My Friendly Neighborhood Map

♥♥♥ 

First of all...can't quite believe it, but I'm the Spotlight Artist for the awesome The Documented Life Project! I feel very honoured to be featured! Thank you, thank you, thank you Roben-Marie, Rae, Lorraine, and Sandi! 

See it HERE! 

♥♥♥

Edit: I have to post my favorite picture of this post. Why I like it so much? It's testament to what I've been learning from all the amazing artists in the DLP group! NEVER EVER thought that I'd be able to create something like this! So, if you feel like a total newbie, unable to create anything fantastic, think like that no more. If you want to learn, you CAN! 

Week 47 Challenge - Add a map of your town, state or country.  Document about this map.

Week 47 weekly spread with tip-in closed. I chose to create a map of my own backyard. :) I wasn't going for accuracy, but to highlight my favourite spots. I used various watercolor paints.

Spent HOURS pouring over map designs, both in books in our home library, on Pinterest, etc before I started my own. I have often wanted to make a map of where I live, and this challenge gave me a good reason to do it! The main feature is our acreage, with notable areas where we have created memories in the two years since we moved here. :)

Most of the acreages in the subdivision are covered in trees, so the trees represent forest. 

Love the compass rose. I remember learning about it while studying geography and mapping with my kids. I chose to go with a doodle-style instead of the many intricate traditional designs out there. I made up names of our roads. Fun to create a "story". 

Open fields, ponds, picket fences, lots of trees, great neighbors...I love our home and neighbors! 

Good friends, chicken coops, dandelion fields.

See the letters A to O? I have labeled special spots where I've taken photos of the kids playing or areas of interest and beauty. On the other side of the tip in I have included the photos with the corresponding letter and the journaling. Will get to that part after I've shown you what the tip-in looks like on the other side  (opened).

♥ Photo "M" is of my youngest amongst the dandelions. He just loved the dandelions this year, and pointed them out to me often on our walks. 

♥ Photo "O" is of the neighborhood "lake" during spring run-off, which was a result of a clogged culvert. Mine and the neighbour kids all collected their "boats" (the winter sleds) and had a day of "boating". :)

♥ Photo "P" is our mailbox. My boys leaped up onto the mailboxes to look at my youngest's happy mail he received one day. :)

See the letter A on the map? It's my sweater tree! Actually I have two that I've yarnbombed.  

I love close-ups! I crocheted these happy circle motifs last summer. Or was it winter? I can't remember!

Back to the opened tip-in.

Four tags displayed that flip UP to see photos and the journaling. The tags are index cards I have arted up that were among my art journaling stash.

The header design for Week 47 in my planner was inspired by a Target body pillow cover I own. :) Inspiration is everywhere, right? :)

I love type written with a water brush filled with ink. The tags are all tied with old waxy flax from my scrapbooking days. I made a border and colored in with a water brush as well.

The black and white alphabet is just a sampler of letters I created using a font on my computer. I used my scrapbooking software program called Lumapix FotoFusion to make it. I attached each of the four tags with thin washi tape. Need to go back and glue the tape in, as it is coming apart...

This tag was created with layering multiple of colors and mediums. I learned about layering methods in the Create It Mail It Alter It class. I am absolutely thrilled with all the techniques I have learned! Do check out this great class! It's by the Art to the 5th Ladies, creators of the Documented Life Project. The class is geared towards learning all about altering your mail art, but you can apply the techniques elsewhere. I think you have to join the Academy first before you are able to sign up/purchase the class.

The tags overlap each other when they are open. 

Each photo I included are from my Instagram. I printed them off for free at Prinkl, cut them out, and adhered them to the tags. The journaling is done on the facing area of each tag. These are older photos. I basically just copied the words I had written on IG to this project.

A different view of the first two tags open. I colored reinforcements you find in the stationery aisle of any store, and attached them to the tag. Each photo has the lowercase letter matching the uppercase letter on the map. I punched a small opening in each photo to accomodate the little letters.

View of the last two tags open. Can't have them open all at once, as they're attached facing each other on the page. For the journaling area, and the back of the tags, I smudged some Dylusions ink to the white cardstock to add some color. 

There are actually THREE flips. You lift the page of tags to reveal the last page. See below.

Completely open, It's kinda plain at this point, but it'll be filled in as I journal our days. See what I wrote on Tuesday?!? Yes, Artist Spotlight for DLP. Pinch me, as I still can't believe they would choose me. Thanks so much for taking the time to read my blog, everyone! (My feature got bumped up to Wednesday.)

An old Gelli-print, using a doily for texture and stencil. White Signo Uniball pen for the words and doodles.

And, there you have it! Thanks for coming by! Always appreciate comments to let me know you were here. 

Happy Creating! Loving DLP 2014! Looking forward to next year! See you all on the Academy and the FB page. :)