Hasta Luego!

My dear friend JY is a high school Spanish teacher.  She loves Spanish culture and any Spanish speaking countries and she travels a lot.  Her next big trips will take her to Mexico and then Spain.  For her birthday, I decided to switch gears a bit (since last year I gave her a crochet scarf and the year before a handmade handbag) and put my scrapbooking tools to work.  She's recently expressed an interested in writing while travelling so I made her a Mexico & Spain inspired travel journal.

Perhaps this post will inspire you to make your own journal to accompany you on your next trip or create one to give as special handmade gift.

Here's some of the inspiring vintage (& non-vintage) ephemera I used: old Nat Geo's, maps, postage stamps (of course) and plenty of colorful scrapbooking paper.

Being a record collector, I used old record covers for everything.  In this case I used the covers to make my journal cover and also a few book marks.

I used vintage accounting ledger for the journal pages.  

I stitched the binding of my book with my sewing machine and then reinforced the binding with vintage textured framing tape.  I covered the journal cover in a map of Spain, lined it with old stamp album pages and reinforced the pockets and edges with colorful washi tape.

Since I used gatefold LP covers to create the journal, they made natural pockets.  This is where JY can keep her receipts, passport, postcards or any other bits of ephemera she picks up along her journey.

Then I really went to town and decorated every single page of the book with images and ephemera from Spain or Mexico.

And now it's back to the grind for me.  I have a couple crochet projects that I really wanna finish before I turn into a pumpkin!

Crochet Pencil Skirt Party!

My fingers have been extremely busy lately.  I've been crocheting non-stop everyday and I'm very pleased with the results.  This isn't my first time crocheting skirts but this is a new pattern I just developed and I really like the belt loops and crochet belt that ties in a bow.  I love holidays and celebrations and the general idea of wrapping myself up like a crochet present. 

Here's the skirt I made with variegated red, white and blue yarn with white trim and a blue belt.

It's always fun to see how the variegated pattern works itself out.

And here's the super bold, racecar striped bright emerald green and blue-violet number!

I love this shocking color contrast!

These skirts are so flexible, form fitting and fun! I'm wearing them with bright tights but I would total rock them with leggings or bare legged too.

Rocktober

Rock on crafty people! Can you believe that October is already here?! Well, it's pretty obvious by my lack of updating that yet another busy autumn is under way. I currently have a lot of projects on the horizon but unfortunately, everything is still so far from being finished that I'm not quite ready to start bragging about them yet. So in the meantime, here's some pretty origami imagery from the Asian Inspiration scrapbooking kits that I assembled for my etsy shop over the weekend.

Mini satellite flowers.  These really pop with full 3-D effect.

I love the way the square posies look before they're full assembled.  Someday I'll get around to making a textured collage with a bunch of them.

 

Finished posies in all of their bold and beautiful symmetry.

 

 

Does anyone else love Bonchon Korean fried chicken as much as I do?

 

 

These paper kokeshi dolls are so much fun!

 

That's all for now.  Back to the grind but I hope to be back with a more substantial update sooner than later!