After my great grandmother passed away, they went through her house. A lot of stuff just went to the estate sale, but they kept a few things. Everyone in my family knows I love to craft. I got that from my mammaw who got it from grandma. So, when they were going through her things, they found this book that they thought I would love. And they were right. An entire book on pantyhose crafts.
Have I tried any of these? Absolutely not. Am I horrified by some of these, absolutely.
The best part of this book, and the part that made me sob, was a doodle grandma made. She loved to doodle on pieces of scrap paper. This one was on the back of a grocery list.
I have always been interested in collage or more specifically speaking taking magazine or other ephemera and putting it in more aesthetically pleasing way (to me obviously, everyone’s opinions about what is pleasing to the eye differs especially in collage.)
It started with my mammaw. We’d cut things out of construction paper and make little scenes in a notebook. Then in my late tweens/early teens, I would destroy Seventeen, Glamour, and Teen Bop magazines. Cut out the interesting bits and reorder them into new outfits, or more pleasing room decor. Then over the years starting into my thirties, I picked up the hobby of destroying magazines again. I would cut out my favorite parts to glue into journals. This continued off and on till I was 42 and found junk journaling. I dipped my toes in and found I really liked it. For whatever reason I didn’t keep it up. A couple of months ago I picked up the hobby again. I blame Insta and Reels.
I’m still finding a groove/style. And it’s hard to be consistent in the practice because I keep jumping back & forth in living locations. While this hobby uses less resources than say painting, I still have created a large stash that would be too difficult to carry with me.
I’ve found a shop I love for specific, detailed and themed ephemera. Cora Crea Crafts is the name of the shop. https://coracreacrafts.com. I rely on Amazon for the filler pieces. I use a multimedia spiral sketchbook for thick paper and room to expand. Layes of paper on a page adds up and will make for a thick journal.
Best of all, through the shop, I found a very active Discord group. They are super supportive. There are daily and monthly prompts that challenges you to be think out of the box. It makes me try themes I’d never think of otherwise-like the Olympics or journaling a spread about my favorite book.
Here are a few of my favorites.
Can you guess the book?Would never in a million years think I would have used sports stickers.Tolkien ThemeJungle ThemeLemon ThemeRandom one I made inspired by some pics a friend sent me.Mg first themed spread of a 1950s kitchen vibe. This was the first time I stretched my stash and made me think in a different, specific mindset.
Recently mom gave me several of these containers to upcyle/recycle to store crafts.
I decided that it was too boring, too plain. It needed decorations. So one day, with my collection of Sharpie markers, I began to doodle.
The third side is by far my favorite. I found the art deco pattern in a pattern book and it was a lot of fun recreating it on the side of the container. The purple color always makes me happy too.
The best part is that I have one more side that is incomplete. It’s just waiting for me to fill the blank canvas.
My Plucky Life 