Brown, black and Red- a love story

I don't know about you guys but I spotted a definite "trend" in my scrapbook pages for the last 10 years.
I love Red.
And I definitely prefer Kraft over white.
Black, Brown and Red make for striking imagery.

I have a whole socio-political theory for this preference.
There is a time and space for those ramblings but this ain't it.
I have no real way to articulate them properly.

I'll just show you my pages.

I love this Pink Paisley clear acetate alphabet so much I managed to buy it THREE times without noticing. Luckily it was 3 bucks a pop at Tuesday Morning my new favorite scrap haunt. I'd love to keep up with the latest lines but I simply can't justify the expense anymore. The background paper is another holdover from 2016 Crate Paper. 

I ended up stitching the danged letters into the page- a process that took TWO whole assed hours because this clear plastic alphabet doesn't like any glue that I had on hand- it either popped out of showed through- a big no no.

When we moved to Utah I didn't bring any furniture. I didn't pack much clothing. I didn't bring my Mac- something I deeply regret. 
I put my favorite paper bits, my negatives, photos and home decorations into 4x4 boxes and sent them over via railroad.
The stuff stayed boxed up for 4 years. 
We left everything behind. 
It took 4 years just to come back to a spot that felt familiar. We lived in a basement. Then the world's awfullest rental. 
Then we FINALLY bought a home.

I cannot put into words just how amazing it is to become a home owner.

Yes the taxes and the neighbors and the plumbing issue which is now your problem not the "Super's" - these are all hella stressful.
But I am an advocate for moving the HELL outta of cities. 
Find a place that speaks to you- a place with nature. A place with DIVERSITY- something Salt Lake deeply lacks but which can be found if you look. 
West ValleyCity is where it's my gente.
I have Temples to at least 5 different religions just blocks away from my home.
I found a Puerto Rican Plena group. We plan to learn. In Salt Lake City y'all.
Seek and find the "other".
We take up space everywhere.

Another page:

When living in a basement apartment you need to seek light or you WILL go crazy. We took road trips.
We saw many things and took up space in areas we were told we would meet with prejudice. Not so.
This is on the way to Great Basin National Park on one of the loneliest roads in America. Make sure your gas tank is full. Bring plenty of water and food. Watch for Butterflies. We spooked a flock of thousands and watched them take off in a cloud of yellow. Everyday magic.

The circles came from a Gauche Alchemy kit. The store is
 gone but I love the focus on using things that are already found.
Pretty sure the window privacy film is "non archival" but hey so is the color photo. 

I have no real answers. I'm not sure why I stick to this instead of expanding to Painting or Crochet or a dozen other cooler crafts.
Some people just love paper.
Some people just like to be outliers.
Join us or let us be.

Having fun with Gauche cards and loving every minute of it!

Happy Monday everyone!

 

Just a quick post to promote my latest project over at Gauche Alchemy.

A few weeks ago I got so bored with my scrapbook pages so I moved onto cards for a while and I really loved it. Gauche Alchemy writer Marilyn did a great job writing the post and I'm hoping you'll swing by and check it out.

Gauche Alchemy- Let's hear it for cards!

These are just two of the four cards featured- more details over at Gauche. 

Gauche Alchemy's Nearly Nekkid (kraft paper themed) kit, Gauche Alchemy
gold washi tape, "Hello" wood banner from Jillibean Soup, Mister Huey cream
mist cooking twine and flower from Petaloo.

Gauche Alchemy corrugated board, vellum and american Crafts paper (from the
 Nearly Nekkid kraft paper themed kit), flower from Prima and sentiment from
Glitz Designs paper.

By the way- the Gauche Alchemy blog has moved! 

Our website address is now www.gauchealchemy.com

Have you signed up to get updates on the new blog? It's an easy way to keep up with all the creative play going on. 

The team is putting some GREAT work together. 

Case in point?

This amazing post on art dolls which Gauche gals Jenn (Scraps), Jo, Maggi, Misty and Mary contributed to.

Just a teeny tiny sneak- please swing by and check out the whole post. 

http://www.gauchealchemy.com/2012/06/08/mixed-media-art-dolls/

Jo's department store dressmaker doll is rescued and made Gauche fabulous.

I was SERIOUSLY blown away by the sheer creative talent of my fellow team mates. 

If you like the materials used in these projects swing by the Artfire shop and pick up a few things:

 http://www.artfire.com/ext/shop/studio/gauchealchemy

GRATUITOUS "remake" of Madonna's "Borderline" video:

MuChOs SmOoChEs!

Michelle

To redo or not, that is the question

If you are a frequent reader here you know two things
1. I talk too much. (Sorry)
2. I redo my work all the time.

I redo because I frequently get blank brain syndrome (made that up- Web MD can't help on that one) and have trouble coming up with new concepts but I'm REALLY good at spotting what's wrong with an older page.
So the redo is really an entry point for the next original project.

It's also a way to escape from the "I can't mess this up" loop.
If you frequently find yourself saying "I just have to get this right. I can't let these beautiful materials go to waste!"
Stop. You can always change things around. Use repositionable tape and let go.

Case in point:

Even lighting, more red to add contrast, a heart from the absolutely GORGEOUS  Prima wood veneer
collection and the addition of Jillibean Soup stickers- suddenly the page makes more sense.

You've seen me post this page at least 2 times before but only this time is it good enough to post.
I'm using Gauche Alchemy's Nearly Nekkid Mixed Media Paper Art.
I really liked the Jillibean Soup kraft cardstock alphas but I will admit to being a somewhat lazy scrapper. The amount of effort required to get these to look neat on a page is just too much for me sometimes so I scrawled my journaling in the nearest blank spot and called it a day.

I tried ignoring my mistake but when I hung the page up on my wall recently, I got a daily eyefull of personal scrap sloth and decided the evidence needed to go.

Easy-peasy redo. Ok not so easy- those darned itty bitty stickers
are nearly impossible to pull out their packaging without taking half
the other stickers out too so I use tweezers. EXCRUCIATING!!! But worth it.
Also- commas- I need one. 

Don't ignore the problem. Rise above it.
I'm speaking to myself most of all here.
another long week of no photos- a brief pause on my Project Life album but no worries, I will return for week 9.

What I'm working on RIGHT NOW:

Gauche Alchemy Knick Knack Paddy Whack kit.
I'll let you in on a secret: paint SCARES ME.
So this is killing me!!
Talk about WHAT IF I MESS IT UP? syndrome

MuChOs SmOoChEs!
Michelle

Gauche Alchemy digest- a week of mixed media projects

It's FRIDAY!!! WOOOOOT!
This will be a quick post to tell you about what I've written up for Gauche Alchemy this week.
 Gauche Alchemy- Stuck?
The first article included a fantastic video by Cheryl on ways to used mixed media items in your regular scrapbook pages- it's a great "process" video that let's you see how Cheryl builds pages layer by layer.  I contributed this page to show off one of the latest kits- the Bare Nekkid Mixed Media kit.

For this page I used the Bare Nekkid kit which has already sold out but the smaller
Nearly Nekkid kit is still available and is just as full of beautiful neutral items.

I also wrote about ways to combat serious creative block. There are many ways to battle flagging mojo but the one I have to keep reminding myself to use is- keep working. Even if the things you make go straight into the garbage. (I throw out my duds quite frequently- it's the one thing I have no misgivings over). Even if you really would just like to sit on the sofa- do not. Get to work.

 Jitterbug Perfume by Tom Robbins

Here's a GREAT quote from fine artists Chuck Close:
“The advice I like to give young artists, or really anybody who'll listen to me, is not to wait around for inspiration. Inspiration is for amateurs; the rest of us just show up and get to work. If you wait around for the clouds to part and a bolt of lightning to strike you in the brain, you are not going to make an awful lot of work. All the best ideas come out of the process; they come out of the work itself. Things occur to you. If you're sitting around trying to dream up a great art idea, you can sit there a long time before anything happens. But if you just get to work, something will occur to you and something else will occur to you and something else that you reject will push you in another direction. Inspiration is absolutely unnecessary and somehow deceptive. You feel like you need this great idea before you can get down to work, and I find that's almost never the case.”

Before shot of a scrapbook page I really like but it still looks pretty bare.

I have heard some feedback from friends that it's hard to imagine how to use some of the more eclectic or 3D items in a Gauche Alchemy mixed media kit so a few members of the design team got together and made "before" and "after" projects to show how the mixed media color kits can really jazz up a scrapbook page. Here's the link so you can see the other projects: A very Gauche Before and After.

Items from Scarlet Red Mixed Media kit and some plastic grid material that came with the Black Out Mixed Media kit both of which include things like fabric, wall paper swatches, board game pieces, sequins, and all kinds of tiny objects that can be easily incorporated into any project- even flat scrapbook pages. 

This week Design Team member Maggi wrote up a fantastic post on using old corporate or junk mail magnets to make gorgeous DYI decorations. This will surely inspire you to just have fun with the process of creation:

Using fabric from the newest kit Gauche alchemy kit- Moshi Moshi,  punchinella and
items from various color kits, Maggi made the cutest DYI fridge magnet.
The hardest decision about her process? KEEP IT? Or gift it to a bestie?

So now that you are heading off into the weekend take a few minutes to consider how you can feed your creative soul. I am working on my Project 365 and making a few cards for Valentine's Day. What are you working on?

Which camera is the best? The one you have on hand.
This was taken with my lowly iTouch.

MuChoS SmOoChEs!
Michelle

Wreath Alchemy! Christmas goes Gauche

I have been remiss.
Did you know I write for the Gauche Alchemy design team blog?
Probably not, I never mention it.
Can I offer up a crap excuse?
I have an incredibly hard time writing about other people's projects!
Not because the projects aren't fabulous but because they always are!
It takes me a while to come up with different ways to say- "This is beyond awesome! Look what my fellow team member did- OMG she's the CHEESE!"
(That last part because I really, really love cheese)
But I will change my ways as of now.
Yesterday I posted my 2011 wreath.
This one.

Which came from this Martha Stewart kit:

I tried SO HARD to make mine look like Martha's!!!
EK Success holiday craft kits do not come with detailed step by step instructions (their instructions are just like Ikea ones- all drawings and NO SENSE) so I used up a lot of the large grain glitter on a few leaves and the result was quite fug.
After much raving over my ineptness, I broke out the corrugated board, my fave mists and the music paper from the Gauche Alchemy Bare Nekkid paper kit (FAVE KIT EVER!) and went to town.
The Martha floral tape also killed my joy for a few days. The leaves kept falling off the freaking form! I was ready to drop kick the entire thing out the window.  So I declared a truce, used red punchinella, some hot glue and thusly preserved what was left of my sanity.

Glitter floral items all came from the Michael's clearance table (20 cents each- woohoo!). I used an ancient Marvy Uchida corrugator to alter some very shiny Anna Griffin paper from the Carmen collection and Mister Huey mists in School House and Plumb Thumb.

It is December 15th. I haven't started a single "hand made" Christmas gift, cooked a single holiday recipe or made the cards I was going to send. I am not Martha Stewart. I will never be Martha Stewart- please give me a moment to grieve for my broken delusions of grandeur.
pausing
pausing

Chrissy's Victorian rosette wreath.

Fellow Gauche gals Cheryl and Christina have made some GORGEOUS wreaths. I would post them here but then what incentive would you have to go there? Ok 1 sneak!!!

• Cheryl made a beautiful wreath using chocolates (I KNOW!!), an old book, some twine and some Gauche alchemy woodgrain punchinella. She also has a fantastic step y step video.

• Christina's gorgeous wreath using an old romance novel, some floral items from Hobby Lobby and hundreds of hand cut and rolled florettes will blow you away. Check it out here on the 23rd- don't worry- I will post a reminder- it really is that good!

Lola helped us wrap the front door in kraft paper- she got a kick out of the wreath and it was all I could do to keep her from destroying it entirely.

Gnarly ribbon!

Adding the last flower to the wreath- she was so happy to help!

MuChoS SmOoChEs!
Michelle