Way back in the end of June (wow, where did time go), I created this art journal both to commemorate our Taos family reunion and as a prototype for a Stampin' Up! party. The party was a blast; we had heat guns and embossing powder flying everywhere.
We used the On Board 5" x 5" Art Journals and my favorite new stamp set, Baroque Motifs, along with the new in colors River Rock and Blue Bayou.
We created the look of Mexican tiles by first starting with a 3 3/4" by 3 3/4" piece of Naturals Ivory card stock. The Stamp-a-ma-jig helped us place the Baroque Motifs swirls on the front. On the back of the Naturals Ivory square we created a grid of 1 1/4" by 1 1/4" squares with three across and three down, and numbered them 1 through 9. That way, when we cut them, we knew how to put our puzzle pieces back together. After we cut out the grid, we inked the edges of each of the nine squares with Creamy Carmel and then covered each square with VersaMark ink and heat embossed them with clear embossing powder.
The new spiral punch just opens up all kinds of terrific opportunities for the art journals. We could add:
(1) Brocade Background designer paper folded in half and glued or stapled at the bottom to make side pockets.
(2) Designer paper folded just a quarter and glued at the side and bottom to make a top pocket.
(3) Designer paper folded down for a corner pocket, embellished with faux stitching.
(4) Window/transparency sheets for some more baroque swirls.
(5) Vellum sheets with circle-punched windows to highlight the pictures.
We lined up the pictures so the windows highlighted the faces on both the left and right album pages.
There were still plenty of additional journal pages left to play with. And, for extra-special extra credit, we made a book marker/medallion out of metal-edged tags.
I've taught this project now to three groups of ladies, and the most fun thing about it is that the Tapestry line is so versatile that everyone can easily add their own twist to the project. I wish I'd taken pictures of some of the finished journals, because everyone's was gorgeous, much more so than my little prototype. Maybe someday I'll get the rest of our Taos pictures in it. At least with the tapestry line and spiral punch it will be easy-breezy to do.
