Art Journaling

I will admit that I'm a pretty terrible blogger. I do have a good excuse for going MIA though, well at least I think so. I am currently in the middle of my internship for my future career. I can tell you that it is one of the hardest things I've gone through as a perfectionist. One night was so bad I wanted to throw in the towel and change careers. That was until I watched a Jenniebellie video, in which she was talking about having the best/worst year of her life. That's where I think I am. I'm having the best/worst time of my life right now. It's hard to describe but I think we've all felt it.

That being said I also realized that I was not taking care of myself like I should. I needed to carve out more time for myself. Whether it's time to meditate, write poetry, or create art. I need time for me. One of my favorite was to decompress is to listen to music and art journal. After the Jenniebellie video I pulled out my finished art journal and just flipped through the pages. I didn't have the energy to create and that was okay. I just looked.

I was inspired to make a little flip through video.

Remember to take care of yourself,

Auror Willow

Scrapbook Sunday - Family Photo

Recently I have fallen so in love with 8.5x11 layouts that I've decided to go back and scrapbook everything! lol Not really, but all the photos that I have that I love I will. Luckily for me my photos really start in 2008 as that was the year that I got my own camera and became interested in collecting photos from family members. To make it easier on myself, and to save money on wasted prints I have decided to plan out my layouts ahead of time and use sketches. So you might see more structured layouts.

So, this first layout is documenting some family photos that were taken as a Mother's Day present for my grandma. The only ones present are her daughters (my mom and her sisters) and her grandkids (me and my cousins).

The colors in this photo were god-awful. My aunt made all the grandkids wear pink (even the solo guy) and I have no idea what the photographer was thinking when he picked the background. I had to turn then black and white to scrapbook them for the mercy of all who look at these pages. 

I really love making double page spreads now, especially if a page comes pre-printed with a design. I loved the flowers on the second page. I actually fussy cut out the same flowers from another page and added them with pop dots on to the design. So Lovely! 

Thanks for stopping by for Scrapbook Sunday, I will see you next week!

Pink Smash Folio - If You Really Knew Me

As you can see I have another Smash Folio share. I'm still working in my "Pretty Pink" book. Now when I first starting working in this book I wanted the theme of the book to be "My Twenties". Now scrapbooking is a form of therapy and reflection for me. With that in mind this book has kind of evolved as I've worked on it. As I enter my 28th year on this beautiful earth, I'm finding my twenties to be a time of growth and refection. For me, my twenties have been a time to come to terms with my past while also discovering who I am. A time to some how make those two pieces come together. So that's what this book has morphed into. Not the "things" I've done in my twenties, but documentation of my reflection and growth.

On this page I used a Paige Evans' butterfly background svg file. I also used the Colorbok Modern Millinery paper pad to fill in the negative spaces. Some butterflies I kept empty, others I used white embossed paper, and finally some I tied white string bows. I think that gave it a nice balance and places for the eye to rest.

I love butterflies so much, so this page makes my heart happy. I also made another crepe paper rosette with a wooden center. The wood circle and the stamp I purchased at my local Walmart. I used embroidery thread for the small bows as well. 

In the little pocket at the bottom of the page I tucked away a poem I wrote for a university assignment. It's called If You Really Knew Me... This poem I'm not going to share as it's personal and it would defeat the poem itself. But the gist of the poem is to have each stanza read If you really knew me... and then write something that only a closed loved one or family friend would know about you. 

I wrote each stanza on a strip of a notecard and then tucked them into the pocket. The way the poem is set up the order of the stanza's don't matter to much, at least for me, so the pocket idea worked great. Plus it keeps it tucked away for an illusion of privacy. 

That's all I have today, check back in on Sunday for a scrapbook layout. Thanks for stopping in, I will leave with pictures of each individual page.

Pink Smash Folio - Where I'm From

Look another blog post! I have another page to share from my pink smash folio. This page is a bit special, as it has a poem that I wrote rather recently. It was an assignment for one of my college classes actually.  I am an Education major and one of my method classes was how to effectively teach the language arts to future students. I absolutely adored my teacher that semester and could gush about her for hours, but I promise I won't. I do want to share her book however for those who would like to try writing poetry.

First i want to share my page and poem:

Where I am From

I am from city slickers in a small town

farms and factories built on native ground

I'm from shopping at the mom and pop

before Walmart came around

I am from ghost stories and Stephen King

watching behind closed hands on the old wooden tv

I am from home cooked meals and southern hospitality

tastes of cornbread and cowboy beans

I am from the backyard gang of free rein 

double dutching where the green grass grows

close your eyes and count to five

18 on a 3 of a kind is where you'd find me

I am from bare feet overtop gravel

headed to get my belly full of sweets 

down at the end end carry out 

where Julie greets me with a smile

I am form the middle branch of the tallest tree

the backyard of honeysuckles and poison ivy

I am from pipe tobacco and old westerns

From bubble baths to Alan Jackson

I am from the old man struck down by fate

with his coin collecting and songs on tape

I am from old hands in gardening gloves

bible verses and quilts sewn with love

I am from that small corner in the thrift store

buried beneath a pile of books

a bathtub filled with pillows and weird looks

livin' happily in my own world with just me

I am from big dreams of breaking free

small town life not quite right for me

I am from goodbye kisses and farewell wishes

I am off to find me

I decorated the page next to the poem with pictures from my childhood. My cousins and I are at my maternal grandmothers house in the top left-hand corner. The bottom photo is my paternal grandmother's house. The woods behind that house is where a majority of my childhood was spent. 

If you are at all interested in writing poems I recommend this book by my former professor:

Wounded Writers Ask: Am I Doing it Write?

S. Rebecca Leigh

Amazon Link

The book is intended to be poetry prompts for students of all ages really. She had us work through the prompts in class and for me it was magic! I use to write poetry in high school, but it was awful. I hid it away in a notebook and shared it with no one. The poems I've written based on this book, I want to proudly share with the world. If my future career fails I could be a street poet! Just kidding.... maybe

Scrapbook Sunday - Music

So.... I have not been keeping up with this blog as much as I had planned. I have plenty of layouts and projects to share. I just need to prioritize sitting down for a few minutes and writing these posts out. I could not let a Sunday pass without a new post however.

This layout was made with all scraps. The papers are the remaining few from an older Maggie Holmes paper pad. I have been wanting to make a layout using circles as the main element and a circular photo. It was completely out of my comfort zone, but I love the way it turned out.

I have been obsessed with matting my layouts and then distressing and stapling the edges. I really like how the black frames the layout and I feel the ripped edges make it more playful. Another obsession is using my embossing folders whenever I can. I do need to invest in more designs. I did pop up some of the circles using recycled cardboard. I wanted them to have a solid base, and I figured that would work better than trying to cover them all in foam dots (cheaper too!).

Hopefully there will be more layouts soon! I will have a Smash Folio share coming up sometime this week. Happy Scrapbook Sunday!

Scrapbook Sunday - Hello Beautiful

Now I promise not all my layouts are of myself! I plan on starting to scrapbook more event layouts soon. Today's layout is more focused on a technique I want to share. I discovered this on my own and it's one of my favorites that I can't wait to try again.

For the background I used an older cut-file from Studio Calico that unfortunately I can't find in their shop anymore to share with you. I did cut the background out of white card stock. The outline of the flower I painted black with acrylic paint. You could just cut the file twice in two different colors, but this way seemed faster to me and the paint added to the artistic look.

For the petals of the flowers; first, I embossed them with a flower themed embossing folder. Next, I added color using oil pastels. I really love working with my pastels after having to purchase and use them for one of my college courses. Now the pastels never set, so I used Modge Podge to seal them. I went with a glossy finish out of preference. I love the shine it gives, but wasn't able to capture it in pictures. 

I hope you give this technique a try. Next, I want to purchase a butterfly embossing folder and use one of Paige Evan's many butterfly background cut files.

Happy Sunday!

Project Share - Family Portrait

This is a bit different than my normal posts, but as I've said I'm a girl of many hobbies! A few weeks ago I was commissioned to make a cross-stitched family portrait for someone. They sent me to this Martha Stewart tutorial to give me a sense of what they were looking for. I did use the tutorial as a guide for some of the figures, but was able to modify the design to fit the people I was emulating.


The hardest part was the puppy. They have a small Shih Tzu who is very lightly colored; whites and creams. I had to modify the colors slightly so she wouldn't disappear. I also couldn't find any templates or guides online for her design. I was on my own with her, but I love the way she turned out.

The final piece in the end was perfect for an 8x10. I think that's an appropriate size for a family portrait. I have noticed that most of these on Etsy are only 5x7. For what the cost is to the customer that seems too small to me. I went larger to give my client more bang for her buck so to speak.

Here is one more shot of it out of the hoop when I was ironing it. She is taking it in to be framed professionally instead of displaying it in the hoop.

If you are interested at all on having a portrait made please feel free to contact me!
aurorwillow@gmail.com

Thanks for stopping in.