Collage Journals

Arranging Memories

~ Patty Radish ~ 4 Comments

If first impressions mean anything, this page spread has thrift store written all over it! Maybe it’s the funky little Ernst tag I picked off of a long ago find, or the thrifted collection of yellow vases…

I guess it stands to reason since I get at least half of my art journaling supplies from thrift stores, but that isn’t why I’m writing this post. I wanted to share a technique I use once in a while.

This is a selection of brick-a-brack I pulled out of my junk box, along with some pics I wanted to use for a kind of memory page.

Tip: Take a photo of the arrangement you’re finally pleased with to refer back to before glueing elements down.

Here’s the deal, I still have so much to do to get our house and lives together in our new home, and because I’m not able to spend any amount of uninterrupted time at my art desk, and the chances of being able to remember what the plan was is virtually nil, I do this a lot more often now. This is a great way to consider what’s working and what is not. Some of the smaller elements usually get changed, but it’s nice to have the structure down.

This page spread is a combination of memory keeping and stash busting.

Gardening is one of my true loves, and I’m happy to say that I’ve been able to start a small garden this year. There were a few plants I couldn’t let go of, we’ve had this rose bush for about 12 years. We bought it for my daughter on her birthday, it loves eastern Washington! Maybe it will make it to her garden some day.

Gardening, cleaning, decorating, downsizing, it doesn’t seem to end…but it’s a labor of love! I picked up some paint chips on one of our many trips to the hardware store. Awesome pops of color in a huge range of options…and free!

I found that old teal playing card when dismantling a lower shelf in my new sewing room. I’m pretty sure that it was lost back in the 60’s by one of the original homeowners. I added the lil’ peanut butter girl, something my grandson is addicted to right now, every time he comes over he goes through a half a jar!

The photo is of the the top of a shelf on my sewing table. Turning our extra room from storage to useable space is one of my latest projects, it’s slow going, but I’m making progress.

This daisy looks a bit moth eaten, but in her defense, she’s over 20 years old! My husband and daughter planted these daisies from seed, and I managed to keep this one all these years.

It’s been a wonderful experience to start a new life in a new town surrounded by keepsakes and memories. That’s why the organizing and decluttering project has been taking so long, we’re filled to the rafters with memories, and I would prefer to take my time making decisions on what goes or stays.

This page spread links the past with the present in a very meaningful way for me. As you can see, I’m not a huge fan of journaling on my pages. I like the idea of getting a different impression or memory each time I look at my pages, words tend to anchor a particular meaning to the page, I prefer seeing something different each time I look at it. I definitely like my “non-pen” journals the best!

I put the supplies list at the bottom of this post. I would be more than happy to do this more often if it’s helpful. Please let me know in the comments if this is something you’d like to see 🙂

Well, I hope that was a helpful tip.

If not, I hope you enjoyed the ramblings!

As always,

Thank you so much for your precious time,

Talk to you soon,

~Patty

 

Supplies: Photos on matte paper, vintage playing card, vintage magazine and book images, paint, ink stamp, postage stamps, washi tape, paint chips, word strips, carnival ticket, die cuts, vintage wallpaper piece, scrapbook paper pieces, #8 graphite drawing pencil

“Curated Art Findings” Page Spread

~ Patty Radish ~ Leave a comment

Playing catch-up as per usual! This is a page spread I put together with the leftovers from one of my latest ephemera packs “Curated Art Findings”.

As of this posting, there, are only three packs left. But, because I promised myself I would make a page spread out of the leftovers of all my ephemera packs going forward…here ya go.

I used images that have been floating around my studio for a few years that needed a home, this is a particular favorite! It’s totally pixelated because I got it off the internet and blew it up, but I love it. Kiss was the first concert I went to as a young person. Awesome!

I had one pocket left over thank goodness, I really enjoyed arting these up!

A selection of journaling tags to go with. Like I said, these sold really quickly, but there are a few left. Hit the link in my sidebar to get to my shoppe.

These were so much fun to put together, I’m hoping to get some more made as soon as I catch up on a few more things.

As always,

Thank you for the visit,

Have a great day!

~Patty

“By the Sea” Page Spread Process

~ Patty Radish ~ 2 Comments

 

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As part of my effort to downsize some of my art journaling supplies I have been pushing through and getting ephemera packs into my shoppe. I tend to have a few bits and bobs left over, so I thought it would be fun use some of them up in this olde junk journal. 

Truth be told, all of my art journals are on the olde side now. This is the first page spread I’ve done in a few months, and I thought it would be fun to share a bit of my page layering process.

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Paint scrapings of course, but printables on clear label paper is becoming a fave. I found a bunch of neutral colored options on Etsy. (I would share some Etsy links, but there are so many, I think you’ll have more fun searching on your own.) I tried to be strategic with the paint scraping because the photo at the upper left is of some sailors from the 40’s climbing up a coconut tree in the Philippines, how cool is that!

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Next is the larger pieces: Map, wave image, horseshoe crab, and scrapbook paper. Strange choices, but I’m liking the color balance.

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Medium type ephemera pieces, if you look closely you can see some ‘rub ons’. How long has been since you’ve seen any of those? I couldn’t believe they still worked. It took some doing between texts, questions from my everlovin’, a timer, and my dogs nemesis, the mailman…did he really need to knock!…but I digress…

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Many of the images I have left over are from vintage nature books. Easily available at thrift stores, and among my favorite to work with, especially birds. I love how rub ons blend the elements, I wonder if they still sell them.

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A close up of one of my favorite postage stamps and the sailors up the tree. You can see that I’m still using pencil to highlight around the images and layers.

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This sweet little bird has been floating around my art room for years. so long that I don’t remember if I’m the one who colored it in or if I found it that way, found a home at last.

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Here is a sample of some of the “By the Sea” ephemera packs in my shoppe, hit this link to see more and use the coupon code CUSTOMERLOVE20 to get 20% off your purchase. And as always, orders for $35 or more get free shipping within the continental U.S.

You will probably see lots of newness if you visit my shoppe, I’m going to have to play catch-up on page spreads and announcements, so look for that soon…I hope 🙂

Until then,

Thanks for stopping by,

See you soon,

~Patty

 

A Different Kind of Gratitude Journal

~ Patty Radish ~ 8 Comments

It has been a long time! I’ve been spending most of my time cleaning, organizing, and stocking up like the rest of the world. Isn’t a strange thing to be doing the same thing the whole world is doing. This virus really makes the world seem a lot smaller!

That being said, we have been self-quarenteening for three weeks now. Well, my husband has, I still go out for supplies now and again. And because I’m keeping that to a minimum, I’m trying to use my crafty stash as much as possible.

It probably sounds silly, but I find myself staring into space, pondering the current circumstances and as I look around the room, my eyes land on these little vignettes of happy!

So, I decided out of a sense of gratitude for my surroundings to take some snapshots and put them in a journal. I’ve been doing a lot of journaling through this in my lined journals, you know, the heavy stuff, but I wanted a fun place for my happy journaling.

“Trust” happens to be “my word for the year”, appropriate I would say!

Not only do I find some of my little vignettes inspiring, but also soothing.

Also, this is an awesome project if there is a little de-cluttering or dusting that needs doing!

Are there any inspiring, comforting, or grateful memories in your world that you like to document right now? If yes, I highly recommend trying this out, you could even create pocket pages with journaling cards.

I’ve been taking lots of pics and have come up with some fun ideas for decor in here, I’ll be sharing some of those soon. Also, I have a few new projects I’m working on right now, hopefully I’ll be sharing those soon too.

Until then,

Please take care of yourself,

Leave a comment, I’d love to hear from you,

~Patty

 

New Video Up!

~ Patty Radish ~ Leave a comment

Hey friends! I just wanted to let you know that I’ve posted another video on my YouTube channel 

This is one of the journals I made last week for my shoppe that didn’t make it in because I fell in love with it! I’ll share a little more about it when I’ve worked on more pages…

…speaking of which!

This is the page spread I worked on in my video. If you would like to see the process, I’d love to see you!

I’m on my way back over the mountains before the snow hits them.

As always,

Thank you for stopping in,

Talk to you soon,

~Patty