Happy Mail Envelope Ideas!

I'm in the mood for happy mail!

Do these envelopes look happy to you? 👀

Above are business envelopes for stationery and slim-line cards. See links below for more ideas! 

Stationery with Matching Envelopes 

More Envelopes that Match Stationery 

My Positivity Journal 2021

January 2021 Divider & Front Spread

My YouTube Positivity Journal Playlist

Words

Note: Playlist is set up like a series of chapters. Each month of my journal is a chapter. Click on the link and go to the chapter you haven't seen before to watch it. Or watch the whole playlist from beginning to end and see how my style of journal and video making has evolved. 

JANUARY -- Doing something different this year. I called a time-out -- to take a wee break while I recharge my creative batteries and to  learn new journaling techniques. For instance, I've been watching some Dyan Reaveley videos to see how she makes backgrounds for her art journaling pages, for I want to add in some to my journal too. I'm making it a blend of several types of journals. The best thing I did last year in my journal was to prepare it ahead of time, giving myself 6 spreads per month plus one extra page, with three pages devoted to the requirements of good memories, quotes, and scripture and then whatever else I wanted to do in the rest of the spreads. I watched a lot of bullet journaling and planner videos to list their ideas and did the same until I began running out of ideas at the end of the year. I was late in video making because I was struggling to come up with more ideas to fill in pages. Then I got Covid and didn't feel like messing with either my journal or video-making. I practiced giving GRACE to MYSELF and uploaded them when I could. That was a struggle too - allowing myself GRACE -- a foreign concept to my way of thinking since I usually beat myself up mentally for being less than PERFECT! 

I felt so good though, when I finally got November and December's videos made and uploaded.  I'm taking the best ideas of the last two years and creating something new -- a Table of Contents with assignments for each page, however, I can put my imagination cap on and be creative within those page assignments. I've made up to 6 months worth so far and if by mid-year, if I've changed my mind for something else I want to remove or add-in, I can do so. Oh, and since I use a skinny elastic hairband to keep my journal closed, I've added in divider tabs at the top of the composition notebook to keep the tabs away from the belly band. In 2019, I had divider tabs on the side and used a belly band sideways and the tabs got squished. Last year, I put the divider tabs on the side and used the elastic vertical and the page side of the journal became deformed under the pressure. So this year I will see how the top dividers work out with a horizontal belly-band. 

To prepare journal - 

This composition notebook is from Walmart and has a sewn in signature which makes the journal strong. Some journal makers go through their notebook gluing pages together for strength, however, I glue pages into my journal. The left side of one spread is for writing and the right side of the spread is where I'm gluing in cardstock cut down to size. A spread consists of two pages facing each other (see above photo) and the fold in the middle is called a ditch. 

Adding washi tape to the side edges of the pages make them stronger, for they will be thumbed through a lot. Cut down 12 sheets of scrapbook paper for the front dividers (6 3/4 inches x 9 1/4 inches) -1 per month and glue in, allowing 6 spreads plus 1 page between the months. I have purchased six humorous cards so far from Dollar Tree to use as a pictures on the divider pages.  The table of contents was added to the inside cover. Then I cut down a 2021 calendar that my husband obtained from Half-Price Books to add to the diary page and glued in the word "LOVE" underneath that I cut from some packaging to remind myself that "LOVE" is my theme word for the year (Jesus LOVES Me). 

The glue I'm currently using is Elmer's Craft Bond and I use lots of it. 😃

COVER: Baa! The Lamb of God

Here's my table of contents for the first six months:

1. Divider Page (theme "friends;" most of the cards came from the Dollar Tree)

2. Daily Calendar

3. Pictorial Diary (I was inspired by Dyan Reaveley's "done" diary) 

4. Scripture

5. Art Journal Page 

6. Quotes

7. Art Journal Page

8. Good Memories

9. Art Journal Page

10. Prayer List (it's good to pray for your friends and family) 

11. Glue Book page (tea envelope collection)

12. Poem (either mine or someone else's that I enjoy!) 

I used most of what I had leftover of scrapbook paper that corresponded to the farmhouse décor theme behind the cards on the divider pages and then found two paper packs of scrapbook paper on sale at Michaels and Tuesday Morning. The one at Michael's is called "At the Barnyard" by Recollections and the other is Country Kitchen by Steven Duncan/Echo Park Paper Co. It has a retro kitchen feel to it. I took out all the pages in both that have the small embellishments and cut them up to put into a zippy bag, so many of the small embellies that I will be using to decorate my journal will be from those two packs, however, I have also found some cute farm-type signs on Pinterest and have printed them out on my Polaroid photo printer. I like that the printer paper converts into a sticker. Santa was nice to me that year. smile! 

I will also be using not only rubber stamps and my doodles in the journal, but stencils as well. And I have been practicing a faux calligraphy font template that I found on the internet by hand as headers on my pages. 

If you've been following me for awhile, you know that I will be posting the crafty stuff from the whole journaling year right here in one long post, so come back each month to see what I've added to this post. Thank you for following me. I enjoy my craftin' bliss! 

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February's Video is Finally Uploaded. My first art journal page was inspired by a quote from Bob Goff's book called Live in Grace-Walk in Love, the second by Stephanie Ackerman and the third by Dyan Reaveley. 

With ADD, I have a sensory issue. I don't like clothes that itch nor do I like the rough textured surface of acrylic brush- painted papers, however, I tried acrylic paint with Dyan's technique of using one of Tim Holtz's sponge applicators and I really like it as it is soft and smooth to the touch. 

I used three stencils from my stash to continue Dyan's technique of layering images, one of them being Tim Holtz's cross-stitch stencil, one was an alphabet stencil (brand?) and border blocks (Plaid?). Dyan Reaveley's coloring girl die-cut came from my friend Julie in a swap. The mushrooms are Dyan's Dylusions stamps and the flowers are Posh Impressions. I colored them in with water-based brush markers. The sentiment strips came in a baggy I got at the thrift store, so I don't know the brand. And whoa, I wrote a poem for my glue-book tea envelope page! 😇 

Tea Envelopes are red,

Tea Envelopes are blue,

Tea Envelopes are many colors

When brand new!

I like them red

I like them blue

I like them many colors,

To share with you.

~ DJR ~

 

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YouTube Analytics says that my five most watched playlists are:

Dolores' Positivity Journal

Dolores' Doodles

Dee Gruenig & Posh

Mary Engelbreit

And my newest one: A Year of Joy 

Thank you for making that so! 

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I'm working on the March video. Can't seem to get the music placement just right. I enjoy the creativity, but didn't know I also had to use math to figure out what music I can use where. I grew up singing in church and school choir, but never paid much attention to how long each song was. And an additional challenge is figuring out what songs sound good together. I told the hubs today, I've never really noticed what music and sound effects has been put into a movie to add emotion. I just enjoyed it.  I created a poem to go into the video like the last one. It's a cinquain.

tea

hot water

steep plant parts

many flavor blends of

white, green, black and herbal

Yum!

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I began a new post with Farm Animals Sayings and Quotes for Art Journaling, ATC's, Cards, and Scrapbooking!

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Last month, I included a live portion in my March video. But now my technology is giving me fits, so I can't do a live portion in April's video. Technology is wonderful when its working. Not so much when it isn't. So guess I'm going to have to put on my thinking cap and work around it. This month, I began my video with some slides of what us card-makers used to call serendipity paper and now what the collage makers call collage masterboard. I dug around in the clear zippered bag that I keep all the snippets of paper that reminds me of and stamp off's of Mary Engelbreit's rubber stamps and collaged a bunch of paper together to make new paper that I can use  in my positivity journal. I'm also following Linda Vater's Bucket Brigade challenge with food plantings in galvanized metal buckets on YouTube. I've got lettuce and kale planted and we bought a tomato and hope to get some cucumber planted in the last tub. 

This month I also wrote a haiku for my tea poem:

tea Camellia blooms

leaves picked, dried, and roasted black

steep, scented, sip, smile

~ DJR 

By the way, I'm on the hunt for sayings to use with my zetti art doll journaling pages. I'm looking at Pinterest, but that tends to be a little overwhelming and I get distracted by all the pretties. smile! Julie sent me one. Not gonna tell you what it is for that's for next month. All my dollies will be wearing labels of some sort. Like this month, Dollie is wearing an evaporated milk label. She's also is wearing my face put through a photo booth app and I used an acronym that my husband used to call me. 😁 He told me to quit putting myself down because I was a BBW~ a Big, Beautiful Woman!  Click on the photos to enlarge if you can't read it. So if you have a positive saying that might coordinate well with a label, leave it in the comments below. I added last month's zetti paper doll for you. I'm not cutting up magazines for the arms and legs, but women's clothing catalogs that I get in the snail mail. When I run out of those, I have a paper doll rubber stamp that I can use for appendages. 

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MAY VID:

I was watching a video recently about JOY by Ingrid Fetell Lee. Look her up on YouTube, she has been taped several times speaking about the subject. Anyway, she talked about colors and things that bring you joy. Carolyn challenged me to find the word JOY and I've created a playlist that contain three videos so far. Each video holds about 50 snapshots I've taken of JOY's that I and my husband and others have found since last Christmas (2020). I suddenly realized I could also have moments of joy and delight. One of my moments this month was catching sight of a mama goose strolling down our road with five goslings all lined up in a row following right behind her. I have no idea where she came from, but I was pretty sure where she was going. We have a lake at the end of our road. I jumped up and grabbed my camera and walked quickly out to our front porch to get a snapshot. After I developed the picture, it went right into the photo diary section of my positivity journal. 

My hubby wasn't too sure about my paper Dolly having my face, nor it being oddly messed up in a photo booth app, however, he was sure enjoying the saying I found for June's Dolly and shared it with his family during Memorial Day weekend. He had a good laugh about it and isn't that what a positivity journal should have -- a little humor?  By the way, I updated my Flickr-1 Account. I'll be sharing my zetti dolls there as well as many other paper art dolls that I've created over the years.

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June's Short Video is live! In June, my laptop computer died of old age, crashed and burned, along with all my files, which included three videos I was compiling. Thanks to John, my husband's brother-in-law, my laptop was rebuilt and I've been busy trying to work out the bugs and get used to some of the new apps that he put on it. Have gobs of emails to work through as well. 

Since my video is so late, I decided to try the new YouTube shorts format. Some things to remember:

• Even though YouTube shorts videos are supposed to be 1:00 minute long, make it 59 seconds long. They tacked on one second to my video while my video was being uploaded and processed. 
• 20 (3 second) slides make a 60 second video. 
• YouTube said we can use a 15 second music clip from popular music to accompany our videos without copyright issues, however, to by-pass that, I just found some copyright free music from YouTube's free audio music library. If you fall in love with the music I've added to each of my videos, look in the description/info box under each video for the title and artist, along with any shout-out's to people that I mention in my video. 

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July's video is finally done! And uploaded to my channel. Although a little late for spring cleaning, that's what I've been doing. Spring cleaning my kitchen and replacing all the plastic and wood items we've collected in the last 30 years of marriage for stainless steel and glass. I'm in the middle of a GI workup and have already been diagnosed with lactose and fructose malabsorption. I have an endoscopy scheduled for September. Possum Patty from Pencil-vania calls it the Freedom Diet - free from dairy and free from the usual American fruits. I'm allowed berries and melons except watermelon. There is also a part of the fructose diet that is gluten-free. I'll be happy when I can get heart-burn free. 

My video is a tribute to black and white television. Did you know that RCA began selling black and white television sets to the American public in 1939? Colored television didn't come out until the mid-1950s. My dad purchased our first game, Atari, to use on the television when I was a senior in high school. When Mr. Rush and I were first married, our first television was two TV's stacked on top of each other. His aunt gave him a black and white portable television set that had a picture but no sound and a neighbor down the street gave us a console television that had sound but no picture. It also had no remote control, so we had to get up to change the channels on both TV's in order to watch anything. We were just happy to have television. Before that, all we had was my radio. Young Love!  It wasn't until we were married several years before we purchased a rent-to-own VHS machine from our local grocery store and now I'm creating my own videos and uploading them to YouTube.  Amazing! 

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August's video is up! I've had computer issues all summer and medical testing, procedures and surgeries, so finally getting around to uploading videos. I also uploaded a shorts video yesterday with JOY's that Possum Patty from Pencil-vania sent me. Her most pressing question was -- was I responsible for the rubber ducky named JOY in one of Maine's harbors? Nope, but I thought it was funny that she recognized the word on the chest of the duck while watching the news about how the duck showed up in the harbor one night. 😂

My video includes a tutorial on how to create a collaged master-board or what we called in the cardmaking world, serendipity paper tag for a pocket on the picture diary part of my journal. Some of the paper I used came from Happy Mail from Possum Patty and some of it was scraps that I saved from other projects. Hope to get September's video up soon, perhaps tomorrow. But first a follow-up doctor's appointment. I had a cataract removed in my left eye and two stents put in to help keep the pressures in my eye even a week ago. I was diagnosed with pigmentary glaucoma several years ago. This is me - click here. When was the last time you have had your eyes checked? Don't let glaucoma (or cataracts) steal your eyesight. 

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September's video is live!. I had two requests this month -- a friend wanted me to begin my video with my face and for that we had to order a backdrop stand for  I didn't like what I was seeing behind me. Hubby ordered it from online Walmart on Saturday and it came on Monday.  I found out that a twin size flat sheet in my favorite black and white buffalo check/gingham fit just perfect and my creative mind got to thinking about what other things I could use as a backdrop -- other twin sheets in interesting patterns?, a green screen tarp?, a quilt top (wonder if I can find one at the thrift store that doesn't have a backing yet?), a tablecloth or a decorative shower curtain. I saw some really nifty ones on Amazon and eBay for sale, but I'd rather not spend more than the cost of the backdrop stand. I'm frugal, what can I say! And the other person wanted me to show them how I draw my coloring sheets or Grace cards, so have both in this video. Almost had a disaster right before I began filming though and that's when you have to get creative. My clip-on lamp broke, so will have to replace it but whew, I found a replacement that worked this time. The light and shadows were a little dark, but hopefully a new lamp will shed some new light next time!   Oh, and before I forget,  I also added a sound effect to my video this time. Listen for it! I had to do some juggling between my voice, the music and the sound effect and some of the video was a little glitchy, but it's gonna fly! 

Update: YouTube has removed the Discussion tab from people's channels that have less than 500 subscribers, which grumped me out. But what can you do? I used to be a member, then moderator in the Parlor at the website called Old Fashioned Living. Anybody remember that forum? I am/was also a member of Splitcoast Stampers and Club Posh's forums.  I was hoping to get enough people interested in beginning a forum of my own on YouTube, but guess I'll have to begin a thread with a video on my channel. Like I said before, I like praise, but I also like conversation, so if you want to talk to me, you can in the comments below this post or below each one of my videos.  

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I have a new JOY video up and now October's Positivity Journal Flip-through video. I'm still learning how to edit. It's hard work to come up with creative ideas of what to do in a video, but also how to edit them creatively. And if they are boring or long to you, I'm sorry, I'm doing the best I can, however, I'm open to hearing your ideas about what you want to see (providing they are good and clean ideas). I have two upcoming procedures, one in a couple of days and another one right before Christmas and somehow I pulled a muscle in my lower back while doing some work in the kitchen, so have been nursing that with hot water bottles and cold packs. And car rides are the worst! You don't realize how much your lower back absorbs shocks from road craters and sharp turns until your back doesn't. Mine spasms in pain. 

The best thing though, in October's video, is the Swap and Glue Challenge I participated in with Possum Patty of Pencil-vania. I sent her some images and she sent me some and we created a gluebook page with what we were sent. You'll have to check out my Happy Mail playlist for those particulars.

And I am really enjoying my twist on Teesha Moore's art journaled dolls. I even have Possum Patty making my version of zetti-dolls. See my YouTube hashtag #djrpaperdollart I uploaded another page to my Flickr photo album (see left side menu for link) and I rearranged the front of my channel. Some of my most popular playlists have been added there, however, I have more under my playlist tab. 

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Copy right Claims for Music on my Videos: I learned today who has put copyright claims on some of my videos. When I began recording and editing my Positivity Journal videos in 2019, I used the music that came with the Microsoft App Photo & Video editor that came on my computer. I figured they had okayed it with the powers to be, however, I soon discovered that they had different names for the music than it was listed as on YouTube. As soon as I received the copyright claims (which is different and less severe than a copyright strike), I sent feedback to both Microsoft and YouTube, protesting my innocence and telling each where I got the music. Hence, each one of my videos has the editor I use and the title of the music and composer if I know it down in the description box below each video. 

Anyway, each of the four 2019 videos that received a copyright claim to it means that I cannot get revenue from that video should I ever get to the place where I can monetize my channel (I must have 1000 subscribers plus a certain length of viewing time). I use YouTube's music and sound effects from their free audio library now.  

The claimants are:

AdRev

Hexacorp LTD on behalf of ScoreAScore

Naxos of America 

The reason I dug into my channel today is that a YouTube friend took music lessons on her electronic piano so that she could eventually play well enough to record music for her videos. She found some sheet music in the public domain, meaning that it was published at least 75 years ago and played that music for one of her videos. Now she has a copyright claim against it by some German company claiming that she infringed on a copyrighted recording of the music their company made in 1944. If that music became public domain 75 years ago, then it became so in 1946. IMHO some sneaky and stinky shenanigans goeth here. 

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November 2021 Short! After several months of health issues that included a couple of endoscopies and surgeries, I decided it was time to quit being lazy and finish up my positivity journal and upload a short show and tell video! 

And when I complete December's flip-through, my positivity journaling days will be over and on to new and better things, such as: 

I joined another #swapandglue with a YouTube friend named Linda Dee. We sent each other paper images through the snail mail; she's completed her collages on video, so I have that video to do! 

And Linda and I will each be doing an en masse journal (idea by Shannon Green). I've already have begun collecting a list of items I want to look for to glue down in a new composition notebook, so that video will be coming soon as well, and I've been going through my stash and pulling some things out to send some happy mail to Linda's Mixed-Up Mess! 🤓

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December 2021 Done! 

Happy Mail Opportunities!

Looking for opportunities to send a RAK (a random act of kindness) via snail happy mail? Below are listed some ideas for you. I get as much pleasure sending a card as receiving one and it doesn't matter to me whether I send or receive a card that's a commercially made or a handmade one, as it is the thought that counts, right? 

For instance, I make cards and have had some designs published, but if I'm shopping at our local Dollar Tree, where cards are sold for 50 cents and I see a design I like, I'm liable to send a few of those out too. 

1. Are you catching events like anniversaries, baby and bridal showers, birthday, get well, graduation, holidays, sympathy, and weddings for your friends and family? Write the event down in your planner or on your calendar to help you remember to send them a card or letter. 
2. Contact your favorite card or craft magazine and ask them if they have the address of a charity to donate cards to.  Or ask your favorite rubber stamp company if they know of one. Here are two called Letters of Love for the Elderly or Operation Christmas Cards for Our Troops .
3. Send firefighters, your mayor and city council, police officers, or a soldier a thank you card for their service. 
4. Send a letter to 12 people this year, one a month. Tell them you are grateful for the positive influence they have had on your life and be sure to tell them what it was. I once sent a card to a former teacher who I heard had been diagnosed with cancer. She wasn't one of my favorite teachers nor was I her student pet, but she did teach me how to type and I thanked her for teaching me that skill, for I am using it today as I type this post. 
5. Mail a sunny physical card via snail mail to a neighbor on the right and to the left of your residence.
6. If you are listed in a church or club organization directory, send a card to the people just above and below your name and address. 
7. I once had the ladies in our church shower my mother with cards the day her birthday fell on a Sunday.
8. Send a card to a secret sister or pal or send a handwritten paper letter to a pen-pal. 
9. Send a decorated recipe index card to a friend's collection of recipes. Make it extra special by catering it to their dietary needs. 
10. Surprise your boss and send a card to them. (or send one to a co-worker).  Praise them for a job well done! As the saying goes, catch them doing good! 
11. A friend donates small cards to her local meal-on-wheels and nursing home. 
12. Address a local picture postcard (or tourist brochure) to "You," slip it into a slightly larger food zipper baggie and tie or duct-tape it to a brightly colored helium-filled balloon. If you wish for a reply, slip a business card inside baggie with a post office box return mailing address.  Pray over your happy mail and send it on its way by letting it fly away. 
13. Send a note-a-day of love to a friend who has just moved away for 30 days. I once did this for my BFF. She was a military wife and mother to several small children at the time. She said all those wonderful cards delighted her as she received them daily in the mail and she felt loved and less alone as she gazed on them scattered around her new home several states away. 
14. Have a shoebox party (no. 2) and designate all or half the postcards made and signed to send to a city mission for the homeless or missionaries your church supports. Have the party attendees donate postage stamps along with their shoeboxes. 
15. Send a thank you card to your custodian or maid service, daycare providers, dentist, doctor, dog groomer, hairdresser, your mail carrier, a nurse, your pastor, your Sunday School teacher and so on for their care of you. 
16. Surprise a friend or family member and subscribe to an old-fashioned magazine for them. My sweet husband subscribed to the Country Sampler Farmhouse Magazine for me last year. I didn't know he had done so until I received the first issue. Then if you like the magazine, send a Letter to the Editor and include several of your favorite local shopping stores or mail-order catalogs in your town. I have had several of those published in various magazines over the years.
17. A former pastor of ours had a signing party at church. Once a month, in place of a regular Sunday evening service, we gathered around tables in the fellowship hall instead of in the sanctuary. He brought a list of names/addresses, boxes of cards, pens and postage stamps; we brought snacks, and we signed and sealed cards to mail out to birthdays of the month, members who missed services, missionary links, shut-in's, visitors and anybody else that pastor believed needed some cheer that evening.  

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Any of the posts labeled "Card" here on my blog will give some ideas of card design, but I also have some favorite posts that accompanies this snail mail idea list, such as:

18. A cartoon about All Occasion Cards 🤓

19. A Christmas Card Exchange idea

20. Card Storage 

21. A Doodled Zine 

22. Need some Sentiments for Cards? Here's some "Farm Animal Sayings for ATC's, Art Journaling Pages, Cards, and Scrapbooks" 

23. Or would you rather use a poem? I've got lots here at Splitcoast Stampers website in a forum thread called "Need a Poem?." 

24. We are a former homeschooling family. I created a unit study about the mail service for our son and along with it, he did a community service project at the same time. Here's the Paper Postcard Unit Study.

25. Quick Cards Designs

26. Tips on How to Watercolor the Art Impressions Way

27. Happy Mail Envelope Ideas!

28. You Are Invited to Tea 

29.  I have a Happy Mail Playlist at YouTube. It contains videos of snail mail that I have sent to friends on YouTube. I enjoy making my friends happy and delight in watching their appreciation and joy for the goodies.  There are general hashtags on YouTube for happy mail also, such as this one -- #happymail  

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Not every card or letter will need inserts, but if you would like to add something extra special to one, here are several ideas for those. 

1. For instance, we know of a young single mom who was in a serious car accident last year. Her grandmother asked that we insert Walmart Gift Cards into our Get-Well cards.

2. I taught toddler and primary Sunday School for several years. I sent coloring cards to my students about once a month to once a quarter. My kids were tickled to receive happy mail sent to them in care of their parents and sometimes I inserted small gifts such as artist trading cards, commercially printed Bible scripture trading cards, bookmarks, coloring sheets, coupons for food treats, church business card magnets, SS class photos, seed packets, sticks of gum, etc. 

3. A nice monetary tip (15% of your total bill is customary) for your waiter or waitress.

I invite you to add any ideas that I haven't thought of as yet in the comments below. As the Bible says, it is more blessed to give than to receive.  (Acts 20:35). Grace and Peace to You! 

Farm Animal Sayings for ATC's, Art Journaling Pages, Cards, and Scrapbooks

I'm creating art journaling pages now in my 2021 positivity journal and am finding it difficult to find cute sayings and quotes to use on them, so decided to create a list that I can access and at the same time share with you. My Dr. therapist said to go to Pinterest, but Pinterest can suck you right in and keep you distracted like a kid in a candy store, so you don't accomplish what you set out to do. smile! I'm going to go through my word box and some of my old 3-ring binder notebooks that I used to keep crafting ideas in to see what I can find. Didn't know art journaling also needed sayings and quotes. smile! So come back from time to time as this is going to be an on-going project. 

TIPS:

1. If you copy and paste these sayings into a word document in columns and then resize them down to a smaller font to print out, these would be great for artist trading cards (atc's) too!
2. Printable Masterboard: I cut letters and words out of packaging. I especially like to save the black and white wording and glue them down to an 8 1/2" x 11" sheet of paper to copy over and over. For example, here's a FREE sheet for you! If you set your printer at black and white, it should print fine for you. I didn't notice the grey background until I uploaded it to the internet, although you could print it in greyscale if you like onto a colored sheet of paper. 
3. WOW! It's still online - Denny Davis
4. And of course, there's always my Splitcoast Stamper's Thread called "Need a Poem?" 

🐞🐝🍯😸🐶🧸🐢🦃🐔🐮🐴🐐🐰🐷🐑🐸

WELCOME TO OUR FUNNY FARM! IT'S FARM FRESH! 

BARNUM's ANIMAL CRACKERS! 

BEES, HIVES, and HONEY:

1. Bee Good!
2. Bee Happy! 
3. Bee Well! 
4. Bunny Bee Good!
5. Can we bee friends?
6. Friends we will always bee!
7. Fuzzy Buzzy! 
8. Have a "honey" of a Christmas!
9. Home is where your honey is.
10. Honey Bunches of Oats
11.  Honey Bunny! 
12. Hoping our "honey" of a friend has a "beary" Merry Christmas.
13. Meant to Bee 
14. Queen Bee
15. the bees knees
16. To Bee Or Not To Bee Queen
17. What's the Buzz?

BUNNY RABBIT:

1. 100% Cottontail
2. A 10-Carrot Greeting
3. A carrot a day keeps the doc away!
4. Bad Hare Day
5. Best Bunnies or Best Bunny Buds
6. Bugs Bunny
7. Bunana!
8. Bunny Be Good!
9. Bunny Be Mine
10. Bunny Crazy
11. Bunny Day Blessings!
12. Bunny Honey
13. Bunny Hugs!--
14. Bunny Kisses! 
15. Bunny Tracks!
16. Carrot-juice: Liquid Sunshine
17. Carrots for Sale
18. Carrots to You! 
19. Cottontail Patch
20. Don't feed the chocolate bunny!
21. Funny Bunny!
22. Honey Bunny! 
23. Happy Bunny-day!
24. Hoppy Birthday! (or any holiday or special occasion)
25. Hoppy Trails to You! 
26. How does your garden grow?
27. I'm carrots for you!
28. I'm late, I'm late, for a very important date!
29. It's a girl (or boy) bunny!
30. It's somebunny's birthday
31. Keep going and going and...
32. Rootin' Tootin' Cowbunny! 
33. Somebunny's an Angel  
34. Somebunny  carrots for you. 
35. Somebunny's Special!  
36. Somebunny's Sweet!
37. The best of bunnies and bears.
38. The Velveteen Rabbit
39. This carrot's for you!
40. Watch your Step: Bunny Hole!
41. What's up, doc?
42. You carrot me up!
43. You're somebunny special! 
44. Yum! Carrot Cake!  

CATS:

1. A house is not a home without a cat. 
2. One thing moms and cats have in common ... spit baths! 
3. Picture Purr-fect Smiles
4. the cats' meow
6. Soft kitty, warm kitty, Little ball of fur. Happy Kitty, Sleepy kitty, purr, purr, purr.

CHICKEN: 

1.  _____ (name)'s Chicken Ranch. 
2. All the Cool People Raise Chickens!
3. Bless Our Nest! 
4. CAUTION! Area Patrolled by Attack Rooster. 
5. Cheep Smiling!
6. Chickens Make Me Happy! 
7. Chicken Salad. 
8. Chicken Lovers Parking Only. Violators will be egged.
9. Don't Count Your Chickens Before They Are Hatched.
10. Don't forget to fly.
11. Don't Ruffle My Feathers.
12. Egg Salad. 
13. Egg-ercise! 
14. Eggstra Special
15. Farm Bureau Co-op Chicks
16. Find a Chicken, pick it up and all day you'll have good cluck. 
17. Fowl moods will not be tolerated! 
18. Green Eggs and Ham
19. Have an "eggstra" special holiday!
20. Have an "egg-cellent" day! 
21. Heard you caught a bug! Get well quick!
22. Hearts of a feather flock together. 
23. Hen Den
24. Home is where our flock is.
25. Hot Chicks Live Here!
26. I love egg-plant! 
27. I'm so egg-cited, I could egg-plode! 
28. Just chicken in to wish you happy birthday!
29.  Monday and I'm egg-hausted!
30. Mother Hen
31. Omelet It'll Be!  
32. Rise and Shine Sunnyside Acres
33. the Brooding Hen
34. the Coop Troop
35. The Hen House
36. Use your wings! 
37. With brave wings she flies!
38. Welcome to the Coop!
39. Welcome to our Coop! We're all clucking crazy! 
40. Welcome to our Lil' Nest! 
41. Whether a man winds up with a nest egg or a goose egg depends a lot on the kind of chick he marries.

COW:

1. Cowboy Camp
2. Cow-nt your blessings. 
3. Eat ice cream for daily happiness.
4. “Eat Mor Chikin.” – Chik-fil-A Slogan
5. Good days start with milk and Jesus.
6. Hanging with my heifers. 
7. Have an "udderly moovalous" holiday! 
8. I'm in the mood for love. 
9. Merry Christ-moos! 
10. Party till the cows come home.
11.  Rootin' Tootin' Cowbunny! 
12. Sorry! I'm a bit Moo-dy today! 
13. What do you call a grumpy cow? Moo-dy!
14. Why do cows have hooves instead of feet? Because they lactose.
15. Udderly Amazing!
16. Watch for the cow-pies!

DOG:

1. "Paw-sing" to wish you a Merry Christmas! 
2. Stay paw-sitive!
3. Teacher, my dog ate my homework. 
4. Who lies down with dogs rises with fleas. 

DONKEY:

1. Pin the tail on the donkey! (game)

FISH:

1. A Reel-y good time!
2. Fishing you a Happy Birthday!
3. For Reel-s?
4. I hope you have a reel-y good birthday! 
5. So-fish-ticated
6. You catch, you clean!

GOAT: 

1. Nanny Goat; Billy Goat
2. Whatever floats your goat. 

HOGS, PIGS and SWINE:

1. Hogs and Kisses!
2. Pig Pen
3. Pigging Out! 
4. Pork and Beans

HORSE or PONY:

1. If a husband has enough "horse sense" to treat his wife like a thoroughbred, she will never turn into an old nag!
2. I call my horse Mayo and sometimes Mayo neighs. 

LAMB or SHEEP:

1. Home is where the herd is. 
2. "My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me." ~ John 10:27
3. "The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out."  John 10:3
4. No Ewe Turn
5. I'm not fat - I'm just fluffy! 

LLAMA:

1. No Prob-Llama

TEDDY BEAR:

1. Bear-ly Awake
2. Gummy a Big Bear Hug
3. Have a "beary" Merry Christmas! 
4. Have a "beary" nice holiday season! 
5. Holiday Teddy Bear and Dolly Tea Party!   
6. Hoping our "honey" of a friend has a "beary" Merry Christmas. 
7. Proud to be an a bear-ican
8. The best of bunnies and bears.
9. The beary best of friends. 

TOAD and FROGS:

1. Frogwarts!
2. Hoppy Trails to You!
3. Ker-plink, Ker-plop, Into those puddles I love to hop.

TURKEY and OTHER FOWL:

1. Fowl moods will not be tolerated! 
2. Happy Turkey Day!

TURTLE:

1. Slow and steady wins the race. 

WORMS:

1. Book worms! 
2. Our little bookworm

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GAME IDEAS:

• Pin the tail on the donkey!
• "Railroad Spell" using only words that have to do with a farm or farm animals. 

My Happy Book 2019.

Just wanted to share with you what I'm using the food packaging for -- not just for artist trading cards, but also to decorate a journal that my therapist doctor encouraged me to make -- one filled positively to the brim with goodness, kindness, and joy! She said to add in my doodles, scriptures because she knows my faith is important to me, and good memories. 

I purchased a Composition Notebook and began adding in dividing lines with skinny washi-tape (planner format) and decorating the sides plus adding days and dates, but when I went to write on the pages, the pen poked through the thin paper. So before adding in any more washi tape section lines or to the edges of the paper,  I cut down some single sheets of notebook paper and glued it onto the front and back of the pages. It helped a lot! This is what it looks like to washi-tape the edges of the pages. I think it will not only pretty up the pages, but help strengthen the edges as they get thumbed through everyday.  

So here's January's pages -- to enlarge the video, click on the little box in the bottom right hand corner of the toolbar on the video screen. 

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I've uploaded a new video for February and added it to a new playlist here: DJR: Positivity Journal 2019. Enjoy! 

Almost had a ink disaster. Hubby purchased two new ball point pens for me and unbeknownst to me, one developed a leak in the crock I'm using for a pencil holder and the ink traveled everywhere, all over my hands, up my arms and on the notebook cover every time I pulled something from the crock. I also learned that the ink wasn't permanent -- a drip of glue blurred some of the written words inside the notebook. Learned a good ball point permanent ink pen or fine-line marker should be used to write with. 

Happy to share some of what I've written in my notebook with you here. 

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My March journal video is happily uploaded to YouTube! Check it out! Happy Easter! 

I've got an idea for another journal, so I reviewed the lessons from Stephanie Ackerman's online doodle and Bible journaling classes last week and am beginning to read her book this week -- Faith Journaling for the Inspired Artist. The link to her book is up on the left hand side menu if you are interested. She's also featuring her doodle class again, if you are interested in that too. Just click on her button on the side menu and it will take you to her website where you can sign up.  Here's the new playlist for my Doodles -- a notebook full of doodled scriptures. Part One consists of one doodled verse from each of the first ten books of the Bible. 

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I'm learning to smile through April Showers -- see me grit my teeth together -- 🤪. I uploaded my newest video and YouTube slapped me with a music copyright infringement claim. I haven't taken the video down as I'm claiming a grandfather clause -- that music is on my Microsoft video editor under another name and has been there for two years. It was pre-installed on my computer when it was given to me as a Christmas gift in 2017. About time I learned to use it huh? I've made the proper feedback to both Microsoft and YouTube and I'm letting them duke it out, so before I'm told to take it down, if you want to view it, click here! Add a like too for good measure. Thanks! 

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Another copyright infringement again, for the month of June. Again, I made the proper feedback and told Microsoft I wish that they would find some music for me that won't ruffle YouTube's feathers. Found two ladies who LOVE Mary Engelbreit like I do and added their videos of a Mary Engelbreit journal that one of them made for the other on my YouTube playlist. Check out my list of videos if you want to see the journal over on my side bar! Someone asked me if I was enjoying making my positivity journal and I said YES! 

I've added cards from my sisters of my heart (girlfriends) and decorated them without obscuring their handwritten names, because I want to remember who gave me the cards. After I used a Christmas card from a girlfriend at church (Princess Sister), she got up in our Gratitude testimony time to tell everyone about my positivity journal -- I happened to have it with me because I wanted to show her, her card in my journal. smile! Well, that was a good lead-in, so I got up and told everyone the purpose for the journal. I got some very positive comments after the service and that made a happy memory for me! 

I also show in my video this month how fat my composition notebook is getting to be and it's not even to the middle of the one signature yet. 

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Just uploaded my second doodle video tonight after finishing up Joanne Sharpe's lettering book and her free tutorials -- see the link lists on the left side bar for links to tutorials and video playlists.  For the next ten doodles, I plan to read this book with contributing artist, Valerie Sjodin.  

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I uploaded July's section of my Happy Book and it has a small tutorial on how to make an envelope pocket at the very end. I even figured out how to add text with the video editor. 

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August 2019 - This month's section of my happy book is in honor of our son and in memory to my friend, Karen Lange. The words, saying, quotes, and scripture that I used in honor of our son is located here and at the end of the video is a small memorial for Karen. A homeschooling friend introduced us as she was a leader for our homeschool support group a few years prior to us joining the group. She continued teaching Spanish to homeschooled young people and at our local community college, was a rubber stamping buddy, got some of her cards published in Just Cards magazine, followed Documented Faith with me for a couple of years and we enjoyed swapping song bites via text with each other. It's her voice at the end of the video along with a photo of her this last Mother's day. 

I really learned a lot editing this video with Microsoft's Video Editor App. I had to figure out how to convert Karen's song from one format to another and then send it to my laptop so I could complete the video. I also learned that seconds count when compiling a video, so when one bit stops, another bit begins and I am trying to learn to do it as smoothly as possible. 

My therapist suggested this next month's theme, so I will be adding in representations of all my other friends! So be forewarned! grin!

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Have you heard about the FREE Online Bible Journaling Conference? I attended Be The Light-Bible Journal Conference. To Inspire and Encourage Christians to Grow in the Word Creatively on October 16-18, 2019. To learn more, click here.  

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Drum roll please! :) I finally finished up September's positivity journal section. Yay! It's to introduce you to my friends which are all represented by paper dolls. And tomorrow begins the Bible Journaling Conference at 10:00 AM CST. Stephanie Ackerman is going to be interviewed on the third day of the Conference. If you want to see her interview, better sign up tonight, just a' sayin'!

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Here's Stephanie explaining what five products she uses to Bible Journal with - water-colors, photos, pens, highlighters, and a white pigment pen. She said she gets overwhelmed with too many product choices and is basically a simple gal. 

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October has been a busy and stressful month for us. Our hot water heater died and yay! we have a new one as of today (11/16/2019). Our new-to-us, but used pretty red Jeep needs repairs, which we are going to have to save the money for because we've learned our lesson about the credit card trap (too easy to overspend), and we need new medical devices, and my husband's father passed away plus I really had to dig for cottage, home, and house memories quotes, sayings and scriptures, but today, I'm glad to say that I uploaded a video to YouTube and published the words to my gratitude blog. Whew! We survived and lived through another month with its ups and downs and God was the friend who took our hands,  stood by us and saw us supportively through. Thank you, Jesus! Now on to November! Oh, and by the way, even though I'm a little behind everyone else, I've been following Marsha Baker's 21 Day Sketch-note Challenge on YouTube. I took her workshop at the Bible Journaling Conference and thought it would help me organize my sermon note-taking. If you are interested, click here. 

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November arrived and went and here it is the middle of December, but I finally got November's section of the Positivity Journal completed and the video uploaded to YouTube. YAY! ✨  ✨  ✨

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I'm so proud of myself. I've struggled the last three months, October, November, and December, to get my journal chapters done  in a timely fashion,  but they are finally complete! For the WHOLE YEAR! Yay! 

My therapist wants me to continue with the Positivity Journal in 2020, so you will see a new post about it before long.  Click here for video. 
The words are still available over on my gratitude journal blog here. 

I've learned some new things along the way -- for one thing, new technology, like using an video editor app and video chat. That was fun! 😁 And I'm thinking of changing up the format of the journal a bit. I know there will be some more of my doodles, because I'm planning for that to go along with Marsha Baker's 365 Days Doodle Challenge. And I'm embarking on a new venture - sharing my doodled scripture sheets with my spiritual family. Thank you, Jesus! I'm praying that I can get a scanner up and working and figure out how to use that online cloud space. If Stephanie Ackerman can do it, so can I! 

Blessings to you all and a very HAPPY, POSITIVE NEW YEAR TO ONE AND ALL!