Dedra Long is back!

My darling young friend, Dedra Long, has returned to blogland! Yaaaaaaayy! I couldn't be happier today if you told me it was the 4th of July! OMG, it's the first of July....celebrate people! Independence. Freedom. The right to be HAPPY!!! Yes! We have the "right" to be happy! No one is going to stop us from smiling, or whistling a tune....from singing out loud or dancing in the street! (ok, maybe the street's are off limits to dancing, but hey, you know what I mean! What I'd give to be one of the flashmob that danced to the Black Eyed Peas on Oprah...that was SO COOL!!) So, do you get it? I'm happy. I'm happy to be alive, I'm happy that I discovered scrapbooking again after so many years, and I'm happy that Dedra is back! I love Dedra. If I had a daughter I would wish for her to be Dedra. Yeah, I would.

If you go waay back to this post...you'll see where I bought one of Dedra's books and loved it so very much! I wanted to journal in it and make it pretty with bows and ribbons and adornments from years gone by. I wanted it to look like one of Dedra's books.....oops


But it was MY book now, made by Dedra, but MY book. Wow....I had to chew on that for a while 'cause you see, I don't journal. Never have. Can't be bothered and believe me, I've tried. I hate journaling....(is that one l or two?) So here I am, almost TWO YEARS later....TWO YEARS!!! and Dedra's book is still Dedra's book. I haven't done a damn thing to make it mine...I just look at it and dust it off on occasion. Until now....wanna see? I think I can show you a page but that's about all because it's PERSONAL! I'm using Dedra's book as my PERSONAL Art Journal and I love it. Okay, here's a page in progress...but I'm only showing this for Dedra, the rest of you close your eyes.



So there it is. One little page consisting of water colors, acrylic paint, some gesso and glue, an old tag that I love, and lots of pink. Look closely, you just might see my soul.

Welcome back, Dedra, and thank you for making art journaling a part of my life, long before I was ready for it.

Look what I found...

Who cares that it cost $17.95 for this itty bitty book from Scrapbook Trends? (My stomach... when it realizes I blew my lunch fund for the rest of the week.) But it's SO darn cute! And it's filled with pictures of my favorite things....mini albums! Lots and lots of mini albums!

I know I would have bought this book anyway, but knowing ahead of time that Dedra Long had one of her albums published in it was my biggest motivator. No, that's not true... it was THE motivator. I saw the book. I picked it up. I bought it. And here it is...another fab little 'out of the box' album by Dedra Long. I adore her albums. One of these days.....

Yeah, one of these days I'm going to throw caution to the wind. I'm going to break out of my conservative little shell and go wild. I'm going to decorate my blog with color....hmmm, color. I could do that. You watch. One of these days.

Mini Albums and... Iggydodie!

I love mini albums, so when I found Iggydodie at the Two Peas gallery I was immediately blown away. Her fondness for mini albums is obvious, and she's made a ton of them, all with that wonderful European flair that I find so charming and romantic. She's also on the Design Team at One Page At A Time and they have a lot of her layouts displayed there. Awesome! A big WOW factor here.

Take a look for yourself!

Dedra Long

dedra's altered book 13
Originally uploaded by Noell

I love this book. I want this book. This is the kind of book that makes me want to sit and slowly turn the pages, while my eyes absorb every beautiful ribbon and trinket adorned there. To me, this is a BEAUTIFUL book, and creating beautiful books is something that Dedra Long just happens to be very good at.

Some people have a knack for putting a lot of stuff together in a way that is pleasing to the eye. I've tried to embellish pages this way and I can tell you, it's not as easy as it looks if it doesn't come naturally. My pages looked messy, uninviting and unattractive....overdone. Dedra's are just right. So I will learn yet to enjoy my own conservative style, while I admire the free spirit of Dedra's books.