Happy Stoppings and Startings…

A couple of years ago I thought it would be fun to put together a journal of the ephemera packs I make for my Shoppe, and like many things I start…yeah. (the link to original post is here)

At this point you shouldn’t be surprised that still have half finished projects that need tending to one way or another, meaning: either finish them or dismantle and move on. I’m happy to say that not only did I take a project off my list, I started a new one…again…wait a minute!

Oh well, If you are interested in my process, read on:

Step one: Tear all decor from said journal

This is one of my favorite photos, geishas in ‘Kiss’ makeup. I took this off the internet and printed it out to make a birthday card for my brother years ago. ‘Kiss’ was the first concert I ever went to, big bro took me of course. I have the best brother ever, fyi! I had printed an extra one out for me.

Step two: Make a pile of sticky backed journal decor

This tag is no great shakes but so much fun to make. I’m moving to a larger (wider) size of this style of journal and this tag helped me knock out a page of this one…that I’m moving out of… if you know what I mean.

Step three: Move said pile from one creative space to the next making sure they all stick together awkwardly

I really struggled with this page spread, but I’m really happy with the way it turned out. The large tag and the journal card are made from a painting experiment I’m still working out. The pocket is from the “pile”. (the flowers are from a different project I had to let go of…long story)

Step four: Pry the sticky ephemera off each other every time you want to work with it for extra frustration

The pocket and stamps are from the “pile”, the photo of my dog ‘Lily’ is from a different pile. Part of the “Gratitude Dailies” project that pooped out.

Step five: Put and end to it by cramming as much stuff on to two pages as possible…then add a butterfly

I’m the first one to admit that my pages sometimes look like a hot mess, but I’m having so much fun! One of my favorite things to do is find homes for wandering ephemera or repurposing journals that go awry. I seem to spend a lot of time with “Clean up on aisle 5” projects. But there is a lot of inspiration out there and a lot more projects to start, stop and drop like a hot potato.

So until next time,

Thank you so much for stopping by,

Have a great week,

~Patty

Goal Setting and YouTubing

So, the goal setting thing kinda took off. My goal for 2022 is to Downsize!

Now, to me “downsize” has taken on a lot of meanings:

*Stuff=Self explanatory

*Projects=Finish up

*Chores=Delegate

*To Do Lists:Do

*Purchases=Use

…and here is where we pick up the story.

I’ve had a lot of plans over the years, and along with those plans were purchases of some pretty pricey items. Some of these items were just gathering dust for one reason or another. For example, my Silhouette “Portrait” cutting machine. I don’t know about you, but some of the simplest technology can throw me for a loop. So it became a dust collector, until I decided to spend a day wrestling with it, and I won!

Now one more project is knocked off my list! (and I have a box of stickers I need to downsize!)

And that brings me to the other subject of this post, YouTube videos. You will find the videos to these journal spreads on my channel, the link is in my sidebar.

This goal was twofold: Finish up half-done art journals (also called the “Art Journal Stack Wrap Up”) and use the video camera that was gathering dust. Check!

I thought that if I’m going to accomplish the goal of getting 6 pages or 3 page spreads done per week, I might as well record the process, which brought a whole other bag of technological worms along with it!

Social Media Downsizing: Use them or delete them

Over the last couple of years I’ve been on the fence as to whether or not social media was worth the effort, it can be a real time vampire, setting up the photos, photographing, editing, links, writing captions, but the payoff is building a community.

I don’t have crafty friends in my life, so I have to reach out digitally, which I don’t mind in the least. I consider myself extremely lucky to have these platforms to share my love of crafting and meet so many awesome people!

So, I’m jumping back in again, and I couldn’t be happier! I’m sharing on all the platforms I used to share on now…I’m not adding any more though (twitter=gone).

I’ll try to post here about once a week about my videos, with photos. I don’t video all of my page spreads, so I’l be popping those in here too.

As always, thank you for stopping by,

Have a great week,

~Patty

Thrifted Library Pockets

Last week, I promised I’d share a little more about my library pocket finds.

As usual I apologize for the sheer amount of photos, but I usually try to make up for that by keeping the chit chat short. So here goes…

I was able to pick up about 22 of these in this haul. At 25 cents apiece, $5.50 doesn’t seem too pricey, especially when you count in spending the day with our best friend thrift shopping. Priceless!

Some of the cuteness found inside the books. The page is of course from one of the books, again 25 cents, cha-ching right there!

You never know what you’ll find tucked into the pages of old books. I still have a four leaf clover I found in a very old book.

A selection of some keepers.

I bought all the books in another town, so I donated most of them to our local Senior Thrift Store that is sadly lacking in children’s books, so that was super fun!

Now to the art journaling portion of this post:

“The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams” ~Eleanor Roosevelt

I made a sort of half promise to myself that I would finish up all my half done art journals in 2022, but I make that promise every year!

Does that equal a full goal or a 1/4 of a promise? Math isn’t my strong suit!

Anyway, I promised this would be about thrifted library pockets.

This is an image of a vintage radish. Clearly the sand has shifted to the bottom, much like this vintage Radish!

I had fun with this page spread. Yes, I have “Pants fitting problems!”, it’s called Christmas goodie overload!

I love that quote from one of my Happy Planner sticker books, I just couldn’t bring myself to actually put it in a planner. Guess I’m just not that motivated!

The tag selection: Library card, coffee stained tag with a floral sticker, large tag made from “under paper” (loosely described: paper used to protect your desk while painting something else), and a card made from art randomness with some info from masks I ordered online. (See why I need to downsize!)

I adhered a journaling piece that I had removed from a journal that was no longer working for me. It was a special memory of my dad. I love having a new home for it!

The photo on the front of the library pocket was taken on the trip where I said goodbye. A particularly sweet memory.

Well, that’s about it for now. I’ve been spending most of my time setting up my planner and coming up with some pretty loose goals for 2022 (guess I won’t be punching any days in the face this year!)

Until next time

Thank you so much for popping in,

Have a great week!

~Patty

Shoppe Newness!

 

As per usual, I’ve been keeping myself pretty busy. Luckily I have been able to spend a little time making for my shoppe. I will be the first to admit that my shoppe isn’t setting the world on fire, but I’ve managed to sell enough that some replenishment was due.

Here’s a new ephemera pack theme, “Down on the Farm”, full of mid-century children’s books images! (and all ephemera pack international shipping prices are now drastically lowered! Yay!)

You know, I love almost every aspect of running my little shoppe. Putting together themed ephemera packs…

New “Garden” themed Junk Journal Inserts.

…choosing pages and themes for my journals…

Junk Journal insert ephemera pack.

…organizing my shoppe supplies…

Junkity Junk Journals.

…and especially hearing back from folks that love what they have purchased. That totally warms my heart!

I’m happy, off in my little world making away, filling my shoppe with goodies.

 My biggest struggle is talking about it!  After days of planning, making, photographing, and listing in my shoppe…I’m kinda over it and ready to  move on! Not a great sales strategy I know, but there you have it!

Let me know if you have any questions about international mailing prices on ephemera packs. Here is a link to my shoppe: PattysArtJournals

So, there you have it, the latest and the greatest.

As always,

Thank You so much for stopping by!

Talk to you soon,

~Patty

 

 

“Memory Junk Journal” Page Prep Video Up!

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