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 . . .   

  Blue Lotus  Another inspiration from Care December 2023.. Whenever I get stuck for inspiration, I turn to these prompts because I love the focus palette . . .blue.  The prompt was blue lotus, a perfect reminder that of the importance of remaining at ease in the muddy waters of life. 

  Vote 2024  With the onslaught of infuriating news stories, it  was inevitable that politics would emerge in my creative brain at some point. Interestingly, the book page scraps came from on old book about President McKinley. Funny how history chose to share a message with us today. Vote BLUE in 2024 or  the guardrails and institutions that currently restrain presidential power will not protect us from an authoritarian horror and a further slide into the world of “alternative facts.”  VOTE: it matters! 

  Denim Wanting to tackle a small piece of art that might be uncomplicated and fun, I decided to continue with a collage challenge from last December. The prompt was “Denim.” First, I cut a pocket from an old pair of jeans and used crackle paste to stencil a botanical on the fabric . Wanting to contrast utilitarian, hard-working denim with the delicate, feminine, I glued on a piece of lace and brought out my jewelry stash and tools to create dangles made from old antique buttons, faceted glass beads, and antique brass findings.  For a background design, I mixed up some watercolors in shades of indigo and brown and washed the pages in color. The embellished pocket was then glued down onto the page and filled with a decorated tag and an old letter written by my grandfather. I loved the text found in an old book and so glued that beneath the lace. The facing page, already brushed with watercolor, was now a fun collage project . . . coffee-dyed burlap, used tea bags, a page from a...

Not in Life But in Art Life does not often allow us do-overs. We make mistakes and then need to live with them. Some forms of art, however, allow for wiping the slate clean in order to begin anew. Watercolor, not so much. Jewelry-making, nope. Acrylics and collage are the ticket, though.  This piece began as an attempt to use harmonizing colors of acrylic paint with careful attention to design, balance, shape, and value.  Things began satisfyingly enough. Mix up some acrylics and brush them on with a flat brush, while attending to the aforementioned principles .  Then the voice in my head said, “What if you added some pieces of neutral collage fodder.” The voice continued speaking. “Now, what if you then brushed some thinned paint over them to allow the text and design to still be subtly visible?” I should have stopped right there because the next step (more paint in different colors) ruined the whole thing. Glad I have the “before” photos. I could not bring myself t...

String/Tar Gel My last experiment with adding acrylic paint to tar gel resulted in a gloppy sort of mess, which rather defeats the purpose of using it. The beauty of this medium is the ability to scoop it out of the jar, suspend it high in the air, and watch it drip down into paper like a delicate, thin strand of embroidery floss. This time I followed the advice of several artists who suggested mixing only 10% pigment with the gel, stirring well, and letting it rest for 24 hours in a sealed jar. Further experimentation is warranted, as I did get some fine strings but not enough. Back to the drawing board on this idea. 

Art Advantage One of the many advantages of having baskets (let’s be honest: rooms!) full of collage fodder is never having to buy cards. It’s pretty easy to whip one up for any needed occasion. In this case it was a thank you card to present to my incredible orthopedic surgeon at my first post-op visit.