Art Journal and More

Life has been crazy for me lately and I apologize for missing a few posts. My daughter got married at the end of April and the day before the wedding I broke my ankle!

Thankfully it is almost good as new. That is lucky because on June 3, I leave on the #PaperTrail, a month long teaching trip throughout the country in Scotty, my vintage camper.

I invite you to follow the trip with me on my blog. I will be teaching classes in scrapbook stores, attending events like the Country Living Show and a big stamp show, meeting up with crafty celebrities and seeing the country. I can't wait! Just check my blog for updates or follow me on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to see where we are and what is happening.

My project today is an Art Journal made using the Mini-Album from the Cherished collection.

Although the packaging for this collection is decorated in the baby theme, the dies are very versatile. The Mini Album has been one of my favorites to work with lately. There is a metal opening built into the die that you can use with Movers and Shapers dies to cut windows in the cover of the album. This is a ScoreBoards die that is designed to cut and score thick material like matboard or chipboard- or any material up to 1/16" thick that you can cut with scissors. It always surprises people to know that you can run matboard through the Big Shot with embossing folders.

For this project, I cut two windows in the Album cover and then embossed the die cut squares with the Animal Print folder. I used the Gelli plate and my new ColorBox Blends inks from Clearsnap to ink the cover and pages of the mini-album Art Journal.



I also used Stencils from StencilGirl and embossing paste from Wendy Vecchi to get some dimension on the pages. I also free handed text on the pages and added some photos of our family. There is a special technique I use to bind the pages really quickly. I like this method because in addition to being fast and easy, the pages of the book lay flat when you are writing in them.

And now, here are some of the projects the Eileen Hull Inspiration Team has created in the past month. They blow me away!

The Inspiration Team Coordinator, Amy Bowerman, of Plucking Daisies has this thing about gnomes! Read about it on her blog...

 I love this soft and shabby Caddy by Melissa Phillips. I also love what she says about hope. See the post on her blog here...

 Beth Watson has made a chandelier of hydrangeas. Wow- very cool. Check out her post here.

These are just a few of the amazing projects featured on my blog by this super-talented team of designers. Check every Tuesday to see what the Inspiration Team is up to and on Thursdays you will see posts from Team ATB (Artist Trading Blocks). They have been stepping up the game so high I can't imagine how they will keep outdoing themselves, but they do! For more out of the box projects and lots of inspiration visit The Artists on the Block.

Thanks for coming by and I hope to see you on the #PaperTrail!