10/23/2016 0 Comments recycled heARTThis was for a swap project where we were supposed to use recycled items. It was a lot of fun to have to look at things differently and put them together to make this heart. It was fun to experiment with this napkin. I took a regular two ply napkin apart, crumpled it up and then glued it down. Painted over that, markered the edge with my favorite art supply, almost dead paint marker, and then added a little sharpie detail. On the inside are lots of yummy recycled pieces. I especially liked using the roses which are a packing tape transfer that I made from a magazine, I really love using tea bag envelopes and tags in my art. I don't know why but having those extra little pockets to tuck things into is very fun and appealing to me. It's especially wonderful when I find a tea bag that goes so perfectly with the topic. I thought this quote was wonderful and really like the way the words came out on this scrappy paper that I made by accident. The paper was simply underneath what I was working on for different projects. Over time it got more and more detailed until it became an art supply in and of itself. The original purpose was simply so that the markers and colors wouldn't bleed through onto my table but now I've learned to do this all the time and just trust that eventually I'm going to have another piece of fabulous paper that I can use for creating art. I also liked having some writing space and made it so that flipping open the inside card gives some blank space. I further extended it by using washi tape. It's really wonderful how easy washi tape is to use and it makes great hinges for things like this. The list of recycled supplies in this project: manilla folder tea bag envelope music paper scrungie paper (not sure what to call it but that will do) a postage stamp magazine transfer markers (the almost dead ones, I figure that's a form of recycling) ribbon stickers an assortment of papers New items: washi tape sharpie napkin tag and I suppose I should include the glue :-)
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10/17/2016 0 Comments Live in the sunshineThis summer I had the opportunity to visit my Aunt Susan. While we were hanging out together she showed me this beautiful journal that she had. Leather bound, with fabulous quality paper and rough edges it was a thing of beauty. We both sat there admiring it.
At this point I should back up and share that Susan lives in a very small apartment. She's been there for decades and it's just perfect for her. However she, like me, loves paper and things of that sort. She's not a hoarder. She's actually amazingly organized and neat. She has a really smart rule when it comes to clothing and other items. One in, one out. Works great for socks, etc. Paper? That's another story. Despite the one in/one out rule, Susan, like me, has a difficult time with paper. Once she gets her hands on it, it doesn't ever seem to want to leave (must be where I inherited that from). She has also somehow tapped into the alternate dimension in her closet because it's a-maz-ing what she's managed to accumulate in there. Part of my self-imposed responsibility every time I visit her is to help her declutter. It's funny how much easier it is to declutter someone else's stuff. Usually when I visit Susan the decluttering involves things like going through large boxes of old photographs and helping her winnow them down. Or shredding magazines to only keep the good bits. But I digress... Susan told me that she'd had the book for a long time but somehow couldn't bring herself to actually use it. As I sat there petting the cover and caressing the pages she asked me if I would like it. Ummmm, let me thing about that for .02 nanoseconds. Why of course, I would be happy to help you declutter this little puppy outta your apartment. Sadly I had no room in my luggage. Fortunately Susan lives around the corner from a post office. About a week later it arrived. And then it sat. I pulled it out several times but it just kept sitting there. I texted Susan and told her I was having a hard time getting started. She suggested that I skip the first page. So I folded the first page over and stared at the second page for a few days. Then inspiration struck. The results are the image below. I'm really happy with it and grateful to have gotten started. Because once you start it seems easier to continue. Materials:
The words are from a Ralph Waldo Emerson quote I really like that seems to be a theme for me lately: Live in the sunshine Swim in the sea Drink the wild air 10/3/2016 0 Comments Paper playI love when I find great base materials to work with for collaging. In this case these are cards that I found at Michael's. 80 cards, in a variety of colors and patterns, they were on sale for $5. Practically screaming to jump into my cart. I confess I had to restrain myself from buying two sets. I told myself that one set was enough. Of course when it's gone I'm probably going to regret that decision, but for now I'm using the cards for art and enjoying the process. For these two I simply took a bunch of leftover bits of paper and began glueing them down at random. Adding in pain, markers, and a little bit of doodling. With the first one I tried stamping with bubblewrap and paint. I then added dots to some of the paint spots. I really liked the effect and wanted to try it again so I did it on the second card. However I used a different piece of bubblewrap because I was using yellow paint and didn't want to wash the darker paint off the first piece of bubblewrap. I don't want to call it a mistake because I like the way the card turned out in the end. However it didn't work out. The bubblewrap that I tried to use for the second card wouldn't leave nice round impressions. It just splopped onto the card. After trying and wiping it off several times I realized that perhaps the bubblewrap wasn't as firm as the first one. Lesson learned. Identify which ones work well before trying this again. Having said that I do like the way the second card came out and I think the little splops of yellow work out just fine. |
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