Happy Mail

My Latest Obsession: Mood Boards

~ Patty Radish ~ 6 Comments

And it all started out of frustration!

Sometimes there are so may moving parts to my projects, I have a hard time remembering all of them…so I make lists. That’s great, but even then, I’ll loose my place on the checklist. And really, how inspiring is a list?!

“Happy Mail Mood Board”

As you can see this combines elements with lists, and even some room for detailed notes…game changer. There is so much more to this than words and ephemera, it’s also a springboard for more ideas (and probably a new mood board)

“In the Garden” ephemera pack.

It started with this page spread. I got flustered with constantly referring to my notes and thought instead of making a “memory page” when I was finished making an ephemera pack for my shoppe, I decided to make the page spread ahead of time to remind myself what “goes” into it as opposed to what “went” into it.

“Art Journaling” page.

Now, you’re probably going to think it’s a bit silly after all these years to need a reminder of the elements that go into one of my page spreads, but it’s not. When I decide to create a page spread I’ll usually go through some of my old favorite art journals for ideas, especially if things aren’t clicking.

Now I have an idea book to refer to when (not if!) I get stuck!

If you look up “Mood Board” on the internet, you will see these used for home decor  and fashion ideas, I think you can use them for just about anything creative you are working on, like cards, a quilt, or even a crochet project.

The beauty of this is there’s no more hunting around for the perfect art journal for inspiration, it’s always where I can find it, right above (or on) my desk.

I made this journal by printing “dot grid” onto white card stock and  binding it with the covers of a large vintage book, but you can make something like this in a binder, an art journal, or something to hang on your wall.

I have quite a few more ideas for ephemera packs and other projects, so this may become a series, so I hope you are as excited about my new obsession as I am! 🙂

As always,

Thank you so much for stopping by,

Have a great day!

~Patty

 

It’s That Time of Year Again!

~ Patty Radish ~ 2 Comments

Time for the iHanna Postcard Swap!

I love this time of year, I get to go through all the great happy mail ephemera that has been sent to me over the years, and make art with it!

But best of all, I get to make a keepsake page for my Happy Mail Journal!

And for some reason I decided to up my game and post three videos per week on my YouTube channel, so if you’re interested in seeing a video on my postcard process, go HERE.

…and if you’d like to see the process video on my keepsake page, head on over HERE.

Please let me know if you have any ideas for videos in the comments, I need all the help I can get!

Much Love,

Thank you so much for visiting,

Have a great day,

~Patty

 

Shoppe News! Kitschy Ephemera Packs!

~ Patty Radish ~ 2 Comments

By now you probably know how I feel about kitsch…kinda awesome!

In January I made some pretty kitschy art journals, so I thought it would be fun to put some ephemera packs together too.

Filled with all manner of kitschy goodness, cards, game pieces, images, postage stamps, the usual suspects.

Of course with all the orange and green goodness that befits the 60’s and 70’s.

50+ pieces in each pack, including some pretty cool paperclips to decorate your project.

I made eight of these, and each one is totally unique. Please pop over to my Etsy shoppe to see the full line.

…and as always,

Thank you for the visit,

Have a great week,

~Patty

 

 

New Video Up!

~ Patty Radish ~ 4 Comments

Oh the angst! After much trepidation, I finally jumped the technology hurdle and got a video made. It’s not much, but I had to jump in some where, so I did a flip through of my “Happy Mail” binder.

A sneak peek. I love this cover! As I say in the video, I’m hoping to get some of these into my shoppe soon. My hope is to make videos of shoppe newness sharing more details.

I’d love for you to take a look at my latest video, it’s only about 8 minutes long.  Here’s the link PattysArtJournals.

Keeping it short and sweet this week,

Thanks for dropping by,

Have a wonderful weekend,

~Patty

Postcard Swap Tutorial…or not?

~ Patty Radish ~ 4 Comments

Today I thought I would share a short tutorial on how I made my postcards for the iHanna DIY-postcardswap, but it seems I had a few technical difficulties, i.e.: I accidentally deleted the photos…DOH!

Luckily, I didn’t delete all of the photos so I can give you a quick run down.

 I started out with some painted backgrounds, then adhered various botanical napkins, easy peasy. Some of the painted backgrounds were pretty ghastly, but the botanicals fixed that and actually made them quite interesting.

Then I embellished with the usual suspects: die cuts, postage stamps, washi tape, and chipboard letters (someday I’ll run out of these) Those butterflies at the top left were printed on Avery #8665 clear 8 1/2″x11″ shipping label paper. I purchased them from the Illustrated Faith Print & Pray shop. Follow the link, they are still available.

I just arranged the pieces in little clusters, then went around them with a #6B pencil, rounded the corners, and applied a layer of satin varnish to seal them and pop the color.

That’s about it for today. I’ve been staying super busy filling up my shoppe with Fall journal decor, Christmas journals, and ephemera packs, follow this link and have a look around. If you see something you like, use the coupon code CUSTOMERLOVE20 to receive 20% off your order.

As always, thanks for stopping by,

Have a wonderful week,

~Patty

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