Fall Photo Shoot

Today was a perfect day for a fall photo shoot.

These flowers are no longer blooming as  the frost took them away last week, and the snow came far down the mountainside. 

But the snow receeded, and it was a beautiful fall day today.  Some of the leaves have already blown off the trees,

but the ones that are hanging on

add amazing bits 

of beauty.

The grass 

 

and the leaves of the Fireweed

are showing off with their finest colours.

 

And yet I know with a few more big winds, the leaves will dance away,

and the snow will change this landscape

from the beauty of a fall day, and cover it with the beauty of winter.

 

(All photos were taken within 100 steps of my house)

Perhaps....

Perhaps it is because the snow is quickly moving down the mountainsides, and will soon be covering all of the rocks. Perhaps it is because the plants are finishing their season of growth and will soon be resting under that layer of snow. Perhaps this is why I have been so busy collecting rocks and  botanical bits - knowing it will be many months before I see them again. Perhaps this is why I have so many bowls of rocks around the house right now, and numerous trays of pressed botanical bits.

Perhaps this is why I felt the urge to make a few more rocks layered with botanical bits,

and layers of paste wax buffed to a smooth finish. 

Seeing and feeling them increases my happiness and helps me relax.

I also collected some small pieces of drift wood from my favourite stretch of lake beach, to decorate in this way.

And I find the back of it as beautiful as the front.

And now this small collection,

 makes me smile.

Grid Collages

During the last week of the online collage composition class I recently took, we learned about and worked with grid style pieces.  These are the three pieces I created.

I really enjoyed making this one.  I like working in a grid that isn't too accurate. This piece contains some pressed botanical bits and some decorated paper/tea bags.

As always I struggle to decide what mat to put it in.   

This piece has grid elements, with  a photograph I took and some pressed botanical bits.

It is an 8X10 piece and at the moment I only have white mats in this size, so my decision was made for me. 

I didn't enjoy creating this more accurate grid piece.  Although I like the pieces I put in it, the pieces were too finnicky for me, and are not as straight as they could be. (but as straight as I am going to get them)

 

Again I struggled with choice of mat. 

Beauty in Botanicals

I love making accordian books.  I don't think I will ever tire of making them.

I made these two with bits of pressed flowers and leaves.  To me they are like a treasure when they are bound up with the ragged strip of fabric that I have attached to them. 

And when I open them there is more to discover.

Here is the second little treasure - closed

and opened.

Here is the backside when open...

and when closed.

A lovely little treasure that I enjoy so very much.

 

Collage Cards

I so enjoyed making these collages, and decided to make some cards out of them.

 

Here ae some images of the cards I have chosen to make. 

 

I decided to sell them in packages of 3 (of the buyers choice) in my Etsy Shop

Continuing On In Collage

It has been a challenging week, with just too many goodbyes.  As always creating helps me feel better.   Here are a couple of collages that I have created recently. 

The first is my Petal Person.  I used a copy of a face I painted some time ago, and then numerous pressed petals from a couple of different types of lilies  to create the person.  Dots and X are cut from paper.  I enjoyed making her, even though she was more difficult to make then what she looks like.  We had our struggles along the way. 

The second collage is House On The Shore.   It is made strictly from paper.

 

From tea bags and text covered pages. 

I then played with the colours of this one on my computer.

And tried them in various mats.

I always have a hard time choosing a mat, but do like how the creations look in them.