Quiet Memory

A second page in my new journal. 

Remembering the day I took hundred's of nature photos and collected seeds with an old friend.

 

Art Journal

Putting paint to pages of a book is very freeing.

This was a cookbook I never used. 

All it did was take up space,

 so...

a new journal is born.

Little bits of this and that hoarded over time. 

Such as the paint strip. 

Bayou blue is the color Big J picked for his room. 

It reminds me of medical scrubs but whatever...he likes it.

Pieces of projects and experiments.

Like bits of rusted fabric.

Polymer clay leaves from the one and only time I crafted with it. Yuck! Hate the smell of that stuff.

As well as a deconstructed silk flower that I used a script rubber stamp across for interest.

 

Summer Breeze

 

I got up early...well, early for the weekend...and  this is what poured out of me.

The cold weather has me dreaming of summer now that the Holiday season is over. 

 

Journal pages

Over the weekend I was inspired to do a bit of art journaling. 

Not sure that it will actually become a "project" but it was nice to play.

 

Longing for Summer

 

After a few glorious days in March that made us here in MN forget that we should still have snow on the ground...our weather has turned. It's cold again. 

It's has me "Longing for Summer"...

I used lots of yummy texture. 

Honestly...the background is my favorite part of this piece. 

It was just too plain to leave on it's own but I wanted lots of it to show.

 

Equinox

Mixed media painting on a recycled book cover created yesterday on the Vernal Equinox. 

Experimen-Tea

So I did get inspired from sorting buttons. Not to actually used any of those buttons but by color. 

I painted a 12x12 deep edge canvas with several shades of yellow.  Then using a palette knife applied a bold wave of burgundy then some thin lines with the edge of the knife. 

I knew I wanted a circle...I love circles for some reason.  I knew I had a perfect piece of Citra Solv paper. I used gel medium to adhere it to the canvas. 

It' still needed something. I decided to try out beeswax over the top. I've always wanted to try it so why not right!

It wasn't as easy to spread as I thought so I decided to get out the heat gun to try to smooth things out a bit.

After several minutes of fussing with it ...melting,...cooling...melting some more...

I came up with my finished piece.

Or at least I think it's finished... This is where I struggle...not knowing when enough is enough.

I love that the paper that once looked slightly out of place is now firmly set into the painting..looking as if it is "one with the canvas".

Stop by Kimmie's to see what the Tea Tuesday gals are doing today....maybe you'll even see a teacup in a picture.  :)

"Grow"

Altered Puzzle piece

Finished another one and popped it in the mailbox yesterday. 

One of the postmen said he gets a kick out of the mail art and postcards I send and receive. 

He asked me about the postcards one day when I was mailing a very boring package.

I had no idea they paid that much attention! 

Fun to know that mail art not only brightens the recipients day but the postal workers day as well.

Found text ATC

Sometimes I grab a random page torn from a book to give me inspiration. 

That is when my quirky sense of humor takes over....

UFO's--finished

Since we've been pretty much stuck in the house lately I've been exercising my creative side by attempting to finish some UFO's...unfinished objects.


I have a stack of these type of projects. Some just have a background finished. Others are a train wreck and are in need of a do-over. 

This small canvas board was one of those. Whoa! You can't even imagine how ugly the background on this baby was. I didn't take a before picture...it was too awful.  Now I happen to like it.

This puzzle piece was another that had been abandoned sometime last fall when I ran out of steam after gluing papers to the backs of a dozen or so pieces.  I used my scrap bucket for most of this one.

I'm also working on a mixed-media painting. So far I'm just layering and layering...no photos yet.

A little bit of luck

Another fabric collage!

These are definitely going to be something you'll be seeing more of. Love all the texture and movement you get with all the layers.

You can find this one in my esty store.

Sneak peek at something new

I felt totally inspired this morning...I'm sending this off to a friend who reads my blog so I'm only going to show a little snippet or two until it arrives.

Some days...

...things just don't turn out as planned.

This is what came out of my oddball brain after a few mistakes.

Maybe I need to take a break from the madness for a little while...at least until the kids get back to school. Maybe then I'll be able to complete a thoug....

Oh,sorry... what was I saying...?!

Random thoughts rein supreme around here these days.

The Story of Plants

Here's tiny 4x6 inch canvas I made yesterday from scraps as I was attempting to clean up my art zone. Of course, I got distracted...

Good news...

quite a while back I sent off a package to Somerset Memories answering one of their challenges.

I heard back from them... They will be publishing 3 of the 7 I sent! Hooray!! Somerset Memories is only published twice a year now so I'll have to wait until April 1st to see it.

Wine Journal

As soon as I finished Wine 2.0 I just knew it wasn't going to work for me. We've used it a bit anyway since I'd put so much time and effort into the piece.

I'm sure this one is going to work really well for our journal.
It is an old 3-ring binder cookbook with a dozen dividers so we can arrange and rearrange our labels and notes as much as we want.
We even have a "black listed" section for truly awful wines. Ones that under no circumstance do we ever want to have again.

Abstract Mixed-Media Painting

I've been working on this one for a couple of days. Dress makers pattern tissue was used to create texture. I laid it directly onto the wet gesso. Some random scraps of text from my scrap bucket were also used for interest. Those were attached using UHU twist & glue.

I used my fingers a lot on this painting. I just seem to have more control that way. I can feel the canvas and know how much paint is being applied. Even when I use the brush I often use my fingers to spread the paint. It gives a totally different effect.

I had no plan in mind...just let it happen. Besides if I decide I don't like it anymore....I'll just gesso over the whole thing and start again!

Random Inspiration

This entire book used scraps of book pages glued to the board book in a random fashion. I then use paint, stamps, markers, correction fluid and colored pencils to create my backgrounds.
This is a Kelly Rae Roberts technique that I have absolutely fallen in love with.

Before becoming a member of the UHU design team, I used to think gel medium was the only glue that I could use for this technique. After getting my sample glues, I discovered that the UHU twist & glue works perfectly! No more messed up brushes or the oh so wonderful...walked away and left the top off the jar of gel medium. I was famous for that one. Did I mention I'm easily distracted...?

I tried something a little different with the spine. I sewed 2 scraps of fabric together using decorative stitches on my machine. I put a couple of large eyelets near the top so I could attach some fun fibers and charms. I used the UHU twist & glue to attach the fabric spine to the front and back covers.

I love how it turned out!

Clipboard design for UHU

This month the UHU design team members were all sent a mini clipboard to decorate.

What do you think?

Check out the materials list and tutorial in the UHU blog.