Trying to Keep Up

I’ve been busy with all the projects that have been floating around in my brain, and my desk, for quite a while. I have too many ideas and not enough time…or maybe energy?

But there’s lots to do, and I’m slowly getting things done. Slowly being the operative word!

Making journals into fodder.

My latest ephemera packs have been half finished for a couple of years. They started out as a way to use some of my very early art journals for my shoppe. You see, I had to go through my journals when we downsized to a smaller home a few years ago. Some of my journals were not hard to let go of, but I also couldn’t just toss them out either. So I took them apart, played around with them, and turned them into things I could share (sell, let’s be honest)).

The little gypsy is from a tag journal from many moons ago that can be a journal spot, and I made some pages from another journal into tags. I added some gesso and strategic paper pieces to cover my journaling, but most of them are double sided and have some creative potential.

A bit on the grungy side.

I had fun putting it all together, rusty paperclips with fabric clusters, coffee dyed coin envelopes, dyed vintage lace, more journals spots from one of my early index card journals (that makes three journals used up!), old book pages, tea dyed journal papers, and more. This ephemera pack is pretty muted in tone, but as you know, I’ve always loved playing with different styles and colors.

Keeping organized.

These packs have a lot more handmade items than my old style of ephemera packs which were filled with mostly “found” items. I have a lot of ideas I want to use in the future, so I made this ‘Idea Book’ for notes, resources, and creations. I have made something like this in the past, but this feels more like a journal, more hands on and useful.

So much inspiration!

There are so many awesome ideas out there, added with a few of my own, that there doesn’t seem to be enough time in the day for all of them, but I’m giving it my best effort. I decided to include a few photos of my latest ephemera pack into this journal for reference along with some fun ideas for projects.

(I made a video of this journal, the link is in the sidebar if you would like to learn a little more about it.)

Another trip to the vet.

The biggest reason I am having a hard time keeping up with all the things right now is our lil’ fur baby Lily is reaching that time of life where things are starting to fail and I want to spend as much quality time with her as I can. It’s going to be pretty rough when we loose her, she’s my little bestie, so I hope I can keep up when we do. Meanwhile we are doing what we can to make her comfortable and happy!

Until next time,

Sending Joy and Love to you and yours,

Thank you for the visit,

~Patty

A Quick Hello…with journal pages

Over the last few, weeks I have been spending most of my time making videos for my YouTube channel. I really enjoy the creative process, but it doesn’t leave a lot of time for much else.

I still have so many supplies, empty journals, paints, art supplies of every stripe, and of course…ephemera. So, I still have a lot to work with and use up.

I probably make and film at least five art journal page spreads a week now, and I really love the process. It’s quite the learning curve, but I really appreciate the brain exercises…to an extent.

This means a lot of creating, cleaning up, staging photos, and editing (I can whittle an hour down to 58 seconds for ‘Reels’ and ‘Shorts’ like a pro!) but not time for much else. I think we have a dust bunny colony growing in our living room.

But at least I’m having fun….and filling up journals!

I may not have a lot to say in my blog posts until I get a little more organized, but I can share fruits of my labors, aka; journal spreads.

If you are interested in seeing how these pages came together, you can visit my channel by hitting the YouTube button in my sidebar, I’d love to see you over there!

Until next time,

Thank you for the visit,

Have a great week,

~Patty

It’s That Time of Year Again

Time for the iHanna Post Card Swap!

I think I began participating in the iHanna Post Card Swap in 2014…or maybe 2013. I’m not sure how many years it’s been, I only know it was two blogs ago. My original plan was to repurpose an index card journal to make the postcards…boring! I was feeling much more creative today.

And this is what I came up with…

Painted dictionary pages on cardstock.

This is an experiment that I had zero plans for, until today. I had made these several weeks ago and stuck them on a shelf in hopes I would actually find a use for them…and I did. I will be making a video of how I make these soon, it’s a bit of a process. So, look for that soon if you are interested.

The ephemera bits.

I came across a container with loads of quote cards and such that I’ve been poking around from place to place hoping for inspiration. Nice to finally find a fun project to use them in…on, whatever. These beautiful butterflies are from one of my newest favorite Etsy shops: TheJunkJournalStudio

Olde paper bits.

Again, too much of a good thing. My love for variety gets me into a lot of trouble.

Handmade decorative tape.

These are from a video I made last week, so much fun! If you would like to see how I made these, here’s the link to my channel: EclecticArtJournals

The cards.

As you can see I only made four, I actually need to make 10…unless you would like one!

My plan is to make a video of my postcard making process sometime soon. I may decide to embellish these with a little paint if I get inspired. I really just wanted to get this blog post out there in time in case you were interested in joining up. The deadline to sign up is November 19th, the link to sign up is here: iHanna PCS

Did you catch that little hint up there about sending you a postcard? I think it would be so much fun to make more of these for my friends here, (international mail is more than welcome too). All you have to do is send me an email with your name and address, the button is at the top right of this page.

Sending a card to me is completely optional, I’ll put my address on all the cards I send out.

Until next time,

Thanks so much for stopping in,

Talk to you soon,

~Patty

Video Overwhelm!

I recently went on a bit of a video making spree.

Here’s a thought: “Wouldn’t it be fun to film every time I worked in one of my art journals?”. (Shoulda thought that on through a little more!)

Yeah, what I ended up with is a huge backlog of footage in various stages of undress to deal with. I do not recommend taking on something like this if you don’t have a ton of time on your hands, or are as unorganized as I am. (palm-to-forehead)

Also, because I have been dealing with the bird’s nest I created, sharing on social media felt like too much, this blog included. So, with many apologies for the length of this blog post due to overwhelm, let’s get started…

Using a master board as decor pieces

These are the “stills’ from my videos. They are all on my YouTube channel either as a “Short” or video if you are interested. The link to my channel in the sidebar.

Shameless Advertising.

An Amazon shop approached me to make a video of one of their art journaling kits. It’s not quite my style, but it was fun to do something different. The link to the BLEDS Shop is in the video. (and that’s enough advert for them).

“Summer’s Bounty” Embellishments

But here is an advert for someone else I would like you to check out ‘TheJunkJournalStudio‘ shop on Etsy. Her shop is fantastic…I’m obsessed! I share a bit more about her shop in the video, so go take a look.

More from “The Junk Journal Studio”.

I hear there are a few people out there that don’t like mushrooms, at least I seem to follow the mushroom haters for some reason. Well, I’m not in that camp, I love them…and so does the moose!

Using my vintage scrap box.

I have a box of nonsense on my desk where I throw things I’m too lazy to put away. Well, it overflow-ith, and here is the result. Even I’m amazed at how long I can keep stuff around.

Creating little worlds.

I’m trying something new lately. One of the things I love about this type of journal is it doesn’t have that binding wire down the middle, but I was still creating my pages like there was. So, now I’m trying to work from the middle out so that it looks like one piece, instead of separated, if that makes sense. I’ve been slowly working in that direction if you’ll notice in some of the page spreads above, but this one was more intentional.

Well, that’s it for now. I’m going to try to post these video catch-ups during the week from now on, hopefully not as long, because I have other things I want to share on my weekend posts.

Thank you for stopping by,

Please take a look at my channel,

Have a great day,

~Patty

Video Up: “In the Garden”

Hey friends, this was such a busy week, but I managed to put a video together. With the weather turning to Fall soon, I thought it would be nice celebrate the last vestiges of a summer garden  

 

 

Because we now live in an area that has almost a 6 month summer, and I find myself looking forward to cooler days and curling up with a cup of tea and a book. But I have to admit I’m going to miss longer days! 

 

I chat a bit about these pages at the end of the video. So, I hope you will visit my channel to see how this page spread came together here: Eclectic Art Journals

 

Thank you for the visit,

Have a wonderful week,

~Patty

 

(p.s. I have been filling my shoppe back up, so check that out with the link in my sidebar and use the coupon code ‘CUSTOMERLOVE20’ to receive 20% off your purchase.)