Grow your blog!

Welcome to the "Grow Your Blog" party!  It's exciting to see that over 500 blogs are participating ... I am thrilled to be one of them!

My friends call me Jo ... and I write here in this little bit of space out in blogland ... my blog is called "My Paper Playhouse" due to both my love of paper and my love of play ...

I am a scrapbooker and cardmaker, who is also passionate about art journalling and altering objects ... to me there is nothing more fun than getting my hands inky and painty and sticky with glue!  Somehow from out of all of this chaos I manage to make a few projects I love!  I also love fabric and in the past have made clothes, quilts and dolls ... but right now my focus is paper.

I thought i would share a couple of little items i have altered in the past ...
I made this little vintage style spoolie for a "spoolie" swap ... i actually used a vintage thread spool ...

 and a little house, perched on a matchbox for another little swap ...

I love vintage and i also love spooky ... this is a little table, complete with a thick book of spells i made for halloween... the book of spells was carved from an old full sized book.

This is a fun little art journalling page i did for a challenge group!  The prompt was "somewhere, a simple place" and this is what I came up with...  I do love mixing vintage images into my art journalling.

For those of you that have read all of the way down to this point, i am offering a small giveaway to celebrate this blog party.  I am making 4 vintage styled greeting cards with coordinating envelopes (picture will be up in a couple of days ... yes i do procrastinate)/  If you want to be entered simply leave me a comment on this post.  I will do a random draw on February 15th and announce the winner at that time!  I will also add in a couple of little paper play goodies!

Thank you so much for stopping by!  Enjoy the blog hop ... just click the "Grow Your Blog" button up top right, to see all of the other participants!

peace, love & paper
jo

a little play time ...

I had time to play with some wonderful friends last week ... I started in on my new mixed media project ... a little book that i think i will call "empress jo's book of faeries" ... (the nick name was given to me by a good friend.)

I am altering an existing book, and it's my first time doing this so i am crossing my fingers that it will go well.  I am trying to marry a couple of my favourite things, mainly vintage, faeries and mixed media ... it's definitely a work in progress ....


It is always so much fun to craft with friend ... especially when we are enjoying a wee tipple of sherry after lunch! you can see my work in progress at the bottom of the photo.

 Sue makes the most wonderful cards ... so fab to see her in her creative zone!

My first page, finished .... I also did this page for an art journalling challenge ... the theme was "up, up and away" ... I used a vintage faerie image ...

My second page has a completely different tone ... when i saw this vintage image I thought that she must be high society ... yet very forlorn ...  no theme here, just my own tongue in cheek narrative ...

Thank you for taking the time to stop by for a peek!  You comments are always cherished!

peace, love and paper!!!

jo

the last of Christmas gifts ...

Here we go ... the last gift i made this Christmas.  This one was made for my Mom and Dad ... Growing up we always had large family and friend gatherings on the the night before Christmas ... food, fun and festivities and singing.  The hi-lite of these evenings was always The 12 days of Christmas.  My mom and dad would diviy up the group and assign numbers! and then the hilarity began as each little group stood up and sang their part.

So when i found this Tim Holtz configurations box with 12 boxes, and Graphic 45's 12 Days of Christmas paper, well I just had to make a memory gift for my parents.

The outside front cover of the configuations "book"...

close up of the dangling crystal and the hand died ribbon...

and a little close up of the flowers and buttons adorning the cover page ... i hand coloured and tinted most of the flowers and added wee bits of glitter to them...

 This is the book when it opens up ... I cut each image from the patterned paper and used a lot of dimension in assembling the little boxes ...

 A close up of the inside ... the lantern is also Tim Holtz and it really works ...  i used bits of glitter ... a vintage necklace, bottle brush trees, mini deer (okay i know there are no deer in the song but they were soooo darn cute!) and various other bits ...

Thanks so much for stopping by and taking a peak ... I really was thrilled with the way this piece turned out!

peace love and paper!
jo

The other side of Christmas ...

staring through the window of a local coffee shop i am reminded that we are now on the "other" side of Christmas ....

The tree is down ... and in the neighbourhood houses are being stripped of their bright lights ... the roadside is littered with dumped real trees .... all of my much treasured decorations are safely packed away ... and now i don't know if my house looks "crisp & clean" or totally devoid of personality ...

I love Christmas decor and crafts ... so this year I am aiming to create at least one Christmas gift, or decor item each month ... Yup .... thats my plan ...

but before i start ... i just wanted to share a few little Christmas projects from last year ...

I made loads of these paper ornaments using a Tim Holtz die from last year ... they were fun to make but time consuming ... each one was individually inked and then glittered ... but they made gifts or sat in the tree oh so pretty!

little tins decorated and ready to go ... and one sitting in the tree!

I also made loads of paper stars to decorate gifts .... also made with a Tim Holtz die

And finally a tiny altered altoids tin ...

and when the lid is opened ....

who doesn't want Paris at their fingertips!!!  ... a little "desk" gift for a friend ... I printed the little Paris from Made by Joel, which has other pocket sized cities as well as colouring pages for kids ... and hey, big kids as well ... and now ... Paris ... anytime, anywhere!

I have one more project to share with you  ... but that will have to wait until another day .... my pile of laundry is calling me back to reality ...

Thanks so much for stopping by!
Peace, love & paper!
Jo