook that was trimmed to size.

In my stash, I found the corrugated cardboard tag and used the backside of the cream colored hangtag from some flannel jammie bottoms we bought before Christmas as my journaling spot.

CLEARANCE SALE

While supplies last, many items are now 60% off in my Etsy shop, I Love It All.

JOIN THE CHALLENGE

Want to join in the Junk Journal January challenge? Find out more info here.

Find this journal here and also more journals + mini books in my Etsy shop.

Read more of my Mini Book blog posts.

This Week In My Gratitude Journal

Some weeks, my heart is just so full I think it's going to burst. 

THIS WEEK IN MY GRATITUDE JOURNAL

Finishing Up September

I colored in random squares of the graph paper page with my bright, sunny yellow marker and then journaled around them. 

I had taken the girls to town to do some clothes shopping. I didn't love everything they tried on and they ended up getting two items that weren't my favorite. They were appropriate, sure, they were stylish for their age, yes, but just not items I was crazy about.

But I had to let that go and allow them to make decisions, choose their own clothes that expresses their style. And then, after all that they did a fashion show for their DaDa and I ended up loving what they pick out after all.

See crazy Mom, you should trust your girls. They've got this.

It shouldn't be hard to have Date Night with your husband, but somehow we just always end up including the girls in our plans. But that changed last Friday when, on a whim, we decided to have Date Day and head into town after e dropped off the girls at school.

And it was good. So good. Just us.

Unforgettable Page Flag 

Surprisingly, after all this time, I still seem to learn new things about my Sweetie.

Heading Into October
Everyone loves an art project, right? Well, I do . I'm always playing around with things I know nothing about. I have seen people using bubble wrap in their art journaling and I had a go at it.

 Kraft Paper Bag  |  Chevron Tag

I pulled out the watercolors and just added colors in different spots onto the bubble wrap and then smooshed it lightly onto my kraft paper bag.

I journaled my thankful thought and tucked it inside the pocket formed when I folded over the kraft bag. It's kind of my thing, you know, adding folded kraft bags to my mini books. I'm not tired of it yet, so they continue to make an appearance.

Journaling Card 

I remain in awe of my two girls. They don't give up, they keep on trying and they are rewarded with their hard work. Victoria has tried out for the middle school basketball team for the past two years. And for the past two years, she wasn't chosen to be on the team.

But this year it's different baby! She's a member of the Varsity Girls Basketball Team. Go Mustangs!

This page is the inside of the kraft paper bag. I used one of the yellow watercolor tags and turned it upside down, added a strip of washi tape and punched some mini stars out of gold paper to trim the right edge.

2020 GRATITUDE JOURNALS

This is the journal I've been using since 2010 and will again in 2020...

...but you can choose from over 10 different styles, sizes and types of Gratitude Journals.

This is the journal I'll be using in November for the 30 Thankful Thoughts journaling challenge. It's really kind of perfect...with 30 pages and 30 prompts and 30 days in the month it just seemed like a match I couldn't pass up.

Thankful Journal  |  Grateful Journal

WHAT IS #ILOVETHURSDAYTHANKS

What is #ilovethursdaythanks? It's a way for me, and you, to connect with other like minded souls. Those of us that find joy in documenting our thankful thoughts and grateful moments. Those moments that sometimes could be so quickly forgotten, those thoughts that haunt us and won't let us go, those words that touched our heart when we needed them most, those people who made a difference just by being there.