Memorial Day Mandala Monday

A-PARROT-ly, it's Mandala Monday, so here's a fun little Prismacolor Pencil design in my small Dina Wakley Kraft Journal. The centerpiece is an ancient Pepin Sticker from The Ink Pad; I've pulled the colors of the sticker out into the design, and outlined everything with a Letter It Fineliner from Ranger, for a little extra polish. Happy Memorial Day to all who are celebrating; and a big giant THANK YOU to all those who have served or are serving our country.

Last Mandala Monday of November

It's a Really Random Mandala Monday, in sticker form! Featuring a Pepin Vintage Fashion Lady (from The Ink Pad, NYC, which I miss terribly!) surrounded by lots of Pipsticks and a few older goodies like those Mary Engelbreit flowers. Hope your Cyber Monday is off to a good start! ♥

Ready for the New Year

One of my favorite last-week-of-December tasks of the last few years has been finishing the current Traveler's Notebook and setting up for the New Year. For the last two years I've used a Monthly Diary to record all of my creative assignments and a Weekly Vertical (with facing Memo pages) for basic memorykeeping and a little art journaling. On the principle of, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" I've stuck with that same format again. Here's a fond farewell to 2021:

  

December 2021 is all filled in, with lettering in Karin Brushmarkers and some fun Michelle Ward x TIP New York themed stamps. The rest of the months of 2021 are available as a slideshow (because honestly, one of the pleasures of working in my TN in each month is how much fun it is to see the whole year in review!) just hop over to The Ink Pad's Instagram feed to check that out. 

Meanwhile, I've set up for 2022 with a new library card tucked into the pocket of my Notebook Refill Cover. 

Here's the set up for January 2022, with lettering via StencilGirl's Vintage Typewriter Lower Case Stencil by Carolyn Dube using half a dozen colors of Distress Oxide Ink; plus some very fun Rose and Roo Washi Tapes in coordinating colors. The daily squares are ready to to be filled in as I complete each project.

Finally a hand-typed inspirational quote and some lovely Pepin Stickers from the Art Forms in Nature and Natural History books. Oh and how cute is that Typewriter Sticker?

I hope your last week of December will be filled with the joy of finishing up a few projects, and looking forward to 2022. Happy New Year! 

New Product: Kitta Washi Strips

I'm test driving a completely new product to The Ink Pad: King Jim Kitta Washi Tape Strips. They are actual thin, sheer, 2 x 3/8” strips of washi tape, which have a backer like stickers have. You easily peel the backer off and apply the neat strips to you project. They come in dozens of styles and are great for adding photos & ephemera to journals, Using as page flags and borders, making patterns, spelling out words and... well, I'm excited to find other creative uses, but if you'll hop over to The Ink Pad Blog, I'll show you what I've done so far:  

Deckle-Edge Paper Weaving

Tim Holtz's Deckle Torn Edge Trimmer has sold out every time we've had it in stock at The Ink Pad, so of course I had to try one for myself. In the course of using it to make larger cuts, I became fascinated by the narrow deckle-edged off-cut strips, which I thought would be very cool woven together! You can read more about this technique on The Ink Pad Blog.

Seal of Approval

My love affair with sealing wax continues! This time I'm playing with Elegant Icon XL Brass Wax Seals in Rose, Fleur de Lis, Cherub and Teapot designs from The Ink Pad. I've made a bunch of sweet vintage style tags to show them off; as well as a page in my Traveler's Notebook. Hop over to The Ink Pad Blog to see them and read all about my sealing wax adventures! 

Something for Everyone

Travelers Notebooks are so much more than just calendars. In fact, many of the refills have no connection to time, like Lined Refills for notetaking and listmaking; Watercolor and Sketchbook Paper for drawing anywhere; Dot Grids for lettering practice, Blank Pages that can hold collages, poetry, haiku, photos or anything else you can figure out how to attach! Your TN or Planner can be whatever you want it to; especially a fun place to spark your creativity... I know mine is! Here's a look back on the first three and a half months of 2021 in my Traveler's Company Notebook from The Ink Pad. I've been using the Regular Sized TN (there's a Passport Size too) in a Binder (as opposed to a leather cover) to record my completed creative assignments Monthly; and a Weekly Diary to do some super casual memory-keeping (family milestones, the election, etc); and a little bit of list-making (tv shows we've binged, audiobooks I've devoured); but honestly, as much as anything, it's a great place to keep pretty papers, stickers and tapes that I'm not quite ready to part with. Here's a page that illustrates what I mean:

In the past few weeks, I've blogged about Hero Arts US Mailbox and Envelope Accessories Die Sets, and thus wound up with a bunch of extra postal-related diecuts in random colors. Time permitting, I could have made additional cards... but in this case, I just sort of collected them all into the "Cleanup Collage" you see above; which also makes use of an abandoned label I typed for National Card and Letter Writing Month, the MT for Pack Letters tape that was sitting on my worktable, and some of my fave Pepin Vintage Fashion Stickers.

This year I was lucky enough to grab a 2021 Monthly Diary before they sold out; but in some ways I miss the (undated) Free Monthly Diary I used last year, since the calendar pages had a little more room for embellishing. The other plus-side of the Free Monthly is that you can start and end with whatever months you choose! Rather than planning events forward, I use mine to make a little visual record of what I've done for each of my creative posts throughout the month. I always enjoy these in a nostalgic sense; but it's also practical, as it helps me see, at a glance, what products, colors and themes I've done recently. 

Technically I don't need to add the name of the months to my dated pages, but I have some excellent StencilGirl Alphabet Stencils that I love using and it lets me add another splash of color. "March" is done using Carolyn Dube's Vintage Typewriter Lowercase Stencil and February capitalized on the fact that the Emotions and Feelings Alphabet has both full-sized and tiny letters.

And of course I love to use my Karin Brushmarkers to do some handlettering. In January I paired them with some Pepin Art Forms in Nature Stickers and Tapes as well as some of the stamps, dies and stickers I used throughout the month; my MTA licensed Tape and Stickers being particular faves, but as you can see, there's a little bit of EVERYTHING! 

I hope you'll be inspired to start (or re-start!) a journaling habit and to tailor it to suit your life and creativity!!!

Envelope Envy

It can sometimes be slightly challenging to use dies that do not have a coordinating stamp set, but with Hero Arts' Envelope Accessories set, that's definitely not the case! This card is made using only the dies in the set, and apart from inking the edges I haven't even enhanced or embellished them. I have, however, made half-a-dozen additional, colorful, diecut envelopes; to which I've added Sealing Wax and Dried Flowers. You can see those on The Ink Pad Blog!

Sealing Wax Adventures (Part 1)

I love everything to do with snail mail: from typewriters, to vintage paper and envelopes, cardmaking, pens, handwriting and more; but one thing I have never tried (until now!) is sealing wax; but I'm pretty sure I'm already HOOKED! In this post, I'm using Glue Gun Sealing Wax and a variety of seals; however, The Ink Pad does also carry traditional Wick Wax, as well as a Sealing Wax Set with small wax beads and a melting spoon, which I will save for another post. In the meantime, my preliminary thoughts, tips, tricks and links are on The Ink Pad Blog today!

It's Almost Friday!

So this seems like the perfect time for a card that celebrates the end of the work week! Picket Fence Studios' Here is Where I Work cling stamp set from The Ink Pad has other sentiments, as well; covering everything from encouragement to congratulations to employee appreciation... and in a variety of interesting fonts. But this week, Friday is definitely looking good to me! I'd love for you to hop over to The Ink Pad Blog and see a few more pics, and read about my process!

Another New Year, Another New Journal

One of the most exciting things about the New Year for planners and journal-keepers is choosing and setting up our new book, supplies and system. Last year was my first time using a Traveler's Notebookfrom The Ink Pad (details from last January are HERE) and since my experience was 100% positive, I'll be going down that same path, using dated 2021 Traveler's Company Products.

Last year I purchased and decorated a Refill Binder, as opposed to a Leather Cover, since I knew most of my journal-keeping would take place at home. I added collage papers and stickers to the front and back covers. Since I had the intention of re-using the same cover in subsequent years, I confined my references to the year 2020 to a catalog card which slid into a library pocket. So this year, all I had to do was remove the 2020 card and my completed (and now rather fat, lol) weekly and monthly refills, archive them, and decorate a new card for 2021. I used some Pepin Vintage Fashion Stickers, MT Fab Letters Tapeand the stickers that came with my new TN. 

This year I'll be working with a 2021Weekly Vertical + Memo(which splits the year into two halves)and a 2021 Dated Monthly Diary. I treated myself to the 2021 Customizing Sticker Set(this year's theme is classic books) and a Brass Bookmark Template.

To kick off the year, I decorated the front cover of the January-June Weekly book, again with some of the stickers that came with my TN, more Pepin Vintage Fashion, beautiful White Lace Gem Tape, some letters cut from MT Fab Letters Tape, and various stickers and tapes from Pepin's Natural History, Art Forms in Natureand Classical European Tilesbooks. (There are quite a few other books in this Pepin seriesand with thirty-two 8x10" pages these are a good value as well as being both useful and beautiful!)

Since January first fell mid-week, my first layout spans the end of 2020 and the beginning of 2021. I did a little hand-lettering with my Karin Decobrush pensand made a little collage featuring some vintage bookpaper, sheet music, a fabulous quote (written out on my trusty Royal typewriter)and various Pepin Stickers, some of which I fussycut.

I use my Monthly Diary not to plan forward, but record my projects and assignments once they are completed. So my month of January isn't filled in yet, but I added a little more lettering, as well as more Pepin tapes and stickers.

There are so many different ways to use a Traveler's Notebook, many of which do not involve a calendar or dated pages at all! Did you know there are Gridded Refills, Kraft, Sketchbookpages, Watercolor Refillsand more. And most of these varieties also come in the handy Passport Size (which is, as the name implies, literally the size of your passport)as well as the larger Regular Size (4x 8"ish) that I have chosen! Visit the website or better yet, the Chelsea store to see the whole selection and be sure to check out the TN Master Blog Post for an overview of the basics!

Quilt-Inspired Cards

But don't worry, there's absolutely NO sewing required! In fact the only supplies you need are stickers and washi tape. Mine are by Pepin and from The Ink Pad, naturally! And all the info you need to try this technique is on The Ink Pad Blog today!

She Sells Sea Shells by the Seashore

The Ink Pad has not moved nearly as far as the seashore, in fact it's not moved far at all, merely 6 or so blocks uptown to the new digs at 233 West 19th Street; between 7th and 8th Avenues. Technically we don't sell sea shells, either, but we do have many gorgeous Pepin Sticker Books, some of which have beautiful shells, like these... so that sort of counts, right?

If you want to make a SUPER-fast card that looks pretty awesome, you cannot (in my opinion) beat stickers, and Pepin have some of the most lovely. I matted these --from the Marine Label and Sticker Book-- not-quite-two-inch seals on kraft diecuts just a smidge larger, and added one of the tape strips on top of a couple of layers of torn vintage paper. Of course, you could use patterned paper or gel prints, or vellum, or even three layers of kraft paper! I applied gluestick (Coccoina is awesome... just sayin'...) everywhere but the edges of the torn layers, so they'd curl up slightly, and at the end, added just a tiny bit of Stickles to emphasize the curls, so they looked a bit like the lines on the beach where the tide has been. 

The Ink Pad is gearing up to re-open in the fabulous new Chelsea location on 19th Street this Saturday, February 29th. We hope to see you there!

Lauren Bergold

loves the beach

and also 19th Street!

Butterflies!

I will tell you a secret: I still love playing with stickers every bit as much as when I was ten years old! Luckily in the few years/decades which have elapsed since then, stickers have grown up... and there are some utterly droolworthy ones by Pepin which coordinate rather beautifully with my Eyelet Outlet Butterfly Brads. Coincidentally, both are available at The Ink Pad. A fact I'm discussing happily on The Ink Pad Blog today.