Hello my lovely friends 💕
I hope this finds you well! 😊
The question in the title line was one I asked myself many, many times over the last few weeks. And it’s also the reason why I took a timeout from writing for you.
I did try hard to get it back. I searched high and low for inspiration…spent WAY too much time on Pinterest 🙈 I dug deep into my creative pool – and my yarn stash 😁 – and came up empty.
What to do, what to do?
Then it hit me…I don’t HAVE to crochet. There might be other pretty things inside me waiting to be made. 😊
During my hours on Pinterest I saw many gorgeous handmade journals. Beautiful pieces of art, and creativity. I found myself going back to them over and over. I finally felt that little spark of inspiration 😍
I read about ‘Smash Books’ – it’s like a scrapbook, but not. It’s messy, it’s colorful, it’s awesome! 😅 You just take a ready-made journal or loose pages (to be bound later on) and start painting, cutting, glueing down any- and everything that strikes your fancy.
It’s completely new territory for me. I’ve never done mixed media, plus it’s an exercise in patience. See, you can’t just sit down and start or go out buy some supplies and begin the creative journey.
There is some legwork involved 🤪 and, I have to say it again, patience. Not really my thing 😅 so definitely a learning curve!
I visited our Antique Mall, and numerous thrift stores for old books, magazines, note- and greeting cards etc.
In between collecting these pretty things I coffee-stained paper. This is quite an exciting process. Even though I did it the same way every time, each page comes out differently.
Wanna see?
Pretty cool, huh? 😁
After a week of successful hunting and gathering the journal making began.
Here are my first attempts…
What I did, but will do differently from now on – I picked a theme for each signature.
What’s a signature you ask…I know I did 😊 A signature is a stack of loose papers (usually 5 or 6 sheets) that will be bound together to be combined into a book.
Anyway – I find that making themed signatures is a bit stifling…and time consuming. I’ll let you know, but I have a feeling that going with the inspiration, and combining snippets as you come across them, will be more fun. We’ll see 😊
So… I think it’s safe to say I found something I love to do 😍
Until next time 💕
Kristabella's Hodgepodge 