Family Time

Advent Art Journal: Backgrounds

~ Patty Radish ~ Leave a comment

This week I’m going to share a little about how I create some of my background pages. Usually I mix in some book pages and scrapbook pages when I make my journals, but I had a lot of painted backgrounds I needed to use up…and still do.

On the righthand side of this page page spread there wasn’t very much paint, so I was able to use a book page I’ve been holding on to for quite a long time. I love Christmas city scenes!

When I’m tea or coffee dying I’ll let them dry on large sheets of paper, you can see at the upper right where I dyed a paper doily. On this one I scraped on some paint, scribbled with gelatos, then squirted it with water.

Here are a few things I work with when create a background page: acrylic craft paint, gelatos (I’m trying to use them up before they dry out), and a water bottle for drippy bits. I’ll use 9″x12″ mixed media or 18″x24 drawing paper, or whatever is available or on sale. I think I prefer 70 pound paper, I find once you’ve filled it with paint it becomes strong enough to take any mixed media you want to use on it.

Once I’ve painted to my hearts content (or until I’m tired of cleaning up), I’ll add some neutral accents with small jars, rubber stamps, bubble wrap, stencils, and lines with my mom’s old pie crimper. (Funny, I don’t remember any pies growing up, she more than likely used the bottle opener. That’s my Mom!)

The other day I was thinking that some of the backgrounds looks like the Northern Lights

You can see how some of the elements seem to melt into the page and the neutral images calm the color a bit. I specifically chose a lot of muted ephemera pieces for this project because some of the backgrounds were so vibrant.

The more I work in this journal, the more things I find I want to share, I’m making a list.

Hopefully things won’t get too busy to keep up with this season, I seem to keep finding more creative things to do! Lots of fun, but a bit tiring.

If I missed something and you have any questions, please feel free to ask in the comments.

As always,

Thank you so much for stooping by,

Talk to you soon,

~Patty

Summer Bucket List Documenting

~ Patty Radish ~ 2 Comments

Living in Eastern Washington over the summer has had many advantages. Spending time with my daughter and grandson is the most precious part, but the abundance of farm fresh produce is another. So, one of the things on my summer bucket list was to get some canning done…

…little did I know I would be canning for two weeks! I admit, not as exciting as most bucket lists, but I’m a homebody to the extreme!

My daughter has grape vines in her backyard, so while I’m making grape jelly, she’s making fruit roll-ups in her dehydrator. I didn’t have my tried and true pickle recipe with me, we’ll have to see how these turn out.

Because I wanted to have a small place to document my whirlwind of activity over the last month, I enlisted a project I have had in the back of my mind for quite some time, collaging and journaling on vintage recipe cards. I thought that having little cards decorated and ready to pop a memory or thought onto might be fun…and now I’m obsessed!

This is a perfect project to use up some of those tiny embellishments you might have laying around, these cards are 3″x5″

I made that little “file folder” with the paperclip to keep images that coincide with some of the memories I want to document, it fits perfectly into my little recipe tin. Memories going clockwise are: the gorgeous tomatoes I used for my salsa and marinara, the afghan I started back up, babysitting my grandson overnight, the flowers my daughter brought me on my wedding anniversary, and the macrame project I finally started.

Because I was playing catch-up as per usual, I jotted down all the memories onto some plain old index cards with the date for easy reference, they also fit perfectly into the recipe tin. Hopefully I’ll get caught up and have a pile of cards to journal on soon.

This is the other side of the above cards along with a few things I gathered to decorate with.

I have to admit to you that I have let art journaling and my shoppe consume my life over the years, something that is easy to do. But, I promised myself that I would try to balance my life out a bit more, and get back some of my old interests, like canning, crochet, and sewing. And I’m hoping that downsizing my collage projects might help somewhat, they’re like little postcards to myself.

I’m having too much fun gathering and organizing for this little project, so I’ll have lots to share soon.

Until next time,

Thank you so much for stopping by,

Have a great rest of your week,

~Patty

“Memory Junk Journal” Page Prep Video Up!

~ Patty Radish ~ 2 Comments

Two things have happening lately: One, I’m making videos on a pretty regular basis, and Two, I’m humming right along on my “Memory Junk Journal”! YAY!

I had to make another journal insert to get started on October, so I thought I might as well film the process. I like having the backgrounds decorated to save time.

Photos from texts that would most likely not end up in a photo album, but precious memories that I needed to document.

I hope you will find the time to check out my video, some of the commentary is pretty fun!

Here’s the link to my YouTube Channel. The video is a little lengthy, but informative.

As always,

Thank you for stopping by,

Have a great weekend,

~Patty

September 7-11 In My Memory Journal

~ Patty Radish ~ Leave a comment

All I can say here is…This Was So Much Fun!

These were the days when I was helping my daughter out and watching my grandson while she worked, so he didn’t have to go to daycare everyday. She’s a stay at home mommy now, but I can still give her a break now and again.

I think one of the things I miss quite a bit is that these were taken during the summer last year. It has been a long winter for a lot people, so summer shenanigans are well and truly in order!

I hope I will find the time to continue working on this when the weather improves…cheeky boy!

There is a video that goes with this on my YouTube channel, Patty’s Art Journals, if you would like to see how this page spread came together.

Thank you so much for stopping by,

Have a wonderful day!

~Patty

September 6, In My Memory Journal

~ Patty Radish ~ 1 Comment

Yay! Another page spread in my memory journal! All it took was a little organization to move this project forward! There is a video that goes along with this blog post where I go into a little more detail about my organization. There are still a few things to iron out, but I’m definitely making slow, but forward progress!

And I’m still having fun playing catch-up!

But, I think it may be a good idea to get this done before my grandson goes to college.

There is always so much to do!

Some people know how to stop and smell the roses…with their whole face!

Anyway, if you would like to see the video of this page spread, head on over to my YouTube channel, Patty’s Art Journals and take a look!

Until next time,

Thank you so much for stopping by,

See you soon,

~Patty