Organizing

Card Making With TheResetGirl’s Latest Mini Collections!

~ Patty Radish ~ 8 Comments

This may take a while, so you may want to grab a beverage, or a snack…or a nap…

It all started with a trip to the Puppy Parlor. I had two hours to kill and was 30 minutes from home, so time for a little shopping!

Lately, I don’t buy things unless I need them, downsizing into a house half the size of our current one will be daunting enough as it is! But when I saw this mini photo box at Hobby Lobby for 50% off $2.99…

…ya, just sayin’!

So, while I was killing time wandering around, it occurred to me that this little box would make a perfect greeting card holder. I have plastic ones, but they are less than inspiring to look at. And look how cute this is, pink polka dots, need I say more!

The little, metal label holder was on the side, so I moved it to the front, then decorated the lid and the label with Mandy Ford‘s, T.R.G. mini collection, “Happy At Home”.

I made these little dividers from a recipe box I also purchased that day. They may or may not work as true blue organizers, but who cares, they’re cute.

I used a mash-up of “Treasured“, “Adored“, “Stamp Lovin‘”, “Vintage Ledger Paper“, and of course “Happy At Home“. Use the links to get a closer look at these collections.

I had so much fun mixing and matching the phrases to make my own sayings. These will be perfect to send to someone that needs a little pick-me-up.

Truth be told, I had to do some pretty strategic decor placement on these. My printer decided to be a brat, and my prints all came out with streaks. But, I actually enjoyed the challenge, it’s fun to mix things up a bit, and I learned some new tricks.

This is the Birthday Card group. I wasn’t sure how I was going to pull off making Birthday cards, but then I remembered all these little cupcakes and that cake, so cute!

Seriously, I didn’t want to stop making these! They were so much fun! It will be so nice to just grab a card when I want to say “Thank You” or just “Hello” without having to drop everything to make a card. This is one of those things I always say I’m going to do, but never get around to it.

Sometime soon, I’ll write a post about my card layering process, let me know if that sounds like fun.


Until then, here’s an awesome coupon for TheResetGirl.com/shop

And as always,

Thank you for dropping in,

Have a great weekend,

~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

Keepsake Journal With Organization

~ Patty Radish ~ 2 Comments

You may be wondering when I’m going to write a blog post that doesn’t contain organizational tips. Not anytime soon, I’m still trying to get organized (hard to believe, right)! This project almost went to the wayside, marked Done,  until I scrolled through my photos and realized I still really wanted to keep it going.

These are the times I really want to remember, just the day-to-day fun stuff with some of my favorite people!

Sometimes I’ll add a little journaling to my pages, but not always. The journaling for the photo on the left is under that little tip-in. Anything goes in this journal, it’s just a fun place to hold onto memories.

My biggest problem was having all the bits and pieces spread in different parts of the house. I tried a few options, but this tote really worked out the best. This was my “Random” art journaling tote. I found that a lot of the “randomness” in it worked perfectly with this project, so it wasn’t a difficult shift.

One trick I happened upon was printing the photos with the dates printed at the bottom, super handy! My plan is to work on one month of memories a week until I’m caught up. I’ll toss each month’s ephemera, along with the photos, into this photo keeper until I’m ready to get started.

Because I had put this project on the back burner, it was a bit tricky coming up with some of these fun bits and bobs to art journal with, but I found a few things tucked around my art space. As I run across things, I paperclip them into this insert on the corresponding date, then jot down a note or two.

That library pocket on the right is holding a “To Do” list my daughter made that we were laughing hysterically about. I wrote the date and what we were laughing about on it, then popped it right in (love my pockets!). Many of these are not things I would put in a Project Life album, but definitely fun memories worth keeping and documenting. I hope she re-reads that list one day and laughs all over again!

I jumped ahead date wise with this page spread because I wanted to adhere it to the stronger pages of this journal insert. My grandson made this cute little page, put it up on the wall, then proceeded to tear it off the wall when he was supposed to be napping. I had a hard time rescuing it, but it’s safe now! (Fyi: I think my daughter colored in that flower, he’s more of a sticker boy!)

The little bug-a-boo!

The quality of the photos are not an issue for me with this project, my main concern is to get the memories down before I forget them!

So, there you have it, another bit of my organization. This keepsake journal would still be sitting on a shelf with no hope of getting worked on if I didn’t literally pull it together. Nothing screams procrastination like disorganization in my world.

I hope this post gave you some helpful hints towards pulling some of your sweet memories into a keepsake journal.

No Rules, just get them down!

Thanks as always for the visit,

Have a great week,

~Patty

 

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Thrifting, Wilhold Love, with Organization

~ Patty Radish ~ 3 Comments

It has been a long time since I’ve gone a-thriftin’, and boy were the thrifting angels on my shoulder this week!

I found three Wilhold sewing boxes, but only two came home with me. One of them was a repeat, and I only have so much room in my house.

The one in the background is olive green with a clear lid. I will be posting more about it when I find just the right use for it. The clear one at the front is already in use! More on that in a minute.

On to the rest of my finds…

Vintage office supplies. Another super cool, faux wood metal file box, I now own five. I have big plans for these and will be sharing that soon.

Dennison gummy things, various journaling spots, faux wood book ends, and an awesome vintage book on filing, swoon!

Stacks of sweet books for art journal makings, except for the green one, “The Good Earth”. That one will go into my classic movie collection, a great movie with Paul Muni, LOVE!

GAMES! What do you think of those round playing cards! I’m hoping to put together a “Games” ephemera pack sometime soon, I think I’m ready!

I’m always on the lookout for these retro flatware trays, they make great drawer organizers for the bathroom and office. That box with the red lid is a picnic container. A good friend of mine gave me some of those a few years ago and I love them.

Now to the real organization…

I had recently found a good use for the many wooden spools I have collected, organizing my jute and bakers twine. I had all this in about three or four different places. So, I was super tickled to have come up with this…but it gets better!

My new tag making kit!

This is probably the most excited I have been about organizing in a long time!

I make, and use, a lot of tags in my shoppe and art journals. Having everything in one place is amazing. I took what was in about 8 different places, and put them into one! Seriously, they were everywhere.

I may have a few more tags hiding somewhere around the house, but I still have room in there.

Now you know why I love these Wilholds so much, think of all the possibilities. So, if you ever run across one of these in the thrift store, I hope you won’t pass it up. Even if it is missing the trays, they make really cute storage boxes.

I’m still working on my olive green Wilhold, I’ll share as soon as it’s up and running.

Until then,

Thanks for stopping in,

Have a great week,

~Patty

 

 

Gratitude Journal Organization

~ Patty Radish ~ 6 Comments

Last week, I promised a post about my art journaling organizational process, and here it is a week later! I know, I can hardly believe it myself (insert surprised look!)

First, I’m going to show a little of the art journaling tote I’m using for this project.

 I purchased this tote from Hobby Lobby on a 50% off sale, which made it about $12. It’s got loads of pockets and such, but it’s the plastic photo cases I’m going to talk about today. As you can see I have labeled them, and this is where the “process” comes in. It really saves time on having a pile of ephemera to sort through. As I go through each layer, I know which case to grab. I’ve been using this technique over the last year or so, and it really works for me

First layer “Background” pieces: I like to use these on the scrapbook or painted pages to give them a vintage look. Sometimes, I’ll scrape a little paint over them so that they will “blend” into the background.

2nd layer “Paper pieces”: scrapbook paper, origami paper, photocopies of fabric, anything with color or pattern.

3rd layer “Medium ephemera”: these usually consist of the focal piece along with large die cuts or random images. As you can see, I’m building my layers from larger to smaller.

4th layer “Small ephemera”: tickets, small stickers, die cuts, images.

Finally, “Extra small ephemera”: the usual suspects, only smaller.

After all my layers are built, I go around most of the pieces with pencil for contrast. I use a “General” 8B pencil with a “Helix” cap eraser. I use the paint brush to brush off the eraser bits as not to smear the pencil lines. That pencil sharpener  is a Kum AS2, super awesome!

(I’m not paid for sharing links, I just want to be helpful)

Last but not least, the ink stamping. The date stamp of course, but using my decorative stamps kind of went to the wayside, so I’m trying to get back into the habit.

The finished product, a page of my daughter and I shopping before Christmas.

I hope you can see how I built the layers on this page. There is a video of my process here, I just wanted to share a little of the organizational aspects with you today.

I’ve made quite a few promises to myself this year, writing a weekly blog post being one, but also quality instead of quantity. Two to three art journal pages a week is quite enough, those daily challenges can be a bit daunting.

There are lots of other things I have in the works to scale down, use what I have instead of buying, and using my own ingenuity, I’ll share some of that in my next blog post.

Until then,

Thanks for dropping by,

Have a great day,

~Patty