Collage Journals

My Quote/Collage Journal

~ Patty Radish ~ 12 Comments

Lately, I have been seeing quite a few art journaling pages on instagram that have been using favorite quotes as journal prompts. So, when I found this half finished list journal on my shelf a couple of weeks back, I thought it would be a perfect choice for my newest collage journal. And, since I was getting a late start for February, and having just received a Flow magazine filled with quote cards, I’d say it was providence that brought these elements together.

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Some of these pages already had the “bones” of the collage in place, all I had to do is find a quote thats spoke to me and decorate. How fun is that!

I haven’t used journaling prompts before, I hadn’t felt I needed them, but some of these Flow cards made me think outside of my own head a bit, which is great, because I need the vacation!

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This one may actually look familiar to some, just a reshuffle.

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There is a definite theme of “Home” and “Simplicity” in my quote choices. Even my images, that’s an image of a burrow from a vintage science book on the left.

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This tag is one of those things that floated around my room until it found a home. It’s made from the remnants of a painted page I cut down for a journal in my shoppe. With just a little cutting and decorating, it’s a great addition, and another excuse not to throw something away!

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Adding tags that stick up from the page is a new obsession. Truth be told, I have been including these tags in my journal kits for a while now, and am just now getting around to using them myself.

I have been taking a break from my shoppe for this very reason, I come up with what I think is a good idea, but then not take the time to try it out. It has really been fun spending more time in my journals finding the things I love again!

IMG_2145Because the quote cards are such a large part of the collage, just a line or two of journaling is needed, or none at all, not all the quotes need commentary.

The red piece on the left is another scrap piece from my journal makings. I like the balance of adding grunginess to the newish looking scrapbook paper and elements.

So, that’s it for now. I have shared many of the pages in this journal as a list journal, but I still have almost half of it to work on, so I share those when they are finished.

Until then,

 Thank you for stopping in,

Have a great weekend,

~Patty

My New Happy Mail Journal

~ Patty Radish ~ 4 Comments

Sometimes I feel as if I need an art journal for everything I do! Well, at least everything I want to remember or keepsake.

Over the last year or so, as I received more and more happy mail, in the form of envelopes stuffed with ephemera goodness, it became increasingly apparent I needed some organization. So, as I shuffled my treasures from basket to box to larger box, I began feeling a bit like a hoarder! Also, I realized that these were gifted  to me to use and have fun with, and that they have a very special meaning to me. The only idea I could come up with was to use them in my mail art, but that would mean sending them off. So, when I had my Aha! moment the other day to use them in a mail art journal, I couldn’t wait to get started. As you will see…

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…you may remember this photo from the other day. I chose the one with the owl on it to start.

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This is the first page I did. I worked on it later that day. Being Valentine’s Day, I ran with it. It’s a bit on the busy side, but I was a little excited!

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There were a few pages done in this journal, so I just restructured them a bit, added my gifted ephemera, and ink stamped here and there.

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This journal is filled with lots of wonderful illustrations and images that I would prefer not to cover, so there’s the occasional scrapbook paper work around.

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Another page re-do. I’m getting a “retro vacay” feeling from this one. Although, I rarely dress to the nines anymore, let alone on vacation!

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I had put together some pages with places to journal on. This page has enough to say, so I just decorated over it.

Again, I rarely dress to the nines when cleaning my bathroom anymore!

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One of my favorite pages right now! This is an envelope I received from my dear friend Iryna quite a while ago. It is perfect for storing handwritten letters in, it has kind of a vacation travel feel to it that I love! (Hmmm…that vacation word again!)

Last year, I had put together some small binders to keep my artist post cards and some of my gifted ephemera in, I can’t tell you how much I love having a permanent place for my letters too!

I hope to write about my happy mail ephemera organization sometime soon. I’m afraid it’s not too terribly exciting, but you may find it useful.

Till then,

Thanks for the visit,

Have a great week,

~Patty

Incoming and Outgoing Happy Mail!

~ Patty Radish ~ 8 Comments

This blog post has been a long time coming. The more I put it off, the more mail I received, and the longer this post was starting to become!

I have made so many wonderful friends through this blog and my shoppe, and one or two on Instagram, and I am so, so grateful! The generosity of the people I have met astonishes me daily!

Incoming:

IMG_1712Gorgeousness all the way from New Zealand! So many awesome pieces and images! Absolutely amazing! This is just a small sampling of what Nanci sent to me, the entire package would require it’s own blog post!

Thank you sweet Nanci!

IMG_1919I have a new pen pal in Malaysia that sent me this wonderful letter and some Travelers Notebook stickers. Isn’t that envelope beautiful! We have already exchanged letters a couple of times now, so awesome!

Thank you Elison!

IMG_1924Then there’s this! A huge envelope with the coolest wallpaper scraps ever! Kristen emailed me for my address so she could send me a few goodies.

K, I want to be on her Christmas list! If this 10 lb. package was a few goodies, what does she consider large! I could paper a room with this lot!

Thank you so much Kristen!

Outgoing:

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A smal RAK to my sweet friend Jenna of The Kiwi Rose Shop. She had admired those feather post-its in a Instagram post, I needed to de-stash, and there you have it! I had way too much fun working on this for her.

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My lovely friend Iryna and I have ben exchanging mail for a couple of years now. I follow lots of Snail Mail folks on the web, so I’ve really been trying a little harder to step up my game. I have to say Iryna appreciated the effort! 🙂

The postcard at the top right was something I made for myself though. I mailed off another art journal to Art Journaling Magazine a week ago, and that was the “confirmation of receipt” card. It gets sent back to me, so I put a little extra effort into it.

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Hmmm…random!

Actually, I have had the idea of trying to do something special with all my gorgeous Happy Mail ephemera for a while now. I thought about making post cards and such with them, but that idea never really jelled, a lot of it is too large. So, I have decided these two big journals would be the perfect size to  use, my Happy Mail journals. They have a few pages done in them, but I’ll make them work . Sometimes all it takes is the perfect marriage of elements to launch a project off the pad.

I hope this is it! And if it is, you’ll be the first to know!

So, once again,

Thanks for stopping in,

Have a great rest of your day,

~Patty

Travelers Notebook Gratitude Journal

~ Patty Radish ~ 6 Comments

The Story:

I had been wanting a Midori Travelers Notebook for a long time, so right before Christmas, I ordered one. Not really knowing what I would be using it for, I just started ordering inserts, thinking I would just fill it up and see what happened.

Well, just about everything arrived right before the beginning of the new year. And not being in much of a mood to journal at the time, I just started jotting down snippets of my day

It wasn’t until a few weeks had passed that I had realized I had something here. For the most part, I had been listing out things I was grateful for!

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Like the Christmas do-over visit with my daughter and her family just before the New Year!

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There were a couple of mundane exceptions to my notes, but those were easy to remove, I use a erasable pens…always! Worst speller ever!

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Going back and decorating and journaling was a breeze because all I had to do was refer to the notes.

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I just matched up the dates referred to with photos on my phone and printed them up!

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The way this whole thing came to me was total happenstance. I just happened to look at my Flow magazine app and there was a quote from Hailey Bartholomew of the 365 Grateful project. She started her gratitude project by taking a photo a day of what she was grateful for.

I thought about all the photos I had in my phone from the last few weeks, and the connections were made!

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This is something I purchased last fall, but had not really used it much. It’s a bit pricey, but we made it an anniversary gift. You can find it here.

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Here are a few items I use to set my pages up. The clips help keep the pages down while working on them. The plant just makes me happy!

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Last week’s page spread. If you can read my chicken scratch, you can see that I came up with this plan on the 27th. I spent the following days re-writing a few of the notes and adding much of the decor.

Every night, I just jot down a few notes before bed, then go back later in the week when I have more time or the mood strikes, and journal and decorate. This project can be done just as well in an inexpensive composition notebook.

Going through all my photos, re-reading what I had jotted down, and pulling this project together has really been a labor of love! Because there is no plan, other than paying attention to the details of my day in order to see things to be grateful for, it’s a very stress free project. And it’s easing me back to journaling, total win!

 I really hope you will visit 365 Gratitude and watch some of the videos, they are truly inspiring! Please let me know what you think.

Thank you once again for stopping by,

Have a grateful day,

~Patty

Collage Journal Update

~ Patty Radish ~ 10 Comments

I’m happy, and a bit surprised, to say that I have ben keeping up right along with my collage journal! Some days I have to do a couple of pages to stay current, but not as often as I usually would be. I’m one of those people who are always drawn to shiny new objects. I set out to do one thing, and start on something else, but I digress…hmmm, see what I mean!

Onward…

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It may not seem super clear at first, but all of my pages actually do have memories attached. This photo was taken from a “Girl’s Night Out” flyer at my favorite vintage finds shop, Ella Bella. I didn’t attend unfortunately, but I kept the flyer of course.

The round sticker is from a washi tape purchase.

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I loved this image from an ad in Flow magazine. I spent an evening last week cutting out images for my “vision journal”. I am determined to either use my supplies or get rid of them. I took stacks of old magazines to the thrift store, but I still read back issues of Flow, so they stayed!

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A post card from a favorite art supplies shop. They handed these out to promote shopping small and locally at Christmas. I think it’s beautiful, and it’s never a bad time to promote shopping small!

 I bought a book on drawing that day, another bucket list item to check off!

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Yes, more shopping related ephemera. Kinda getting a 70’s vibe all around from this page, even the background. I’m really having fun collaging with the packaging from my purchases. And if your wondering if those binder clips are big…they’re Huge!

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Last but not least, todays page from the Happy Mail that arrived yesterday!

Hazel Bunny! She sailed the seas to find her forever home with me thanks to our Hettie Brown! I am in the process of helping put her house together, there’s so much to do, so I’ll be sharing that as soon as it’s finished.

In the meantime,

Thanks so much for visiting,

Have a great day,

~Patty