Sunday, January 31

Saturday, January 30

I put this page together this morning in about 10 or 15 minutes from papers and stickers on my desk (some left from a valentines class) and four packages of flower stickers. I left room for journaling later on or adding a photograph in the center of the cutout heart space. Or maybe I will just leave it blank...I'm coming to the end of the month and the end of this journal. I have loved the black pages and like black space (instead of white space) in the backgrounds of these pages. So I may look for another black-paged book for February. I'll have to see what I find today or tomorrow, either here or at the bookstore or some other shop.

Friday, January 29

Here's Friday's post. I'm taking an on-line collage class with collage/journal artist Kelly Kilmer. The basis for today's entry is the collage piece she sent to me that I used in the uppper left of this page. I layered on bits of plain colored cardstock, added some Memory Box Cool Beans stripey paper, some punched/stamped/decorated shapes, and a few pearls. Friday has the potential to be an important day with an important decision, but for now it's all CONFIDENTIAL. I'll be wearing my Mary Janes.

Thursday, January 28

Sometimes I'll finish a page and I'll say to myself: "Anne, how did you come up with that?" this is one of those pages. I started with the blue printed envelope, the turquoise paper under it, and then the other printed papers and glitter clocks were all together in another box I was glancing through. The next place I looked I saw a corner of the blue stamped flowers, looked deeper into that box and found the green stamped flowers and the glittery polka dot circle. Some ribbon, an owl dimensional sticker, some blue pearls, and look how it all came together! I love the colors and the sparkle, the clocks which are a common element in my work, and the envelope for a secret message...

Wednesday, January 27

Here I am posting early for tomorrow...Don't you love the pink and brown thing I have going on here? I started with the gatefold card, upper left, added stamped Memory box images in brown on pale pink paper, added some pink graph paper and a couple of tags with Memory Box stamps as well as their Lovey Dovey Tree. Some pretty ribbons, a whole bunch of pale pink pearls, a couple of pink rhinestones, and lots flowers and chipboard buttons finish it up. It's quite a girly page, not my usual style at all. I was inspired by a Two Chicks challenge to create something with lots of bling, a bit outside one's comfort zone. This is definitely that! Later this week I'll write a message inside the gatefold card.

Tuesday, January 26

I'm posting early because I'm headed out at the crack of dawn on Tuesday. I started this page with the red print paper (back of Christmas holly paper--think about double-sided papers you have that can be used for other seasons than originally designed for) and added stickers from Webster's Pages. I LOVE the tree! The chipboard bird is one I've had for a long time and I think it's a good match for this page. "Live your dreams" is on a notecard tucked into a decorated envelope in the lower left.

Monday, January 25

I just LOVE the chicken soup image.
I think my favorite item on the whole page, though, is the little 7 Gypsies Prescription card tucked into the blue envelope. Here are some of the details you probably can't see:
prescribed by: Looney Bin; The Vet; Dr. Strange Love; Addict's Anon; Overachiever's Anon; Other
If this doesn't work, try the following: chocolate; a kiss/hug; a vacation; a spanking; a nap; other
There's a place to write in potential side effects.
And there's less than a sixteenth of an inch space for: Please write all the really important stuff here.
I just LOVE this tag!

I also added a little pocket with a tag for a chicken soup recipe--this one says to open a can of Campbell's Chicken Noodle, heat, and serve!

Sunday, January 24

Experimented with some new materials--the brown/white dotted stuff is gaffer tape. So many of the scrapbook pages I've seen during the CHA sneak peeks have used tons of flowers, so I got out a package of cream and white ones and some gold pearls for the corner decorations. A couple of silk leaves finish it off. Just a reminder: doN't put all of your eggs in the same basket!

Saturday, January 23

Introducing my son, Andrew Clemons. Several people lately have suggested I do a page in my journal forAndrew. And since so many of you have never seen him, I chose the full page, a recent photo, and a closeup of the central image for this post.. He recently moved to Los Angeles from New York City looking for a break into TV/movies. The journal page photo was taken at the premier of "Compulsions", the webTV series he was in this fall, and printed from his Facebook page. Be sure to look for him in commercials for Coke Zero and Bud Light--we think they may be SuperBowl commercials.

Friday, January 22

These images are from my Red Riding Hood collection. I wanted lots of red on this page--red backing the book images (from a clip art ArtChix page), and I love the red floral/twiggy paper that I cut in strips for the background. I added the red and white ribbon and the antique buttons for fun. The last thing onto the page were the wolf stickers--I think that's a pretty scary looking wolf! You'll notice that the page looks a little rounded on the right side--this book is almost full and it no longer lies flat--even the elastic closure doesn't help. I think I can finish the month, but I'm on the lookout for my next book to start in February. I've loved the black paper pages in this one, but I may be ready for watercolor paper so I can paint and stamp the pages. We'll see...

Thursday, January 21

I've had this image for years. I found it in a book that was being discarded. The chapter title is "Stress and Its Consequences" or maybe that's even the book title. The caption under the photo reads "During adolescence, physical changes, such as those that produce acne and awkwardness, are a source of anxiety." I decorated the page as if it were a prom photo with lots of flourishes and flowers. I'll add more flowers and some black and white hearts as I find them in my stash.

Wednesday,January 20

This page is a rearrangement of the only 12X12 scrapbook page I've ever made. I decided with all the snow this week to take this and redo it to fit my current journal. The photos are of me. Don't you just love the box sled my dad made? We really had snow back then, too!

C'est mardi le 19 (dix-neuf) janvier.

I thought I'd write today's post in French, but it took nearly 20 minutes with a Google translator at French 101 to come up with "Today is Tuesday, January 19." Four years of high school French have not prepared me to write lengthy explanations. :-) Why French? I found the postcard "L'Ange Gardien" in a basket on my desk and started from there. I chose the floral paper strips initially for their colors but then realized that the writing is in French. I looked up "ange" in my old French dictionary and tore out the page. I have a shoebox full of Paris/France items and in going through that box found the other images of the children and some stickers as well as the 3-D fleur de lis piece. The binoculars were a fun reminder to me about having to "look up" the English-French translations. Can you find today's date on this page?

Monday, January 18

I LOVE work horses. When I was at the laundramat last week I found the central images in an equestrian magazine someone left on the counter. There is a man who lives near us who has a team that he works regularly in the woods or they do afternoon walks (the horses pulling the man on a sled) on Small Road. The photos I've taken of those horses are in one of the envelopes. I'm not sure what will go in the other--Oh, I just got it--Tom and Jerry, the names of two work horses and the story of the man who owned them and how I met him. I added a few stickers and Dahlov Ipcar's horses cut out from a postcard for the bottom left corner of the page. I'm really pleased with the way this page came together.

Sunday, January 17

Here's today's page, and it's not finished. I LOVE the way I did the background for this page, and the little kraft envelopes are perfect. I just haven't developed a final theme, but I decided to post it anyway. The colors work really well together, and again I just pulled from what was within my reach on my desk starting with the paint cans magazine image. As I'm typing this I'm thinking mallard ducks for some reason--maybe it's the teal blue of their wings and the browns in their body feathers that is connecting for me this morning. I may have just found my theme as I'm typing this up! I have a great mallard stamped image from Northwoods Stamps that would be a perfect focal point. And I have stories about ducks from wildlife rehab days that would fit into the little envelopes. My son Andrew's first word was "duck" after he shared a room with a mallard for a weekend at my parents' house. Hmmm...guess I'd better get to work and finish this one!

Saturday, January 16

For today's page I used one sheet of Webster's Pages paper punched and cut into strips. This Once Upon a Time page with its hopping crowned frogs was the inspiration for the written text--lists of books featuring frogs as central characters, primarily frog princes and princesses. The quotes are two favorites that seemed appropriate to the subject. A few chipboard florals and a bunch of water bubble stickers as well as some sparkly gems in clear, blue, and green finish the page.

Friday, January 15

Orange. I started the page with the paint pails, looked around my workspace for other things orange, and this is the result. I love the Gelology pix cut from a postcard and the Altoids postcard ad. Another Fool Tarot postcard and two tiny geese paintings that were cut from a Saturday Cove Studio postcard. Hmmm...I sensing a theme here...

Thursday, January 14

I began this page with the pile of "comfortable shoes". Then I didn't know what to do with the rest of the page. I actually let it sit for quite awhile before I returned to it. I kept thinking about how none of my shoes are really comfortable shoes for contra dancing. That led me back to one of my sticker boxes to look for dance-related stickers. I have a bunch of rubber stamps that all relate to dancing, but could only find the diagram for the waltz. When I eventually find the others, I will add more stamped images to this page where the flower stickers are. I will probably also layer those images onto colored cardstock to carry over some of the colors from the pile of shoes. Sometimes when I think a page is done I still go back and add more to it. I've already done that with at least two other pages in this journal this month.

Wednesday,January 13

Here's that green again that I love! The other image that really caught my attention is the Pin-the-Tail-on-the-Donkey piece. I love how the frame is made from dominoes. I'm on the lookout now for the game from my childhood to frame it in a similar manner! Because that game only came out for birthday parties I added the celebratory broccoli cupcakes. I couldn't resist the three little kittens--this is another reminder of the three of us as little girls celebrating our birthdays with cake and candles, party games, and friends seated around the dining room table. The old paintbrushes were just fun--that's another item I seem to be collecting--there are brushes of all sorts in vases and coffee cups all over my studio room.

Tuesday, January 12

I have a fascination with clocks of all kinds and often use them in the cards I make. I began today's page with a large stopwatch from a magazine and added clock-related papers and stamped images. I finished up with several clear overlays of clock faces (or parts of them). Can you find all seven?

Monday, January 11

Acorns, oak leaves, and squirrels. I LOVE them! I collect squirrel figurines. I hoard acorns--a leather acorn change purse; a wooden acorn hand-turned on a lathe that hangs above my table; an amber glass acorn ornament on a ceiling hook in my closet; a giant resin acorn on my desk--they are everywhere. I have boxes of rubber stamps that are just acorns, oak leaves, and squirrels. When I started this page, I began with the strips of paper, the punched squares, and the circles of leaf-embossed papers which I inked up to show the leaves more. I added the "totally nuts for you" squirrel, acorn circles, and then stamped and tore out the larger oak leaves. I wanted a bit more green on the page so I added the stamped leafy image. I went through my box of alphabets to find the letters to spell out oaks and acorns. The last thing I added was a cut out from a card of a squirrel inside an acorn. This was a really fun page to create!

Sunday, January 10

For this page, I went back to the October issue of LIVING and started by tearing up the cover--all those great images of pumpkins and squashes and gourds turned into snails and toadstools. Then I found the Eye of Newt boxes and the assortment of jars and labeled bottles. I just kept layering on images from the magazine. The stamped image of the chandelier and spiders is a Memory Box stamp. My favorite part of the composition: the orangey luminaria bags that are the cautionary message. And I like the way the number 1 and the O from October created today's date. Halloween is my least favorite event in the calendar year. I usually take myself out to dinner to a very nice restaurant where people are not in costume and there are no tricks, only treats.

Saturday, January 9

Today's page is for the hundreds of cats each month that are euthanized in animal shelters across this country. Did you know that black cats are the hardest to find homes for? My cats--Tinsel, Miss Joon, and Mr. Jones--were all rescued cats. They have lived long lives (18-20 years each) and have brought me great comfort and joy and companionship. If you have room in your heart--and your home--consider adopting a shelter cat. This page is the inspiration for cards I will make for a local animal shelter.

Friday, January 8

Still working with magazine pages, I started with the coffee cups and added the woman made from coffee grounds. I stamped the coffee rings/drips over the cups and the words "enough said" before adding a strip of scrapbook paper and a couple of magazine phrases and the cookie. I finished it up with stickers to spell "coffee" and a coffee tag. I'm not much of a coffee drinker at home--I hate instant which is all my parents drink--I do have a French press single cup coffee maker but no coffee for it. The last time I used it was Christmas 2008 when Andrew was here. I do purchase coffee, medium, just cream, at Dunkin' Donuts. And I love a good cup of coffee, decaf, black, with a rich dessert when dining out. And I'll drink coffee at Your Maine Stamper as long as I don't have to make it. (I've never really figured out what to do to brew a good cup of coffee myself.)

Thursday, January 7

I've been following Kelly Kilmer's blog for a long time. She is a collage artist, working in a written prompt daily journal format. She usually chooses a magazine image to be her focal point on each page. In one of her posts she talked more about this. I decided to take a Martha Stewart LIVING magazine from last October and another from last spring to see what I could find. I started this page with the cerulean green paint and assorted items and placed it in the center of the page. Then I found the bird people! I couldn't resist the cat either! Something about the big cat watching the bird people caught my imagination. Once I started arranging images on the page, I realized that the circle was a primary form and that the yellow eye of the cat was also reflected in the owl mask and in the color of the bird people masks. The green in the forest also echoed the greens I started with. I added a few other punched circles and the captions to finish the page. When I look at the collages I create, they seem like happy accidents to me. This page was not planned. It evolved as I looked through the magazine and began selecting elements to add to the page.

Wednesday,January 6

Today's page came from items in my cooking/food/recipe odds & ends box. I actually began by sticking the utensils onto the 6 card. Then I tore the vegetables from pieces of scrapbook paper and layered them. I was thinking healthy lunch at that point, but then I found the lovely lady with the cake! I pulled in some strips of green papers to pick up the color of the lettuce, and placed her on top. I added a grocery list for sandwich items, some punched circles and tiny squares, clock hands, and an invitation to lunch. A few other stickers and some flat black dots completed the page. Lunch today with Connie--and dinner out later with Donna! Nothing better than "reservations" for meal prep!!!

Tuesday, January 5

Almost every day now we are getting seed catalogs in the mail. When I found these seed packets in my sticker box, they became the inspiration for this page. The stamps I used--Comfy Chair, Tree of Love, Cat and Lamp--are all from Memory Box. With this much snow on the ground, it's nice to dream of spring and planting things.

January 4

Today's central image is a magazine picture of Ramon Novarro (Feb. 6, 1899-Oct. 30, 1968) that I found in a collection of old paper that I purchased at an auction. The page is an homage to tall, dark, handsome, and mysterious. I did some research on the internet after I finished the collage and found that he was a Mexican actor, famous as the "Latin Lover" in silent films.

January 3

The Fool from the Greenwood Tarot deck is the centerpiece for today's page. I love its butterfly wings which inspired the other stickers I added, all having to do with taking flight. Another reminder for the new year to spread one's wings and fly!

January 2nd! Snow Day Play...

Today's central image is The Fool from the Tarot of the Witches deck. I love The Fool, no matter what deck its in. I think it's that whole idea of stepping off into space, smiling, not a care in the world, oblivious to what lies ahead. I guess the New Year is like that--here I go with no idea what the year will bring, and not terribly worried about it.

Happy New Year!

the first page in my journal for 2010

I'm working in a spiral bound notebook that is 12X12 and the pages are black.
My goal is to work in my journal as frequently as possible and to post the images of my pages.
The work in this journal will primarily be collage though there may be some stamped images added to the pages.
Here I began with a page taken from a Mary Englebreit magazine and added a variety of torn, cut, and punched papers. The numbers are from an Advent Calendar scrapbook paper. The Jan. 1 image in the tiny circle is stamped.

I love the bright green striped paper. And the texture of the leaf-printed paper and its bright colors coordinate nicely with the Engelbreit piece, too.

I'm Back!!!

It has been forever since I posted anything to this blog. I've decided that since I'm blogging for Memory Box Company on the Outside the Box blog and for the Your Maine Stamper blog that I really needed to get some posts up on my personal blog.
Below is the post from OutsIde the Box that went up on the 29th:

Greetings from Anne, Your Maine Stamper

I am so excited to be on the Memory Box Design team, and I'm just a little bit nervous writing my first post to our new blog. When the first box from Dave arrived, I couldn't wait to get inside to examine the stamps, papers, cards, envelopes, and jewels. But the real fun for me began outside the box as I inked up stamps, punched papers, selected embellishments, and created my first project. I teach regularly at Your Maine Stamper in Winthrop, Maine; and I have classes planned for every Monday afternoon in January. This bag and tag book is one of the projects we will complete during the Gifts From the Heart class on January 11th.



For this book I punched jumbo scalloped squares (Marvy punch) and small hearts (Martha Stewart punch) from four of the Gossamer 6X6 Collection papers, smaller scalloped circles (Marvy punch) from Petal cardstock, and layered them up with white pearls onto the dozen mini white bags (Michaels Celebrate It paper sacks). I made the covers from a cereal box, tracing the outline of the paper bag, covering the outsides with the packaging sample page from the Gossamer 6X6 Collection and the insides with Petal cardstock. I punched two holes in the closed ends of each bag and the covers and bound them with two small book rings. I added hot pink, pale pink, and lavender dot ribbons and a purple swirl ribbon (May Arts; Michaels) to the rings. I stamped the cover "valentine greetings" and the hearts from the Tree of Love in Memories Ruby. For the tags I used these stamps: Tree of Love, Sonoma Print, Owl Always, Nesting Birds, and Batik Birds from Valentine's Studio. I also used these other Memory Box stamps: valentine greetings, car and heart,leaping squirrel, nuts about you, and the big heart . I stamped the images and inked the edges of the tags with Memories ArtPrint Brown, Adirondack Shell Pink, and Ancient Page Foxglove inks. I added ribbons to each tag before tucking them into the bags. There's room on the back of each tag for a valentine message and enough space in each bag to tuck in a love note, a coupon or gift card, candy, or other small treat.

Happy stamping!
Anne