Botanicals

 Botanicals

My stash of dried hydrangeas from last fall’s pruning called to me. What if I slathered  them with gel medium? Would they stick to the page? The answer. . . YES!   Then I drew leaves colored with alcohol markers, grunged  the page edges with a stamp pad, and stamped  the background with text.



Emboldened by experimental risk, I created three dried-flower- adorned tags, using book page scraps, part of an old letter written by my grandfather in 1944, and a used  tea bag. Again, these were grunged with a stamp pad and adorned with some gel-pasted botanicals. 

Now for a soft pocket to hold the tags, using stamped fabric and batik fabric scraps gifted to me by an artist friend. (Slow stitching is so relaxing.) A napkin adhered with matte medium served as a background. 

The whole spread . . . 






 





Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Happy Couple . . . Meow 🐈‍⬛🐈

Image
Meet the Happy Couple . . . Meow 🐈‍⬛🐈 Cleaning the garage is a chore that we’ve put off for as long as possible, but it did ultimately yield some interesting finds. One of those finds, wrapped in crumbling tissue paper was this little wedding cake topper. Made of crepe paper and wire, the poor couple, headless and drab, definitely needed a new life. They’ve been sitting on my art table for a couple of weeks now, waiting patiently for their makeover. My guess is that their original heads were made of fabric or canvas. (I can hear the Queen of Hearts yelling, “Off with their heads!”) : The closest vintage cake toppers I could find were these  ($60? Good grief!): Because the tag at the bottom indicates that these were bought in Springfield, Ohio, my guess is that they were on Mom & Dad’s wedding cake in 1944. Now that‘s vintage!!  Drawing faces just ain’t my thing, so the poor couple just hung around, waiting, for a long time, as I tried to teach myself to draw. Then, this ...
Read more

New Blog; New Beginnings

Image
  Nearly three years have passed since I last wrote a blog post. Setting up this new blog, I never expected to encounter such a seemingly insurmountable obstacle right off the bat. . . naming the blog. Having tried nearly 28 creative names and finding them all unavailable, this was the first one to stick. So, this is it, and here it goes . . .  The arts have always been a part of my life, thanks mostly to my father who insisted that I play the violin in elementary school and encouraged me to always give school projects some sort of artistic flair. I guess a part of that mentorship was due to his background in music and art. As a gifted artist, sculptor, and industrial designer, he was an amazing role model and our house always had a plethora of varied art supplies. My journey towards art, however, has been a delayed one.  Having abandoned my music major in college, I turned to education. The last couple of years of my 35-year career in public education, I discovered jewe...
Read more

The Anatomy of Collage

Image
The Anatomy of Collage  I’ve dabbled in all kinds of art in my life. All kinds of mediums. Each one has its own mysteries and rewards. In the past couple of years collage has interested me.  Friends have asked and I have even asked myself - Why just cover up a layer with more layers? What’s the point? Tonight I realized the beauty of collage. I can only explain by showing. As I used to tell my students - show, don’t tell.  So I will show. Gather materials   Layer one: Reflection, Contemplation Breathe. Ponder. Write. What thoughts come to mind at this moment? I am taking an art workshop with an artist named Taire Smith on this day, Juneteenth 2024. Her focus today was Harriet Tubman and her acts of bravery. What better time than now, in these troubled times, to recognize and celebrate such bravery. Feels good to express these thoughts. (I forgot to take a photo of just my writing.) Then grab some pens and play. Breathe. Scribble. Let out bottled up emotions. Be wild....
Read more