Journals From Junk

I've saved up a few junk mail envelopes and then I decided to make a flip flop junk journal out of them. I've been wanting to make a foresty-gnomey kind of journal for a while now. It's been in the back of my mind and I've been contemplating it.

So when I renewed my subscription at thegraphicsfairy.com recently, I decided to make some printouts and get started.

They have a graphic pack called Gnomes & Wee Folk. I used that one and one called Woodland Wonders and Green and Cream ephemera and probably a few others too. I started off gluing my envelope flaps to each other in a chain fashion and then tearing chunks of newsprint, handwriting and other collage papers. I glued them to the envelopes as backgrounds.

Than printed out all this stuff and started making cards and cutouts to decorate the journal "pages" with. I pulled out all the paper techniques I could remember and threw them in there too.

I used ink pads, spray ink, gold pen, paper punches and ribbon trims. I'm not done because I keep getting good ideas like fern die cuts and sewing around the edges of some cards. 

This is where I'm at after three days of fun and in the mean time - I've gotten enough junk mail to make another one. 

My Spring/Summer Garden 2023

I've been lost in the garden and cleaning out cluttered places for the past couple of months. My compost bin was nearly emptied for all my tomato plants and flowers so I started this years batch and I planted some stuff. Look at this hydrangea I planted last year. It's called L A Lights.

We have had the mildest most beautiful weather lately, so nice, not to warm days and breezy evenings make it the best for gardening. July is usually very hot and dry. We've had plenty of rain this month so I have not set up my rain barrel this year. I've been collecting water in five gallon buckets and it is enough between rain spells so far but my rain barrel can be set up in about five minutes if needed.

My garden really was pretty simple this year. I decided not to buy a lot because plants are way too overpriced again this year. I grew my own from seeds this year and what didn't make it, then I bought a few plants but I started my own seeds for the tomatoes. My jalapenos and bell peppers died during the damping off period so I bought a plant each of those.

As did my cherry tomato plant so I bought this one. It's huge now.

I planted moss roses and geraniums. I had seeds for the moss roses and I wintered over my geraniums from last year but only four of them lived so I had to buy a few more to propagate. I've been taking cuttings and multiplying them along with the plants I already have to make my garden this year. I bought very little.

 

I got a Bloomstruck hydrangea in good shape for only $7 at Walmart They have flower buds on them already and the plant looks beautifully healthy now. And I went with coleus on the front porch boxes. The seeds are easy to gather for those and they are colorful and they do well in the shade. 

I skipped the petunias but had a few volunteer ones come up in the beds so I propagated them and now have many petunias. 

I will be taking seed for these. And my basil came up on its own in the pot where it grew last year. I have basil in the freezer already, and a ton of cuttings planted. Basil is the easiest to grow, store and propagate. You can never have too much pesto! I put wire cages on my geraniums so I could protect them from the rain if needed.

I only planted three roma tomato seedlings this year but I'm going to have a bumper crop.

A few of my cuttings took root so I moved them up to bigger pots. They will go into the ground as soon as the pots get root bound.

I got this plant for practically free. It was buy one and get the second for a dollar and I've been wanting one of these. It's a mosquito plant (scented geranium). They don't really bloom very well at all but their super power is the scent in their leaves. It repels bugs.

Well this post is getting kindof long but I have more garden goodies, I just have to take more pictures.