Saturday, June 30, 2012

Anne's Notebooks Part 2

I have always kept a notebook, but usually I had one at a time. When I was close to filling up one notebook, I'd start hunting for the next. I have only recently started hoarding notebooks. Recently like in the last 5 months. This is the beginning of my little stash.



The two little pink ones in the bottom row are Iconic "free note", meaning they have lined, grid & blank page (most of Iconic's notebooks also have calender / planner type pages). I have two of them because I thought I would be clever & take the first one apart to re-arrange the pages. I wanted the pink grid paper (!) dispersed throughout the notebook rather than all lumped together at the back. It was the first time I'd tried to take a notebook apart but since it bound by 2 little staples I thought it'd be easy. Know the problem? The stapler wouldn't reach  to the middle of the book!! So I bought another one. Eventually I figured out a way to stitch the binding on the first one, so now I have two.



The little cream coloured notebook next to it is an "Antique Diary" I got off of ebay. There were 3 other varieties of these, but of course I wanted the one with the butterfly on the cover!

 It has weekly & monthly calender pages as well as lined & grid pages. All of which are absolutely gorgeous.


The last notebook in the top row is part of a series I had had printed long, long ago with my artwork on the covers. I found several recently when I was cleaning my room. I used one to make a home-made smash book for my sister. But this one I decided to keep because the cover art is still one of my favourite drawings I've ever done. :)
original drawing
The next two in the middle I got from Writer's Bloc. I love hot air balloons & anything with a blue sky & clouds motif so I couldn't resist the "Write More Happiness Into the World". It has great, decorated lined pages & quotes scattered throughout it.
Write Now Journal

The one next to it is my Clairefontaine notebook. It has nice multi-coloured lined paper which is blank on one side.. however I hated the cover. So.. I washi-ed it!


Much better!
It also wasn't fat enough for me. I like my notebooks to last at least 6 months-a year. So I ended up ordering another one of these notebooks. I took it apart & added most of the pages to the 1st one... I also added a few to my smash book for extra writing space. :)

Last but not least, my "Steamboat Willie" Mickey Mouse notebook! My amazing friend Sara brought this back for me from Disneyland.
Isn't it great? :) Oh Mickey how I love you, let me count the ways....
The notebook is is a good inch thick! That's a lot of paper. :)
It has extra large rings holding it together- which means it will be able to expand & hold all the junk I stuff into my notebooks!
The paper is great- not even my Sakura Gold Shadow pens bleed thru it! And they bleed thru EVERYTHING!
It has four adorable vintage Mickey designs on the papers.

I think the Mickey & Minnie in the little airplane is probably my favourite :)

And it has a little note on the first page: "To my lovely Anne" <3
Sara said when she saw it, she knew it was made for me.  And that she figured it had enough pages that I could rip some out to use in other notebooks, and still have a nice fat Mickey notebook. Which is exactly what I was doing (she knows me so well!)

Lately, I have been thinking about trying to keep a real art journal... Which means I might have to add a sketch journal to my collection, as none of these are really suited to that purpose. But you can never have too many notebooks, right? :)

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

I have made SO many cards and things for friends & family in the last week or so! There's a lot going on: my sister just got married & moved across the country & my brother's expecting his first child..

I managed to snap pics of a few things before they got sent out.

doodle for a girl in the Smash*aholics group with a cool name ;)


goodbye card for my baby sister..
Postcard for my friend Beverly who wanted a doodle peacock
it sparkles!
first piece of happy mail to my sister's new place
inside

Friday, June 15, 2012

Spider Wars


Seriously! Almost everyday this week, I'm sitting at my computer typing away & all the sudden there's a little 8-legged invader charging at me! Or worse: climbing up my leg! And they are all different kinds of spiders. They have formed an alliance & declared war against me! O.o

My friend Sara insists that this results from my practice of not killing the little suckers- but taking them prisoner & releasing them in the garden. She advises that I be merciless & make them fear me.

But I'm still hoping for a peaceful resolution....

*gulp*

Monday, June 11, 2012

Notebook Doodles Journalling Cards



Some journalling cards I made for my etsy shop.

These were fun to make. Remember middle school & doodling in the margins of your notebook during class?

Oh who am I kidding- I doodled in the margins of my notes right thru university! lol
I'm a life long doodler.  ;)

Woodland Pages


My favourite pages in my notebook... They developed a woodsy theme as I went along. I'm kinda sad that I'm finsihed writing on them & have to move on to new pages.

under the photo flap



Sunday, June 10, 2012

Thank You Cards



I spent my Saturday making thank you cards for my little sister's bridal shower....

The decorations for the shower were in green & purple so I used the same colour scheme.. And since she was going to hand them out rather than mail 'em, she wanted them sans envelopes... I think they came out nice :)


Saturday, June 9, 2012

Anne's Notebooks, Part 1



These are my notebooks (the ones that have been written in at least).

The only one I don't still have is the very first one which my sister bought me in 5th grade. She got herself one with a kitten on the cover & one for me which had a puppy.  Ever since, I've HAD to have a notebook. It is a necessity. It is my brain on paper, it is how I process my thoughts & remember experiences and (because my notebooks have always been read) how I communicate.

A friend of mine dubbed my notebooks "The Anne Chronicles", which I like. :) So here are The Anne Chronicles (in chronological order!)

Early Notebooks

After I filled up my very first notebook, I went searching for another one. I found the little mint coloured diary in a box in our garage. At first I thought the cover was not cool enough for my awesome 13 year old self & hid it with a bunch of neon stickers. After a few months tho, I changed my mind & tried to peel them off.

When that one was almost full I explained to my mom that I just HAD to have a notebook to write in & she got me the Winnie the Pooh one. :)

Pooh title page..
the early notebooks had warnings about not reading without permission.. my friends & sisters were allowed to read (and even write in) them... but NOT my parents & brothers lol


High School
The Footprints was also a gift from my mum & is one of my favourites. One reason is that it is from my Sophomore & Junior years of high school where were a fairly happy time. Also, while I had this notebook I acquired quite a few nice pens, a book on lettering and received a HUGE gift set of stickers. So it has some very pretty pages.

18th birthday



The next one, little one beside it, is my least favourite. The notebook was part of a stationary set, and was not bound well. It started falling apart when it was about half full & it also was not a nice time period in my life when I was writing in that little book.

notebooks from my early 20s 
These are my notebooks from the time I was about 19-22. The only one that was filled is the tiny one in the left corner. The other ones were abandoned. I learned that I cannot write in regular, cheapy spiral bound notebooks & that blank, white pages make my mind go blank! I ended up ripping the pages out of the blank notebook & using it to make a homemade Smash*book for my mother. Which is why it's now just a pack of stapled paper.  After trying to write in the dragon journal, I ended up keeping an online diary for awhile. I also spent more time drawing & less time writing.

mid-late 20s

I bought the first Victoria Frances journal  because we were required to keep a journal for my writing class. So the first half of the notebook was that assignment, which changed the way I wrote. After that, I wrote less about my daily activities and my notebooks became more of a writer's notebook than a journal.

Current notebook
Smash* title page


My current notebook is the "pretty style" Smash*book. I had originally wanted to get another Victoria Frances journal.. but I couldn't find it. I ended up getting the Smash*book because I liked the fact that it had decorated pages, and different pages rather than the same design over and over. However, because I had such a hard time finding a new notebook before settling on the Smash*book... I started buying and hoarding notebooks for future use.. >.>

But that's a story for another day!

Tuesday, June 5, 2012

The Wall

I am a paper addict and I LOVE the scrapbooking aisles at stores! Visions of pretty paper & alphabet stickers & coloured pens dance thru my head at night. But I never really got into the actual scrapbooking. I do have two lovely 12x12 albums.. with a few finished pages in each... but they've languished in my closet for years now.  When I'd get photos back from birthdays or other fun times, I would always briefly contemplate doing a page for them in one of my scrapbooks.. but they always seemed to end up stuck in my journal or pinned to my bulletin board instead. Finally, I had to admit that I wasn't going to be pulling out those albums anytime soon. And I decided to do something else with my hoarded scrapbooking goodies.

Behold:

The Wall

hehe



I put up some 12x12 pages that matched my room colours & printed out some of my favourite pictures of my friends on regular printing paper (because then there's no glare.. and it's not a big deal if they fade a bit..).


I used my sparkling alphabet stickers to spell out the names of my friends... and found a place for some of the dimensional butterfly stickers that always seem to want to come home with me..


 It's easily my favourite spot in my room now. And I actually DO work on it.. cuz it's always right there in plain sight. :)