Adventures in Scrapbooking

Not so long ago I took a little venture into the world of scrapbooking.

My interest came about partly because I was curious to see if I could do it, and partly to see if I might be interested in turning it into some sort of a business.

Before launching myself into the arena though, I figured it might be wise to try to whip up a couple of scrapbooks to see whether... a) I liked making scrapbooks and b) I could actually physically create one that someone may want to buy!

I don't know about you but I tend to be more critical of my final product when I'm crafting for someone else. So I really wanted a "client", rather than just to make a book for myself.

But who would be willing to test out a rookie with their precious photos and mementos?

Enter, my friend Gina, who bravely stepped up to be test case number one!

You may know Gina as The Twin Coach. If not, please allow me to introduce you. She writes a fantastic blog for mothers of multiples but (as mother to a singleton) I've often found her advice to be invaluable too. She is also the person who encouraged me to start this blog (my creative outlet), for which I am very thankful.

Gina had boxes full of photographs of her family and her beautiful children but, as a mother of twins, she found herself with no time to pull something special together for them. Something that she could pass on through generations.

A book that not only holds photographs but also trinkets, personal messages and the precious treasures of childhood.

We discussed details, made a deal, and I got to work!

I really enjoyed creating these books for her and she was so supportive throughout the whole experience. I confess that, initially, I had fears about showing her the results just because of rookie nerves, but she encouraged me all the way and ended up really loving the finished scrapbooks.

Gina has very kindly allowed me to share her albums with you.

I've selected a few pages, and snapshots of design details, from both her daughter's and her son's books.

It was fun using collage to illustrate their family adventures...

...and trying to capture her children's different personalities in the page layouts was a trip!

Although I, currently, have no plans to make scrapbooking a full time business, who knows what the future may hold?

I just was happy to be able to do this for my wonderful friend, who continuously inspires me.

Jackie

My Submarine To The Future

Rocking the Podge!

Today I have a little skip and a hop in my step and it's entirely down to the fact that our little Trashman Marionette has been featured on one of my favorite blogs!  



Oh yes indeed, it truly does rock and so does Amy who writes the Mod Podge Rocks blog.   If you've never visited, then please check it out.  I am inspired daily by the ideas I read about there, the amazing things that Amy and her readers create and also by Amy's craft adventures.  Plus she has a very entertaining writing style to boot.

We (Mr Man, my son and I) are honored to be featured, and we wear our Mod Podge button with pride :)    Thanks Amy!

Jackie

My Submarine To The Future

More LACE

In my last post I talked about the adventure we had traveling out to Chinatown for LACE (Los Angeles Craft Experience). The experience was so action packed just describing the environment left little room for any talk about the actual craft fair!

I want to make up for that now by focusing entirely on some of the wonderful wares we saw on offer there and tell you about the designers we met. We wandered by many different interesting stalls but these were a few of my favorites...

Avonlea Luxury Hair Accessories

Their delicate fabric flower hair accessories were gorgeous! I have been coveting that large white lily clip (in the photo below) since I laid eyes on it.

A designer called Yvonne (no company name or contact unfortunately) made these lovely handmade toys (below). I love that they were so unusual looking. Everything from their designs, to the fabric used in their construction, gave them so much personality.

Another stall with handmade toys called Carrot Fever also caught my eye. These soft brightly colored dinosaurs (in the photo below) made both my son and I so happy we just giggled out loud when we saw them!

Gina Barnes (the designer at Carrot Fever) also makes magnets, brooches and lots of other neat things too. Check out these awesome owls (below)...

...and these monsters too!

I predict that a bout of Carrot Fever may be striking us sometime around the Christmas holidays :)

Finally, I met a lovely woman called Gail Hermano who is the designer and creator of the beautiful, unique, line at Maganda Jewelry.

Maganda, which actually means "beautiful" in Tagalog (the national language of the Philippines) has a current collection that... "fuses pieces from different time periods and trends to create one-of-a-kind, timeless collages of salvaged treasures".

My photographs from the fair do it absolutely no justice (at this point we were rushing to leave after we had exhausted all the minutes on our parking meter) so I've posted some photos here of other pieces from her collection (below) so that you can see how truly magnificent these intricately crafted pieces are...

I walked away from her stall grinning from ear to ear after snapping up this piece (below) made from vintage earrings, that she redesigned and adapted to create this gorgeously ornate necklace.

We left LACE, clutching our wares, feeling inspired, enlightened and happy to close the evening after all our explorations. I hope you enjoyed reading about our creative adventure.

Thank you and goodbye Chinatown.

My Submarine To The Future

Outdoor Venture: LACE

There's nothing like a blast of culture, art and craft to kick off the weekend, so we headed off to Los Angeles downtown region for the Los Angeles Craft Experience (LACE). 

The event was held in Chinatown - a vibrant, bustling place that (even without the welcome distraction of LACE) had plenty of its own treasures to marvel over.  

Our senses were bombarded with the ornate and brightly colored architecture, the tantalizing waft of tasty morsels sold by food vendors and the mellow bop of music played by the DJ's at the event.   

Some people bustled, others meandered, soaking in the atmosphere.  We definitely fell into the latter category.   Things were bought, things were sold, and I thought... how fantastic it would be to have the time to just sit and sketch these happenings.     Maybe there would be just too much to taken in.  Focusing on just one thing was proving difficult, even just taking photographs!   So many eye-catching distractions...

 The corridors of radiant red lanterns. 

 

The rows of delicate paper parasols propped up against a shop wall. 

...and also the activities on offer at the event..

The Pacific Asia Museum (based in Pasadena) had an activity table for families where we could create Chinese inspired crafts.  They had two projects that we could make.   The first was to construct a trinket box from ornately decorated paper.  The museum was promoting their exhibition currently on show (from August 5 to Feb 6 2011) called "China Modern: Designing Popular Culture 1910-1970"  and so the artwork was reflective of that.

The second project was a neat idea... a pop up Buddha card!  

  Such a cool way to open up a conversation about religion and culture with kids.  

My son is too young to understand it all fully right now, but I love that he is being enlightened to other people's beliefs and cultures.  The world is a big place and I hope some day he'll get to see it all.  

Our stomachs began to grumble for something more than the free culinary samplings on offer, so we decided to stop for a little dinner at one of the many restaurants in the square. 

This pagoda shaped restaurant called out to us.  

Hop Louie was a neat place.  Apparently Nic Cage and Jackie Chan agree with us too, given that their autographed photographs adorned the wall on the way up the stairs to the dining room.  We particularly enjoyed the appetizers on offer here.  The tin-foil wrapped chicken was gone in seconds!   My husband was thrilled by the low lit bar downstairs too and has vowed to return.

mmmmm... green tea.  Delicious!
I almost drank a whole pot of this by myself. 

My son got a chance to practice his chopstick skills too.  

With full tummys, we made our way back out to the craft fair and were now ready to get down to some serious perusing of craft stalls....  

Check in for my next post, where you'll find out more about some of my fantastic crafty finds!  

My Submarine To The Future

Submersibles and Dirigibles

Look at what turned up in our mailbox today!

It arrived in a small brown envelope.

No distinct markings on the package. No fanfare.

But it brought with it a wave of excitement to our household.

A few weeks back I wrote about The Sketchbook Project. Check it out as there's still time to get involved if you would like to. We (my husband, son and I) decided it would be a fun family project to create one together.

When we ordered our sketchbook we had to choose a theme from a list of suggestions that would act as a guide to help kick start our ideas. One jumped out at us immediately....

"Submersibles and Dirigibles"

How could we not choose that, given the name of this blog "My Submarine To The Future"! To add weird to wonderful.. my son and I saw two airships (or dirigibles) this week as we were just driving around town. I think this a good sign ;)

There is something I find so tantalizing about the first, crisp leaf of a brand new sketch pad. It's a clean slate. A fresh start. A story waiting to be written.

Each person who designs one of these sketchbooks starts with the same beginning as we do, but will end up telling a very different story. They'll express different experiences and illustrate different thoughts, dreams and aspirations. I think this is one of the many things I find compelling about this project.

My Submarine To The Future

Apple Sketches

 

Make your mouth water? 

Our local market was having a sale on apples and these called out to me.  

Just looking at them fills my head with so many delightful words...

Succulent

Smooth

Velvety

Crisp

Sweet

Vibrant

I can tell you that they are as juicy as they look.  I know this to be true because after I sketched them, I swiftly consumed one.  It was simply delicious!

It has been a long time since I sketched with soft pastels, and I must confess to being rather rusty.   I was feeling somewhat loath to post these attempts but I found so much pleasure putting pastel to paper again, that I felt it only right to document the experience.  Besides, these are valuable steps towards improvement.

Even the little man got in on the action.
He liked the way the pastels crumbled when he sketched with them.  He said he loved that he could draw with his finger.  He was referring to the way pastel powder can be moved around on the paper and smudged.

Of course, by the time he was done, he was wearing most of the pastel dust.

I love the color choices he made for his picture.

We played classical music while we doodled.  He liked the violins.

 A perfect afternoon. 

My Submarine To The Future

If you would like to see more pastel work, or still life studies, you may like these previous posts.... soft pastel pictures and edible treasures: first quest.  Enjoy!