Hey Friends, just a quick post to let you know I haven’t fallen off the face of the earth.
I have been keeping busy organizing and using up several years worth of ephemera.
I usually just organize then loose interest, but this time I am actually putting it to use.
…and I have almost filled up a journal at this point!
Let me know in the comments how you are doing and what you’re up to.
As always,
Thank you for the visit,
Have a great week,
~Patty
A couple of years ago I thought it would be fun to put together a journal of the ephemera packs I make for my Shoppe, and like many things I start…yeah. (the link to original post is here)
At this point you shouldn’t be surprised that still have half finished projects that need tending to one way or another, meaning: either finish them or dismantle and move on. I’m happy to say that not only did I take a project off my list, I started a new one…again…wait a minute!
Oh well, If you are interested in my process, read on:
Step one: Tear all decor from said journal
This is one of my favorite photos, geishas in ‘Kiss’ makeup. I took this off the internet and printed it out to make a birthday card for my brother years ago. ‘Kiss’ was the first concert I ever went to, big bro took me of course. I have the best brother ever, fyi! I had printed an extra one out for me.
Step two: Make a pile of sticky backed journal decor
This tag is no great shakes but so much fun to make. I’m moving to a larger (wider) size of this style of journal and this tag helped me knock out a page of this one…that I’m moving out of… if you know what I mean.
Step three: Move said pile from one creative space to the next making sure they all stick together awkwardly
I really struggled with this page spread, but I’m really happy with the way it turned out. The large tag and the journal card are made from a painting experiment I’m still working out. The pocket is from the “pile”. (the flowers are from a different project I had to let go of…long story)
Step four: Pry the sticky ephemera off each other every time you want to work with it for extra frustration
The pocket and stamps are from the “pile”, the photo of my dog ‘Lily’ is from a different pile. Part of the “Gratitude Dailies” project that pooped out.
Step five: Put and end to it by cramming as much stuff on to two pages as possible…then add a butterfly
I’m the first one to admit that my pages sometimes look like a hot mess, but I’m having so much fun! One of my favorite things to do is find homes for wandering ephemera or repurposing journals that go awry. I seem to spend a lot of time with “Clean up on aisle 5” projects. But there is a lot of inspiration out there and a lot more projects to start, stop and drop like a hot potato.
So until next time,
Thank you so much for stopping by,
Have a great week,
~Patty
So, the goal setting thing kinda took off. My goal for 2022 is to Downsize!
Now, to me “downsize” has taken on a lot of meanings:
*Stuff=Self explanatory
*Projects=Finish up
*Chores=Delegate
*To Do Lists:Do
*Purchases=Use
…and here is where we pick up the story.
I’ve had a lot of plans over the years, and along with those plans were purchases of some pretty pricey items. Some of these items were just gathering dust for one reason or another. For example, my Silhouette “Portrait” cutting machine. I don’t know about you, but some of the simplest technology can throw me for a loop. So it became a dust collector, until I decided to spend a day wrestling with it, and I won!
Now one more project is knocked off my list! (and I have a box of stickers I need to downsize!)
And that brings me to the other subject of this post, YouTube videos. You will find the videos to these journal spreads on my channel, the link is in my sidebar.
This goal was twofold: Finish up half-done art journals (also called the “Art Journal Stack Wrap Up”) and use the video camera that was gathering dust. Check!
I thought that if I’m going to accomplish the goal of getting 6 pages or 3 page spreads done per week, I might as well record the process, which brought a whole other bag of technological worms along with it!
Social Media Downsizing: Use them or delete them
Over the last couple of years I’ve been on the fence as to whether or not social media was worth the effort, it can be a real time vampire, setting up the photos, photographing, editing, links, writing captions, but the payoff is building a community.
I don’t have crafty friends in my life, so I have to reach out digitally, which I don’t mind in the least. I consider myself extremely lucky to have these platforms to share my love of crafting and meet so many awesome people!
So, I’m jumping back in again, and I couldn’t be happier! I’m sharing on all the platforms I used to share on now…I’m not adding any more though (twitter=gone).
I’ll try to post here about once a week about my videos, with photos. I don’t video all of my page spreads, so I’l be popping those in here too.
As always, thank you for stopping by,
Have a great week,
~Patty
What happened to July!? It turned into one of those months that everything happened, I had a hard time squeezing everything into it…guess the blog didn’t make it. Lol!
I’ve been trying to keep up with the downsizing project, and it’s actually been pretty fun, especially in my craft rooms…Yes, I have two now 🙂
Making the time to finish up olde junk journals is on my priority list right now. I’m afraid to look at how old this one is, I’m sure there is a date in there somewhere.
I’m happy to say that I actually journaled on that card in the pocket, something that I don’t do unless I have something on my mind that just won’t settle. Me hubs (my husband) has had a couple of health issues this month, so that took a little air out of my tires. But, things are looking up as we work through it.
I spun my wheels on a few projects that didn’t seem worth the time this month, but water under the bridge, it kept me busy.
To the point, this is why I started art journaling to begin with. The combination of art therapy and journaling is the perfect fit for me. I sent in an art journal to Stampington’s “Art Journaling” magazine a few weeks ago, hopefully that won’t turn into personal drama, my last one was sent back saying “thanks but no thanks”.
Well, I just wanted to check back in and say hello. I’ll keep working on downsizing olde art journals and hopefully take the time to post as I move along.
As always, Thank you so much for stopping by,
Have a wonderful rest of your week,
~Patty
If first impressions mean anything, this page spread has thrift store written all over it! Maybe it’s the funky little Ernst tag I picked off of a long ago find, or the thrifted collection of yellow vases…
I guess it stands to reason since I get at least half of my art journaling supplies from thrift stores, but that isn’t why I’m writing this post. I wanted to share a technique I use once in a while.
This is a selection of brick-a-brack I pulled out of my junk box, along with some pics I wanted to use for a kind of memory page.
Tip: Take a photo of the arrangement you’re finally pleased with to refer back to before glueing elements down.
Here’s the deal, I still have so much to do to get our house and lives together in our new home, and because I’m not able to spend any amount of uninterrupted time at my art desk, and the chances of being able to remember what the plan was is virtually nil, I do this a lot more often now. This is a great way to consider what’s working and what is not. Some of the smaller elements usually get changed, but it’s nice to have the structure down.
This page spread is a combination of memory keeping and stash busting.
Gardening is one of my true loves, and I’m happy to say that I’ve been able to start a small garden this year. There were a few plants I couldn’t let go of, we’ve had this rose bush for about 12 years. We bought it for my daughter on her birthday, it loves eastern Washington! Maybe it will make it to her garden some day.
Gardening, cleaning, decorating, downsizing, it doesn’t seem to end…but it’s a labor of love! I picked up some paint chips on one of our many trips to the hardware store. Awesome pops of color in a huge range of options…and free!
I found that old teal playing card when dismantling a lower shelf in my new sewing room. I’m pretty sure that it was lost back in the 60’s by one of the original homeowners. I added the lil’ peanut butter girl, something my grandson is addicted to right now, every time he comes over he goes through a half a jar!
The photo is of the the top of a shelf on my sewing table. Turning our extra room from storage to useable space is one of my latest projects, it’s slow going, but I’m making progress.
This daisy looks a bit moth eaten, but in her defense, she’s over 20 years old! My husband and daughter planted these daisies from seed, and I managed to keep this one all these years.
It’s been a wonderful experience to start a new life in a new town surrounded by keepsakes and memories. That’s why the organizing and decluttering project has been taking so long, we’re filled to the rafters with memories, and I would prefer to take my time making decisions on what goes or stays.
This page spread links the past with the present in a very meaningful way for me. As you can see, I’m not a huge fan of journaling on my pages. I like the idea of getting a different impression or memory each time I look at my pages, words tend to anchor a particular meaning to the page, I prefer seeing something different each time I look at it. I definitely like my “non-pen” journals the best!
I put the supplies list at the bottom of this post. I would be more than happy to do this more often if it’s helpful. Please let me know in the comments if this is something you’d like to see 🙂
Well, I hope that was a helpful tip.
If not, I hope you enjoyed the ramblings!
As always,
Thank you so much for your precious time,
Talk to you soon,
~Patty
Supplies: Photos on matte paper, vintage playing card, vintage magazine and book images, paint, ink stamp, postage stamps, washi tape, paint chips, word strips, carnival ticket, die cuts, vintage wallpaper piece, scrapbook paper pieces, #8 graphite drawing pencil
Patty Radish 