A Redecorated Journal

I have had an off/on relationship with this journal for quite a few years now. There are parts that I loved, but it lacked a cohesiveness that I just couldn’t put my finger on. Probably due to the fact that I thought I could just dump a bunch of unwanted ephemera into it, and believe everything would be just fine. But, it wasn’t! When this journal started to go off track, onto the shelf it went.

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This may look familiar to some of you that have been following my blog(s) for a while. And the differences may not be immediately noticeable, but they’re there.

After watching Florence Antonette‘s Traveler’s Notebook series on continuous loop, I found the cohesiveness that I was looking for!  My first thought was to buy some Midoris and try her style, but on closer inspection, I realized that I had a lot of the same elements she was using, in this journal. So, the restructuring began, and couldn’t be happier with it!

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First, I striped away all the old journaling, this poor journal had become the complaint department, mostly because I didn’t know what else to do with it. I also removed anything that just didn’t fit the aesthetic, luckily that was at a minimum.

IMG_0573I replaced the journal pieces, then began filling it with washi tape, more postage stamps, and ink stamping. Now, I wish I had taken some before and afters, there really is a difference!

IMG_0575I love how the stamping subtly blends the journal piece into the background, exactly what I have been wanting to accomplish for a long time, but was to critical about my stamping abilities to try. I guess it took a “lost cause” project to give me the courage to throw caution to the wind!

I am happy to say that this journal is still a work in progress, so I have lots more excuses to buy more postal goodies! Win! I’ll be sure to share it’s progress again soon!

As always, thank you for the visit,

Have a wonderful day,

~Patty

And Then There Was One…

This post was supposed to be written yesterday, announcing the new Mini Journals in my shoppe, but I just didn’t have time…

…I was too busy wrapping and sending them off!!!

I made 10, and within 12 hours, sold 9 of them!

So, what should I write about?

Well, after the giveaway and shoppe makings, I managed to keep one for myself…

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 I wasn’t quite happy with the messy layering I had done, so I covered most of it up with this vintage book image.

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I thought this might be an awesome opportunity to work in it along with the people that have purchased them from me. So, once in a while I’ll be sharing some of my page spreads.

Some of the pages may seem too pretty to cover up…

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…but others are perfect! I love those vintage illustrations, but the rest of the page is text. I’ve been using this mini journal to document the surprise visit from my daughter and grandson. He ate banana for the first time today and I thought that monkey eating a banana was a nice touch.

It’s time to back to my visit, I just wanted to check in and let you know that as soon as my loved ones head back home I will be starting on a new batch of mini journals for the shoppe. In the meantime, there are still a few list journals and “regular” sized journals left in my shoppe, some marked down even!

Thank you so much for supporting my shoppe!

Have a great day,

~Patty

Going Postal…but in a good way!

So, there is this journal that I have been working on for quite some time (I’ll share that at a later date) that I have had a love/hate relationship with! I just couldn’t seem to get it to work. Then one day I was watching another video from the awesomely talented Florence Antonette, and had an “Aha!” moment I knew exactly what was missing…

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…postage and travel themed goodies!

I owned a few things to start out with, postage stamps of course, and a couple of postage themed washi tapes, but I needed more! So, off I went to hunt for anything with a postage/travel/office supply theme. I’d say I did pretty well, wouldn’t you?  Everything in there is from either Michael’s or Hobby Lobby, with the exception of the large envelope stickies, those are from Walmart.

Where did you find that nifty box you ask? I don’t remember, it’s been that long since I bought it!

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But, here is what it looks like since I decided it would be perfect to store all my postal goodies in.

First, I painted the outside with Martha Stewart’s Satin acrylic paint in “Summer Linen”, then gave it a light sanding to distress it a bit. Looked for some black and white maps in my book stash, adhered them with matte medium, and went over those with some watered down paint of the afore mentioned color. Then added a circle punch of a map and a cut out of an oval map image.IMG_0148

Next, I adhered some of my favorite stamps in the red, white, and blue color story I had chosen for this project, bits of washi tape and some ink stamping to finish.

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A Soviet satellite from the 1950’s! Just-Pinch-Me-That’s-Cool!!!

I went with a travel theme also. I’m not much of a traveler, but I love the look! When I had the composition the way I wanted it, I went over the whole thing with some of Martha’s satin varnish to seal it. Now, I have the perfect organization for all of my postage decorating goodies!

Back to the journal mentioned above, I will be sharing it soon. Some of you may recognize it from “ye olde blog”, but it has had a facelift, and is looking quite smart with it’s new decor!

Also, I will be sharing a quick how-to on that cute little button topped tin sometime soon!

Until then…

Thanks for stopping by,

Have a great rest of your week,

~Patty