Just Playing Around

 These are stems from Beech Mushrooms I used as a stamp to make a print. Never a dull moment at our house, I do get inspiration from the strangest places, and my hubby just goes along with me. 

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Mushroom Stem with acrylic paint

Stem print made with a Beech Mushroom stem in sepia ink

Teabag from my herb tea

Pomegranate Pizazz

We had a beautiful bunch a fresh beets and decided to roast them for dinner. The liquid from them was the most incredible color and I couldn't throw it out. So I grabbed a piece of paper and dyed it with the juice. The shibori piece was created by wrapping the paper around a paint stirrer and scrunching it down and holding it with a rubber band. I don't know how colorfast it will be, but I love the way it came out.

Shibori with Beet Juice

Sketchbook Project 2011

This is a detail of one of the collage pages. Antique book pages were glued to watercolor paper and then glazed with acrylic paint.  After it dried I lightly sanded the surface with a scotchbrite pad. This gives a nice sheen to the paint. The large numbers are black paint dry brushed through a stencil. At the top heavy gold yarn is stitched through the paper as an embellishment. The scratching on the surface is made by making a heavy application of paint and glaze and scratching through with a stick.

Collage pages

Pencil Drawing of mushrooms used for the spore print

This is an image transfer made from a copyright free book.  I've lightly antiqued
the image with a stamp pad in a yellow ochre color to help it blend in.

On the Way to Brooklyn

I actually sent my book off this week ahead of schedule....so unlike me. For a last minute, fly by the seat of my pants person, this was quite a feat. They have even extended the deadline because of all the extreme winter weather. So I'm really actually very punctual. But not so at posting the photos, so there will be a few more to come in future posts.

Post card

Bold and Bright

Testing some colors
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To learn more about art journaling, check out this page
daisyyellow.squarespace.com/abstract/art-journaling-101.html

It's all in the details...

A Feather in Your Cap

Alphabet Soup

These are small vignettes of some of my artwork in the sketchbook. Most are pages rendered in acrylic paint with a lot of surface texture.  I scratched, sanded, stitched and collaged to create the layers.  On some pages I used stencils or drawing pens. I wanted  to include some of the ones using non traditional materials like the raw silk fabric and feather in the one above or the netting in Trapped below.

Trapped

A  Sincere Thank You

Mores pages........the deadline is approaching

My book is filling up and I have two weeks before I send it off.

The first page 

A watercolor of a favorite place in my garden. Every summer I plant handfuls of Cosmos seeds and enjoy cutting the flowers to bring inside.

National Collage Society 2010 Exhibit

My mixed media assemblage, "Incubation", was accepted in this years juried show. Click on this link to view the full exhibit        http://www.nationalcollage.com/2010exhibit1.html

This piece began as a child's toy tool box I found on ebay. I altered the surfaces with milk paint, beeswax, crackle medium and collage papers. The wooden game parts, buttons and key are vintage found objects. I have collaged my original drawings, photographs and journal pages to make up the background.

This view shows the box closed and a drawing in pencil on the front.

This is a close-up of the shelf that swings out. I made the small egg from polymer clay and painted it.

The little nest is made from thread, straw and lichens, these eggs are blown glass beads

Another polymer clay egg

A detail of the crackle paste and beeswax