One of my first introductions to mixed media was through Lenna Andrews' swaps. My first swap (EVER!) was the three greeting cards I made. I also joined in little books, Summer Time themed postcards and prayer flags - boy those were all fun, I learned a lot and made new friends - well worth it. Lenna decided to take a break for awhile so you can imagine how THRILLED I was to hear she was going to sponsor a new one - I very much appreciate anyone who takes on the challenge of organizing and hosting these kinds of events - there is a lot of work involved...
The theme is Inspiration Collage and we were sent 3 5x5 cards as well as a packet of ephemera - we were asked to use at least one piece of the sent ephemera on each card but the rest was up to us. Fortunately my packet (planned or not) had lots of items I could use...
The first one I completed included a map of Canada (Lenna knows me well :) ). Everything on this collage came from her with two exceptions - the cars and the quote which she actually did send but her original got messed up so I recreated.
My only add to this collage was the tea bag (I was actually making Chai tea and thought it matched some of the ephemera I received). I love the rusty colours on this one. I did use Stickles around the edge.
The final collage started with the puppy picture (of course). I did add the boy (from wrapping paper) and some other scraps as well as some stamping. This one has a coat of "sparkle arkle" to give it a little bling:).
Now I just need to pop in the mail - I am way ahead on the deadline for this one (for a change). Can't wait to see what I get in return! Enjoy. Jewels
Starting 2016 by participating (with a number of my arty peeps) in the Daisy Yellow workshop "Novel Approach " - all about using an actual hardcover book to prep and then use as an art journal. Tammy gave us a warm up challenge - create a vision board (heh, I've done that before) that reflects what direction you would like to take with your journal.
Here is mine - pretty colourful :) . I want to keep it bright and whimsy - positive energy to balance any not so positive energy that will inevitably hit in the new year. Will try and see it through this time (I gave up on the 2015 Documented Life as I was not really liking the prompts - though I did learn a lot). It has also served as my 2016 affirmations - including the little lady in the bottom right hand corner on the scales lol (my same reaction coming back from Christmas with family!)
There is plenty of time to join if your interested. Enjoy! Jewels
Wow time to dust off the old blog! So many highs and lows this year plus I find I play more in Facebook and Flickr...
...that said I was inspired by Carolyn Dube's new Let's Play where you share something you have done for the week and visit to see what creativity others have gotten into...
I'm still doing Mail Art with my two favorite online peeps, Jo and Lenna. Our latest challenge was Song Lyrics - that is actually kinda tough. I found myself listening to all my CD's and Pandora thinking, ohohoh that would make a great image. Everything from Gordon Lightfoot to Kate Bush lol. But I found myself constantly coming back to my all time favorite band ELO. If you are not familiar with them (hard to believe there is anyone not!!!) they are definitely a 70's band. Jeff Lynne wrote wonderful lyrics that I can still recite to this day (Robin Hood and William Tell and Ivanhoe and Lancelot, they don't envy me). Sigh.
Once I decided to stick with Jeff I still hemmed and hawed - Mr. Blue Sky or Evil Woman (which for years I thought was Medieval Woman - don't ask lol).
Lenna's was done first. I knew I wanted to use a statue for "Turn to Stone" and found one that did the trick. Background was from an under paper from another project. Used a black glitter "paint" I found in Target.
The matching envelope which I had lot of fun with...
Jo's was "RockAria" - really really wonderful lyrics. I have to say this is the third version of this piece. I kept changing my mind about the graphic and the text till I realized I was overthinking it and just slapped this baby together in an hour. Need to listen to Carolyn more :)
I found the envelope picture in a travel magazine - she is AWESOME!!!
Anyway, still waiting on Jo's to arrive so I can share what she and Lenna did. So fun to see how we interpret our themes. Next up is "Something Different" - we have to use a substrate we have never used before - should be interesting! Enjoy. Jewels
Has it really been that long since I posted (April???). I must say I lost steam with DLP - lots of other things going on that took my focus away from it. I am happy to say I am very much into ICAD 2015 and so far have met my daily commitment to myself to make quick art...still time to join if you are interested.
Meanwhile back at Maple Hill...Jo, Lenna and I decided to try reconstruction collage for our latest swap. Lenna had taken an online class with Randel Plowman and it turns out all three of us have his book, The Collage Workbook (check out pages 58 and 59 if you have it). Here is what we came up with!
Lenna's arrived first - she did a mix of strips from magazines then did some stamping and a light dose of gesso - very nice.
And a lovely envelope to go with it - she has some of the coolest stamps I have ever seen!
Jo's finally made it over the pond from England. I would love to see the stash of old National Geographics she keeps dipping into! She took a different approach in how she cut up her picture - she has a shiny gold paint around each block.
And then she did a reconstructed face for her envelope...which she slipped into a plastic sleeve to send (hence no address). Another bang up job from both of my peeps!
I seem to recall it was a pretty cool day when I made mine - it has taken forever for summer to finally get here (which it has I am happy to say). My card for Lenna and Jo started with this advert from one of my old BHG mags (1950's).
I forgot to take a pic of the second picture I used for Lenna's card - but I think you can figure out it was flowers in a garden lol. I told Lenna this would have been her and hubby Steve in the 50's enjoying the outdoors!
Using the same picture I was able to get Jo's collage also! But I combined her's with a 7-Up ad for summer drinks!
The colours were a great match! And I am still chuckling about that little dog admiring the man's hot dog (ahem).....
I was stumped at first about the envelopes but found this picture which I cut in half and crossed over the two - a nice way to "connect" my two friends :)
Next challenge - collective nouns - oh the possibilities! Enjoy. Jewels
I find if I don't take the time I just don't get around capturing the story for each of my DLP pages! Work has been extremely busy, and distracting, but things are slowing down and there is a light at the end of the tunnel to which I say HURRAH!!!!! I can get back to things I really like to do. AND there are lots of little projects planned for Maple Hill again this summer (more on that later)...
DLP Week 14 was all about water colours - not something I do much with.
In fact I think I forced it to work like acrylics - but it worked.
The prompt was "water under the bridge" - frankly I have found most of the prompts rather "heavy" so I have chosen to reinterpret or just go my own way altogether.... I enlarged an ATC I made a few years back and incorporated it into my page.
Week 15 was acrylics - now that I can get into. I recently took a walk in a nearby park and came across a lovely patch of pussywillows - just love them.
And they always remind me of one of my favorite Gordon Lightfoot songs.
So did my own interpretation - and it had no connection with the prompt "cry me a river" lol except to say I am crying tears of joy that Spring is finally here!!! My first daffodil finally bloomed (and yes it's April 18th!!!). Enjoy, Jewels
I participated in Kat's Liberate your Art 2015 Swap - send her 6 copies of your art in a printed post card format (I used MOO to make mine) and you will get 6 in return - kinda cool...Unfortunately I can only account for where 3 of my landed, oh well....
I decided to use my Mail Art card that I submitted for What's Your View earlier this year. Love how this turned out.
This is what I received in return. From Snap...
From Deanie Houghtaling...
From April Roco...
From Kate Lehman...
And from Charlotte Prado...
And all together including my 6th card from Kat. This is their permanent home for now. I enjoyed the process of getting cards done by MOO and will definitely do that again so I can send my friends "art" (if they want it lol). Thanks to everyone who participated and also to Kat Sloma for organizing. Enjoy. Jewels.
Awhile back I posted about an exchange with my pal Mo - we decided to do a One Staple Collage...at the time hers had not arrived across the big pond and we were both quite concerned what happened to it. In fact, Mo decided to send another!
Well the good news - her first piece - after many, many weeks finally arrived albeit in pretty rough shape. The postal service actually put it in one of their "we are sorry we trashed your mail but here it is" envelopes LOL.
How sweet - love the colours....AND
Wee Man, her grandson Logan, also included a piece for me which is now in residence with Mr. Darcy in my office at work...I had some very nice comments from co-workers about it...AND
She added a bunch of lovely bits and pieces for me to use in future projects (heh, how did she know I have a thing for David Tennant - reading The Bride of Lammermoor of all things!!!)...AND
This week her second piece arrived - I collect tea cups so it was very fitting and now is on display on my tea cup shelf...
Thanks so much Mo and Logan! I hope we can do again ( but without another postal incident!!!!). Enjoy. Jewels
Catching up on my posts for DLP! Both past weeks were new and fun things for me.
Week 12 - Challenge was As a Focal Point and the prompt was Coming into Focus....I started with the back ground not quite sure where I was going with "focus" ( a lot of folks used it for things like glasses, cameras, etc).
I decided to go with focus on "time" - I was actually inspired by a bill board I had driven by on the highway!
Not sure on how to draw a clock so I went over to Graphics Fairy for inspiration and found this lovely image....
... and the last minute decided I needed to add wings to it (seriously I thought I was done!)
Week 13 Challenge was Make a Custom Element and the prompt was the quote "Ride the Energy of your own unique spirit" (Gabrielle Roth). Well, that was easy because I LIVE with a unique spirit...my little man Mr. Darcy...
...and he reminds me everyday :) ....I took a photo of him and drew on a piece of dictionary paper (my custom piece) and then just went from there....My Dad always says he sees purple hair in Mr. D's coat which is why I went with that colour...
Wild stuff going with layers in the background but I love the colour.
That's it! On to water colours this week... Enjoy. Jewels
My second post on my recent Mail Art swap with Jo and Lenna.
Lenna is a very talented artist who lives in Florida. She sent me this lovely lady with her asemic writing in the background...
It came in a wonderful envelope (I just love opening my mailbox when art arrives - it really makes my day :) )
Since I had my retro thing going with Jo, I continued it with Lenna....I started using my geli plate to create the background (you can see me practice my writing on my under paper).
I am still getting the hang of it - I always get challenged with inadvertently getting muddy colours..
The image was from an IBM ad..
With a picture that can be interpreted however you like (I like "a career girl with attitude").
I carried over to the envelope as well - here is the front.
And here is the back - plane catching pace!!!!
These are all the envelopes from my arting weekend awhile back....Enjoy. Jewels
