TN Update

My friend and fellow SOS Alum, Mary Juska (aka Mimi, She's Crafty) is one of the most talented stamp carvers I've ever seen. I am constantly admiring her carves on her Instagram account, @MillwoodStudioArt and last week she sent me some of her winged designs stamped on library cards. I'd love to tell you I'm making them into gorgeous cards to send my friends, but mostly I plan to hoard them and use them for art journaling. To that end, I made this quick collagey-page: 

Here's a closeup, just because. I added torn vintage paper to the background, as well as a strip of White Lace Tape, which I dabbed with Spun Sugar Distress Ink (since the tape is made of very thin, slightly shiny plastic, the ink "sticks" to the paper behind, without tinting the tape). But really the stamps are the stars:

As long as my Traveler's Notebook was in photography mode, I snapped a pic of the March page in my 2022 Monthly Insert. I like being able to look back on all my papercrafting projects for the month.

It is quite a dull grey and rainy Sunday here in central NJ, so I think I will go and make something COLORFUL!!! ♥

Stencils and Sealing Wax

Two of my all-time favorite discoveries during my time at The Ink Pad are journal keeping in a Traveler's Notebook, and the nostalgic joy of Sealing Wax. And happily, this post has BOTH of those; and right now you can discover either of them at 30% off, while the brick-and-mortar store closing sale continues.

There are still a few 2022 dated Traveler's Notebook Refills available in both Regular and Passport sizes, including the Weekly Vertical with Memo edition that I'm working in here. There are also lots of different undated refills, covers and accessories, and this is a great time to take a look at those! 

I've decorated this page and a sweet little White Glossy #2 Tag with our friend Linda Edkins Wyatt's Lemurian Garden Stencils from StencilGirl, some rich shades of Distress Oxide Inks and Blank Classic Fleur-de-Lis Wax Seals. Of course there are loads of Wax Seals with Initials and Icons, but the cool thing about the blanks (which come in round and square shapes) is that you can use them to impress tiny Pressed Dried Flowers into the wax for a really beautiful and striking effect. 

Please note that while The Ink Pad's Chelsea location will be closing mid February, The Ink Pad Online will continue for your shopping convenience!

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! 

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! 

More Stickers, Please!

I love stickers, generally and Appree Pressed Flower Stickers, particularly. These lovely photo-realistic stickers add the beauty of pressed flowers to any project, without the challenging fragility of the real thing. We've just added about two dozen NEW flower styles to our selection at The Ink Pad and of course I had to have some immediately! This shabby chic Traveler's Notebook page is one of two Appree projects on The Ink Pad Blog today, I hope you'll hop over and see the other one!

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!!!

An Ambi... what?

I confess that I hadn't heard the term "ambivert" (which describes a person who has a mix of both introvert and extrovert personality features) until I found Everyday Explorers Co "Ambivert Life" stamp set and thought, "Hey, that's ME!" Hop over to The Ink Pad Blog to see the flip side of this fun card AND a Traveler's Notebook page I made using the same set!

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!

It's Not Just for Traveling

It's tempting to argue that 2020 is the year in which we needed calendars and planners the least, but I to the contrary, I've found I've used and worked in my Traveler's Notebook from The Ink Pad more than ever. Because it's a system that you can customize to work perfectly for your life! For example, did you know that there are many TN refill options that don't even involve a calendar? Such as Sketchbook, Watercolor, Gridded and Kraft Paper inserts that turn your TN into a portable sketchbook, art journal, or creative writing habitat. The Traveler's Notebook Master Blog Post from the end of September lays out all of the basics about sizes, refills and covers; you might like to check it out if you're thinking about jumping into the TN universe. Meanwhile, I've got these three brand new pages on TIP Blog today!

October, in Living Color

It's hard to believe we're already a third of the way through October, but the calendar in my 2020 Traveler's Notebook assures me that's the case. So this seems like a good time to show off this month's spread and then talk about my 2021 set-up, featuring some fabulous new finds from The Ink Pad. All the details, pics and product links on TIP Blog today!

TN + Stamps = JOY

This month on Instagram, The Ink Pad's friend and Journal Guru, Andy Evers (aka @storiedpages) is co-hosting a event called "You By Me" in which journalers are encouraged to try making a page in the style of a fellow enthusiast they admire. I chose Andy himself (of course!) and was pretty excited to find that since we both shop at The Ink Pad, we have quite a few products in common; which made my task fairly easy. All the details on this layout as well as my September montly spread on The Ink Pad Blog today!

Traveler's Notebook Update

August is an especially colorful month in my Traveler's Notebook, especially the Monthly Free Diary section in which I record all of my assignments and projects. Thanks to some fairly awesome Everyday Explorers Co stamps from The Ink Pad. More info and the "after" photo with all the fun things filled in on The Ink Pad Blog today! 

Where Exactly Did June Go??!

Considering that many of us have spent the vast majority of the last few months AT HOME, it's surprising how quickly the weeks keep rushing by! This seems like a good time for a Travelers Notebook update. Not that I've had many plans or travels to record, lol, but since I use my TN Free Diary Monthly Refill to record all of my creative assignments, June is as full as all of the previous entries! Visit The Ink Pad Blog for all the details of this fun spread.

MARCH-ing On

Would this be a good time for a Travelers Notebook update? Because somehow, when we weren't looking, two thirds of March rushed past and the season changed from winter to spring! All of my supplies, of course, are from The Ink Pad.

March 2020 started on a Sunday and uses four full weeks, plus three days. This is not something I would ordinarily notice, but since I'm working in the Free (Blank) Monthly Diary and need to format each month, it's something I had to think about in order to label the days and lay them out correctly. So this month, the title of the month is at the bottom right of my spread, because there was more room to place my overview using Everyday Explorers Co Planner Months set and a bit of handlettering just for fun. The days of the week, from the Calendar Days set, are still up top.

The regular sized TN insert is slightly bigger than my MISTI, but by flipping it around and letting the book hang off the non-hinge edge, I could still use it. Which was nice, because I wanted to neatly line up a bunch of the faux postage icons from EEC's Choose Your Own Adventure set in the margin, and frankly, I would not have had the confidence to do that freehand.

I had finished my entire spread and was getting ready to put the Free Monthly Diary back into my Regular Sized Binder, but there just seemed to be something missing. I auditioned more stamps, and several styles of MT Washi Tape, but nothing seemed quite right. In the end, it turned out what I needed was just a nice bright border around the month, which I made using a Zig Dot Marker in Kiwi!

I considered not showing my TN Weekly page this time, because honestly, it's such a JUMBLE! Lots of info and updates about CoViD-19; a record of things that got cancelled, mingled with random positive stuff I made a point of noticing... really there's much more here than a well-composed page should ever have. But then it occurred to me how well this reflects exactly what this week was like!!! Which is the whole entire point of journaling, right? So here it is, warts and all:

And finally, though I've shown my cover before, I do still love the collagey goodness and especially the 2020 library card in its pocket, which will allow me to update and reuse my personalized Regular Sized Binder for years to come!

The Ink Pad's Chelsea Store is still closed for a bit, but so be sure you've signed up for the newsletter to get updates as they happen. Meanwhile, stay well and stay crafty!