So Many Smashes, So Little Time

I couldn't help it. I saw the blue one and knew I had to have it along with the black, orange, yellow and pink. Then I figured it out. I used my Brother P-Touch to create labels for each. So my Pink (Pretty Style) Smash is now labeled "Family & Friend Smash 2012. My Blue "Retro Style" is labeled "Our Pets Smash 2012). My Yellow Smash is "Scrappigators Smash 2012." My Orange Simple Style" is now my "Steampunk Smash 2012" where I'll record and store great ideas and play with my steampunk papers and stamps. My Black Mod Style Smash will be my "Ministry Smash 2012." My Red Doodle Smash is "My First Smash 2012." Since we're moving my craftroom upstairs so we can run our Scrappigators Country Store downstairs, I'll find plenty of odds and ends to drop our scrapping pages. This photo above is in my Doodle "First Smash" book. I am totally into this bird. Doesn't it look great? I think 2012 is going to be a "Smashing" Great Year.

Smashing Progress Report

This is a page-in-progress that will, I am confident, that will receive more snips, scraps and bits over the days and weeks ahead. These are students from Michaels in Rehoboth. These photos were left over from another project and were a perfect fit for my Smash. There's also a little paperweaving practice swatch that didn't make the trash bin.

Post Christmas Smashing Post

 

One of the best things about the Christmas holidays is the January recovery time. Still trying to clean of my craft table where I found most of the pieces above. The heart is a 6" Cricut Plantin Schoolbook cartridge that I cut to try paper weaving. The Santa on the heart is a misting excercise. Since my last entry, I have purchased four more books to fill. I also have eight out of ten pages finished for Michaels in Rehoboth. I'm having a Smashing Good Time.

Go Light Your World Smash Page

 

 My Smash journey continues. Our ministry drama outreach partnered with a local homeless shelter, Dover Interfaith Mission for Housing, to present a mime during the morning service at Trinity Wesleyan Church on Sunday, December 4th. After the presentation, the pastor stood and said, "well, that's the sermon! There's nothing left to be said. We'll now light the second advent  candle. . . " The twelve homeless men who participated in the mime were quite moved. They accomplished something special. They were seen as something other than worthless because they're homeless. My Smash page elements includes a December Diecut ticket from my Cricut Art Philosphy cartridge (I can order that for you if you're interested), a list ticket from the K&Company Entertainment Smash pad, scanned images of the church program cover and a reference scrap highlighting our place in the service. The photos were provided by a Trinity Wesleyan church member (Susan W.).

Where's My Hat?

Women today don't wear hats so much. My favorite is a black painter's style cap I put on when I've had a particularly bad hair day. It has also come in handy on particularly cold days. Somehow, you fell warmer with a hat on your head.

I'm still working on clearing off my craft table. That's where I found this scrap of Graphic 45 Romantique paper touting crown hats. I immediately put it on "page 2" in my Doodle Smash book. It seemed obvious that this would be my "hat" page. The vintage photo of a woman in a hat is actually Daisey Linda Belvin Boniville. I think she might have been my maternal grandmother's sister-in-law. I think we wear hats differently today than women did a century ago.

I couldn't resist adding a Cat-in-the-hat hat to my collection and a penquin's hat which I colored with my Spica glitter pens. I also colored existing doodles with my Spicas. I also found some hat quotes I liked and added to the page. The rest of the hats came from the Victorian Tea Lady in Milford, Delaware.

I wonder what will happen to page 3.

First Smash, First Page

 



My craft table is an absolute mess, so what more perfect a treasure trove could I find to mine for the first page of my new Red Doodle Smash that arrived shortly before lunch today? You see the evidence of my labors above. The die cut is a just like one I used on my daughter's First Turkey layout. The distressed flower is a Sizzix die cut. The butterfly is part of my effort to create other additional projects from the Martha Stewart Glittering Techniques class I teach at Michaels in Dover and Rehoboth. The blue and green flowers and the nutcracker are practice pieces for my Copic Christmas classes. I used my Copic Spica Glitter Pens to doodle flowers and I tucked my reminder list written on the back of a Redner's Grocery Receipt for items to take to my daughter's Thanksgiving Dinner into an empty hotel key envelope that held our key card while we were on vacation two years ago. How it ended up on my craft table is a mystery to me, but it now has a home in my Smash-ing Junk Journal. Now all I have to figure out is how to write on the slightly lumpy page two. Lumpy writing aside, I've experienced great victory in getting past first-page-itis and in overcoming my intense desire to create a design map. I wonder what's going to happen on the next page.

Junk Journaling, Here I Come!

 Okay, so I changed my mind! Not-so-new. On Thursday, I will begin again -- something I started to do years ago. Maybe . . . MAYBE by Thursday my new K&Company Smash will be here. But I plan to unlock the artist within a bit more with JUNK JOURNALING. I e-searched Junk Journaling for a definition and discovered the precept of making a journal from junk (cereal boxes, paper bags, etc.) That is not a definition of junk journaling that I would subscribe to. Instead, my view of junk journaling is more from a "slice of life" perspective. Our junk journals are those places where creativity hides, awaiting discovery. It's that scrap of something that impresses us (i.e. making an impression upon us) but doesn't fit on our scrapbook pages or card sets. It's visual poetry; leftover favorites seeking a home; doodles daring to mix without matching. It's more than a diary but less than a memoir. It's a place to experiment, a private moment in a public venue. Junk journaling is for the brave at heart who don't need permission to express themselves. I plan to grow several junk journals between December 1, 2011 and December 31, 2012. Since scrapbooking and cardmaking dominates my lifestyle at the moment, my junk journals will surely reflect these legacy building adventures through the coming year. It's expression at its fullest. When do I begin? Tomorrow, with or without my Smash. I'll be back, the Lord willing.