My Garden Journal/Scrapbook........

With our summer heat and hungry mosquitoes, I have been gardening less but that doesn't mean I am not thinking about it.  It's a good time to do some garden journaling. I love doing scrapbook journals.  I have several finished books and my latest is this........

........three ring binder.  I somehow got stalled and had not finished a page since last Spring - 2013.  This week I completed several pages and thought you might like to see them. They will be better viewed if you can use a monitor rather than a small I-pad.

  

This is not the first page in the book but the first one I did this week.  I am not trying to fill in the weeks I missed but, just starting with the present time.  Because my activity outside is less in this season, the journaling is more general. The silver spade above was a card from a dear friend. I just loved it and knew it would be on a page sometime.

Before going on to the next page I want to show you some supplies. I have three of these boxes filled with graphics, etc that I have collected over the years. And, this is an important factor to doing this type of journaling - having lots of things already available to choose from. These have come from many places, many years of old calenders, booklets, pads, magazines, stickers, Michael's dollar bins, cards, scrapbook supplies and others.

This is off the subject but I want to bring your attention to the little glass bubble on the rose pad.  A few years back, I scattered several of these in different unexposed places throughout the house where I would run across them at unexpected times. The reason? To trigger a reminder for me to remember and think about how God puts splashes of joy in my life and to be appreciative! I was surprised when this one came in sight. 

There is not much I can say about how to go about doing a page other than choose one thing and then start building  from there. I pay attention to themes, colors, sizes and shapes.  The blank pages for all of this book are made from card stock, sized and holes punched by hand.  This one has twelve added pieces which I glued down with rubber cement, my adhesive of choice. If you have extra glue showing where it shouldn't be, let it dry and then you can rub it off with your finger. Actually, I see four more pieces, I forgot to count the rhinestone sparkles that I added to the flower centers. The flowers were made with a rubber stamp. I may still take the strip of paper with the words off  (one reason for using the type glue I mentioned) and redo it in a neater way. It would be the third try.

One of the three storage boxes is filled with little paper pads which I find very useful to add design to the pages and also makes my written lines stay neater. When writing on a blank page I first draw straight lines using a ruler and erase them with a soft eraser after I put the words. The watch and big ribbon piece was cut from decorative scrapbook paper.

Six added pieces on this one.

The individual pages can vary greatly but I always coordinate the two pages on any opening.  I forgot to erase the lines before photographing this one.

Nine pieces plus the picture on this one. I enjoy cutting paper which gives me a lot more choices of sizes and shapes.

I often make a pocket with one of the pieces I use and then use those to stick other pieces inside of to save.  Remember to put glue only around the two sides and bottom to leave the middle open. This one will hold a few photographs of my butterflies which is the theme of this opening.  I know I am saying more than some of you care to know but, I am hoping I might inspire someone to start a journal/scrapbook.

I have a graphics board on Pinterest and I printed this big butterfly onto cardstock  from there.  I didn't expect him to be so big but it worked out to be one of my favorite pages. You will notice words written around the shape of the butterfly - another thing I love to see and do. The little butterfly in the corner was made with a stamp. Learning to overlap some things (like the lady with the flower) is a secret to a good look. Yes, I did cut out those tiny gardeners.

I simply love these two little dreaming gardeners!  I don't remember where they came from but, I cut them out this week and knew they needed to have something to sit on. I looked down on the table and saw the little cardstock rectangle lying on the table - trimmed it down a little and glued it down and sat them up there! They look like they paused to sit on a wall, wearing their little flower-pot hats and just dreaming away! The black piece with "Dream" on it was in my box ready to stick on the wall.

Another one with a pocket and writing around the shape. Six pieces on this one.

I saw this arrow shape somewhere on an ad or something and made this one from black cardstock. I just now saw an extra word  in the writing above the arrow. Not to worry, I will find a tiny flower sticker, or maybe a tiny bird egg picture (I have some) and glue it over the extra word.

As you may have guessed, I enjoy my scrapbooks almost as much as the garden!

This post is long and since you are still with me, I thank you and hope you might be inspired to start collecting, cutting, gluing, writing and truly enjoy your own journaling. Any local friends are welcome to come do your first pages at my house, using my supplies.