Ok, so I took a little liberty with Lightroom with these photos. But as I was driving home I saw the light coming through the clouds and really wanted to capture it. I went for the dramatic, maybe one of these will be used for a project someday.
My sometimes wanning addiction to Pintrest is what lead to this project. Years ago I made a journal at a lady’s house, she was a friend of my mom. She had countless stamps at her disposal, I’m sure those fancy punches too. I assume she was a scrapbooker normally, which is an expensive hobby, and so she invited people to make journals. These journals cost around $20 for use of the supplies. The books and pages were pre-cut into 5×7’s and then hole punched. All you had to do was decorate the covers and assemble. My journal ended up with a combo of Elizabethan and Egyptian theme to it. Odd, but looked cool. We even pasted in a little blurb about a gratitude journal into it. I think Oprah had recently mentioned them on a show. Mind you I made this at least 10 if not 15 years ago.
Now I am taking that premise and adding a new and more complicated twist. I took the idea of transferring photos to wood blocks from Pintrest (see here). I’ve taken this and have been working on transferring photos to mat board to create the cover of my journals. The first one I made I gave to a then co-worker who was looking for a more pocket friendly, line free sketchbook. So now these journals are more pretty blank page books for whatever you want.
The first time I tried to make a transfer I decided to forgo the instructions from the bottle of transfer adhesive stuff and chose to follow the Pintrest video instead. This worked out ok, but with so much paper and lots of water, it just didn’t work out as well as I had hoped. There were lots of white streaks from where not only the paper came up, but the photo as well. This was turned into abstract wall art instead of a journal.
I decided that my second go of the photo transferring should be attempted after reading the instructions on the bottle. Just so you know this still uses a lot of water, and I swear shrinks up the picture a little. And as it dries, add more water, these transfers are super thin and tear easily. This project takes a lot of patience, but the end result is worth it. Now I am working up some more journals to list on Etsy.
Sadly this set ended up too dry when I went to adhere it to the matte board, so there are no finished project images. But I have had a couple of successes, just not this time.
Since October I have been laying off a lot of things I used to do. I am now over a month behind on TV, tonight I am hoping to watch the sudden series finale of Leverage from Dec. 25th. Even cooking and crafting have taken a backseat recently.
I think I tried to take on a bit too much the last few months. Trying to build a photography business, an Etsy crafting shop, read my magazines (which I’m finally up to August issues), read a book (I’ve been reading Dracula since October), and blog about my doings, all while while working full time. This really hasn’t worked out as I had high hopes for last year.
And then there’s the cookbook. I have been typing up recipes from my Taste of Home and Healthy Cooking magazines. Even though it takes a while it really helps with typing skills.
So with the new year well on it’s way, I hope to be better about posting my goings ons. And hopefully get to cooking and crafting again!
In my quest to stand out I have decided to make my own business cards. My first venture was to create hand texturized cards. I have handed out a few and have gotten some positive feedback. But I felt that I need to get back to my favorite paper, wallpaper. It may not be the most exciting thing to see on a wall, but as a repurposed paper it’s awesome!
I have made my share of note cards with wallpaper, and recently turned some into postcards. Now I have turned my love of wallpaper loose on business cards. I think it really gives a whole new look and feel to business cards and could, I think, give an edge to the person handing out their card. I make these in small batches to keep them unique. I hope to get a set listed on Etsy soon.
I’m excited about this new way to use wallpaper and I hope others enjoy it too. There are so many possibilities, many more colorful than my first example, but I do like the texture. I say when it comes to making yourself noticed dare to stand out with these awesome cards.
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