Catching up on a little art

After resting and cleaning house, I actually got a few artsy things finished this week.

Here are two more "quirky collages." The first is done with images from collage sheets from mischief circus.com. The second uses a head from Joanne Hodges'  free collage sheet paired with a body and dress from a clothing catalog. I'm still loving these - they are relaxing to do when you don't want to "create from scratch."

Next week will be my online group's annual retreat in Grapevine (usually held in July but rescheduled to April this year). The theme this year is "typography/fonts/letters."

We each have to create a tag for a swap and the tag must contain some letters.  For my tag I collaged the entire background with various letters cut from magazines, lightly gessoed over it and then used Distress Oxide inks for color.  I stamped the word on deli paper and adhered it to the background - you absolutely cannot tell that it is a separate piece. Then I layered an assortment of ephemera with a piece of measuring tape and a Tim Holtz paper doll.  The metal gears and arrow added a finishing touch.

We will each be creating a book with our own personal theme (using letters on each page). Mine will be Alice in Wonderland and I am busy gathering supplies for that.

I am also making a canvas project for a make-n-take during the retreat but I'm not yet able to share that. Busy, busy!

More Quirky Collage

I finished four more collages! The first one is from yet another collage sheet from Joanne (craftyhodges on YouTube) and the other three are assembled from various images from collage sheets from www.mischiefcircus.com.  I hope you enjoy!

FYI I will not be posting for about ten days as I will be in Albuquerque babysitting my two grand boys there. I will fly home for one day next weekend to attend the wedding of the son of one of my best friends, then return to babysit the remainder of that next week. Wish me luck to have the stamina to keep up with the three-year-old and almost-five-year old! 

Quirky Collage

Ready for more quirkiness? I've finished three more collages for my magazine traveler's notebook journal. These were created with the latest free collage sheets from Joanne (craftyhodges) on YouTube for her "Five-Minute" Collage series.

Owl be There

Hop to It

Tiger Lily

I am having so much fun with these and my journal is filling up quite nicely (17 so far!).

Collage

And some more collage... I'm so enjoying doing these! Both collages were made with collage sheets, all from Mischief Circus. I just mixed and matched from several sheets and had fun combining different elements and sizes. So relaxing to fussy cut and glue!

Two Quirky Collages

Here are two more quirky collages. Yesterday, Joann (craftyhodges on You Tube) posted another quick and easy collage along with a free collage sheet. (You can see the short video and get the collage here if you'd like.)

This is the collage - almost identical to hers - that I made. For changes, I used a different patterned paper for the background and added a paper strip border along the top edge and a doodled border along the other edges. I also added a Tim Holtz "small talk" sticker. 

Flower Princess (or Frida)

I made this collage last week, totally original from magazine images and paper strips.  I used a face and separate eyes from magazine ads and legs/feet and hands/arms from a catalog. The body is a pear and the skirt is a funky lampshade, both magazine images. The bottom part of the hat is a pendant lamp and the top part is cut from a Marimekko-patterned vase, both also from magazines. The flower at the bottom is also part of that same vase. The borders are just strips cut from scrap papers.

As you can see, just about anything can be used to create a quirky image! It's fun looking through magazines to find images that might morph into other images.

Another Collage

Yesterday I woke up and could hardly move! My lower back is killing me - it might be sciatica. I've never in my life had back problems so this was quite a surprise. I cannot think of anything I did out of the ordinary to cause this. 

So, since I'm pretty much out of commission but can sit comfortably, I made yet another quirky collage. This one was very easy as Joanne posted it on her YouTube channel today and very generously made a free collage sheet of all the elements to share. Click here to get the collage sheet to make your own!

I printed the sheet out once at 100% and then again at 75% because it was a bit large to use in my traveler's notebook journal. I used the larger head, "wings," colorful strip and the word "live;" and the smaller body and words "out" and "loud." 

I glued all the pieces onto a patterned paper that I lightly gessoed to mute the background. I doodled a border and outlined many of the elements and was done. She called it "five-minute collage" but it took me longer to cut, glue and embellish!

I think she turned out pretty cute and I was happy to be able to accomplish at least one thing today! Hopefully my back will improve quickly or I will be going to see the doctor!

More "Quirky" Collage

Back in October I was working through a free online collage project with Joanne (crafty hodges on You Tube) and posted several of those collage pages. I've finally had some time to get back to that and have made more pages to include in my traveler's notebook magazine journal (see this post).

These are so fun to make, taking bits and pieces from various collage sheets (mostly from www.mischiefcircus.com) and magazine images and combining them into quirky collages.

Life Documented 2017 - last week of November

We returned from Austin last night from a fun weekend. On Saturday I helped the boys make gingerbread houses (I had forgotten how frustrating those can be!) and then yesterday we rode the North Pole Flyer from Cedar Park to Bertram and back to Cedar Park. This is a 2-hr. steam engine special event excursion similar to the Polar Express and features a visit with Santa, hot cocoa, cookies with Mrs. Claus, a coloring page activity, elves reading the exclusive North Pole Flyer book, a Christmas carol sing-along and an elf making custom balloon creations. The kids had a blast!

Today I finished the last week of November in my Life Documented 2017 planner.
This will be my last entry as I will move into my December Daily for the month of December. 

The background was done with a watercolor "smooshing" technique where you add any water-soluble medium on a piece of acetate, spritz with water and smoosh onto your substrate. It's an easy way to get a unique background. 

The right page is another quirky collage using some digital collage sheets I mentioned in previous posts. I am having lots of fun with these!