SCRAPBOOK ♥

I guess can't precisely point the moment scrapbooking entered my life. And this is because the passion for different kind of papers and working with them was already with me, since basically kindergarten days. I've been always the Arts and Crafts teacher's assistant and so on... Cutting and gluing paper while working the creativity was always fun and, not surprisingly my choice when it was time to start college was towards Architecture and Design.

Here some paper lace I used to cut, because here in Brazil scrapbooking materials tend to be very expensive, since they come from other countries, especially from USA, and have many taxes applied to the original price.

The greatest thing about working with paper for me is that it's very safe and comforting, but it's always completely new and challenging at the same time.

Actually this project was thoght to be in acrylic, but the paper momentum was decisive to achieve this shape and concept. It was for Asia Awards 2015.

It was a pleasure to polish my skills and knowledge of very technical issues, like how paper is created, fiber orientation, ways of adding pigments, laser cutting, how water can be used to change paper's physical proprieties, etc.

And even though I couldn't see it clearly myself, my mom still laughs about how obvious it was I'd choose to work with it in the future and how she took notice 25 years before. LOL

That time when we decide to take things more seriously... what a day! hahahaha ♥

Talking about my own style, even though creating albums, pages and cards is all nice and good, I'm more found of how scrap can be present in everyday objects, adding more personality to them.

An A5 sketchbook, with paper for watercolour painting inside. It's blue, my favorite color, and thanks to the manual binding, I can add as many pages I need. =)

Guys, do you still remember the old disquettes and/or have some stored and forgotten? Here at home we have A LOT OF THEM. When I say a lot, believe me, I mean it. Because not so long (or maybe quite a long?) ago we needed many of them to install/uninstall huge softwares like AutoCAD.... So... after some old japanese magazine pages and a bit of love, now I use them as storage. Probably that's what I mean when I say I prefer scrap in a more practical way: I'm re-using stuff that otherwise would be thrown in the bin, while unexpectedly creating a good looking object.

I apologize for these pictures! But recently one of my hard disks said good bye after a good couple of hard working years, so I lost track of many of my works. Sadly. Anyways, still going about practical objects and giving personality to them, when I was working in this one, I was reading a lot of japanese comics about old magic, that's why the japanese touch is still there, sharing place with faded tons and a romantic aura.

Another enjoyable thing about scrapbooking is how you can use it everywhere, from a notebook cover or something a bit more fancy, to the way of thinking and organizing moodboard page, inside a regular notebook.

When I was almost finishing Design College, I started exploring scrapbook elements and papers as tools to create accessories and paper jewelry. This moment was the turning page which led my final and graduation project.

The start was quite simple... I'm using this necklace as example. It just looks like a necklace of maybe wooden beads, but actually the beads were made with scrapbook paper. =)

Again, I'm sorry about the resolution, but at the same time I'm glad my instagram could save me a couple of images...! This necklaced was created basically from pieces of cardboard and MDF embelishment elements. Why so many wings? Sorry, I grow up reading/watching things created by CLAMP studio. ♥

Below are examples of the construction of the pieces, from my project collection:

It looks like it made of metal, but we're still talking about our regular scrapbooking papers here!

And here as well! This bracelet's name is Mugen Ouroboros and it's probably my fave from the whole collection. =) Paper jewelry is a personal project that I still have in progress even after college is over.

Now, back to the topic: "What do you love about American Crafts products?" is the last point.
I can't answer everything, right? But really, I love the diversity! It always feel like a party when I open the website to check the products... there are tools and supplies for all the occasions and moods! ♥ I wonder how it would be like to have a pijama party and a whoooole night inside an American Crafts' store!
Probably it's a consequence of my degree, but I tend to work with a small number of colors per scrap project, still, I love to see all those veeeery colorful and bright projects!

And to finish, right below there are some examples of my work scrapbook in pages and cards:

These cards were given already... but since the hard disk is gone, the pictures I have are quite Instagramish.... From those old days when we used all filters together in one picture. Sorry about that!