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This weeks Mixed Media Monday theme is "Eggs". I knew as soon as I heard that I wanted to use this picture of a nest I took last summer. I scratched the nest part with rough sandpaper and scribbled over it with colored china markers. Something I learned in L.K. Ludwig
's "Point and Shoot Journaling" class. I then mounted it on an 8" x 10" canvas, stamped words around it and added some Ranger's crackle paint
. I'm starting to love that crackle look! This stuff is so easy to use, comes with it's own brush in the cap, and comes in so many colors. I used Picket Fence, which is a white but then rubbed a cyan blue paint to darken the cracks and blend the white into the background.
I'm wondering what exactly constitutes an art quilt. Are there any rules? Or is it whatever you make and call an art quilt? Because I was playing around with some Tyvek while I was working on a techniques page for a RR journal project. I think I might have made an art quilt, teehee.
Okay, here's what happened. I painted a 11 x 14 piece of Tyvek in pretty colors, very loosely painting a red flower amid blue and green and yellow background. I decided to put it under the sewing machine and free motion stitch all around the flower and very randomly stitch some circles and swirls. Then I thought "Hmmm. What would happen if I heat this with an iron?" So I did. But I heated it too much and it came out fragile and holey with large areas burned away. It almost hit the trash bin at that point. But since I'm a bit of a freak about throwing stuff away... it stuck around a few days. Then I found some fine red tulle on the remnant rack and I thought "Hmmm. What if I put the tulle over the Tyvek to 'capture and hold' it so it can't fall apart?" Guess what? I LIKED IT! After stretching the tulle over the Tyvek (which was placed on a piece of raw white canvas) I free motion stitched the entire piece using gold metallic thread. And I only broke the thread 5 times! Yes, I used a needle made for metallic thread... it just didn't like the thickness of the melted Tyvek and the thick canvas. To capture the edges, I just zig-zagged the tulle near the canvas's edges, which were left as fringe/fray. I'm considering adding some beading to it too... haven't quite made up my mind...
What do you think? Art quilt? or just a save of some junk better off in the bin?
Frogs and snails and puppy dogs' tails... that's what little boys are made of!
These three boys are part of my "found" family. I found them hiding in a box in an antique store. I love to hunt for hidden treasures, especially old photos and Victorian cabinet cards. But I don't think I have one old photo where the person is smiling. They all look so serious and austere. I saw these three boys and fell in love and adopted them into my instant family. How can you not smile at these faces? How much mischief do you think they've caused over the years? I bet they gave their real mother a run for her money!
This is a 9 x 12 piece on acrylic paper. I enlarged the original photo to 8x10 and glued bits and pieces of vintage primers and picture books. One book is called "Book of Etiquette for Boys and Girls" and on the original you can read the rules of etiquette that were taught to children in the past. Things like:
"All children should stand up when an older person comes into the room, and remain standing until everyone is seated. But boys must stand whenever a girl comes into the room. And if there aren't enough seats to go around, he must always offer his seat to her."
"A boy holds a girl's chair when she is seating herself at the dinner table, pushing it in gently when she bends her knees. He never seats himself until all the girls are seated."
"Do not wave your knife and fork around or stick them in the air or bang them on the plate or table. Do not hold your knife and fork upright in your fist like a dagger ready to stab someone. Chew slowly, with your mouth closed. Don't gulp or make noises. "
Wow. What the heck happened to proper etiquette? Enjoy your Monday!
Happy First Day of Spring everyone! I woke up this morning to this:
It was 62 degrees and sunny yesterday, all week as a matter of fact. My first Crocus's emerged with a burst of purple and yellow. Here they are:
Can you see them buried under the snow? Along with the Iris shoots starting to grow? The Daffodils shot up this week as well. The flowers are fat little pods under a thin papery skin, ready to burst.
Yeah. Mother Nature sure has a demented sense of humor. I see where I get it from. Well, it's not supposed to last.
Here's a funny story that just happened while I was typing. I sent my daughter outside to get the mail and she comes running in with a mitten-full of pink snow. She says "Mom! The snow on the front bush is pink! Look!" and she shows me a little pink snowball. I'm flabbergasted and go out to solve the mystery. Sure enough the bush has a spotty layer of light pink snow... Hmmm. Then I remembered that when it was sunny a few days ago, I had put a piece of paper on the bush and sprayed it with Cherry Red Glimmer Mist! It was the overspray that turned the snow pink. My daughter was incredulous. "You glimmer-misted the bushes??" I said "Yes. I thought they would look pretty all sparkly." LOL. Mystery solved.
Mark your calendar! This week's Mixed Media Monday is actually ON TIME! Woooot!
This weeks theme was "Party Animals". Of course my first thought was to take a picture of my dog and party her up... I actually started one. But then... I remembered this great picture I got at an estate sale and couldn't resist. Those twins just make me smile. You just KNOW that somewhere inside of them they are WILD women who love to have a good time!
Hehe. I made this little canvas in response to LAST week's mixed media prompt which was "It's not all black and white". I envisioned very soft white background with the black bird silhouette I got from a blog called "A Year in the Life of an Art Journal". Yah. Couldn't do it in black and white. But... it's not ALL black and white anyway, right? The birds have some Black Soot Crackle Paint on it. The background has many collaged layers consisting of napkins, music paper, sewing pattern paper, various tissue papers... I threw some thread snips on there that I found sticking to myself after a sewing project. In the upper right hand corner I grouped some buttons and put a BE in one of them and covered it with diamond glaze, stamped "2" in front of it.
Now to see what THIS weeks Mixed Media Monday prompt is...
gets together with a Mandala
... you get a Zendala. My sketchbook group decided to do a fat book type of swap with these. There are nine of us so we each made nine and sent them off to Canada for Sox to put together. I'll get nine different ones back (but I made color copies of mine before sending them off) and they will be bound into a book. I should have 18 all together when it's all done. Unless... well, I'll let you know :-) 
markers on these. I LOVE Copic
markers. They are alcohol based and don't smell bad. And they won't cause Dain Bramage from toxic chemicals that are found in other graphic markers. 
