Stumbling Along

 

 

Lately art making seems to be difficult for me.

 

 I seem to be stumbling through it.

 

Having such difficulty finding my way.

 

 

 

I  painted this piece. Then added bits of collage.

 

Decided I didn't like it.

 

Moved on.

 

 

Added some other scribbles and paint.

 

Still not content

 

Moved on.

 

 

 

Added more darker marks, -  some more subtle colour and some letters

 

better .... not great

 

 

 

Decided it was done away.

 

 

 

Moving on . . . in a stumbling kind of way.

 

 







A Bundle of Inspiration

 

 

I love the beautiful creations at Be... Dream... Play...

 This creation inspired me to make my own little bundle book.

 

 

 

I bundled some pages and sticks,

 a tea bag decorated cover

 and a strip of sewn fabric to create this little book.

 

 

 

The pages were decorated with splashes of walnut ink, 

 bits of ink

 and pieces of decorated paper.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The tea bag cover is actually two tea bags glued together for strength,

with layers of paint, ink and stampings,

a photo I took a few years ago,

and finished off with a layer of wax.

 

 

 

A whole bundle of inspiration wrapped together.

 

(thanks eb)

Finding Blue

Once a month I have been joining Julie and Jennifer in the search for different colours of the rainbow.

It is time to search for BLUE.  

I found it in my daughter's high school graduation class

(she is at the end - one with the braid, not the scowl)

Muted blues show up in some of my creations

Or sometimes to help pop the red. 

Or in the presence of brown. 

Blue often shows up in nature.

 In the mountains and sky that  I see out my window.

And a beautiful blue in the glass my sister made from a bottle. 

But my favourite photo with blue is this one of my daughter taken 2 weeks ago at  her high school graduation.

Discover more BLUE at Julie and Jennifer's  

Decorated Booklet & Envelope

 

 

 

 

 

In my cleaning up and finishing up that I am slowly trying to do I came across these little pieces that I began long ago.

Since I decided to finish them, I thought I would take pictures and show you the process along the way.

 

 

 

I had found old posters in the recycle bin at work.

The paper was a beautiful quality,  and I decided it really should be reused and not recycled.

I tore it into four pieces of the same size, and decorated the blank side with bits and pieces of stamps and ink.

 

 

 

I tore a long piece of paper that I folded in half, and then folded to create an envelope with.

 

I decorated the outside portion with stamps, leaving blank space of where the address would go.

Here is the back of the envelope when it is folded.

It still needs to be sewn together.

 

 

 

Once I completed the stamping, I took a fine black permanent marker, and doodled loosely onto the designs.

 

 

I took the pieces to my sewing machine, and sewed the pages and the envelopes together.

I then had two pages that were decorated on both sides and an envelope.

I put the two pages together and sewed them down the middle.

 

 

In the end I had a little decorated booklet with a decorated envelope.

 

 

Perfect for writing a letter on and sending to a friend.

Off The List

As I have mentioned before I have many many unfinished projects.  

For a while I told myself to finish them before I moved on to new projects.  

BUT... that really doesn't work well, 

so I have given myself permission to work on creating whatever I feel like at the time.  

Because of that freedom, I worked on and finished this piece that has been sitting and waiting to be finished for so long. 

You know how it goes..... it is easier to do things when you don't HAVE to do them.

The base is made of a grid of plaster on a wooden cradle board (shallow box like structure)

Which I then painted, inked, scratched into and collaged onto, and finished with a thin layer of paste wax.

It is nice to check at least one thing off of my unfinished projects list! 

July - December

At the beginning of 2013 I made myself (and my sister) a calendar, 

with images of some of my creations decorating it. (See it here)

But at the time I only made 6 months worth.  

And those 6 months are already almost up... or will be at the end of the month.

So today I was busy creating the pages for July - December.

Here are a few close ups of some of the months  that will be clipped together

and hung on my wall. 

Lupines

See this leaf . . . .

it is a lupine leaf and I think they are beautiful.

Lupines also have beautiful flowers..... 

I took this picture last June,

but it is June again, and the lupines have started to bloom again.

But when I made this book, it was the lupine leaf that I wanted to use.  

I find its lovely shape to be simple yet beautiful. 

So I combined it with layers of tea bags, some paint and some ink to make the cover of a book.

I left the pages all blank, and its new owner can fill the pages any way she likes. 

The back cover also has a lupine leaf on it.  

I guess it is almost time to go out  and look for other plants to press and add to my collection. . . .

and at the same time enjoy the beautiful lupines.