Last weekend I did some editing on a video that tied up my computer for the rest of the week, and I think I know what went wrong, so hopefully that won’t be happening again…I think.
Because my computer was otherwise engaged, I am behind on all my projects and project sharing, so let’s get started!
I had more fun with this page than I have in a very long time! I pulled out some of my favorite techniques from my first few years of art journaling. It’s a slower process with all the paint, mediums, and layers, but a much more satisfying result.
I realize that putting this much time into a page in a journal that will probably just sit closed on a shelf may seem like a waste of resources, but getting back to this style has inspired me to work on a few art pieces. As a matter of fact I have one almost finished right now.
If you would like to see the video of this page’s process, the video is right here:
I like to name my art journals, but I’m not sure if this title will stick. Maybe I should call it “Wings on Things”.
Because EVERYBODY gets wings in here!
This is one of my page “re-do’s”. I pulled off the retro-kitsch decor and gave it a botanical fantasy makeover, like what I did in the rest of this journal.
I didn’t really like the direction it was going, so I decided to tear out pages I had already worked on and replaced them with pre-painted pages. I’ll find a use for the pages I tore out, that can actually be a lot of fun.
I filmed a video this week where I go into a little more detail about why and where my art journaling has been taking me lately. If you would like to see it, hit the link-ity link on the sidebar.
A mouse pondering how to use wings.
In a nutshell…life in the outside world isn’t all it’s cracked up to be right now. My little world is doing great, but as being an ingredient of the world at large, it’s hard to ignore everything that’s going on. This isn’t a place to pick sides, all sides seem to be struggling about something right now…so there you go.
This is a place where I create a little world of my own to visit when things get a bit grim. Much like I did when I was a kid, reading books, listening to music, and making art.
As a matter of fact, I decided to purchase some my favorite childhood books , and a few new ones, on the Audible app to listen to while I work on my journals, this has been so fun!
The other thing I have been working on this week is my creative spaces, yes I have more than one…what?!
Anyway, I started following “The Unexpected Gypsy” on YouTube, and she has really inspired me me to take all things creative a lot more seriously for my overall well being. I highly recommend making any changes in your environment to support your creative life. Any and all changes, large or small, will make an impact, so I’m going to just keep at it! I hope you will too!
Let me know in the comments how you are doing, I love hearing from you!
I’ve been a tad absent lately ticking things off my To Do lists. Because I’m more of a planner than a do’er, I had many containers full of planned out ephemera packs for my shoppe, some of them yeeeaarrs old!…and I got them done. I’ll try not to belabor this point, if you want to see my latest shoppe doings, just hit that button on yonder sidebar.
To the fun stuff…
A couple of weeks ago I decided I wanted to create a stash of flowers to work with, maybe it was the thought of spring being just around the corner. Doesn’t that sound wonderful, “Spring just around the corner!” I was “in town”, meaning a town that has a Hobby Lobby (all being over an hour’s drive) and we had a few minutes to pop in and out, so I grabbed a few more paper pads. Lovin’ the sunflowers, the pads to the right are older HL brand, luckily I grabbed two of my favorites before they were discontinued.
From my older HL “The Paper Studio” paper pads.
A bit of something I did in the evenings after toiling in my shoppe. This can be a bit tedious, but it’s a nice evening project in while listening to a book on Audible with your feet up.
Something I had in the back of my mind.
I wanted to see if I could incorporate flowers onto things, like trees, people, and…thats all I’ve got. But I knew I needed a selection of florals to work from, and now I do.
I left a little tuck spot for a journaling bit, this bird head seemed to fit the bill…pun! Ha!
Anyway, I glued a bit of ledger paper to the back of her, just enough to jot down a thought.
If you’ll notice, I punched holes in the tree with my binding machine, snipped the edges, and popped it into my journal, kind of like a Happy Planner page. I wanted it in this spot, but I didn’t want to cover up that deer, I have the plans for him.
Well, I hope you are as excited as I am to welcome back Spring, in the meantime I will be creating a few gardens with my flowers!
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.
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!)
Patty Radish 