Scrap Journaling

My New Happy Mail Journal

~ Patty Radish ~ 4 Comments

Sometimes I feel as if I need an art journal for everything I do! Well, at least everything I want to remember or keepsake.

Over the last year or so, as I received more and more happy mail, in the form of envelopes stuffed with ephemera goodness, it became increasingly apparent I needed some organization. So, as I shuffled my treasures from basket to box to larger box, I began feeling a bit like a hoarder! Also, I realized that these were gifted  to me to use and have fun with, and that they have a very special meaning to me. The only idea I could come up with was to use them in my mail art, but that would mean sending them off. So, when I had my Aha! moment the other day to use them in a mail art journal, I couldn’t wait to get started. As you will see…

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…you may remember this photo from the other day. I chose the one with the owl on it to start.

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This is the first page I did. I worked on it later that day. Being Valentine’s Day, I ran with it. It’s a bit on the busy side, but I was a little excited!

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There were a few pages done in this journal, so I just restructured them a bit, added my gifted ephemera, and ink stamped here and there.

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This journal is filled with lots of wonderful illustrations and images that I would prefer not to cover, so there’s the occasional scrapbook paper work around.

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Another page re-do. I’m getting a “retro vacay” feeling from this one. Although, I rarely dress to the nines anymore, let alone on vacation!

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I had put together some pages with places to journal on. This page has enough to say, so I just decorated over it.

Again, I rarely dress to the nines when cleaning my bathroom anymore!

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One of my favorite pages right now! This is an envelope I received from my dear friend Iryna quite a while ago. It is perfect for storing handwritten letters in, it has kind of a vacation travel feel to it that I love! (Hmmm…that vacation word again!)

Last year, I had put together some small binders to keep my artist post cards and some of my gifted ephemera in, I can’t tell you how much I love having a permanent place for my letters too!

I hope to write about my happy mail ephemera organization sometime soon. I’m afraid it’s not too terribly exciting, but you may find it useful.

Till then,

Thanks for the visit,

Have a great week,

~Patty

Incoming and Outgoing Happy Mail!

~ Patty Radish ~ 8 Comments

This blog post has been a long time coming. The more I put it off, the more mail I received, and the longer this post was starting to become!

I have made so many wonderful friends through this blog and my shoppe, and one or two on Instagram, and I am so, so grateful! The generosity of the people I have met astonishes me daily!

Incoming:

IMG_1712Gorgeousness all the way from New Zealand! So many awesome pieces and images! Absolutely amazing! This is just a small sampling of what Nanci sent to me, the entire package would require it’s own blog post!

Thank you sweet Nanci!

IMG_1919I have a new pen pal in Malaysia that sent me this wonderful letter and some Travelers Notebook stickers. Isn’t that envelope beautiful! We have already exchanged letters a couple of times now, so awesome!

Thank you Elison!

IMG_1924Then there’s this! A huge envelope with the coolest wallpaper scraps ever! Kristen emailed me for my address so she could send me a few goodies.

K, I want to be on her Christmas list! If this 10 lb. package was a few goodies, what does she consider large! I could paper a room with this lot!

Thank you so much Kristen!

Outgoing:

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A smal RAK to my sweet friend Jenna of The Kiwi Rose Shop. She had admired those feather post-its in a Instagram post, I needed to de-stash, and there you have it! I had way too much fun working on this for her.

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My lovely friend Iryna and I have ben exchanging mail for a couple of years now. I follow lots of Snail Mail folks on the web, so I’ve really been trying a little harder to step up my game. I have to say Iryna appreciated the effort! 🙂

The postcard at the top right was something I made for myself though. I mailed off another art journal to Art Journaling Magazine a week ago, and that was the “confirmation of receipt” card. It gets sent back to me, so I put a little extra effort into it.

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Hmmm…random!

Actually, I have had the idea of trying to do something special with all my gorgeous Happy Mail ephemera for a while now. I thought about making post cards and such with them, but that idea never really jelled, a lot of it is too large. So, I have decided these two big journals would be the perfect size to  use, my Happy Mail journals. They have a few pages done in them, but I’ll make them work . Sometimes all it takes is the perfect marriage of elements to launch a project off the pad.

I hope this is it! And if it is, you’ll be the first to know!

So, once again,

Thanks for stopping in,

Have a great rest of your day,

~Patty

Collage Journal Update

~ Patty Radish ~ 10 Comments

I’m happy, and a bit surprised, to say that I have ben keeping up right along with my collage journal! Some days I have to do a couple of pages to stay current, but not as often as I usually would be. I’m one of those people who are always drawn to shiny new objects. I set out to do one thing, and start on something else, but I digress…hmmm, see what I mean!

Onward…

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It may not seem super clear at first, but all of my pages actually do have memories attached. This photo was taken from a “Girl’s Night Out” flyer at my favorite vintage finds shop, Ella Bella. I didn’t attend unfortunately, but I kept the flyer of course.

The round sticker is from a washi tape purchase.

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I loved this image from an ad in Flow magazine. I spent an evening last week cutting out images for my “vision journal”. I am determined to either use my supplies or get rid of them. I took stacks of old magazines to the thrift store, but I still read back issues of Flow, so they stayed!

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A post card from a favorite art supplies shop. They handed these out to promote shopping small and locally at Christmas. I think it’s beautiful, and it’s never a bad time to promote shopping small!

 I bought a book on drawing that day, another bucket list item to check off!

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Yes, more shopping related ephemera. Kinda getting a 70’s vibe all around from this page, even the background. I’m really having fun collaging with the packaging from my purchases. And if your wondering if those binder clips are big…they’re Huge!

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Last but not least, todays page from the Happy Mail that arrived yesterday!

Hazel Bunny! She sailed the seas to find her forever home with me thanks to our Hettie Brown! I am in the process of helping put her house together, there’s so much to do, so I’ll be sharing that as soon as it’s finished.

In the meantime,

Thanks so much for visiting,

Have a great day,

~Patty

Supply Findings

~ Patty Radish ~ 4 Comments

Lately, I have been doing my utmost to support my fellow online shops, in other words, going nuts with shopping! Well, for me anyway.

Some of this stuff is too cute to keep to myself, so check it out…

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Some ridiculously cute playing cards! I love these things! As a matter of fact, when I went to her shop to grab her url, I started shopping again! Shame on me, I should at least wait until I’m finished writing this blog post!

You can find more of these at FoundAlchemyArt for a great price! But, save some for me!

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Some vintage Asian ephemera. Listed as Chinese vocabulary cards, Japanese vocabulary cards, and Chinese/Japanese character cards. So super cute!

You can find them at Collage Stuff. Great selection and prices!

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And free goodies are always welcome! CARDS!

That quote card is going straight into my Vision Board journal!

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This is just the tip of the iceberg of how many stamps I ordered from this shop! The selection was awesome, she is a true stamp-a-holic, and has great customer service! They are listed in her shop with the coolest titles too. How she managed to organize these in the categories she did is nothing short of amazing! I know, I’ve done it, just on a much smaller scale.

Her shop is called PreciousOwl.

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A memory page I put together all this fun stuff. I’ve been falling a bit behind with my “Collage a Day” challenge, but these new goodies should light a fire under me bum!

Please go check out these shops, you won’t be disappointed!

Thanks for stopping by,

Have a great day,

~Patty

Re-purposements

~ Patty Radish ~ 13 Comments

I have fallen in love with ink stamping on my journal pages! And, I think I may have mentioned my stamping phobia in past posts. So, my way around some of the anxiety is to stamp onto scrap paper beforehand to see if I’m getting the ink right or if the size is really what I’m looking for. IMG_1460

 Well, I really liked the way the scrap papers were turning out, so I set about looking for ways to use them. I love page tabs, another one of my office supply obsessions.  I think they give pages so much more character.

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Like my pages need more characters! If I could rock a shawl like that, I’d wear one every day!

Little handcrafted touches, mixed with store bought goodness, makes the pages so much more balanced.

IMG_1453Yep! She’s rockin’ it!

Page 1/13/15 in my Collage journal. I’m seriously going to town with stamping! Now, when I look at my pages, they seem unfinished If I don’t add some ink. Which is a good thing, because I have been collecting rubber stamps for years and haven’t been using them! Score!

All I needed to do was let go of my persnickety ways and get all Wabi Sabi with it!

So, there you have it, another way to avoid throwing something away. Or “up-cylcing” if you prefer, that sounds a bit more trendy!

Thanks again for the visit,

Have a great weekend

~Patty