Author: Patty Radish

Not Sure What I Was Thinkin’

~ Patty Radish ~ 2 Comments

It sounded like fun at first blush, but at about 24 hours in I was questioning the whole thing. In case you don’t know what my latest project has been, it’s the “Dollar Tree Junk Journal” Challenge hosted by Jessica at The Paper Terrace . I know I can be honest with you here because most of you have been with me for a long time, so you may or may not be surprised by my impulsiveness.

This is how it went down…

I got a notification on YouTube from one of my favorite creators, Kathleen at Be Again Books , and she was sharing a journal she had made for this challenge. Seriously, I dropped everything and ran to my Dollar Tree. It took me over an hour to find my supplies…who spends more than 15 minutes at the Dollar Tree!? …a clear warning sign completely missed by your’s truly!

It gets better…not really.

I get all my stuff home and it just lays there staring at me…I stare back, there seems to be a stand off. Luckily there is a $20 maximum you can spend, so that guilt is eased a bit. So I dive straight in with less than high hopes, much less confidence…and a lot of cheap supplies (come on, it’s the dollar store!).

Late to the party!

Not only have I purchased a bunch of crazy a#% supplies, the challenge is already a week in! Any sane person would have done their homework. Not me! I’m grabbing my car keys and running out the front door while Kathleen’s video is still playing in the background!

So I dig in…again.

Luckily, I decided to share a video of my purchases with somewhat of a plan going forward. I say luckily because I got so frustrated that I almost quit. I thought “I’m going to delete the video, donate my dollar store finds, and move on”…I had a plan! But, when I went to delete the video, I saw followers and comments and likes…oh my!

Okay, I’ll admit I’m a pushover (on too many levels to cover here).

A changing perspective.

Through the frustration of trying to work with such a limited selection of supplies, I had lost the real reason I had started this project in the first place, to be a part of something along with other creators. Sure, this challenge lived up to it’s definition, but I wasn’t working alone. Everybody was having their ups and downs with it, but they kept going. Most of us jumping from one channel to the next getting tips, ideas, and inspiration, and leaving ‘likes’ and comments along the way. In other words, the best thing about this whole project is the community, the journal was secondary.

Lesson learned, but next time I’m doing my homework!

(go to my channel if you want to see my progress, the link is in the sidebar)

As always,

Thank you for the visit,

Talk to you soon,

~Patty

Is Organizing a Creative Pursuit?

~ Patty Radish ~ 9 Comments

Lately, my favorite thing to do is put on an inspiring YouTube channel, grab some supplies, and work on a small project. This was my intention, until this happened…

Where it all started.

I was working on this page spread last week and I needed something small to fill in that space in the corner. So I grabbed that little tag, gathered a few small decor pieces, and there you go. But..(there’s always a but!), I thought “Why not have several of these on hand so I don’t have to get out ‘all the things’ every time I need a small embellishment?”.

That’s what I get for thinking!

Making large tags too.

Of course it turned into a whole thing. Gathering supplies, organizing supplies, and creating a containment unit for said supplies. I am now the proud owner of a “Tag Makings” box…sitting on top of and next to several other “_____ Makings” boxes.

Instant page…well, sort of.

I may be in need of assistance here. I have been spending most of the last few weeks organizing craft/art supplies into boxes. Not as much “making” going on as I would have liked because I am too busy organizing. This wouldn’t be an issue if I didn’t have other obligations…like a dog on diuretics that needs a wee every hour! But I digress…

The collection.

I now have loads of tags that may or may not save me time in the long run…but I’m organized!

As always,

Thank you for stopping by,

Have a great week,

~Patty

Playing With Painted Pages

~ Patty Radish ~ 6 Comments

This is one of those things that I wish I would have thought of a lot sooner! In my last blog post I shared about getting a lot of inspiration from YouTube and Etsy digitals. Well, last week I put “Bright Digitals” into my Etsy search and found a shop that sold some beautiful digital copies of her art. Bingo, into the cart!

Then, while running errands the other day (I get my best ideas while driving), it occurred to me that I might be able to do the same thing with some of my painted pages.

Before.

These are some of the backgrounds that I had painted for pages in my art journals. I had muted down the color a bit with tinted watered down gesso because they were super bright.

But I wanted “Super Bright” pages to work with in my art journals. Hmmmm…

After!

I scanned them into my computer as a .jpeg so my photo editing app would accept them, and turned up the dials. There were so many options on how to manipulate the color, I was in heaven!

Now, I know that these are a little blurry from all the playing around I did on my computer, but this is just a start. Besides, these are to tear up or use as backgrounds so no worries. Also, I have quite a few more painted background pages to work with that I can paint over, stencil, and do all kinds of colorful decorating on before scanning.

Where it stared.

That little pink paper scrap in the background is from a page I painted a while back. I loved how it came out by combining it with digitals and a few of my own “art scraps”, but I was using up a favorite painted page! Now, I’m all about downsizing and using things up, but if you scan it before using it up, then it’s no longer taking up space, and you know where to find it. Which is a game changer in my world, you have no idea how much time I spend looking for things…but that’s another story.

Matching up colors.

I’m in spring mode right now, so I wanted to use a more muted art paper in the background, all I had to do is tone the color down a bit before printing. If there is a particular image or focal point that you want to match, it’s easy to just play around with the color a bit to match them up.

I have so many of ideas I’m playing with right now and I will share more of them here soon. I hope you will try this out. Please let me know in the comments.

Until next time,

Thank you stopping by,

Have a great week,

~Patty

Inspiration Can Be Exhausting!

~ Patty Radish ~ 8 Comments

Trying new things is what pushes my style forward more than anything else. Sometimes using the same technique over a period of time can start to feel stale, then I get bored and have to walk away for a while.

Then a new style or project inspiration comes along that really excites me, and I’m off and running and there’s not enough time in the day!

I should appreciate the down times more, I’d probably get more sleep!

Have you ever had an idea that kept you up at night? You can’t wait for the morning, and then when morning arrives you’re too tired to work on anything. It happens to me all the time, actually it’s been happening to me a lot lately. I’m no ‘Spring Chicken’ I need my sleep!

But what’s the alternative?

Just about everything gets worked around my creating, not the other way around, and I wouldn’t want it any other way. I have tried to picture myself pottering around the house, cleaning and generally taking care of things, like I probably should…and then all I want to do is hide under the covers…(with my art supplies)

Jumping from one project to another.

Sometimes I’m so inspired that I find myself in the middle of 4 or 5 projects at once and that can get pretty messy. Not to mention the amount of clutter that it can produce in my home, and in my head.

I’m pretty sure this falls under the heading of “First World Problems”!

So when I have exhausted myself, and I have run out of space, I tidy and organize my projects, then try to come up with a plan (easier said than done). The main point is not to give up out of frustration, accept the facts of how my brain works, and stop the judgement.

I’m seeing a pattern here.

I’m in organizing mode at the moment. All my projects are staged and ready to work on…now I’ obsessed with organizing…here we go again! Lol!

I need a nap! zzzzz

As always,

Thank you for stopping in,

Have a great week,

~Patty

Trying to Keep Up

~ Patty Radish ~ 6 Comments

I’ve been busy with all the projects that have been floating around in my brain, and my desk, for quite a while. I have too many ideas and not enough time…or maybe energy?

But there’s lots to do, and I’m slowly getting things done. Slowly being the operative word!

Making journals into fodder.

My latest ephemera packs have been half finished for a couple of years. They started out as a way to use some of my very early art journals for my shoppe. You see, I had to go through my journals when we downsized to a smaller home a few years ago. Some of my journals were not hard to let go of, but I also couldn’t just toss them out either. So I took them apart, played around with them, and turned them into things I could share (sell, let’s be honest)).

The little gypsy is from a tag journal from many moons ago that can be a journal spot, and I made some pages from another journal into tags. I added some gesso and strategic paper pieces to cover my journaling, but most of them are double sided and have some creative potential.

A bit on the grungy side.

I had fun putting it all together, rusty paperclips with fabric clusters, coffee dyed coin envelopes, dyed vintage lace, more journals spots from one of my early index card journals (that makes three journals used up!), old book pages, tea dyed journal papers, and more. This ephemera pack is pretty muted in tone, but as you know, I’ve always loved playing with different styles and colors.

Keeping organized.

These packs have a lot more handmade items than my old style of ephemera packs which were filled with mostly “found” items. I have a lot of ideas I want to use in the future, so I made this ‘Idea Book’ for notes, resources, and creations. I have made something like this in the past, but this feels more like a journal, more hands on and useful.

So much inspiration!

There are so many awesome ideas out there, added with a few of my own, that there doesn’t seem to be enough time in the day for all of them, but I’m giving it my best effort. I decided to include a few photos of my latest ephemera pack into this journal for reference along with some fun ideas for projects.

(I made a video of this journal, the link is in the sidebar if you would like to learn a little more about it.)

Another trip to the vet.

The biggest reason I am having a hard time keeping up with all the things right now is our lil’ fur baby Lily is reaching that time of life where things are starting to fail and I want to spend as much quality time with her as I can. It’s going to be pretty rough when we loose her, she’s my little bestie, so I hope I can keep up when we do. Meanwhile we are doing what we can to make her comfortable and happy!

Until next time,

Sending Joy and Love to you and yours,

Thank you for the visit,

~Patty