Collage Play

I have been playing with collage fun again. 

I used a tea bag that i had stamped one of my hand carved stamps onto, and added some bits and pieces behind it to show through.

I added some colour, other paper, more tea bag bits, stamps and some penwork and here is the finished piece. 

And then I played with it on the computer.

and had lots of fun in the whole process.

Here is collage #2 - teabag bits, paint, transfers, old paper etc.

 and then some fun

playing with it on the computer.

As many family members have travelled thousands of miles to gather in my neck of the woods, I  have decided to take a short blogging break.... be back in about a weeks time!

Tea Bag Birds

I enjoy these so much, so felt the need to make some more tea bag bird.  I transfer my drawings to tea bags, add just a smidge of colour, some bits of text from an old book, and some markings with ink and whatever tool I want. 

I bought some small clip frames, and decided to display  the birds in them.

I love the colour that the tea bag has on it naturally.... some more greenish, some really brown, and some quite rosy in colour.

And now I have two more tea bag birds to add to my collection.

A Happy Surprise!

As always I was happy to recieve my copy of Somerset Studio in the mail a few days ago.

But when I opened it I was in for a big surprise!   My article was in it.... It was an article I had written for GreenCraft magazine (published in February), and they had decided to reprint it in the current edition of Somerset Studio!

And although I know I have shown you these books before, I had to take a few new pictures of them.  This is one of my favourite books that I have made. 

They have soft covers, and the inside pages are all sewn together from old posters (so the pages are blank).

They are both decorated with my handcarved stamps, and this one has stamps decorating the pages.

WHAT A LOVELY SURPRISE IT WAS! 

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Now onto what I am working on today..... a new collage.  I was working to keep it clean, but after looking at it for  a while, I decided it needed a bit of my messy style to finish it off.

And here is the finished collage.  A combination of clean with a bit of my messiness.

Collage - Take 2

Although I enjoyed making some collages a couple of days ago (see previous post), I wasn't really satisfied with the outcome.  I wanted something less cluttered.  So I tried again.

This is what came out, and I like it much better.  I took a middle road of laying things out a bit before glueing down, but limited my options and looked at it a bit more. 

And I really enjoyed the process.

After uploading these images to my computer, I played with them a bit.  Lots of fun there too.

And here is the second collage I made.  Again I laid it out a bit, but limited my choice of components a bit.

And then a bit of play on my computer.

I feel much better now.... but I do have plans for the collages I made previously.....

Collage & Photo Play

I love collages, but it always takes me so long to make them, as I look and look and move things around so much.  So I decided not to do it that way, but rather just glue things down as I went along. 

Here is my first one, and I had wished I had stopped a step earlier.

Here is the second one and I mostly like it.  But what was great about both of them was that I had fun making them.  Layers on layers of bits and pieces.

A few posts back I showed some circle photos I had taken, and wanted to share some more images from that day.  We spent a few hours poking around a few old (1910-1930 I believe) abandoned cabins. 

The buildings were made of logs, but in places pieces of wood were added to the interior of the walls.  My guess is they used everything they got to keep out the elements.  The winters are long and cold.

I thought the color and patterns in these walls was just beautiful.

Some of the walls - especially close to the roof line had tin cans that were opened and nailed to the walls.

Once again I thought they were beautiful.

The roof of a few of the cabins were also partially shingled in pieces of tin.

And old tins were lined up on a few shelves.

Everywhere I looked I saw beauty....

Buried Treasure

Seth Apter at The Altered Page is hosting a Buried Treasurer event - and having bloggers re-post an entry from the past.  I searched and searched through my early posts, and after what took me far to long, I decided on the following from January 2011.  .... I continue to work at believing and being brave.

Early in January (2011) I choose the word BELIEVE to guide me through the upcoming year. I could believe and stay safely in my comfort zone, but that is not what I want. Instead I want to push myself out of my comfort zone and believe in myself there. Being Brave has become part of my believing mantra. I need to be brave, push myself a bit, and still believe.

AND so bravely, I took the face I had drawn and decided to paint it.
It is a bit different process then what I have done in the past, and I pushed myself forward. I believe that these tiny steps forward will help move me forward with bigger steps that are to come this year. I will continue to be brave and believe - one step at a time.

Feeling an Itch

I have an itch that I can't scratch!

I had time this morning to make this one and only card decorated with a piece of tea bag art..... I want to make more, but don't have time. 

Perhaps in the next few days, I will have time to make a whole collection like I did before.