Glue It Tuesday - mini books

hello! Here's what I got for Glue It Tuesday: not my typical collage but a project involving glue nonetheless! I have been working on a some little books and there is a fair amount of glue used, particularly on the smaller purple book.

 I got excellent instruction from Esther K Smith's 'How To Make Books'.  Here is the booklet I made below.

I put together about 4 of those/signatures together and then glued them all back to back. Then I glued the front and back of that little booklet I made to the purple paper.

 

 

I stitched the other book together rather than glueing it all [I just used a tiny bit of glue on the cording but I still "GluedIt!"] I sewed the signatures to the 'spine' which I created by folding the green paper. I added the beads and that is the first time I tried that. I can see how you can get carried away with embelishing the stitching! I had such a good time making these.

 

 

 

 

I was able to get a bit of drawing done the past few days. Mostly working with my markers these days. Time is not allowing me watercolors right now, but soon!

 

I hope everyone has a great day today:)

Lots of SUN & SMILES

Take care,

Fran T xo

 

Glue it Tuesday and Challenge Day 4/5

Linking up with Glue-It Tuesday today and posting this as well to the Creativity Challenge Day 5.
 




 I took candy wrappers I saved from Easter and glued those down to make a collage then worked off of that. I used gesso, gouache, the wrappers, etc:

 

 

I'm also posting my journal page from Creativity Challenge Day 4 down below. I'm trying to post as often as I can this week.

My church bazaar find:)

Goodness gracious look at my watercolor box. Needs a good cleaning.

 

As always,  thanks for visiting and leaving comments!

Enjoy the rest of your week,

Fran T

 

Art Renewal

 I 'm linking up to Artsyville's Glue-It Tuesdays

 I had started a painting on a page in my art journal but lost interest fast.

I thought I would use that as a base for this composition. 

 

I keep a plastic sandwich bag for my watercolor scraps.

I get great satisfaction out of the fact that

I can use all these little bits together. 

 

I did add some addtional paint to the purple bits, they looked too plain to me

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Another project I am working on involves this book I have WaterPaperPaint and I have tried a number of the projects.

This one is Project 20:



 the edges of the artwork don't appear perfectly straight,
 I'll have to flatten in some books.



Of course, as I do with most instructions and recipes,

I don't read all the way through...[shocker]

I was supposed to use black paper or matte black acrylic to start but I just used black gouache.

So it got a bit tricky and easily muddied up the brighter gouache colors.

So next time I will be sure to use acrylic, then I won't have to go over alot of the elements to brighten them up. 

I am tempted to cut this up and make four ATCs but I think I am going to leave it.

Detail, a look closer

My favorite part are the blues, in the top left quarter and bottom left quarter. Green is my favorite color but blue is such a close second. 

 

 

 I am so glad its getting warmer. Aren't you?

A few spring-y things:

 specimens I selected while on my walk with the dog.

the crocuses are coming!

 

Happy Easter, Happy Spring!

Have a terrific weekend and enjoy!

Take care,

Fran T xo

Glue it Tuesday on Sunday

I wanted to make my collage on Tuesday but just getting to it in the very early hours of this morning. Here is my contribution to Artysville's Glue-It Challenge. I'm also going to link up with Sunday Sketches to share what I have been working on this week (more below).

 

I love green, can you tell? :

I initially wanted to have the two pages flow together and
 painted both the same color background,
but they are two distinct collages, to me, and that's perfect.

Green , though I love it so much, is a hard color to capture...
 

no matter how much I try to color correct the photos,
each image has it looking a different green:) I tried to tone down the photo
because in reality its not so garish.

Clean up is tough in the early morning hours.

Hell what am I saying?

Its tough no matter what time of day it is.
 

 

 I couldn't find my glue sticks,

where they disappeared to, I have no idea.

So I mixed a little glue with water.

 

 The book I used to collage in is from a journalling class I took a couple of years ago. Here is a look at some old pages, I think these are from Summer 2011:

 

 

We did alot of collaging in that class and I miss it! I'm on vacation starting Wednesday and I plan on getting together with a friend who loves to collage as well.

 

I also took a stab at creating some art using acrylics. I am very dedicated to watercolors and switching off always feels like sort of a big thing for me.

 

I keep buying these little canvases when I go to Blick and the last time I was there I had to literally say STOP.

And I promised not to buy more unless I do a damn painting. (I'm like to think that I am only a spendthrift when it comes to art supplies)... I went in without a plan so I wasn't expecting too much.

i had, had, HAD to cover that green blob LOL!!! haha.

 

I like how this turned out, this little piece (4"x4"), am pleased with how it looks. I'm glad I tried a little sgraffiti on the right side.

 

I started on another, larger (8"x 8") canvas board and primed it with some black  I'll work on that during my vacation too.

 

Thanks for reading through this far!
Have a lovely week!

Take care,

Fran T xo

 

 

 

Patterns, Games and WhatNot

Daylight Savings Time has kicked me square in the pants.

Wow, the power of one hour and what havoc it can wreck!

Well, its not so bad but every year it surprises me

how impactful it is on my being.

I stayed up late drawing the other night and

I looked up and it was 2:30!

 

I used my microns for these two drawings. A pen at

 size 005, the thin one, and 05, a thicker point. 

Garden, Grow!

 

 These were fun to work on.



Tea Time!

I also wanted to contribute a list to Artsyville's List-it Tuesday.

My FAVORITE games when I was younger were the following:

1.Perfection - that is the game where you have a set amount of time to put the yellow s

haped pieces into their corresponding holes. There was like 30 seconds to do so. What a pressure cooker of a game. Its sooooo telling of what type of person I am today. I work my best under pressure, LOL.

2. Gin Rummy - We looooved to play cards as kids. Other favorites were War (what passion!) and Solitaire. A past time that our parents and grandparents passed on to us. We would go to my grandparents for the weekends and I clearly remember all the adults in the dining room, playing cards, drinking cocktails and chatting ;)

3. Uno - another great card game that would go on and on!

4. MasterMind - this is a terrific game and I found the photo on the box so intriguing. I loved the woman's dress and just thought this guy was so slick, but I did think he was a little too old for her. We'd play this for hours. Haha!

5.Monopoly - this is a game that I would start out loving. There is just too much NOT to love. The fabulous pieces, the wonderful and colorful board and the cards! oh I just loved those cards with their cartoons. I liked Community Chest a little bit more. [Its the yellow color over the orange. ] Then the money! I had to be banker. However,  pretty soon into the game, say 20 minutes I would start hating the game, passionately. Mostly because my brothers were just so much better at it than me. And the dread of turning the corner on to the 'block' with Park and Boardwalk, ugh! What stress. Definate love/hate relationship going on here.

 

6. Scrabble - We played this game a whole heck of alot when we were younger. This is still a staple at my parents house! My mom and dad are really, really good at this game and play it quite a bit. We still break it out every so often when we go visit. 

 

 

7. Guess Who? - This is actually a game from my son's early childhood, but I personally loved it and wanted to add it. I liked this one so much that I would actually be the one asking him to play it with me! I just thought it never ever got dull for us to play and we would make up other little games within the game. We would also take all the cards out and play memory games as well.

 

That was so much fun looking back. I think I'll be looking for a deck of cards tonight and play a few hands with the my guys. Take a hop over to Aimee's blog and check out the other participants lists.

 

Enjoy your day!

Fran T XO

 

 

 

Busy

 My job has got me so busy and I

feel like I'm getting in just bits of life activities
 in here and there. This too shall pass:)
I tried to get some painting in the other night
and I'm happy with the result.

 

 

Painting is my escape, brief as can be, but still...

I get lost in making these abstracts.

Happily lost, I'd like to say.

 

 

I wish I had time to paint or draw up my list for

Artsyville's LIST IT Tuesday but it's

 not in the cards for me this week.

I can even imagine what I would draw...

but not enough time in the day!

So, here goes -

This week's suggested topic was "what's working for you."

1.My new haircolor

2.My decision to no longer micro-manage J's homework and after school activities. I've just let it go. And amazingly we both are surviving.

3. Painting multiple times a week. Gotten into a groove. I've still got some days left.... I'm not giving up hope on squeeking out some time this week.

4. My new meal plan. I've been rolling 20 days now. It works if you work it, Frannie

5. Going to bed before midnight MOST days.  This night owl can actually do that. One day, I'll be a morning person, its my dream.

6. Eating dinner earlier in the evening. Switched around homework time and dinner time. Mucho better plan.

7. Staging my coffee maker the night before. Gee, what a bright idea I had, will wonders never cease? 

I hope to get another post in this week.

Please visit Artysville's blog,

she is sparkling, colorful and humorous.

Also, why not have a peek at some others

I've listed on my side bar? I love going to these spots.

Maybe you will too I hope so! :)

 

Also linking up to Show Me What You Got art linkup.

 

 

Have a wonderful day!

Take care,

 

 



 

Wednesday's Tuesday List-It

Another List-it coming right up!

Thanks again to Aimee's blog for such great inspiration.

 

I doodled these out last night. I like this challenge, simple and fun but allows me to be reflective and appreciate the little things ;)

 

I've also been doing some abstract work.

I love to get to do this because I just get lost in the process and can just meditate.

My scanner did a terrible job so I ended up using my iPhone to photograph but the color is still weird

 

Please get over to Artsyville and check out this Tuesday's List-It participants:)

 

You'll be glad you did!