Turning Point

Today I am pleased to share some exciting news (for me, anyway) along with a journal page made from magazine scraps.

It features a photo, taken at a drinking fountain in a park in Chicago at the turn of the last century, of my two great aunts, Esther and Ada, and some girl friends (click the photos to see a larger version).

Collaging scraps from magazines really triggers my creativity--there are so many odd and interesting images to be found and I highly recommend it when you need a little "play" time. I use a glue stick as it works well to keep the thin pages from wrinkling.

I've enjoyed paper crafting for quite a while now, stamping, pasting and coloring but the world of die-cutting was never a part of it.

However, the introduction of some mixed media thinlits by a famous craft designer has finally compelled me to enter this arena and I've ordered a Big Shot machine and some dies!

Thankfully, the craft blog world is full of fabulous tutorials that I plan to review because I don't know much about die-cutting but I'm very excited just the same and hopeful that the pleasure of using them will be worth the investment. I'll keep you posted... ☺

Number Six

Six Years? Where did they go? Seems like only yesterday when I started following (and participating) in the Monday challenge blog at Simon Says Stamp.

This week is their sixth birthday and I'm linking a tag made to commemorate this very auspicious occasion. Uh Uh Uhmm...

The background is one of those vintage portrait photo covers and includes an emblem of the photography studio that's embossed on the front of it. The foliage was hand-cut from some Graphic 45 paper called Botanicabella. That number six tag is from a Tim Holtz paper stash and the bee is a Remnant Rub.

I'm always inspired by the MCB design team and appreciate how hard they must work to create such interesting projects week after week. I'm sending my very best birthday wishes and look forward to seeing what the next year will bring.

Kimono

I get attached to certain photos, especially when I use them in art. Somehow, working with them connects me to the person more intimately and maybe, after I'm through, you will feel connected to them too.

I switched out the old wall phone with an image transfer of a vintage street scene of Tokyo. The tinting comes from Souffle Gelly Roll pens and just a bit of black colored pencil.

I'm linking this to Simon's Monday challenge blog. This week's theme is texture but instead of using physical texture I've used visual texture. If you're unfamiliar with the concept you can read more about it here.