More One Staple Collages!

Leslie liked the One Staple Collages I did with Jo and Lenna and asked if I wanted to do another. SURE! These can actually be quite addictive (Jo has made several since our swap and I love them all).

Here is what Leslie sent me....love getting a "man" in the mail LOL. She used an actual magazine sheet for the envelope which survived the post office with minimal damage.

What a great collage - Mr. Darcy was especially impressed by it :). I really like the colours and it actually goes well with my Christmas board in my kitchen where it is currently on display...

I had a lot of fun with the one I made for Leslie - have you ever heard of a Electric Wonderbar. I have had the advert for it from the 1950sfor some time now.

Look - you can have a bar right by your chair and TV! How convenient (I think today a cooler would also do the trick - too funny).

I also found this "invitation" in a Betty Crocker book on entertaining - I am now going to end all my communications to friends with "Best" LOL...

Here is the envelope I sent it in. Painting and stamping.
I think I will be making more of these - it's fun to combine items and still tell a story. With that I guess I will end with ....... BEST, Jewels 

Flood the Streets with Art II

I decided to join the Flood the Streets movement this year hosted by Scott Wong. The whole idea is to "pass" (here in the States anyway) on all the Black Friday hype and instead do an act of kindness by giving away a free piece of art. Over 5,000 artist around the globe are participating - just amazing! I must say I have been pretty impressed by what people have shared so far. 

4x6 card, paint, stamp, tissue paper...

So next Friday while I am "somewhere in Canada" I will drop this of in a public area (library, tourist center, who knows....just not a place of business). Some body may pick up, but then again maybe not. And if they do they might let me know, but then again maybe not. That's not really the intent - it's more in the sharing. It is similar to another piece I did last year - to be honest I was playing it safe...

I love this proverb and didn't make the connection to what I was actually participating in till after it was done. Just hope it goes to a good home! Enjoy. Jewels

One Staple Collage Part 2

Have to share what Lenna and Jo sent me for the challenge...both different, both lovely.

I always love the envelopes - I am sure my Postie gets jealous when they see such wonderful art coming my way. Especially love that fish stamp...

Jo did a little extra with her reference to Canada just for me - thanks dearie, I really appreciated it!

Lenna's arrived first - a nice combination of items including a pic of one of her dogs (I can never get enough pics of her dogs :)  ), an old family photo, a scrap of punchinella all on a wonderful background which I am quite certain is a Lenna original....

Your right Jo - I have no right to be this good looking (har, har). Seriously you have a way of doing the coolest combinations...you can see more details about it over at Jo's blog. She loved this technique so much she has made more including the current picture in her masthead  - uber cool.

Hard to believe each of these are held together with just one staple! Love them both. Next up is our good old fashion Vintage Glue Book theme. Have already found the main graphics I want to use! Enjoy. Jewels.

One Staple Collage - Part 1

This seemed deceptively simple! Just find a bunch of ephemera pieces and whack one staple in the middle to hold together. We were inspired by a posting over on Daisy Yellow. I quickly (as did Jo and Lenna) started to over think it and fiddled with it quite a bit. I was also thinking I was "missing" something - namely paint, glue, ink, stamps - you know, the regular go to stuff.

When I finally gave myself permission to just run with it and, yes, keep it SIMPLE it all fell into place.

Lenna's included a clipping from a Barnes and Noble ad, old map piece, old gift wrapping, doily, scraps from painting and a fortune. 

I was quite happy how it turned out...and not really thinking about it somehow I managed to match the envelope with a book theme!

The inside cover from an old children's book. The camera tape was specifically for Lenna too....

Jo's was another happy surprise...

I knew I wanted to use some oriental paper I had and the image of the Giesha. The background is another paint experiment. The butterfly is a playing card. Old stamp. The text came from a little booklet about Japan..

...that I also used for the envelope...

How cool is that!

We have one more swap planned for the year - going back to our mutual "roots" and doing a Mary Green Vintage Glue Book theme! Enjoy, Jewels

ooo-To Every Season-ooo

It's always a little sad putting down the garden at the end of the season.

The summer of 2014 was certainly one of the better ones for my flowers this year.

They were colourful and seemed to last much longer (probably because of the cool temps and rain). 

I had many compliments on how nice it looked (which for an amateur, "do the minimum gardener" like me is pretty flattering). 

So I find taking the clippers to it all a little ruthless - and timing is never certain - we could get another run of warm weather next week! However the fact it was 27 F this morning (yep) and frosty convinced me today was the day. I learned my lesson the year I left it too long (ugh, a lot of mushy leaves to contend with).

The one good thing I can take away from it all is this. I've had my garden several years now and it always comes back - may be not as nice as this year but it always returns.

Nature is pretty awesome that way... Enjoy. Jewels

You say Asemic...

Say what LOL? Leslie introduced me to this in one of her recent posts: a wordless open semantic form of writing (yep you can find it in Wikipedia). When I saw what she was doing with a Karen Isaacson swap I asked if she and I could exchange.

Here is the close up of her writing....

And the full postcard she mailed me - love it!

Here is my writing (with a few bleep, bleeps) because of the graphic I used.

Calling all Cars! I found this story in an old Popular Mechanics about the latest technology being used by New York Police - what a hoot! Just thought there may have been a little frustration going on with this new fangle thing hence the bleeps (can you see these two stopping any major crimes - I don't especially the gentleman to the right LOL). How far we have come.

This was a lot of fun and I plan to do more in the future. Thanks Leslie! Enjoy. Jewels.

Mennonite Envelopes +++ Part 2

  

Jo and Lenna's envelopes - they were both different and quite beautiful!

Lenna's arrived first before she flew off to see Frieda in Scotland (lucky girl).

Lots of detail on the outside...

And a lovely letter on the inside!

Jo, clever girl, put hers in one of those cellophane covers to protect it coming over the ocean. There is a vintage stamp on it she was concerned would confuse the posties!

Juicy colours all over

And a whimsical picture inside (heh, that could be me and Mr. D lol)....

Next challenge is a "one staple collage"....Enjoy. Jewels 

Mennonite Envelopes ++Part 1

Who knew??? Certainly not me (google it for more info) ....Jo suggested this for our last mail swap. Mine have arrived safely to her and Lenna so I can show you. Jo was inspired by this post...

You start with a page from a magazine (I used covers from some old Better Home and Gardens as they had some weight to them). 

Paint, stamp, draw your little heart out both sides. 

Start folding…

It looks more confusing (maybe) then it really is…

I practiced on some Stampington magazine pages first.

To get the hang of it…

I also got the book (second hand cheap) that has the instructions…

Once the folding is done you know where to place additional art work (I kept to the middle “square” as I did not know how well the graphics would fold). This was Lenna’s – grumpy old lady (not Lenna silly, the woman in the picture)…

And had a funny fortune cookie saying that went along.

Here is how I placed her.

The same for Jo’s – another great fortune cookie saying...

That went great with the ad LOL! I swear I have some kind of warped humour...

So it comes out like this when done! The back…

And the front…I was nervous about it actually making it through the post (especially to England) so I did some extra taping … just  hoped that both of my Peeps were able to figure out how to open in one piece (whew)!

Next challenge is the “one staple collage” – see more here!  Enjoy…Jewels