Junk Journal: Prepping your Pages

After reorganizing my craft supplies I found my box of "junk" to be rather full. This box of "junk" that I am referring to has a variety of items in it that I don't want to throw out, yet there's really nothing special about them. This can include envelopes that I've received, packaging, bookmarks or postcards with advertising on them, tags from clothes, old calendars, and paper bags. In order to empty some of these things out without throwing them away I have decided to make another Junk Journal, and this is how.

1. I started by pulling a selection of items that I wanted to use the most, as well as items that I thought would go together color wise and similar in size. When choosing your junk keep in mind that anything you want to turn into a base for a page should be fairly sturdy, such as a brown paper bag. You can always glue two papers together to add strength.

2. Start making the base for your pages. All the brown paper bags I used I took the handles off, you may decide to leave them on and that is just fine. I glued two calendar pages together, trimmed off the top of some of the paper envelopes and bags. You may find that some items you don't need to do anything to them yet and that they are ready to be turned into a page just as they are. I folded the base of the paper bags several different ways in order to make future pockets. Try not to focus on what is on your pages at this point, unless there is a logo or something you want to remain visible. If you end up having a page that is more printed then you would like you can always go over it with a thin coat of gesso to tone it down, but we'll deal with that next time! Right now you are just making the base of your pages.

Here are my 16 pages all ready to have more junk put on them!

Typology

This weeks homework assignment was to take 20 photos of a type of building, object or subject. I chose to do teacups. I had a lot of fun with this assignment and would consider doing it again. We were instructed to bring our photos printed on 8 1/2" x 11" paper. In class we turned our photos into books.

Speaking on quilting

Yesterday Heather and I were speaking to school teachers on how we started quilting, project ideas, and what we do today. We had a great full session with some who have never quilted to those who have been doing it for years. At the end people were encouraged to to try some hand quilting on a four-patch block if they would like.

Etsy Shop

Heather and I are very excited to say that we now have a small etsy shop open and ready to purchase from! Right now there are a few quilts for sale on there, we will be adding more quilts in the next few weeks as well as some Hopscotch Quilt Shop patterns. There is even a Hopscotch Quilt Shop quilt that is a pattern original for sale. http://www.etsy.com/shop/PlayingHopscotch?ref=search_shop_redirect

Photography Homework: The City

For my photography class this week we were to take 5 photos playing with framing and aperture. The topic was "The City" and I took photos of the residential area of the city.

Cancer Walk

This Sunday Heather and I did the Run for the Cure Cancer walk here in Lethbridge. We had a great day for it and it was so good to see so many people out running and walking.

Zenspiration Letters

I found this video tutorial by Joanne Fink on Pinterest and had to try it out. My first letter that I did, the letter "E", is done very similarly to the video. My second letter, I tried an "N", has a few of my own touches in it.

It was very fun to try and has a lot of potential for taking it different ways. I did not have all the supplies that she used, I just used sharpies and a page in my sketchbook. I also found that because I was not using gel pens for the added color that the pastel colors of sharpies worked the best on a dark outlined letter.
http://www.sakuraofamerica.com/mypages/video_details.php?id=111