Fiddlesnips Jo finally received my mail art so I can post
pictures! Our theme was “woolgathering” – probably not a term you've heard
before…I first heard it watching an old Clark Gable movie from 1932
called Red Dust. In one scene he is walking with his love interest and says
something like “You seem distracted” to which she replies “Oh, I’m just
woolgathering”. Say what! Had to go look it up – defined as: idle or absent-minded indulgence in
fantasy; daydreaming. What a wonderful theme for an art piece! You can read about the origin of the word here.
This is what Jo sent, just love her “dreamy” guy. And she
does such a wonderful job of layering in her background. Read all about it in
this post.
The envelope is great too. Another more pensive gentleman “willing” the post office to “take me to” ME over the
ocean (Jo lives in the UK).
I decided to try a bunch of new things (for me). I painted my
background with black gesso (never used before). I used a white gel pen for the
text and my “pseudo” (LOL) zentangles – practicing for some mail art I owe
Leslie and Beth. I printed her image (from Take A Break) on newsprint (yay my printer did not crap
out on me) and coloured her in with chalk. Her daydream background is actually
an old sparkly birthday card and her wings I cut out from a note card.
Enjoy! Jewels
Such a sophisticated couple cruisin the back roads of La belle province Quebec...
Romantic dinners in Montreal, exploring the quaint streets and shops in Quebec City....how appropriate for the month of "love" LOL....I was inspired by a car ad in an old issue of Better House and Garden...I had fun using some of the script as well - a different spin on what was intended...
Used water colour crayons and acrylic paints, old road map, stamps...
Roses are from wrapping paper, used a doily to stamp pattern on the day blocs...
I was not sure at first but I like how it turned out! Since I am a little ahead I think I will wait on March - lots of other artsy things to do. Enjoy. Jewels
Well trying new things this year, starting with a mix media Calendar to capture daily unique "happenings" in my life....many of my peeps have joined Kate Crane who has been doing this for a few years - the calendars I have seen are truly inspiring...
Started with prepping pages (that's a lot for a full year of spreads). Seriously, I need to buy stock in 1. Wax Paper 2. Gesso 3. Workable Fixative 4. Sponge Brushes just to name a few must haves...
I was inspired by a photo on the March 17th 1958 issue of Life magazine...
I think a new year means "start a new song" don't you?... used techniques from Julie Fei-Fan Balzer including building up a gesso background to get different surface textures, water colouring, stamping and collage...
Do you recognize the best selling vocal group of the time? (I honestly can say I am too young LOL)
They were the McGuires...
but now I need to be sure to capture something everyday...and get started on February as this seemed to take forever! Enjoy. Jewels
This week's challenge for 52 Weeks of Creative Abundance was to complete the sentence " Today I am going to allow myself to....." With it being a new year and wanting to get past 2012 I immediately finished with MOVE FORWARD! We then were given an assignment to make a tag to remind us individually what allow means to us...
I had found this card awhile back and loved the image. Inside it says "When I grow up, I want to be a little girl". It seemed to fit the idea of moving forward and just having fun.
While the instructions were to create our tag with white colours I did improvise a bit. I gessoed (sp?) the background and elements of the graphic to tone down the colours (pic looks darker than it really is). Lots of embellishments to give dimension and the feeling of movement.
I actually quite like how it turned out. And it fits well in my journal. Have not decided yet what will go on the other page.
To all my virtual peeps - I hope you are having a very good first day of the new year. I am grateful for all of you and your friendship. Looking forward to lots of lovely things in 2013. Enjoy. Jewels.
Lots of good times in Canada with my family...
It was lovely to see my two nephews (by the way, I am 5' 8")...
and my niece (she is also on her way to being tall LOL).
There was a significant snow storm that came through southwestern Ontario on Boxing Day.
Kept the shovels and snow blowers going...
On my last day Dad and I went out for lunch on Sarnia Bay on the St. Clair River which is just south of Lake Huron.
The shipping industry is a big part of my home town. Huge freighters come through the Great Lakes all through the good weather but eventually will stop in winter.
Some will dock for maintenance.We counted three in the government harbour.
Looking across the bay you can see the Chemical Valley - in its heyday there were several big and supporting companies south of town - the reason why my parents immigrated from the UK. You can see water fowl sitting on the ice in the middles of the bay. It was an unexpected adventure for us on a cold winter day.
Remember my post on classic SciFi Mail Art?
Well Fiddlesnip Jo's showed up in the mail yesterday - wahoo! She provided a letter explaining how she decided on Mr. Wells and the book "The First Men in the Moon" (I checked, you can download for free from Project Gutenberg if you are so inclined)....
Just love the "steam punk" feel to it as well as HG appropriately wearing his spaceman helmet...the background really does look like a spaceship - waiting to hear how Jo created it on her blog! We've decided on our first exchange for the new year but will save that for later.
Meanwhile, I am heading to Canada early tomorrow to spend time with my family. I hope you all have a safe and wonderful holiday for those of you who celebrate this time of year. Enjoy. Jewels
This year's winter solstice has extra meaning. On Friday I will embark on a 52 week journey with others feeding my creative soul in different ways.
I am really looking forward to it - the first thing we had to do was write down our personal 20 Soul Care Practices. I decided to capture mine on a tag I made. I crinkled a piece of card stock, smeared inks on it and then sprayed with water to get it to "run"...
..both sides. Others have posted their practices that have reminded me of other things I will add later to my list.
It was also suggested we get a journal to use - I am looking forward to looking backwards (LOL) 52 weeks from Friday and how "plump" I hope my journal will be by then with different things. The background was done using a technique I learned from Mary Green. I photocopied a dictionary page of butterflies onto a page from an old Typewriting class practice book. I did "stiffen" it by brushing on some mod podge before I sewed on the vellum.
So this first page has a pocket for my "Soul Tag" that I can take out and look at it while working on other parts of my journal.
AND there is still time if you are interested in joining - just click the link to The Creative Underground on my sidebar and it will take you to more information. Enjoy. Jewels
