It's VSN Challenge Time!

Good evening, everyone!  Most of my posts are early morning posts, or in the wee hours posts, but this one is coming to you at 9 p.m. EDT courtesy of Splitcoaststampers Virtual Stamp Night!  It's a virtual stamp weekend, really, with challenges from 5-9 EDT tonight and then again tomorrow from 1-10 p.m. EDT.  Our theme this Spring is April Fools.  I'm hosting the 9 p.m. challenge tonight and I'm hoping that you'll join me!

I am hooked on Traveler's Notebooks!  I got my first one last year when we were traveling to Italy for our chorale tour.  Little did I know how obsessed I would become, or that there's a whole TN community of TN lovers out there!  Anyway, since then I have grown to adore my TN even more, and because the legend of April Fool's Day is calendar-associated, my love for my TN inspired my challenge.  :) 

All you have to do is to take your planner, calendar, or to-do list, and make it pretty.  Stamp, paint, draw, doodle...find a way to transform the ordinary into something beautiful that transcends the everyday, that speaks to your spirit to bring calm, energy, or enthusiasm for the (often mundane) tasks at hand.

I use my TN to keep track of everything! If it isn't written down, it pretty much doesn't happen! It serves as a reminder to drink my water (especially on concert day!), to take my supplements and meds, pay bills, keep appointments, etc. It also functions as a food planner/diary, a to-do list, a journal and sometimes even a scrapbook/sketchbook.

I have found that a beautiful page in my TN can make even the most mundane of tasks more enjoyable. It's a great place to experiment and discover how colors play together, how various mediums interact, even to discover good ways to fix oopsies (like how to cover up the mistake I made when I forgot to mask the 31 when stamping the calendar for April).

I use de Atramentis Document Black ink in my Lamy Safari fountain pen to write in my journal before any using water-based media. I hand-letter the day of the week with a Tombow Fudenosuke hard brush tip pen. Any stamping is also done using an ink that will not run, like Stazon or Ranger Archival ink.  Then I'm free to use Magicals, distress inks, watercolors, or other water-based media without fear of ruining what is already documented. It gives the paper this wrinkly, crinkly charm that I just can't explain!

This page is ready to welcome the beginning of April, and all set to remind me to drink my water early on concert day tomorrow!

Thanks for visiting!  I hope you'll play along!  Be sure to visit Splitcoaststampers Virtual Stamp Night for more challenges and all of the details!

Supplies:

• Tombow Fudenosuke Hard brush tip pen
• Lamy Safari ink pen
• de Atramentis Document Black ink
• Stazon
• Magicals
• Dylusions Bubblegum Pink spray
• roller date stamp
• Waffle Flower calendar stamp
• Kelly Purkey planner stamps
• Graphic 45 Nature Sketchbook Stamp Set 1 (butterflies)
• Tim Holtz Stampers Anonymous Butterfly Melange (music stamp)