Donna B Miller

It's Beginning to Feel...

a lot like Christmas.

It's funny how different things trigger the Christmas spirit in each of us. Maybe it's the tree going up, or buying the first present, or hearing a favorite carol. For me, this year, it was seeing the first Christmas kits showing up in the stores.

The first one I got my hands on was Tumble Fish Studio's Christmas Junque from Deviant Scraps. It is just loaded with all kinds of vintage and quirky images. I used it to create this sweet little angel.

By the time I was finished with this piece, I was humming Christmas carols, and looking for more holiday projects to keep me busy. I've always wanted to do a Christmas album, and I've started more than I can count, so when I saw that Shimelle was offering another Journal Your Christmas class, I had to sign up. Journal your Christmas is an online class to celebrate the holiday season. It starts on the first of December and finishes on the sixth of January, with thirty-seven daily prompts sent by email. 

Determined to actually finish an album, I got a head start on my book this weekend, finishing the cover and prepping the pages.

I'm doing a 5x7 two-ringed album using a 7 Gypsies journal cover for the base. The cover image is from Tumble Fish's Christmas Junque.

Throughout the book, I'm using paper and elements from My Minds Eye Lost and Found Christmas collection. And look how well it coordinates with 7 Gypsies Journal Pages.

There are envelopes throughout,..

and pockets and tags abound.

I've even completed the date tags for the pages, cutting an old manilla folder down to letter size for the printer. The numbers were created using Michelle Coleman's Hand-Stamped Alpha brushes in Photoshop.

But one of the things I'm most excited about is using the 12 vintage Santas found in the Christmas Junque kit as a design element throughout. They coordinate beautifully with the Lost and Found papers.

So, there's my base. Surely, with this much done, I can keep up with the journaling and add the photos. Once the holidays start, I'll be back with updates.  Merry Christmas to all of you, and if you're participating in Journal Your Christmas, I'd love to see your pages. Please link us up in the comments.

 

 

 

Little Love Notes

This year, I'm participating in Dirty Footprints Studio's third annual 21 SECRETS, an online Art Journaling workshop where Art Journaling techniques, methods, and approaches are taught by 21 different artists. In 21 SECRETS, we choose the order in which we take the 21 classes. With so many diverse topics and artists, it's hard to know where to start.

The first class that I've completed is Dale Anne Potter's Personal Acts of Kindness workshop. Based on the idea that we must love ourselves before we can love others (a concept with which I heartily concur), we are designing and writing postcards, documenting what we like/love about ourselves. The idea is that we can pull these cards out on days when the world is a little rough, and recover our spirits. They're housed in a cute little envelope album that we make from scratch.

I really like the way the finished project came out, and I'm looking forward to getting the postcards in the mail.

Materials used include 7 Gypsies tissue; Graphic 45 Old Curiosity Shoppe stamps, My Minds Eye Market Street/Madison Avenue papers and labels, Cosmo Cricket Tiny Type letters, and Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist.

Windy City Mini Album

I am addicted to making mini albums and books. I have dozens of them, almost all of them empty, stacked up in my studio. I always have good intentions that they will be completed. As soon as I get the photos processed. As soon as I journal the events. As soon as I finish that sketch I want to include. I never seem to run out of excuses.

For my upcoming trip to Chicago, I'm trying something different. I created an album before the trip. There are places to journal, envelopes in which to tuck little bits of memorabilia, and plenty of room for photos. 

I really like the way it turned out. I used a 7 Gypsies spiral envelope album and Teresa Collins Travel Ledger kit.

I inserted a folder in the back of the book to hold a mini art journal.