inspiration monday

once you've made a brand new journal, and decorated the cover, 

it's time to tackle all those blank pages inside!  if you're like me, this can be both exciting,

 and a little intimidating.....how do you know where to start?!

that's where inspiration will take the lead and remind you that the best place to start with any new project is at the beginning......

and at the Crawley house, the best place to start is the front door!
(and as a result, no more blank page!  woo hoo!)


{created in my downton diary using koi watercolor, derwent inktense pencils,
pitt pens, 6B graphite pencil, waterbrush}

paper flowers and heartstrings

i received these beautiful flowers for mother's day!  but they weren't created by Mother Nature, they were made from magazine pages by my sweet son spencer and his adorable girlfriend tatiana.  as the story goes, he was in charge of cutting the flowers and the leaves, and she was in charge of the gluing and arranging.  i think they make a fantastic team, don't you?  

and while i absolutely love the flowers,  what really tugs at my heartstrings is they shared their imagination and gave so much of their time to create this for me.....and speaking of time, our sweet daughter melissa drove a five-hour-round-trip on sunday just so i could spend the day with her!  our kids have been adults for several years now, but as a mom, i think you always keep them under your wing, no matter how old they get.....and when they give such gifts of themselves, there's no greater joy in knowing you are so abundantly blessed!

thank you to my little dutch sweetie,  melissa, spencer, and tatiana

for a truly fabulous mother's day!!  love you, xox

inspiration monday

one of the best things about making a new journal for yourself is deciding how you're going to fill it up!   for me, that means coming up with a "theme" that really, really inspires me.....because if i'm not inspired, i'm not going to want to work in it.  but with this journal, i've already discovered that sometimes inspiration will lead you down a path that you kinda wish you hadn't gone down.....

because even though this topic really, really inspires me, i may have bitten off a little more than i can chew!  i found myself drawing tons of lines and details that started to make my eyes cross, but once i added some watercolor......

it all became a lot clearer to me that when you're really, really inspired by something....

(okay, i'm beyond inspired with this topic....it's more like borderline obsessed!)

it's worth pushing yourself through, because when you're done, you'll overlook all those slightly wonky, wavy, and a little off-kilter lines that you just drew, and instead, look forward to the next path your obsession inspiration will take you!!


{i created this downton artwork using koi watercolors, waterbrush, pitt pens,
derwent inktense pencils, uniball signo white gel pen, 6B graphite pencil}

love and wisdom from mom

moms are a wealth of wisdom, and they always give the best advice....

it's their own special way of telling us they love us.

and with all this advice and wisdom floating around,
there's no doubt they sure do love us an awful lot!!  :))

happy mother's day to all of you sweet bloggy moms!

p.s.  this is dedicated to one of my best friends in the whole world:  my mom!  
i love you mom!  xox


{supplies:  moleskine journal, koi watercolors, derwent watercolor pencils,
pitt pens, 6B graphite pencil, waterbrush}

inspiration monday

  a while back, i saw teesha moore demonstrate her amazing 16-page journal in this video, and i fell in love with it!  but her journal measures 8x10" and i prefer to work on a smaller canvas, so i made some variations to the template and came up with a journal format that i have since used for my pottery barn journal, and elvie studio journal.  my version is 5x7"and uses only half of a large sheet of watercolor paper......and there's just enough pages inside to inspire me, but not so many pages to make me feel overwhelmed!

this weekend i got out some paper and thread and made a new blank journal, but this time i was inspired to use a 5-hole stitch instead of the 3-hole stitch to bind it together.
if you'd like to make one too, here are a couple of videos showing how to do it!

                        



                        

when you discover a blank journal that rocks your world, it's easy to find yourself with an entire collection of them!  i hope you have fun making these!  :))

here are the supplies i used:

fabriano artistico 140 lb. HP paper

4-ply waxed linen thread

needle

book awl or paper piercer

large paper clips

ruler, pencil, scissors

 {the martha stewart scoring board isn't essential (but it's great, treat yourself!).....

you can read more about it here!}