My first crafting challenge entry

I have recently plunged into the online craft world. Looking at blogs, perusing contests, and buying a bunch of crafting materials on Amazon! I am filled with anticipation, it's a lot to take in. With the inspiration of one blog in particular, "Oops I Craft My Pants," which I will credit when I find the best way to go about doing so, I have started making my own journals. I'm proud of the work I have done so far, but I'm also excited to do much, much more.

This notebook fits into the parameters of the August challenge at the Unique Crafters Challenge Blog. It's all about using sparkle.

I made this notebook in a few days and it was going to have peacock feathers all over the front. I changed it because I didn't want to waste that many feathers on one project, hah!

I like to do as much as I can by hand, or by found or recycled items. The front and back covers, for instance are from a box that held something electronic of my boyfriend, Destin's. I turned them sideways so I could take advantage of the cut out for a finger grab. I covered it with two sheets of this nice green tissue paper. I probably should have done three layers. Luckily you can only see the barcode if you look close enough ;)

I drew the elephant with permanent marker and cut it out of brown cardstock, I got the template for the elephant from a gift tag I got at World Market. And when I think about elephants I can't help but relate my note taking to their known ability of storing memories. Thus the elephant notebook is born!

Sparkly both with the grass and the rhinestones. I figured a lovingly adorned eastern elephant would only walk on sparkling grass under sparkling clouds. The clouds being the lacy ribbon that I dyed just a touch with some watered down India ink. Then I added a bit of Kansas City with the top of a Boulevard Smokestack Series cork and a watch piece for the time-telling sun.

Blamo!