Artiscape 2016

I have been falling down on the job in passing along fun things to do.  This weekend is Artiscape, an annual event in Columbus, Ohio.  My friend Gaye Medbury is once again teaching this year, and her students all know she comes up with fun, fresh ideas each and every time. 

One of her classes is House of Thoughts.  How cute are these houses?  But a functional house as well because when you open the magnetic closure on the front, it's a book!  I was the recipient of a house book at Christmas, and I never cease to be amazed at how clever Gaye can be when coming up with new designs.  I know the students will be happy with their house books!  Be sure and sign up here! 

The other class Gaye is teaching is Journal du Jour.  This is a handy journal with a segmented binding, ready for you to record your daily thoughts or keep track of your convention adventures.  Gaye is famous for having her kits ready to go, everything precisely cut, thorough instructions, and with awe-inspiring samples to get your juices flowing. 

I won't be able to make it to Columbus, but I would be signed up for both of these classes if I were! 
Have fun, students!

Coming up Rainbows

The monthly themes for the Documented Life Project 2016 Planner are posted on Saturdays.  So I already had some April things in my planner when the theme was posted.  It is "Reaching for Rainbows - Creating Outside the Lines".   Oddly enough, the first assignment for the Pocket Art Card (for a month with Rainbows as the theme) was to work in black and white!

I removed the page from my planner with the April tab on it.  I ended up putting lots of colors of bright washi tape all over the page, kind of like a rainbow.  Very bright!  I put a sticker on the page with the monthly theme written on it.

For my art card, I decided this month I will change the size and make them business card size.  I made this decision based on the fact that I just purchased some vinyl pages that hold business cards. As my planner gets thicker and I realize that two separate planners will probably not be enough for 12 months, I have kept my eyes open for other options.  I can buy more binders (mine were Maya Road brand for $5 each from Amazon), or see what else is available.  The office supply store does have 9 x 7 binders, but they are not any bigger than what I'm already using (as far as the width of the spine).

But next to those binders were other things to fit that size, dividers, pocket pages, etc.  I always like having options of what to use. 

 

Before I added the washi tape to the left side page, I was pretty happy with things so far in my binder.  However, when I put that page back in the binder, next to the April calendar, for some reason it looked so "busy" to me.  Just overwhelming, too much stuff going on.  But I found a very simple solution.

I moved the business card pocket page between these two pages.  It really breaks up all that busy-ness, and it will even more so as each pocket gets a card later.  There is even a tiny pocket next to each of the business card pockets, so I can put tiny photos or mementos there if I want to.

Things have a way of working out just right!  

And I have also worked some more on my April calendar page, toning down those dirty white circles with some blues and greens.

March Turns to April

In the last post, I showed my weekly pages (DLP 2016 planner) for March 13 and March 20.  On the left side, you can see where I sewed fabric and a vinyl pocket page to the previous week.  On the black cardstock, I used green Dylusions paint and a new stencil I was trying out. Not sure what else will go on that page, maybe nothing else at all.

For the week of March 27, I went in yet another different direction.  I had some regular sized pocket pages, and picked the green one to use since I was using a lot of green.  I cut it to fit the size of my planner binder.  I put washi tape on the right side to keep contents from falling out of the pocket.  Since April was right around the corner, I punched a tab from scrapbook paper and stamped April on it. My birthday happened to fall during that week, so I will put some birthday notes and goodies in the pocket.

In the past, I never would have done this, but I got out one of my play journals and cut part of a page out to use for my April monthly calendar in the planner.  I liked how it looks with my green theme.

I drew circles for the days of the month, using a black water color pencil.   I had a vision in my head of what this was going to look like.  I used white paint to roughly paint in the circles, which activated the black watercolor.  Hmm... does not look like the vision in my head at all.  Maybe I should have used green instead of black.

But I kept going.  Stamped the numbers for the days, added a border, and days and month at the top.

I wasn't one hundred percent happy with it, but I'm keeping it anyway.  And it looked just fine next to the green pocket page.  Or, it did at the time....

Marching through March

As always in my DLP 2016 planner, I try to find new ways to make a weekly calendar.  In March, I was feeling the impending arrival of spring.  I had a children's book that had big sturdy pages with a lot of white(ish) space on them.  I cut one of the pages to fit my printer and used that for the week of March 13.  

For the week of March 20, I was in a  hurry and simply made a page from graph paper, embellishing it with greens and blues. Both of these pages are very simple, but I'm always going back and adding things to past weeks.  

I don't make a PAC (pocket art card) every week, but I do need a place to store the ones I do make.  I have some pages that store 4 cards, but it's too big for this binder.  I cut one in half, leaving the seam to hold the cards in, and sewed it to the outer edge of the page.  I put fabric over the vinyl of the pocket page so it would be easier to sew through without slipping all over the place.

One week's PAC assignment was to use leaves.  I cut the card from the same piece of practice scrap that I have used for several things already this year.  I punched small leaves from old book paper.

Another week's assignment was to celebrate white space.  I recently came across some watercolor flowers from a class years ago.  We painted around the flower shapes, leaving the white space.  I cut out a card from the larger class sheet, and stuck it in the pocket.  That way I'll see it and remember to go back to it and work on it later. 

I think sewing on the right hand side will move some of the bulk of this planner to the outer edge, rather than the center of the book, where a lot of bulk is already building up!