Altered Books and Storage

So today I set out to find some books with good binding so that I am able to alter them into art journals. I used Christy from Gulfsprite's video to help me find good books to use. I absolutely love all her altered art journals and wanted to try books instead of making my own, although I love making my own too!! :) You can check out her video here... CLICK ME ! I went to the Goodwill store in my area and to my surprise they had a large selection of books that were donated. I spent at least 30 minutes looking through the different books for the right binding. I was looking for signatures that were sewed in as apposed to glued. I found plenty. I chose these 3 because of the size. They are not to large and don't have that many pages as larger pages and books tend to intimated me :(. 

They all have signatures that are sewed in and nice thick pages that I think would be good for altering. I can't wait to get started!! They were only 1.99 each!! This was the first time I had ever been to a Goodwill store and surprised to see all the things that people donate and how big some of the selections were. I have already started another art journal (one that i made) so now I have motivation to finish that one so I can start with one of these books.  I also went to Goodwill looking for storage help. As you have viewed in one of my previous post about my small craft area, I need storage solutions. I didn't find anything that I could use. :( In cleaning out my daughters room I came across this plastic 3 draw thingie (I don't know what they are called) that she wasn't using and fit perfectly in the little space that I had by my desk. It got me in the mood to clean and go through some of my scrap stuff to see if anything could be given away or eliminated. I am very happy with the out come. With this new added storage I was able to clear more space off my desk and from one of the cubby holes in my desk. I used it to store my scraps, stamps and supplies (pastels, watercolor pencils, pens, color pencils ect. ) This
                                                           

makes me happy. I now feel like I  more space although I probably don't its just now I more organized which is good too. Now comes the big project, making room for the baby! I was thinking about getting a corner desk to see if that helps with room. I think it will I saw one and it was only $119 at Ikea. I might have to invest.

Well i'm going finish washing clothes and to art journal now thanks for reading!!

My First COMPLETE Art Journal!!!

So after 14 months, yes over a year, I finally completed my first art journal! I am so excited and can't explain the feeling of it finally being complete. I keep flipping through it and I am amazed. I did a youtube video and will post some detailed pics of the pages. In other news we had our 2nd trimester ultrasound and found out we were having a BOY!! We are so excited!! I had already started shopping and bought all boy stuff so happy that I don't have to make a trip back to the store.  Some of my pages may reflect classes that I took with some of the awesome art teachers on the web. I really enjoyed all the classes and I am slowly coming up with my own style. It's very exciting to see how me and my art has grown over the year. Anywho here are the pics... hope you enjoy!

It's finally complete!

the first page

page from 30 days of art journaling with gulfsprite 

class with Ady Almanza

class with Ady Almanza

page from 30 days of art journaling with gulfsprite 

I misspelled doodle lol but i still love this page

One of my favorite pages

first time attempting a transfer and it didn't work :(

part of a class I was taking with Willowing

Halloween 

So this is the last page and it reads "what we call the beginning is often the end, and to make and end is to make a beginning. The end is where we start from...."

Love that quote and its very fitting for the start of my next art journal that hopefully will not take me an entire year to finish lol. 

Giveaway WINNER!!

I know I promised to post the winner yesterday but I was feeling a bit under the weather. :( So since there were so few entries to the giveaways (which makes me sad :( , only 7 entries total from my blog and youtube) I decided to combine the entries and will do just one big giveaway instead of 2 smaller ones. I put all the names in a list:

1. Linais Jorge
2. bb smith
3. Maria H.
4. Ayseperla81
5. Ezia Auditore
6. maria (from my blog)
7. Maria (from my blog)

I went to random.org and use the random number generator and this is what number it came up with:

#3  MARIA H. is the WINNER!!! Congratulations!! Please email me at scrapcorner25@gmail.com with your info so I can send off your package.

I would love to do another giveaway before the end of the year so keep a watch out and we will see, hopefully we have more people sign up next time!! :)

Motivation

I’ve been having so many problems getting motivated to scrap, junk journal or art journal.  I know its partially because of my scrap area. After I got married I moved from my mothers house into a 2 bedroom apartment with my husband and child. We are hoping to get a house by the summer of next year but I still need a space to scrap and journal until then. Most of my scrap stuff is still at my moms house because I just don't have the space here. 

I have a small corner in my room where my desk and “stuff” is set up at the moment but it just feels so crowed to me and it doesn’t make me want to be creative. On top of that im 20 weeks pregnant and I have been wrecking my brain to come up with a solution for keeping my scrap area and having an area in my room for the baby. Not an easy task at all. My room is not small but not big enough for a desk and a crib. Something  has to to go and it looks like it will be my desk, which would mean no more scrapping until we get our house unless I come up with something.  So there is the layout of the room and currently trying to figure something out. We have the TV on a TV stand now but if we mount it that would add more space and I would prolly be able to fit everything. We will see!! I will have to keep you guys updated on my progress!!

I have also been working on more flowers!!! I have a simple flower I have made here and if anyone would like a tutorial just let meknow and I will be glad to do one for you!!  The blue flower is made from one of my husbands old work shirts that got tore and the other one is made from poly satin. I got the poly satin at hobby lobby!

Now for some fun stuff! GIVEAWAY! 

So like I posted I am going to do 2 giveaways. One here on my blog and one on my youtube channel. You can sign up for one or both to double your luck. If you win both then I will just send you one BIG gift. Here are the rules:

1. If you sign up for either giveaway you must be either a follower of my blog or a subscriber to my youtube channel. 
2. Leave me a comment under this here post, if you have any suggestions for my room that would be GREAT!!! ; For youtube leave me a comment under the giveaway video!!
3. You have a week to enter. The deadline is Oct. 13 and I will announce both winners on Oct 15^th. 
4. Good Luck!! 

Update and GIVEAWAYS!!!!

I have been so busy since the last time I posted. I have really got to do better with this blog thing. I love to write and share but just simply can’t find the time. Since December I have moved, gotten engaged, married and I am 4 months pregnant!! I, WE are so excited! We are hoping for a boy but really want a happy healthy baby. With that being said you can see why I haven’t had a chance to update my blog. Now that I am some what settled, I have sometime to write and maybe even more time to scrap/art journal.  I started a new journal (junk journal/smash book) but still have not finished my last one. :( I only have about 6 more pages and then I will be done and I can do a journal flip! Also I must confess Pinterest is taking up a lot of my scrapping time.  So many cool things and DIY projects and just pure awesomeness. I can just sit there for hours and hours and just look at all the different things. You can follow me and my pins at Cristina Robinson!

On to exciting news!!

GIVEAWAY TIME!!

I have decided that I am going to do 2 small giveaways in honor of all of my youtube subscribers and my blog followers. You are welcome to sign up for both or just one, its all up to you.  I will be posting more info for the giveaways in the next few days so keep a look out!! Check out my youtube video here.

Zenspriations

So I finally got in the art journaling mode and I am so super excited. I created these two pages tonight and I am quite happy with both of them. The first page "Zendoddle Practice" took me a few days but it was worth it. I just love how it came out. I tried a few new techniques that I learned on youtube for the background and I can't say enough how I love it!! I want to learn some more zentangle patterns and do another page similar to this one. The next page that I did had more doodling in it. I am not so happy with that one though. I have mixed thoughts about the butterfly. I was inspired to this one because of Joanne Fink. Click here for her youtube video. Really thats

where I got all my inspiration from. The letters in my other page were her creation too. She is a very talented lady!! I just love this background though. I started off with collaging some scrap paper and then I painted over with a cream color. I did some stenciling but didn't like how it turned out so I wiped away the stenciling and painted blue with a dry brush. I then sprayed it with white ink and then did my butterfly and my journaling. LOVE IT!! Its like 2am and I want to do another page but I should be going to sleep now lol. Hope you enjoy!!

Abandonment Issues??

I think I have some serious abandonment issues. The last time I blogged was at the beginning of the year and now look, its December. True I am in school, have a 6 year old daughter, work, but I still am trying to find time for my crafting and blogging. I have somewhat abandoned scrapbooking... wait let me correct that I HAVE abandoned scrapbooking and I am more focused on developing my art. I started my first art journal back in October of 2010 abandoned it and never finished. I tried again and started another one in August and it has been abandoned also. My problem is that I am a YouTube JUNKIE!!! :) At this present time in my art journey, I have not developed my own "style". Its so much that I want to try that I have seen from artist such as; Willowing, Mystel, Christy (Gulfsprite), Ande, Samara Gugler... the list goes on. Also another problem I have is when I see a new "type" of art journal I want to try it. I have made about 4 or 5 handmade art journals but I can't seem to get any art to stay in any of them. My latest journal (the one with the coptic stitch) is about half way complete. I am trying to force myself to complete it but its so hard!! :( I just want to start another journal and move on. I have bought several that I want to dip my paint brush into but I am reframing... Good thing is that I am out of school...for now and will have a little time to start trying to develop a style that I can call my own.

There is a year long art journaling class that I am thinking about signing up for that Tam is hosting on her ning site . I think if i signed up it would help me find time to art journal throughout my busy schedule. I would like that.

Hope this is not the end to another year long post from me. :) I want to start making more YouTube videos. I have so many subscribers to my channel that I feel I need to give them something to watch lol. I will work on that. Part of my New Years resolution is to make more time for my crafting, and to get back into scrapbooking. I have so many pictures of my daughter that I have not scrapped, it is a true shame. Now its time for more YouTube videos and maybe a little art journaling tonight. :) Maybe I should do a video... or maybe not lol. I am a bit tired.

NEGLECT???

I have so been neglecting my blog :( I am such a bad blogger lol shame on me. I have been so busy. I figured since it was a new year that I would at least try to post once a week.

WHATS NEW??

I haven't really been in the scrapbooking mood lately so its been a while since i scraped. I have been art journaling. It is soooo much fun I love it. I am such a youtube junkie when it comes to art journaling. I love watching and learning from everyone. I am participating in Steff's tag swap again and I can't wait to see what kind of tags i get for Feb. (The month of loovvveee) I will try to use them in my art journal. Next month I have to take my HESI (nursing entrance exam) so im nervous and excited about that. I take it on Feb. 26 so i have sometime to study. Lets see what else is going on thats new... I started school on Tuesday and I am really enjoying my classes. I wanna get back to scrapbooking but with my schedule right now i only have time for one craft a week. :( So i choose art journaling :) I wish I could just stay at home and craft all day long..... I will try and post some of my art journal entries and hopefully start scrapbooking again because the pictures just keep piling up, I have sooo many :( Well thats all for this post. I will try and stick to my once a week posting but lets see how that goes :)

Flowers and Ballet...

Well this week has gone by pretty quick. My daughter started ballet on Monday and I was so excited. Here is my little princess....

Doesn't she look just like a little ballerina?? :) We had so much fun, me more so than her lol. She also wants to take swimming lessons. My my my she is going to keep me busy this school year!! :)

I had mentioned in one of my earlier post that I am hosting a flower swap over at scrapbook.com. Here is a sneak peak of what the ladies in the swap will be recieving from me. I hope they like them :).

Ok well I have a test tomorrow so enough scrapping and I must get back to my studies!!

SWAPS, SWAPS, SWAPS and more SWAPS

A lot has been going on since I last made a post. Im in so many swaps its crazy. I am hosting a flower swap on scrapbook.com. I have started making my flowers and wow I am so happy with them. This is my first flower swap. I have already recieved flowers from on of the ladies thats in the swap and they are beautiful. I can't wait to see the rest. I also just signed up for Steff's image tag swap over at her blog. I am also doing a swap on the beach , a mini album kit swap, and my partner is from Greece!! I am sooo excited about that one too. When everything comes in I will do a video and post some pictures. My daughter starts dance classes on Monday and I think I am a little more excited then she is lol :). I've been in school 2 weeks and I am already going crazy. Trying to manage time for studying with everything else thats going on is finally trying to work itself out. After I am done with this flower swap I will host another one also and maybe even a pin swap too. We will see ;).

First Day of School!!

Today was my baby's first day of kindergarden. Oh my how the grow up so quick!! I am glad to say that she had a good first day and even though we had a little problem (her not wanting to take her vitamin) this morning lol it all went well. She is so excited and already telling me about things that they are going to be accomplishing this year!!

She looks soooo cute!!!

As some of you know I am a member on the beach and we had our beachiversary crop Saturday and there were 6 challenges. I completed 2 and I won one!!! I was soooo excited. My prize is a mini album kit by Kathryn from Basic Grey. I am soooo excited and can't wait to see it.

On the other hand I am NOT looking forward to starting school next week. I have to keep reminding myself that I am almost finish. :( !! To make my self feel better about starting school next week and realizing I will have very little time to scrap, I went to Michaels and Hobby Lobby to see what Halloween things they had out for my mini. They haven't really put much out but I bought some stamps and paper and ribbon. I will keep checking back. They had these cute scary looking skeletons. I started a paper bag mini for halloween and I didn't like it so I threw it away and I am starting again :(. Well thats all for now check back later to see whats going on in my corner!! :)

My very 1st Mini

Hi I am so excited to say that I finished my very first mini album. It took a few days but I love it and can't wait to make another one!! I have the video posted on youtube and you can also check it out here. I am thinking about doing a Halloween or Christmas mini. I am not sure yet but with all the new paper collections comming out I can't wait to try some of them. I also like Tim Holtz new Halloween stamps too :) Very spooky lol. I have uploaded so close up pics of the mini that I did.

I have completed the image tag swap and I need to post a video. It was easy and very fun. I got back some awesome image tags and I plan on signing up next month to do it again!! Back to school back to school :(. I am planning on doing another mini real soon. Im going out today to try and find a paper collection that i like. If you have any questions or comments just leave them and let me know what you think!! Bye