My New (to me) Art Journal, and a bit of a process share

Surprisingly enough, I have actually been finishing up journals faster than I had noticed. So, I’m happy to say it’s time to start a new one!

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This is a journal that was a little too rough around the edges for my shoppe, so I pulled it out. The colors and themes in it are what I would call “Retro Eclectic”, in other words: challengingly (is that a word?) fun!

Lately, I’ve been trying to step outside of my comfort zone and start using paint in my scrap journals, so I thought I’d share the results in steps.

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I have had these pigments for a very long time, and thought they would be great for scraping onto the text pages in this journal. They worked beautifully for adding color without covering up the text too much!

Super easy-peasy to just add a dab of paint to the card and scrape. The pigment dries quickly without warping or wrinkling the page.

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And a new way to apply tissue for me. I usually use matte medium, which takes a while to dry. A glue stick works well too, but you don’t get the same depth of color through the tissue paper as you would by saturating it with liquid adhesive, but it’s still a nice addition to the page. I’m going to try adding the tissue first, then the pigment next time.IMG_3097

The finished page.

Die cuts, fussy cut image, postage stamps, washi tape, and stickers.

(it seems I’ve managed to cover up all the text I was trying to save, ooops!)

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I’m trying to remember trace around some of the images to give them depth. Again, I tend to be a little too critical about my drawing, and this is no exception, but practice, practice, practice as they say.

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Also,  I’ve been trying my hand at using Gelatos. They’re super fun to use and dry quickly.

So, there it is, a new journal to share. I’m hoping that I will continue to try new things with out over complicating my pages too much. That’s a lot of color!

Once again,

Thank you stopping in,

Have a great day,

~Patty

Shoppe News and My Best Helper!

This doesn’t happen often enough, but on the day that I sold the last “Surprise Ephemera Pack” in my shoppe, somebody convo-ed and asked if I sell ephemera packs. Well, far be it from me to let an opportunity slip on by, so I got right to work, along with my trusty companion, and made some more.

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…my trusty companion meaning my niece of course! It was so much more fun to have someone to chat with and bounce ideas off while putting these together.

And I have to say that she put some extra effort into making these packs a little more special by trying to match up colors. I can’t say that they are all one color, just a bit closer than I usually shoot for.

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We spent the morning putting together these flower clips to dress the packages up a bit. I’m determined to get folks addicted to these flower clips whether they like it or not!

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While the glue was drying on the flower clips, we set about putting the packs together. I have kind of an assembly line process for these, so I gave her a container for each group, and she distributed them.

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She especially loved reading those joke playing cards as she put them in each basket. They are fishing jokes, so we spent some time trying to figure out what some of them meant. We should have asked my husband!

Well, we are leaving to visit my daughter on the east side today, but we didn’t want to neglect letting you know about the newness, and remind you that tomorrow is the last day for 15% off with the coupon code IMBACK15

Thanks for the visit,

See you next week,

~Patty

Latest Journal Pages

I’m going to make this a short one, because my niece is visiting, and we have some craft shopping to do! I love it when she visits because all she wants to do is shop, work on art journals, and visit. Win!

She’s kind of an 11 year old mini-me, only much smarter! 🙂

Now to the “latest”…IMG_2975

Here is a page spread from a few weeks ago. There isn’t much going on, I just loved that big, fat rat so much I had to share!

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I thought this was interesting. This was a page I had journaled on, but not decorated, almost exactly a year previously. I added more journaling and decorated it up a bit. IMG_2976

 Sometimes I like what’s going on on the page too much to cover it all up, so I just added some pops of color.

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This is one I did this morning while my niece worked in her journal. Even though I didn’t leave room to journal, I’ll always remember this mornings art session when I look at it!

That’s it for now. I’m hoping my niece will allow me to share some of her journal pages with you this week!

Until then,

Thank you for the visit,

Have a great day,

~Patty

Shoppe News and a Coupon

What a week it’s been! I had intended to fill up my shoppe, then make an announcement here. I’m happy to say that in the meantime…

I had to fill it up again! 🙂

So, here are a few of the new items that I’ve put into the shoppe…

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Some sweet little Faith Journals made from children’s bible story books.IMG_2823

An example of the ephemera that comes with.

I tried my hand at making stickers out of kraft colored labels, paint and stamping. I think they came out pretty good.

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What I call “Rag Clips”. Two per package for $7.00.

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And I’m happy to say that I had to make more because they went so fast!

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“Flower Clips”. Not my most popular item in the past, but I love them! I still have high hopes that someone will love them as much as I do!

If you decide you can’t live without some of these items, be sure to use the coupon code IMBACK15 and get an additional 15% off your order!

I will run that coupon until April 16th!

Also, I have the sweetest children’s books with a spring theme to them just waiting to be turned into art journals, so look for those some time soon, I’ll announce it here as soon as they are ready.

Until then

Thank you for stopping by,

Have a great weekend,

~Patt

Thrifty Thursday…with Wilhold Love!

Okey Dokey, it looks like the Wilhold angels smiled upon me again! Cue angels singing!

…and once again there was some poor soul standing between me and my treasure. Heart pounding, I squeezed passed her and tried to look casual. She smiled sweetly at me knowing we were both in our “Happy Place”, while she contentedly perused the fabric selection. My tribe!

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A root beer colored Wilhold! I hear music…do you hear music!?

She’s smaller than average, but that makes her even more precious. A few cracks and some wear and tear, but I’ll take good care of her!

When I showed her to my husband, he actually had the nerve to ask me how many Wilholds I have. I started to count…he lost interest. Do I ask him how many fishing poles he has? He wishes I was that interested! Now if these were tackle boxes…but I digress.

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I decided that this would be perfect for organizing my Stitched Journal makings. I had been keeping all this in a vintage suitcase for years, I’m really not sure why this didn’t occur to me sooner.

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A perfect fit! A lot of the embellishments are in neutrals for this journal, I went a little haywire on the fabric color choices, and felt it needed some toning down.

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How fun is that!  This has worked out so well, I was inspired to get a couple of pages done.

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A blinged up window box…with one flower…don’t judge…it was fun.

IMG_2870Very much like my art journals, I like to rummage around to see what inspires me. Having things organized, and being able to see what I have to work with, really makes things flow a lot better!

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These little stitched journals are great to have on hand in the evening when you just want to be creative, but don’t want to get out a bunch of supplies and create a mess. You can put your own stitched journal kit together with an inexpensive sewing box, a plastic crafting container, or even a tool box.

Having your embellishments an tools organized is the best way to go, I highly recommend it!

Once again,

Thank you for the visit,

Have a great rest of your week,

~Patty