Keepsake Journaling

2017 Holiday Journal

~ Patty Radish ~ Leave a comment

Well, it’s that time of year again! Time to start documenting the Holiday season. There seems to be something more special about every year that I want to record, our family is growing, and there is so much to be thankful for right now!

This journal sat in my shoppe for two years, it needed some love. So, I took it apart and added lots of fun, kitschy pages, along with some fall themed because I start these journals on Thanksgiving and work on them until the new year.

The first page spread is a pocket pages and a vintage book page I fell in love with. I spent this day getting the house ready for guests, and this homey scene captured the mood perfectly.

This little Dennison envelope had been bouncing around for a few years and I wanted to give it a home before it fell apart. It reminds me of those little “shakers” people are adding to their pages and happy mail.

Because I don’t always have room on my pages to journal, I decorated an envelope to keep some journaling paper in. Once in a while I’ll pour extra coffee onto a cookie sheet and dye vintage paper to have on hand. (maybe I should add these to my shoppe journals soon!?)

This year, I’m going to have my date stamp on hand! I put together a little tote from Hobby Lobby to keep all my supplies organized, I’m still driving over the pass to the east side once in a while and don’t want to forget things, but I’ll share more about that on another day.

The day after Thanksgiving we had a full house! Kids, dogs, new friends, and hopefully, new family!

My soon-to-be weekend page.

Of course, not everyday is a smash up success, I have crappy days like everyone else, but these journals give me a chance to reflect on the wonderful things that I want to be grateful for, especially with all the blessings I have in my life right now. I sometimes wonder if I would even notice my blessings if I didn’t have a place to document them.

And I have to say that You, my readers, are one of my many blessings!

Until next time,

Thank you for stopping by,

Have a great week,

~Patty

Holiday Journal Share

~ Patty Radish ~ 9 Comments

Hi, remember me!

Wow, it’s been a long time! I took a much needed break, and now I’m ready for a new year! With that in mind, I thought it would be fun to share a bit of my Holiday journal. I try to start these journals around Thanksgiving and run them through the New Year. This journal has about 35 pages, but I’ll only be showing some of my favorites.

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I made this year’s journal out of a vintage Christmas children’s story book, not too many surprises there I imagine. My only regret is that the format was too small for some of the images I wanted to use, so next year I will be going bigger. 🙂

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Let’s start with Thanksgiving. Most of these images are from a planner I took apart. I couldn’t bring myself to toss all the decor, so I repurposed them here. The small  gold card is from a Thanksgiving gift I received in the mail, some super yummy bread loaves for our feast. These journals serve as memory keepers, so I try and incorporate as many keepsakes as I can.

To Christmas…

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Case in point: a beautiful card sent to me by a wonderful friend, thank you Jenny!

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I alternated the original pages from this book with painted pages of my own, along with pocket pages and an envelope to hold notes and memorabilia. I think the page on the right is from the Nutcracker, I tried to tie the colors in together here. The tree on the left is a napkin, the circles are punched washi paper, postage stamps, ephemera, star stenciling, and a little doodling. Doodling on my pages is still pretty new to me, but I really like the contrast.

img_6127Using kitschy Christmas decor images was the most fun. These mid-century crafty ideas were too irresistible to pass up!

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Heading into the New Year, I couldn’t resist including my favorite photo from Christmas, our little elf. On the right is one of the pocket pages, perfect for storing the “Ring in the New Year” postcards from a swap I participated in.

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These are some of the postcards I made for the swap. So much fun!

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Here are the 3 postcards I received from the swap along with a Christmas themed one I received from a dear friend, thank you Iryna!  Love these!

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Here is what I came up with for New Years. I’m busy making plans for what I want to accomplish this year. Gardening and getting my house in order are on the top of my list. This home with a snowy scene out of the window is so inspiring. On the other side of this page has the instructions on how to build one of these indoor gardens. I won’t be doing that, so I arted it up.

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I made a bit of a mess with my New Years greeting, but it was fun.

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Playing with images and paint and keeping it simple, I just needed enough room to journal a bit.

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The last two pages of this journal. You may have noticed that my pages are becoming a tad minimalist, I’m trying out letting the images speak for themselves. Adding the doodles is really quite relaxing and adds an extra touch that seems to finish off the page.

I’m streamlining many aspects of my life this year, for instance not using props in my photos, or cutting back on outside projects. I’m hoping that I can free up more time to actually create, or decorate my house,  and hopefully share here more often. I’m also going to try a “No Spend” experiment with art and crafting supplies, except adhesives or pens, for the year.

That should be interesting, wish me luck!

So, until next time,

Happy New Year!

See you soon,

~Patty

Happy Mail Winnings!

~ Patty Radish ~ 4 Comments

Last month one of my favorite artist on Instagram, artandwhimsey, hosted a giveaway. Long story short, I WON!

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Seriously, are you jealous yet!?

I could have done 6 pages with all this gorgeousness, and that’s still an option!

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A few close-ups in case your not drooling yet!

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This is the page I came up with. I have decided it’s time to step it up a bit with my pages, so I added some stenciling and doodling.

Belen made that tag on the right, I punched it with my Bind-it-all , clipped the edge, and popped into my journal! Love!IMG_0807

Doodling and I are not fast friends, but an attempt has been made, and I’m ready to take it on!

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An embellished tag with one of the super cute velum, handmade stickers and hand dyed ribbons Belen sent.

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So, there you have it!

If you would like to see some more of Belen’s beautiful work, head over to her IG account, or pop over to her blog: Art and Whimsey!

Once again, thank you so much for visiting my little blog, your visits are always appreciated!

Have a great week,

~Patty

Faith Journaling

~ Patty Radish ~ 12 Comments

It seems as though circumstances occurred around the same time to bring me to this place. A place where I feel comfortable and brave enough to share a part of my life that I usually keep private. The reason being that I didn’t want to come off as somebody that seemed pushy about their Faith.

I am not going to go into a lot of detail about my personal spiritual philosophies, I just wanted to share about something I have added, that makes me very happy.

IMG_2363Faith journaling! A place where I can journal about my thoughts on a book I’m reading, write down something I need to pray about, or just to create a beautiful space to enjoy.

I made a prayer journal years ago, but it sat on a shelf until I finally took it apart. Faith journaling happens to be one of the things in my vision/goal journal that I wanted to achieve this year. Luckily, there is an abundance of inspiration and ideas out there to encourage us.

IMG_2366Along with family keepsakes and a few store bought goodies, I was able to pull my pages together in the way that I had hoped to, vintage mixed with contemporary.

I am using adhesive photo pockets to put delicate family keepsakes in because they have prayers on the back, and I like to read them now and again.

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I’m sure you will notice that this journal does lean a bit towards the Catholic church, there’s a very good reason for that, our family of origin is Catholic, and over the years I have saved many of the Christmas and Prayer cards we’ve received.

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Of course, this style of art journaling will work for any Faith. I personally love having a place to keep some of my family memories along with having a beautiful place to journal.

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As you can see, I have finished quite a few pages that I can go to when I need to write something down. I have found that this is super helpful. There’s nothing like losing the thought because there was no place to put it!

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I have spent a lot of time combing the internet for ideas and inspiration. The best places I have found are Pinterest (of course), Instagram, Youtube, Illustrated Faith, and now The Reset Girl. Cori and Shanna both have channels on Youtube, so go check them out!

I’ll be taking a Faith journaling class in April with Cori and Shanna, I can’t wait!

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That lavender cross is something that has been stuffed in a closet for decades. It was lovingly placed in an Easter card from my dad and stepmom long, long ago. I kept it all these years knowing that someday it would find the right place. This makes me very happy! And, reinforces the belief to not throw things away just because they don’t have a home yet!

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A library pocket from that prayer journal that didn’t quite make it.

Now that I have a place for all those keepsakes from over the years, I will be starting on the journal that you can see at the top left in the first photo. It will have a distinctly different look to it with lots of retro kitschy-ness along with contemporary colors and embellishments, that should be fun!

I will be putting some Faith journals in my shoppe pretty soon, I’ll let you know as soon as that happens.

As always,

Thank you for your time,

Have a great weekend,

~Patty

Throw Back Thursday 3.3

~ Patty Radish ~ 7 Comments

I have been wanting to do one of these TBT’s for a long time. But, because of the type of scheduling I do for my blog posts, this is the first Thursday I’ve landed on in a long time.

This is going to be a pretty photo heavy blog post, so I hope you have a beverage at hand!

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My first keepsake journal! I read some of my old journaling in it, I spend a lot of time talking about how much I love it!

The majority of it is sewn together, this was my “sewing” phase, and an excellent way to use up scraps! What you will see inside is the flotsam and jetsam that I pulled out of drawers and envelopes that I had collected over the years.

Let’s get started…

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My favorite postcard ever! It was sent to me back in the ’90s from my brother when he lived in Ireland. I made a pocket out of velum so that you could see the whole card.

On the left is a handmade postcard and a pocket made from a paint swatch with some journaling tucked inside.

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The page on the right is a piece of the freezer paper I use to protect my desk when I’m painting. I love the effect of an instant background. I made a pocket to store things too!

On the left is a postcard from my mother-in-law from Italy.

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Another postcard and a journaling pocket. If you look closely, you can see some of the stitching on the pages.

IMG_2228More journaling. That envelope on the right is one  I took apart and glued back together inside out. I stamped the word “safe” onto a piece of paper and glued it into the window.

If you’ve noticed the aqua rub ons and faux stamps, I thought the eclectic mix of colors and styles in this journal could use a little cohesiveness, so I added them throughout, and I needed to use them up!

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More postcards and journaling…with pockets…

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On the left, there is a photo of my first article in Art Journaling magazine and in the pocket is a friend’s doodle. She doodles a lot and I always keep them. I sewed some fabric onto it and journaled inside.

On the right is a pocket with an anniversary card from my husband and some journaling in an envelope.

Well, I hope you enjoyed this trip down memory lane, and I hope I gave you a few good ideas for using up some random crap! It all seems random until you put it all together in one place.

Once again,

Thank you for visiting,

Have a great day,

~Patty