Creativity Queue Challenge

I'm great at starting projects.

Well known spaz that I am, I have a steady stream of good ideas and enough creative energy to try them all!

But finishing projects?

welll......er....uh......

not so much.

Enter the ever-inspiring Tammy at Daisy Yellow.

She's challenging us to tackle one or more of the creative things we've started and haven't quite gotten around to finishing.  The challenge is going on for the next few weeks and she's encouraging everyone to tackle something in their queue and then link up at her site.

(Go here to see the details)

SO.

As one of the hosts of today's challenge, I have decided to tackle some of my PILES.

you know the ones.

These are partial piles. One is a pile of excellent mail art I've received.  The other is a pile of loose sketches and journal pages.  I "keep meaning to do something" with them.  Meanwhile the piles grow.

The mail art problem was solved with a tip from Diana Trout's blog and a rewards certificate from Staples.  I bought myself this cool gadget:

It's a fancy hole punch for the staples line of Arc system notebooks.  I have no use for the notebooks themselves, but with this hole punch and the cheap plastic discs that go with it, I can make my own little books in a flash.  Now I probably wouldn't have dropped the $40 if I hadn't just happened to have $40 in rewards certificates that were about to expire, but I'm glad I bought it because it's a great way to organize the beautiful little works of art I get in the mail.

Here's one of the books I made.

It's roughly 6"x12"

Here's a lovely little postcard from Corrine, inserted into the hole puncher:

And here's a great postcard from Jill with the holes already punched:

I admit I wince every time I punch into a  card, but ultimately I've decided that keeping them in these cool books means I will LOOK at them and enjoy them on a regular basis, instead of keeping them in piles and boxes where they don't get seen.  I'd rather have slightly damaged art that I enjoy than pristine art I never see.

Here's a shot of the funky little discs that serve as the binding - each black circle is an individual piece.  You pop them into the grooves made by the hole punch.  The come in different sizes and you can make your spine as long (or short) as the papers you're binding:

What I particularly like is that I can include cards of all different shapes and sizes.  

I can easily pop them out and put them back in and rearrange the pages.

Some cards can't be punched (like the ones made with fabric or wood), so I punch holes in an envelope and stick the card in that pocket - like this awesome one from Mad Madge

Now I've got two fabulous binders full of gorgeous mail art.

On to the next pile!

I'm not very particular with the materials I use to create.  When inspiration strikes, I grab what's nearby.  I end up with a lot of loose journal pages on cardstock, and sketches on all sorts of odd paper.  These are generally not master works.  I'm not going to hang them on the wall.  I'm not going to send them to anyone in the mail.  I may or may not scan them and blog about them.  But I want to keep them because they mark my journey and progress as an artist. So I glue them into various books.  Or at least I PLAN to glue them in.  Mostly I just pile them up on TOP of those books "for later".

So yesterday was "later" and I spent 20 minutes with scissors, a glue stick and double sided tape and my piles are gone!

Here are the two books I used.  The one of the left was a damaged library discard, but as a bird lover I adore that cover.  The one of the right is a large sketchbook with a collaged cover.

 The sketchbook is easy to fill.  Find a blank space anywhere in the book and slap things down with a glue stick.  

 The bird book required a wee bit more effort (but not much).
I didn't want to obscure the edges of my loose pages, so I use the "tip in" method to adhere them.

I cut out a page of the book, leaving about an inch sticking out from the binding:

I run some double sided tape along the back edge of the loose page.  I forget what this tape is called but it's awesome.  It was highly recommended in the altered book class on flutterbye.  I got it at Michael's in the scrapbooking section.  It looks red on the roll, but that red part peels off to reveal the sticky side.

Slide the paper with the exposed sticky side under the little flap

rub it down so it sticks.  Adhere another page in the same way to the back of this page

And there you have it, a bunch of new pages in this journal.

Big thanks to Tammy for inspiring me to finish these projects.

So, what's in your queue?

And what are you waiting for?

Head on over to Daisy Yellow to get inspired and share what you've accomplished.